Camelot is a strategy board game for two players. It was invented by George S. Parker late in the 19th century, and was one of the first games publish...
Camelot is a strategy board game for two players. It was invented by George S. Parker late in the 19th century, and was one of the first games published by Parker Brothers, originally under the name Chivalry.
The game was reissued as "Camelot" in 1930, with reduced size and number of pieces. It flourished through numerous editions and variants, achieving its greatest popularity in the 1930s, and remained in print through the late 1960s. Parker Brothers briefly republished the game in the 1980s under the name Inside Moves. Since then it has been out of print, but retains a core of fans anticipating another revival.
Camelot is easy to learn and without extensive theory or praxis, making it perhaps more accessible for novices to play/enjoy compared to chess. Gameplay is exceptionally tactical almost from the first move, so games are quick to play to a finish.
A World Camelot Federation exists, with free membership, led by Michael W. Nolan. Camelot was featured in Abstract Games magazine in 2001 and 2002.
In 1882, George S. Parker began working on an abstract board game called Chivalry. His goal was to create a game not so difficult as chess, but considerably more varied than checkers. Parker created a game that was a complex, tactical, but an easily learned and quickly played mixture of Halma and checkers. When finally published by Geo. S. Parker & Co. in 1887, Chivalry won the raves of chess and checkers experts, but the game Parker called "the best game in 2000 years" did not catch on quickly with the general public.
However, Parker never lost his enthusiasm for the game, and in 1930 he made a few changes, and Parker Brothers republished it under the name "Camelot". A few more rules changes followed in 1931. Camelot enjoyed its greatest popularity in the 1930s.
Camelot players included José Raúl Capablanca, World Chess Champion from 1921 to 1927, and Frank Marshall, U.S. Chess Champion from 1907 to 1936. Sidney Lenz and Milton Work, two world-famous bridge players, also played the game.
There were over 50 different editions of Camelot sets issued, including a gold-stamped leather edition and a mahogany cabinet edition. There were tournament editions, regular editions, and low-cost editions. Camelot was eventually discontinued in 1968, then reissued as "Inside Moves" in 1985, and finally discontinued again in 1986.
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SUFFRAGETTO
Suffragetto was a board game published in the United Kingdom around 1908 by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and manufactured by Sargeant...
Suffragetto was a board game published in the United Kingdom around 1908 by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and manufactured by Sargeant Bros. Ltd. In modern terms, it was developed to "enact feminist ideology in a hybrid fantasy-real world environment" to support the activist strategies of the suffragettes.
The game is a contest of occupation featuring two players around a grid board representing the streets of Edwardian London. One player plays 21 green markers as the radical suffragettes, the other player plays 21 dark blue markers as the police constables. The objective of the suffragettes is to break through police lines and enter the House of Commons, while at the same time preventing the police from entering Albert Hall. The objective of the police is to disrupt the meeting of the suffragettes by entering Albert Hall, while at the same time preventing them from entering the House of Commons.
"Arrested" suffragettes are confined to the "prison" section of the board, whereas "disabled" constables are confined to the "hospital" section. The game is won by the first player who introduces six markers into the opponent's base.
The WSPU were enthusiastic about manufacturing and selling the game, as it would allow the organisation to continue running without having to depend on donations from wealthy individuals.
Oxford's Bodleian Libraries has the only known surviving copy of the game. Suffragetto was among several children's games designed at that time around the themes of gender, resistance, and social relationships, along with the contemporaneous games Panko and Pank-a-Squith (1909). The goal of the latter was to navigate a suffragette (led by Emmeline Pankhurst) down a long path from her home to parliament, past obstacles placed by the Liberal government (led by Prime Minister H. H. Asquith).
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