Dr. Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, skeptic, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
Scrabble was first published in 1948. Shortly thereafter, it was ripped off for the Swedish market by a firm named Lemeco, under the tell-tale Anglophone title Criss Cross. The main difference between the ripoff and the original is that individual letters don't have point values in Criss Cross: instead you get five points per vowel and ten per consonant.
Criss Cross does not bear a printing year. I date it at about 1950, because my copy still contains the notebook where my dad and his kid sister recorded their games. A signature of my dad's in the notebook looks like the handwriting of a <10-year-old, which would place it before 1954.
Should you feel moved to acquire a copy of Criss Cross, then you can have one at Tradera. Lemeco also made toy cars and a Perry Mason boardgame.
[More blog entries about 1950s, gaming, boardgames, scrabble, Sweden; spel, brädspel, alfapet, 50-talet]
Comments
Criss Cross is gonna
jump, jump!
(Sorry. Couldn't stop myself.)
Posted by: kontakt | August 11, 2008 7:05 AM