Criss Cross: Swedish Scrabble Ripoff

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]