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Nah, but faqir works.

There are others too: http://www.hasbro.com/scrabble/pl/page.QwithoutU/d n/home.cfm

I have the game. It's called Lights Out. Here is the manufacturer's page (it's made by Tiger), and here is an interesting page about it.

That is a wise thing to do, and everyone in this sub-thread is to be commended for thinking about those issues.

However, I'd guess that you all are discussing those issues directly with your partners, rather than playing Diplomacy and talking with one partner while leaving the other out of the loop. Wouldn't on-the-table discussions about what were to happen should any of the partners die, including BillG or SteveB (they could be hit by a truck, pre-deceasing Paul, you know) be more honest and forthright? Even if that conversation was motivated by Paul's sickness?

The secrecy angle is the reprehensible part of this story, not the death contingency.

Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down!

22 here and I was a transformers freak when I was a kid.

Btw, they're still around.

How are we supposed to cook it?

Oh.

Why would it have to be PSP quality when there are already plans out there on how to hack your own MP3 player out of $20 of parts.

We live in an age where they sell what are meant to be (to us) disposable digital cammeras.

And these are products aimed at kids, the one demographic that you can always provide crap to and still have them act as if they are getting a deal (look at the VideoNow players, and those are in the $20-$40 range.)

Not to worry... It uses the most advanced weeble technology.

Board games are cool. Or at least, I think they were.

If you check Hasbro's own Trademarks and Copyright page, you'll see that Risk is not mentioned once. It seems that when it matters they know they don't have the copyright to the name.

I don't know if you were intending to be purely facetious or actually make a commentary on the way things are, but Hasbro is definitely working on that, though not just with Risk.

I don't know if you were intending to be purely facetious or actually make a commentary on the way things are, but Hasbro is definitely working on that, though not just with Risk.

I don't know if you were intending to be purely facetious or actually make a commentary on the way things are, but Hasbro is definitely working on that, though not just with Risk.

I don't know if you were intending to be purely facetious or actually make a commentary on the way things are, but Hasbro is definitely working on that, though not just with Risk.

I don't know if you were intending to be purely facetious or actually make a commentary on the way things are, but Hasbro is definitely working on that, though not just with Risk.

BTW, yes, Hasbro owns Monopoly as well.

But this brings up the eternal question. When do things like this loose copyright and/or trademark?

We have checkers, chess, card games like poker, hearts, spades, bunches of solitaire games. In fact, Hasbro sells checkers as well.

How long do we have to pay "da man" to play games? I can't find too much history about RISK right now, but it appears to have been a French game that had its rules slightly modified and was being sold by Hasbro since 1959. That will be 50 years in a couple. Again, I don't know the details, but Monopoly was originally made by some "regular guy" (or gal) and then bought and licensed by Hasbro ever since.

So, how long do we have to pay somebody for the right to have old inferior versions?

BTW, yes, Hasbro owns Monopoly as well.

But this brings up the eternal question. When do things like this loose copyright and/or trademark?

We have checkers, chess, card games like poker, hearts, spades, bunches of solitaire games. In fact, Hasbro sells checkers as well.

How long do we have to pay "da man" to play games? I can't find too much history about RISK right now, but it appears to have been a French game that had its rules slightly modified and was being sold by Hasbro since 1959. That will be 50 years in a couple. Again, I don't know the details, but Monopoly was originally made by some "regular guy" (or gal) and then bought and licensed by Hasbro ever since.

So, how long do we have to pay somebody for the right to have old inferior versions?

You know, it's like some unhappy little term from the mid 1990's got lost in time and suddenly appeared in 2005. Nobody says "cyber"-anything anymore.

Except maybe the "CyberPlanet Keys" from Transformers: Cybertron.

=8^[)] I love you! ::cheek pinch::
http://www.hasbro.com/candyland/

PS It doesn't look like the second site will weather a slashdotting. Just lettin ya know!

You need a giant Lite-Brite. Here is an example.

Build a matrix showing servers vs services and have an intern run around changing the Greens to Reds in real time.

