The Australian game show Spicks and Specks in the latest game show to plan a conversion to board game format.

The game will be a DVD game produced by Imagine Entertainment.

(source)

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Budget cuts in Australia threaten to end social programs such as card games, Bingo, and exercise for the elderly in nursing homes.

These programs are critical to providing quality of life for the home’s residents. Says one residence manager:

“One of my favourite movies is Groundhog Day. It’s where every day is exactly the same. That’s what would happen in nursing homes without quality of care programs. There’d be no bus trips, there’d be no cards, there’d be no bingo.”

(source, image source)

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Down in Louisiana, prisoners who would receive a 5 year sentence for robbery in the North can get 40 years, and you might get sentenced to life (for real, with no possibility of parole) or to death for a first offense. But the love doesn’t end there.

80% of the 5,400 prisoners at Angola prison get no visitors, have no claiming relatives, and have no hope. Small wonder that some of them would rather play poker in a rodeo stadium with the prospect of being gored to death by a 2000 pound bull than sit around waiting to die.

In Convict’s Poker, four prisoners sit around a poker table while a rampaging bull charges them. The last to get up wins $100 or $200. Many of the players leave the stadium for the hospital with broken bones or severe wounds. And if they should get trampled to death, it saves them from life in prison or lethal injection, and its good entertainment value for the rodeo audience, comic relief from watching the professional rodeo riders.

Apparently, as a result of introducing this program, prison violence is down.

(source)

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Megahouse Corp will be bringing out Eco Othello, following trends to manufacturing more eco-friendly products.

The board and pieces will be made out of a mixture of plastic and “silver skin”, which is made from skins of coffee beans.

(source)

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Bonhams of London will be running a games only antiques auction on May 13.

There will be 281 lots up for auction, most of which are playing cards or Chess related (naturally). Games, notes, and pieces from Italy, India, Ireland, Germany, the Congo, and many other places will be on the block. Click here for the complete list.

(source)

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The Tuscaloosa News features an article on Marisa Pena, designer of Cranium’s Zigity and Zooreka.

According to Marisa, most game designs at Cranium are a team effort:

Marisa says all of the ideas are really team efforts by the creative folks at Cranium who brainstorm, write and create the games in colorful office spaces that resemble Cranium game boards. Marisa’s office is bright green and is referred to as the green house — where ideas grow!

(source)

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