Sid Sackson

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Sid Sackson (February 4, 1920, Chicago–November 6, 2002) was a significant American board game designer and collector.

His most popular creation is probably the business game Acquire. Other games he designed include Can't Stop and Focus (Domination), which won the prestigious German Spiel des Jahres game design award in 1981.

Other notable works include his books, especially A Gamut of Games and Card Games Around the World; both titles include a large array of rules for games both new and old, and Sackson himself invented a number of the games covered by these works.

For several years in the mid-1970s, Sid Sackson wrote a monthly column for Strategy & Tactics magazine called Sackson on Games in which he reviewed games (other than wargames).

Sackson collected games throughout his life; at the time of his death, his collection was estimated at over 18,000 titles. Many of those were unique, sent to him by hopeful game developers who wanted Sackson's advice. At one point in his life, Sackson turned down an offer to bring his collection elsewhere for permanent safekeeping; the games were sold at a series of auctions after his death, breaking up the collection.

[edit] Games

Some of Sackson's notable games include:

• Acquire
• Bowling Solitaire
• BuyWord
• Can't Stop
• "Can't Stop The Turtles"
• Fields of Action
• Focus
• Haggle
• I'm the Boss!
• Poke
• The No Game

[edit] Links and references

• Sackson, Sid, Card Games Around the World, ISBN 0-486-27347-4
• Sackson, Sid, A Gamut of Games, ISBN 0-486-28100-0
• "Sid Sackson Game Collection Auction", http://boardgames.about.com/cs/sacksonauction/
• "The Great Games of Sid Sackson", http://www.webnoir.com/bob/sackson.htm
• Sid Sackson at BoardGameGeek