Reuters is reporting that the US Pentagon is designing a laser cannon that's small enough to fit onto a fighter jet yet powerful enough to knock out a missile.

Now all we need to do is make fighter jets space worthy for that true Star Wars feel.

When I was your age, I didn't have a choice; feet weren't invented yet. We had to walk on our ankles or not walk at all.

When I was your age, legs weren't invented yet. We had to walk on our hands and bottom. And all we had to eat was pie. Beef pie, apple pie, chicken pot pie (except pot was legal back then), and if you were rich, pizza pie.

Why isn't there a Weebles video game?

New company slogan?

At Microsoft, we see they never were "your base".

Microsoft: We'll play Monopoly until you get Clue!

It was 1934, the height of the Depression, when Charles B. Darrow of Germantown, Pennsylvania, showed what he called the MONOPOLY game to the executives at Parker Brothers. Can you believe it, they rejected the game due to "52 design errors"! But Mr. Darrow wasn't daunted. Like many other Americans, he was unemployed at the time, and the game's exciting promise of fame and fortune inspired him to produce it on his own.

http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/pl/page.history/dn/ default.cfm

No problem, just find yourself a My Little Pony suit and stick a cute little "Intel Inside" on the bum! Voila - Instant Intel Show Pony!

[grins evily at the image]

It's not a game machine, it's supposed to compete with Hasbro's VideoNow, which is described as a "personal video player".

Basically, it costs way to much to watch a minute or two of low quality (240x160, 6fps, Hillary Duff) music video.

In other words, it's even more worthless than you thought, and frankly I have no idea why anyone would buy one of these things, except at clearance prices for hacking.

Call me when you're done working 80 hour weeks for 3 years and we'll talk. P.S. My drive to make money is because I want to be wealthy

Are you actually planning to take the time to enjoy the money you've earned? Sure, you could wait until retirement, but there's always the possibility that with your lifestyle you may not live that long.

If it's just the pure accumulation of wealth that you crave, perhaps you should consider this? I'm sure it would be a healthier alternative to your current regime.

If they want a court to believe they're concerned about dilution, they better have sued Hasbro too.

you mean something like this ?

I eventually take apart every toy I get. I've taken apart dozzens of game controllers, and the first time I opened up a vibrating controller, I saw something I'd seen before. A cheap little DC motor with an unbalanced weight on the rotor. The first time I'd seen this was in the Milton Bradley board game, Operation. The little motor did a pretty good job of making an "electric shock" noise, and the vibration discouraged you from bracing the palm of your hand or other hand on the board while plucking the little bones out. http://www.hasbro.com/operation/

You can mail them with your opinions at: mailto:hconsumeraffair@hasbro.com

Exactly; trademarks which become generics because they were not defended lose their protection under trademark law.

If Jared's lawyer has enough chutzpah, he might try claiming that the wretched quality of the electronic versions of Scrabble that Hasbro has produced constitutes de facto neglect of their trademark. Not that I think any judge would consider this arguement for as much as a minute, but it might be worth the try-- at least Hasbro might think about improving their software.

Scrabble is trademarked. While I am not a lawyer, even a layman of modest understanding can see that by having used the variation on the trademark, Jared has placed his legal fight and any prospects for continuing his site's operations in a deep hole. Preventing this sort of thing is one of the primary purposes of trademark law. The fact that Jared has steadily lost money (with donations not even covering bandwidth bills) will probably keep Hasbro from having their lawyers crush him into a bloody pulp, but won't save him from a light flogging.

On the bright side for Jared, SlashDot seems to have unintentionally gotten him to temporarily comply with the takedown request....

Anyone who copies a product like Scrabble but expects not to be sued is naive beyond imagination. Get a clue.

No, no, no. Hasbro owns Clue as well.

I understand the Trademark on Scrabble is probably still valid, and maybe that is all they are defending.

But shouldn't any copyright on the game be expired by now?

Never mind, I just checked the real site and see it has only been around since 1948. Not quite forever, yet.

Never mind.

Playskool's Weebles wobble but they don't fall down. Playskool's line of toys was out long before Macromedia Flash was even invented.

