History of the Spiel Des Jahres Part 1: The Eighties

0:07 hello and welcome to board stupid my name is Wayne and I'm Matt and the Spiel is one of the most yet it's one of the most prestigious Awards in board gam it's something that I've followed for many years at this point Matt and we thought it would be a really good idea to do a series all about the history of the sh alers that would be pretty cool to understand what the award is why is awarded why it's important how is awarded and um having a look to the a little bit into the past of the ball gaming industry the ball Gaming Community what was U what was hot years ago and um yeah and and we will see during the this series when we start hitting the 90s sub we will start recognize a few of the game we got a few of some around here absolutely in the um of the very famous game that actually won these Awards and uh yeah let's uh let's have a look yeah and I'm really interested to see and sort of demonstrate hopefully through this series uh I thinking maybe four maybe five parts not sure yet we'll see how we go just the evolution of board gaming and like how that's really changed and innovated designs right it's because there are some points that you can recognize when you look through the history where it's really exploded so this is going be ex series and I hope you join the ride and hopefully it will be just over uh when the school y for

1:39 this year will be announced yeah but before that Matt I think if you want to win an award you should click the Subscribe button you definitely win you win the Subscribe award yeah our hearts you win our hearts the SPI the heart for you so please hit the Subscribe button and after that if you want to buy some nice graphic te or some amazing geeky um uh clothes and stuff like that NICE T-Shirts nice casual work please go check out the into the um Link in the description or when you do that just uh use the code that you can see here on the screen the're both stupid code CU that's going to give you 10% on top of any other discount that you can find on on the on the website and definitely ever browse cuz they got there absolutely amazing um graphic t-shirt they got new design coming out all time and uh yeah they are amazing fit amazing qualities so really really good qualities just like like this one has been washed already a lot of times and still all the graphics stays on the on the t-shirt is fantastic so yeah definitely have a look yeah so great quality t-shirts and let's look at some great quality games okay Wayne let's start this uh with what is SPI the yard what that's a great question what actually is SPI is German

3:12 for Game of the Year oh wow yeah righto game over the Year this was an award that started in 1979 by a chat called Jurgen Herz uh a Avid board gamer friends with like journalists in the board game industry and various and designers and he was quite upset that the wider knowledge of board games was like chess and checkers and that's basically it yeah so he thought to himself why don't we come up with an award that recognizes the best games that have been released this year or the best game that is released each year and that essentially turned into an entire industry at that point onwards it escalated they created their whole uh company the SCH uh organization and uh it has exploded from there it's now at this point the most prestigious board games award in the world yeah it's been going ever since 1979 um from 2001 they introduced the Kinder Spiel which is the child's game award yeah yeah a second more like a lighter children exactly and then in 2011 they introduced the kenes Buel which is what the rough translations is like The Connoisseur game yeah so it's more like for um um the heavier slightly heavier or hobby Gamers yeah the the games for gamers basically not yeah not just for the general public so we will see when we go

4:43 there those are the the the titles that everybody recognize at this point but yeah absolutely and what you'll also see is how the tastes of the judges have changed as well where some of the stuff from the '90s would probably be kenes Spiel these days because the Spiel the art tends to be a little bit lighter at the moment but that can change and talking about that so how is this award been given so what what's the what what are the rules for the for the for the game absolutely so there is an elected lot of Judges so the judges uh are always part of the board game industry in Germany okay in order to be eligible the game must be out in common release retail so no Kickstarter stuff must be common release must have a German Edition available okay so if it doesn't have a German Edition can't be qualified which is why many games get released in German as well as English fair enough so if you're wondering why there are German guys luy you so if you're wondering why there's so many German editions of games that's probably why B one of the biggest Market we we probably the biggest Market apart from the US yeah how um yeah but in terms of us is because of the scale of the market is way bigger but Germany like everyone plays ball games it's like yeah it's a huge country to be fair Germany's massive yeah but I really love the fact that the ball games in Germany are part of um of the common people live it's just like yeah it's a very much a cultural thing so yeah lucky you German absolutely lucky lucky you German fans

