Game Articles

Occasionally, one of our members or contributors may publish an article of research about games here. Papers will be accepted on almost any serious subject pertaining to games as long as it has something new to say, but obviously our focus is largely games history.

Presently papers will not necessarily be peer-reviewed for the following reasons:

Although many of our members have unsurpassed knowledge in their field, this website is designed to assist research and to enable knowledge to be shared - and we don't want to put any barriers in the way of achieving that. So papers may make uncorrobated assertions or not be perfectly referenced but we would rather have the knowledge of our contributors recorded than not have it at all.
We may have the expertise but we do not have sufficient time/resources to set up a full academic peer-review network
Although the Board Games Studies journal exists for the publication of serious research into the fields of all things to do with board games, we don't know of another journal that would publish a proper research article about other types of game - in particular playing cards, gaming counters, dexterity table games, pub games and other physical games. Here then, is a place for such research.

Title	Author	Date
Shove Ha'penny	W. Bryce Neilson	November 2018	Reconstructs the most probable sequence of events in the history and development of what has become an iconic British pub game.
David Ogilvy Inventor and Publisher c.1842 - 1882 David Ogilvy - Appendix 1 - List of Games 1841 - 1879 David Ogvilvy Appendix 2 - List of Puzzles	Richard Ballam	June 2020	Aims to resolve the confusion surrounding this important Victorian games inventor and publisher and to record over 200 games and puzzles produced by them.
Gaming Law	W. Bryce Neilson	Aug 2020	A short summary of some of the more important pieces of legislation relating to games and gambling from the earliest times until the year 2000.
Arithmetical Cards - of Sturt, Warter & Lenthall	Neil Darbyshire	Jan 2021	About the arithmetical set of playing cards, one of a number of entertaining decks from Lenthall's broadsheets around 1713.
Quartett & Tritett Games by Henry Greenwood	Mike Goodall	March 2021	Not really an article but apparently this was published by Stationer's Hall to protect their copyright after 1866
Jaques Board Games 1850 - 1900	Richard Ballam	March 2021	A journey through all of Jaques best known board games during the period when they were leading producers (but generally not the inventors) of many new games, some of which ended up being classics that are still popular today.
The Mehen board at the Fitzwilliam Museum	James F.R Masters & Dr. Melanie Pitkin	October 2021	An article published on the The Fitzwilliam Museum website.
Loggats	James F. R. Masters	January 2022	The first serious research into this enigmatic medieval sport. The original version of this was published in 'An Antique Games Compendium' by 'The Games Board', January 2021. This updated version featuring pictures in-line includes a new cheese find and the identification of the area where Loggats was played at its last known location, the Hampshire Hog in Norwich.
An Unrecorded Royal Oak Lottery Ticket	W. Bryce Neilson	October 2022	The Royal Oak Lottery was set up by Charles II following the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660. This short article reports a unique and previously unknown token pertaining to that lottery. Originally published in the 'Token Corresponding Society Bulletin'.
The Various Editions of The Game of Human Life	Adrian Seville	October 2022	An expanded version of the presentation to the St Albans Ludofest on 8 October 2022. Abstract The New Game of Human Life, published in London in 1790 by John Wallis and Elizabeth Newbery, was arguably a catalyst for the great flowering of English printed board games of the Late Georgian era. It was, though, a close re-working of a game published some fifteen years earlier by the French firm of Crépy, Le Nouveau Jeu de la Vie Humaine. A German version, clearly copied from the English but using French language for the text, appeared in 1790 or soon after, published by Simon Schropp of Berlin. The final incarnation was a second English edition, published between 1814 and 1826 by Edward Wallis, one of John Wallis’s sons. This paper compares these editions, noting particularly the changes that were made in adapting the game to the different national audiences.
Nina or Nyner	W. Bryce Neilson	March 2023	Originally published in the Token Corresponding Society Bulletin Vol. 14, No. 2, March 2023, this is a short piece on the little known 1930s British manufactured game of Nina or Nyner noting a similarity of some of its features with those of early Pinball.
Mehen, The Ancient Egyptian Serpent Game: A Reappraisal of the Evidence Set	James F.R Masters	13 September 2024	Published in 'Interdisciplinary Egyptology', an anonymously peer-reviewed journal from the University of Vienna, Austria
Mehen, The Ancient Egyptian Serpent Game: A Reappraisal of Game-Play Theories	James F.R Masters	10th September 2024	Published in 'Birmingham Egyptology', an anonymously peer-reviewed journal from the University of Birmingham, UK