Hero Scape is a new table top game that is great!!! Lots of fun to setup and play!!

Theres a demo of the game on the site see below

http://www.hasbro.com/heroscape/

Slap the lever to eat the most!

I got HeroScape (http://www.hasbro.com/heroscape/) for my son (who is 8) for Christmas. We've played a couple of games and it's really very fun. So far he's been kicking my @$$ but it's great to have a game that nearly anyone can play. The fact that you can build your own battle grounds makes the game scenarios limited only by your imagination.

See here. To save you the time, here's a list of stuff I found from that story, games that sounded interesting or worth checking out.

First, I decided I should really get into Go. Some links from that Slashdot story: here, The Second Book of Go here, here, here, here, and here.

Other games:
Apples to Apples - got this for my cousin, they liked it.
Settlers of Catan - got this for myself, very nice game, try a local hobby shop or here or try Amazon.com

Others: Puerto Rico (Similar to Settlers of Catan), Lord of the Rings board game was mentioned, Kill Dr. Lucky, Deadwood, Give me the Brain, Lightspeed Games, Fluxx is fun, very random and quirky.

There's more! Mind Trap
Munchkin , Heroscape, Ticket to Ride, Mystery of the Abbey, Memoir '44, Queen's Necklace at Days of Wonder, Bang!, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Articulate
Killer Bunnies (and Quest for the Magic Carrot), Illuminati , Acquire .

Some other reviews/top game lists here:
here
here
here

Happy gaming!

I just can't think of much of a market for a robot that can get up off the ground and not much else..... "Want to watch my robot HeRPe get up off the ground again? Go ahead, knock him over..."

Here's your market.

Either Fisher-Price's Little People or Playskool's Weebles, and I'm almost leaning toward Weebles given that the MSN Messenger guy has no legs.

"No mention is made of what happens when a brick in the middle of the cube needs to be replaced and the whole thing needs to be disassembled." - http://www.hasbro.com/jenga/

Missing from the list, but a really fun game, is Heroscape It is a good blend of luck and strategy and can be played by various levels of expertise. I played it with the kids and they loved it. They actually turned OFF Halo 2 to play!

Play-Doh (now owned by Hasbro) has a toy called the Fun Factory. It's all about extrusions, and even comes with multiple extrusion dice. I'd expect this to be more familiar to the young'uns than a pastry/piping bag. Hasbro even uses the term "extruder" on the website.

Also relevant - you don't need a piping bad to make Ramens, but I'll bet the Slashdot audience has used Play-Doh.

I also have envisioned these natural divisions of hardware. CCD/Lens system, Storage (HDD, Flash, and tape), Viewfinder Display, network comm.

By standardizing a bus and physical attachment method, you could stack the items together that you need. (like lego tm)

PC's proliferated by this design mode. So a PDA + HDD + ccd & lens = camera and so on. Add a DV tape drive when needed, etc. wirelessly connected glasses or PDA viewfinder are fine because viewfinder resolution is lower than recorded resolution.

Too bad for lack of vision in real usablity from gadget vendors! They should play with "Bey Blades" to see modularity in action.

Tethers and belt packs are fine. I use a JVC High-Def camcorder which tires my arm out, can't wait to offload tape and battery, etc. to a belt or bag.

The small cameras are hard to stabilize tho, no inertia.. I expect to see micro steady-cam systems as weights diminish.

I have a STACK of dv tape around since editting lags behind shooting. dv tape has great capacity per $. maybe next gen DVD's will be a good solution, but considering the compress time, i'd rather stripe to tape raw while the battery recharges.

What I want for Christmas is some HeroScape expansion packs!

What I want for Christmas is some HeroScape expansion packs!

I used to play with a cartesian diver - the instructions for which can be found here: at hasbro

This was a great toy, simple concept but tricky to use to pick up treasure.

Has anyone seen anything like it in use today.

Oh - and of course there was always trick-track, for those of you over 40...

Monopoly - since 1934, over 5 billion little green houses have been built!