6:14 uh and also is the home of of Essen as we know exactly uh so aside from having to have R rules released in German the rules have to be clear they have to be concise there can't be any weird ambiguities so they put a lot of emphasis on the r um and they must have released in the past year so for in the J market so there is that the judges will make a decision they're all like industry people um and then they'll have nominees and then the nominees will be released and that's like the short list for the then the J will make the final decision based on the short list so there is no public no public influence du to it so it's purely a professional and even more than there is yeah exactly there is no public influence and there is no industry influence either because they just journalists they don't take review copies they don't take payment there is no there is no prize money so there's no bribery or nonsense it's as independent as it can be that's really yeah that's really cool it it is different from something like the um the BGG Awards um because that is from the public that vote online um or or all the kinds of awards so this is like industry is is a journal industry Journal journalist that um that vot on it um so yeah enjoy very efficient efficient decision- making but it has its own statute because of the way that the the organization is set up it's got specific rules and you know what judges can and can't do and impartiality and all that sort of stuff so it sounds more like like um the noble

7:47 for a little bit it's a little bit like that instead of the Oscars is the more like that quite like so it's very interesting and uh like I'm very excited to see uh the history so there we go that's a little bit about what the SPI Y is and even if you're nominated it's a massive deal and you'll see Publishers put it on the box it doesn't even matter if you win it's like I was nominated out of the 5,000 games released this year yeah I'm putting out on my box it's the same things when what for the movies when is they like or receive like 20 nominees for even if you don't win it's still like you were you were up and one more interesting tidbit before we dig into the 80s is you can only have the award logo on your box for three years oh wow to make sure that the logo is always relevant to the most recent games oh wow that's interesting yeah really interesting so after that you can always write on the box one the not the the golden so there we go little bit of interesting info about the background of the SPI and let's say let's go back in time let's go back in time to the 80s baby so Matt this is what we're going to do let's a lot of these games I've done some research on but I'm pretty sure you don't know much about the80s no no when we get to the 90s this is going to be a little bit more interactive and we'll talk about the games but this is going to be a fun and interesting exercise I'm going to talk about the games in uh order of year one from oldest to to most

9:18 recent up to the end of the 80s I'm going to give that a description yeah whether it's in print or not and the BGG rating okay and then we're going to snap to a picture and we're going to get Matt's reaction let's do it let's do it let's do it so the first game was one was 1979 it was called hair and tortoise by the designer David parlet okay and this is the origin this is the first this was the thing that one the award has set the whole thing off okay so it the first winner of the SPI in 1979 her and toris or in German H and Eagle for hair and Hedgehog uh will always be regarded as a classic it's a cunningly designed race to the Finish Line in which your fuel which is carrots must be practically run out all but 10 carats or fewer the moment you hit the Finish Line you also have three lettuce cards that you spend during the course of the race and the farther you move the more carrots you spend there are a variety of ways to gain or lose carrots as you go around the track and apparently it's quite a clever exercise in arithmetic so it's a racing game based on the on the on the F on the yeah the exactly exactly um it is still in print wow from so it's still being printed there was quite a nice looking um sort of black and red version on Amazon by Gibson games okay so BGG currently has this rated at 6.6 okay so he didn't well it's a game from the from 79

10:50 and it's still over six it's not bad really it Miss that yeah it lasted like in like literally we're talking about all over years so it's okay we to look at it go on go on show it to me a tces oh okay what you think that yeah it looks um a lot like the um uh what's the name stas and um stas and lad oh St laders yeah snakes and laders you can see the track here sort of going around and the carrots that you pick up it gave me like yeah snakes and laders uh feeling but um yeah I will not not too bad for 79 is it inside the box there could have been worse cards yeah no no no look at that you got even insert for the for the for those coins there for those um tokens um that's you know what not bad not bad not bad so yeah very interesting very interesting perfect moving into 1980 1980's winner Matt was a game called Ry cup are you familiar with Ry cup no I don't even know what well okay I think this is it was designed by eph frame herzan um it's similar to lots of different European old older card games which are normally play by two decks of cards um this chap efim hanano invented the tile game Romy CB in the' 40s okay so it's been out for a while and then this game was released in 1980 uh published properly okay um modern RAB has a bunch

12:21 yeah a couple of different rules um like Romy that you would play with cards you're trying to get rid of all of your tiles like forming numbers into runs of three tiles or more okay um or three to four of a kind when you do that you can get rid of your tiles you want to get rid of all oh wait wait wait wait wait wait I know this I you might I know this game yes of course of course um we play a lot with uh my uh mother-in-law really yeah yeah yeah that's one of the games yeah and they got a version probably from that time it's very very yeah no I love this game well there we go I know it very well yeah the name I didn't pick up the name but yeah I do love this game yes so yeah it is obviously still in print you can buy Ramy cup basically everywhere you can find it in toy shops you can find it in bookshops uh it's a 6.5 on BGG and um yeah fair enough I will um and is that familiar to you is I will play this game every time yeah every time that we we got the chance I think it's a very clever game um it's a very in like interactive and fun to play around the table uh it's not it's not heavy uh but at the same time there's a lot of mats then need to happen that I I love it I love this game there you go Ry Cub moving into 1981 is a game called focus by Sid Saxon now Focus or domination is an abstract strategy game

13:54 in which players attempt to make moves and capture pieces in such a manner that their our opponent has no moves remaining on a turn a player can move a piece or a stack of pieces based on the number of pieces that comprise it as well as the number of pieces to be moved my God that's a mouthful uh when a stack grows over five pieces large pieces from the bottom of the stack are removed to bring the stack back down okay so I think the bigger it move it grows the further it moves okay so that's quite an interesting um so there's that a little bit about the game uh it is not in PR I couldn't find a single copy of this game anywhere it's again a 6.5 on BGG so still still kind of doing okay and what you'll notice for a game not being to anymore it's yeah sort of still there and thereabouts um should we take a look at it yeah let's take a look let's get mat reaction for Focus ah okay um it looks like the setup at the start looks like uh what's the uh what's the uh Chinese game um where you where you moved the the Tas remember I can't yeah um okay uh it's kind of like a familiar it got like looks very familiar doesn't it when I when I did the research on this I was like I swear I've seen this before okay okay well it looks like production as well for being at 80 80s game is uh really interesting domination yeah yeah so domination or uh

15:27 otherwise known as um focus by S Saxon you Reon interesting probably it's yeah it's probably like one of those family games um yeah where you hit hit the tiles like yeah there's the like a n type check interesting cool in 1982 the winner was enchanted forest and that was designed by Alex Randolph and Michael Matos MH um for this game you've got one treasure hidden under each tree in a forest As you move from tree to tree you get to peek at the treasures that you find you need to remember where each one is hidden and when the King asks where one of the treasures is players need to race to reach the castle with the right information so trying to find information peeking at cards and then when you think you've got it you go to the castle and you hand in information um you then Chuck your dice to make your way over to the castle so a little bit of dice chucking as well uh and then you uh go from there and Hope win the player who's collected the most Treasures is the winner so enchanted forest it says here is a game of memory and strategy yeah sounded to me like at the start when you pick card it's like me like the game memory yeah exactly so it is still in print okay Ravensburger keep course yeah yeah uh it is a 5.7 on BGG so yeah it sounds very more like today would have been like a kids game maybe I think you're right this is much lighter I

16:59 think I think this is a much lighter game okay let's have a look let's take a look at it so this is Enchanted Forest oh that looks nice looks all right doesn't it actually especially yeah I don't know if this is a new or an old version of it but let's take a look at all of the images and see if we can find a few different ones for you ah it all seems to be yeah with this like a plastic tree I think that might be the uh might be the newest edition of it okay you got some cards in there as well uh there you go not too bad actually have you been pleasantly surprised so far by the Productions of the actually actually Yes actually yes I would have thought a lot of like just cardboards and um cards I will say the art design is quite flat it it is but we're talking about yeah 1982 1984 I think that that changes in the late M to late 90s yeah it gets a bit more spicy but yeah it looks like very much like a a kids game so but if the if Ravensburger is still printing it still doing well there is there a reason why is probably they're still selling it quite quite a lot so yeah great the winner in 1983 is a game called Scotland Yard now in Scotland Yard this is a a one versus all game which I think this was the innovator of that whole genre okay okay so one of the players well apart from like d and d and stuff like that in terms of board gaming maybe uh one of the players takes on the role of Mr X his job is to move from

18:29 point to point around the map in London taking taxis buses or Subways the detectives that is everybody else at the table act in concert move around similarly in an effort to move to the same space as Mr X but while the criminal's mode of transportation is nearly always known his location is only sort of given at various points in the game for the most part you don't know where Mr X is but there'll be points where you'll find out and you have to try and so the trying to catch the yeah um I think I know the game you think you know the game yeah it had um a lot of reprints during the year is Scotland yards had a few I did not play it but I do I do know the game you're 100% right as well it is still in print Ravensburger still prints copies of this so you can still get it it is a 6.5 on BGG yeah and I think you are quite familiar does that look familiar that's the yes absolutely yeah I do I do know the game um yeah I think I think there was like a re like a very recent reprint or something like that they spitting them out that that's fine it's um again is a hidden movement um One Versus All and uh yeah it's it's very um it's cool to know that this was the one that actually um started yeah and yeah absolutely that's that's great not bad not badly no no in 1984 the winner was a game called damp Frost by David G Watts um the game was

20:02 designed by a teacher so David I stream was a teacher as a learning tool there's lots of different evision uh additions of this game um released in the UK as Railway Rivals most feature hexagonal map to real locations um based on whatever Market they released in like Tennessee or Germany um starting from one of the pictures City's pictures on the map players build track during the first part of the game and you'll receive a small bonus for reaching a city before anyone else so you can see that this is kind of a Genesis of those root building type yeah exactly um several races are then held on the resultant track uh the starting City and destination city are determined randomly and players can use each other's track for a nominal fee after all of the races have been held the player with the largest bank account is the winner so it does a couple of things a little bit of economy little bit of racing little bit of uh route building quite interesting um you it is not in print anymore um you can find used copies that I've done some research so they are available those of the ra version yeah it's a 6.2 on BGG okay well take look 40 years old yeah let's have uh oh oh wow I was not expecting like exagonal an hexagonal map it is literally a hexagonal map okay it is it looks uh it looks Brown looks very Brown yeah I mean

21:36 that's in terms of you draw on it I think so okay I think so I mean uh yeah there's a lot of like col pen um it's this is It's it yeah possibly the worst production so far that this is the wor well you say the worst production but if those some um if the if the if the board is one of those where you can draw and and and cancel on it um wi clean yeah might might be I will not play I will not buy it you would not buy it it's yeah but it looks it's very dry yeah it's very dry all right well dry yeah I would say drive but hey if you won uh you won in 1985 five the winner with SH Sherlock Holmes Consulting detective okay now this game started to innovate things like the adventure game in a box okay right so with Sherlock Holmes it says you capture the mystery and excitement of holmes' London in this challenging and informative game you the player will match your deductive abilities against your opponents and the master sluth himself Sherlock Holmes in Threads of evidence through the byways and mansions of 19th century London you're presented with a mystery to solve you interview suspects search newspapers for Clues put together the facts yeah exactly to reach a solution uh yeah so

23:07 you're basically you have some cases in the box and you need to use your Ingenuity and your deductive ability to get the solution it's kind of not really a board game but it has some first things I think is um the um 1800 or 20 what's the chronicles of CRI Chronicles of crime think this is he a yeah and yeah of course it's done with Sherlock Holmes his witch character I'm actually read into is still on um still widely availablea actually yeah let's see what it looks like okay and BG it 7.6 so this is the highest rated one so far wait wait wait a second it's a game from 1985 so 39 years old right now yeah and it's still got a 7. and it's still in print it's this is I would say this is massive cuz the 7.6 on B is is a lot yeah um okay let's have a look a look I'm very curious let's go take a look at Sherlock Holmes Consulting detective so you see you've got some stuff in the box there this is the original version obviously so this is going to be a little bit crummier looking I suppose than the current one that's the current box okay which looks very nice um there are lots of different versions of it now let me just skip through this that's what the current one kind of looks like I really like it

24:38 looks like um yeah um it's a Chronicle of of crimes um got like newspaper articles and I really like it it's kind of like one of those um escape room in a box or something and again it kind of innovated that sort of thing no amazing uh to be honest I will be interested to to getting a I do love Sherlock hmes it's uh me um and my dad um hero uce yeah my dad every time he comes to London he needs to go to Baker Street I love it got to go check it out that's really cool but yeah no um this one is the first one that I will say I will buy a copy of this very nice moving into 1986 we have the first appearance of the legendary Wolf Gang ker who Wolf Gang and he he won a few of these did Wolf Gang and this is his first win and it's a game called heick and Co mhm B so the game board in heick and Co is an oval movement track with points allocated to various spaces and seven differently colored spies are placed on the board on a player's turn you roll a dice then move any combination of the characters forward that number of spaces the newly moved spies will then score points based on their new however the trick here is that every player's color isn't known until the end of the game so you're moving everyone all the pieces okay and you know your color but you don't know who everyone

26:09 else's color is interes and and like ways um so players are encouraged to deduce which color belongs to whom H Li Co includes Advanced rules which allows players to score more points uh at the end of the game for correctly guessing everyone's based on what people are moving you'll be like that guy okay so it's um you want to move but you can't be too obvious about you're moving yeah yeah yeah kind of like social deduction or um yeah okay interesting and is this one still available do you think it's in print what you guess it sounds like something of this could be still out it is in brit by Amigo games it's a 6.5 okay on BGG so still rated okay let's have a look this it's high making code okay this probably yeah this is the recent this is the recent print the new print what do you think um yeah it looks um more like a a a kid gain but it has that kind of vibe doesn't it but the production for this new version looks actually very good yeah should we go find the original take a look at that yeah excellent so I think there is a a one right here this looks like it from there we go and that's still not bad yeah I think okay interesting it's interesting um not really interesting not really interested this one no not not this one fair enough 1987's winner was a game called

27:42 Al Ash uh I know right uh and this Wolf Gang repeated the trick this year okay so he's again Wolf Gang wolf two in a row two in a row which is massive by the way two in a row is a lot yeah absolutely so in Al Ash roughly translated to on the road which is an appropriate title for this uh winner uh where players deliver loads of Commodities to various German and other European cities you've got Supply cities and demand cities which is determined through card play and players attempt to get delivery contracts by bidding against one another movements accomplished by Rolling Dice and they're moving little rubber trucks around an abstract map which depicts lots of interconnected roads and cities in Germany and surrounding countries what you see here is kind of the Genesis of pick up and deliver games yeah sounds very much like games of that type uh again and also a little bit of of root mapping as well so what do you think slim print um not sure about this probably not probably not probably not correct it's not in print Arcane wonders are releasing a game this year based on um it it reimagines this game with new rules yeah I I do I do get it um it's uh it's a mechanic that then became like bigger yeah but I still isn't done enough I think pick up no no no no but it could be from the sounds of the description sounds this one very dry means like that is a mechanic and and you need to play with that but again

29:13 wolf gun few men you if you created this it's probably going to be all right should we take a look at it yeah let's do it Al Ash dry dry uh yeah you see you can probably move your trucks um I mean moving trucks on this that's really a sh to you no no that's why the theme is very dry however I can see this a new production might be quite good I can see this adding a little bit more of um I don't know more of a theme it could be a thing bit more color maybe a slight more interesting map yeah but yeah I mean why the map has got moned it should be like have roads and stuff I don't know but hey yeah wolf you won so you you definitely won you do you br yeah 1988's winner was a game called Barbarosa by clouse Tober okay and I'll be honest I was confused this I mean you don't see it but Wayne's notes are like serious about this game I'm not going to read all these probably we can go to a general a general okay so start with this is gets a bit weird you use modeling clay to start with to make objects that need to be guessed by the other players okay so it's Pictionary but with there already a mess you're already doing a mess on the table all right then players take turns to move around the board by Rolling a dice or

30:45 spending gems okay uh the spaces that you land on then determine different actions um your players will get victory points or that gets a bit weird you can ask a letter of an object or you can ask general questions to make a single guess until you get a no answer so you're trying to make you're moving around the board which will give you actions to help you guess what other people have made out of their Club yeah but should not you be seen what they but it's like abstract so I think at the end of the game you're trying to make it like I don't know you're trying to make people guess within a certain amount so you don't want it to be accurate but you don't want it to be too yeah so it's kind of like that um I mean is it print of course not no it's not in print I mean think about a ball game where you need to take out clay and what what you do when when the clay finish I mean you need to buy more clay I guess so what it dries out it's a think about like the mess that you do on the on the um it's still rated 6.3 yeah maybe because yeah let's have a look I come I can't really Barbarosa yeah uh okay so it's not clay it's like um Play-Doh yeah like a squishy yeah Playdoh yeah what you call it play play um weird weird it's a it's this is a

32:16 weird looking one yeah it's very abstract um um I don't I don't to be honest I will I will give you a go to play this cuz I'm it just like it looks very weird but it's the probably the weirdest looking one yeah so far this has been the most abstract um game um the board doesn't I don't get the board I think yeah you can see there are positioning different things so you might be able to do uh weird weird I will um you play it I will play it wouldn't buy it no they not no but I will play it I will'll give it a go and see what it's actually about yeah cool so we got to the end of the80s with 1989 yeah let's see it so the last winner in the80s was a game called Cafe International designed by Rudy Hoffman now this game revolves around the placement of multinational customers in a restaurant the board will show many different tables okay each with four chairs around them the tables are grouped by Nation so the Chinese like to sit with other Chinese says this in the description I didn't say that however some of the chairs are on the border between two Nations so a person from either place could occupy the seat okay okay to further complicate this odd Tile game each of the people is either male or female and tables must be gender balanced so as the game progresses some tiles can't be played okay so it's a

33:49 um Placement Management yeah TI placement puzzle game puzzle G is a puzzle game okay trying to get the most points by placing tiles in the right places right okay yeah it's sounds interesting because he's a puzzle I don't see it if it's that in Nority probably before 89 probably 1989 might have been um do you think it's in print uh looking at the team no oh probably it is in a different with a different theme maybe no find out yeah it is in print okay it's exactly as it is it's exactly the same game by real grande is got it in absolutely so voting on BGG 6.2 so honest H all right should we take a look at it the last game this is Cafe International oh wow looks pretty ' 80s yeah this looks it came straight out from the 80s um you see how you've got the tables with the Nations okay you got Germans American Indian and then all of that and then you got the different men women and they have to be near the right table Etc okay so what the Cuban doesn't don't want to be next to the to the US I guess stuff like okay it's weird we got Italian with Chinese and I can't even see well it's cuz there's the big debate about who invented spaghetti right if was the Chinese or it was the Italian fair enough fair enough no one knows Italian um yeah interesting um it's a puzzle game it's the production looks

35:20 very dry uh but probably a more modern um looking will be will be interesting yeah would you would you play it I will play it yes I will play it because I do like I do like a puzzle game um like to play to placement games is quite fun yeah um not sure if I will buy it but I will definitely give it a go to to play the game yes all right so that was our exploration of the history of 1980s SP winners that was pretty pretty interesting yeah yeah um yeah know knew a couple of them not not more than that but it's fun seeing where the how certain genres came from in some ways or where they got popularized mechanisms amazing and um yeah that gives a lot about the what what's going on like in the future and today even right and the and the repercussions they're in no I'm really looking forward to to the next episode when we going to cover the 90s the 90s now this one gets really good so where there's many more games that we both know y some real big hitters in the industry where you get some massive massive Innovation so that one is going to be very very exciting so stay tuned for the next episode absolutely so and if you did like this little trip through the time the history of thisp please remember to hit the like button and Matt what do they need to do hit the Subscribe button H the sub now no going back in time no you need do it now exactly go and do that and check out the

36:51 rest of our content yeah and after that don't forget if you're looking for nice graphic shirt and you want to um upgrade your your your wardrobe just check the into the link in description using the b b stupid code at the checkout for a 10% discount and a lot of amazing stuff so treat yourself go treat yourself thanks for watching we'll catch you again real soon ciao