Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade and Enforcer Chiparoo play Giant Connect Four before the 5th round of the Omegathon during PAX09. I think PAX09 was in Washington State and is a giant expo for gamers worldwide. Glad to see they are enjoying Giant Gaming.
To buy Giant Connect 4 visit
Giant Jenga House
Put up a blog like this and tell people you are looking for great Giant Games stories and you get loads. Latest one is someone has sent me a picture of a house in Japan, designed by architect Sou Fujimoto. It looks like a giant version of Jenga, and is made from huge Cedar pieces.
See more about the bungalow here:
http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=10539
Giant Chess at CLubMed
We love Giant Chess Sets, and have seen them all over the world, India, New Zealand, USA, and here is a cracker from Indonesia.
Its a good looking set, and we love it, but its in Indonesia. We have previously said that we can not find a wooden set that works in the UK.
See http://giantgames.wordpress.com/2009/09/06/quality-problems-with-wooden-giant-chess/
Is it a Giant Jenga Game?
We love strange pictures of outdoor toys and giant games. This picture looks like a version of Giant Jenga, but its cleverly shot to make a normal Jenga game look like a massive Giant Jenga version.
Giant Chess Sets
We have had several attempts at getting a Giant Wooden Chess Set in the past and in fact we have bought 5 sets from a manufacturer in Indonesia. Unfortunately they all had problems. Aside from practical issues like they were made from Pine, when we were promised Teak, and once we had two sets of white and no black, the main issue was splits.
In the timber trade splits are called shakes, but it seems there is nothing that can be done to stop wood from drying out and splitting, especially once you have turned on a lathe in to a round shape. Seems the weather in the UK is too severe for them top survive intact. The extremes between summer sun and lots of rain makes out country green and pleasant, but ruins wooden giant chess pieces.
It disappoints us that we have never managed to get a good wooden version. We are experts on Giant Chess and Draughts, but have never cracked this issue. If you have a solution, then let us know.
Giant Lego Style Man
It was last year apparently, but a reader has shown me pictures of this giant sized lego style man washed up on a beach. Supposedly he is the second one found, the other being in Holland.
The words ‘No Real than you are’ is printed on the front. Not great English, so is it possible Dutch?
What is it?
What is it for?
Who owns the Giant Man?
Is it an elaborate piece of Guerrilla Marketing?
Big Brother, the troubled channel 4 show that recently announced that next years will be the last series, apparently bought a whole load of Giant Games for use on the show, but never got round to using them.
Quite why they never used the giant games we don’t know, but I am sure that the filming schedule is constantly in flux, and changes to plans are common. Shame, we were keen to see the Giant Games in action, but then it is our passion.
We have interviewed Justine Cardy of Garden Games Limited, who told us the fascinating tale of when she invented the Giant Snakes and Ladders game.
She told us that the concept of taking traditional games and making them giant sized was already well set when she had the idea of making a Giant Snakes and Ladders game, but for a long time they could not work out how to manufacture the game. There were many problems in the early days, firstly how do they print on such a giant scale.
After several attempts they eventually worked out how to make it, but then came upon another problem. Justine wanted to make a central part of the game that the players were the counters but then they discovered that Twister had already patented that idea. Further investigation by their trademark and patent lawyers discovered that the patent had run out only a year before so they were free to progress with the idea.
The game was made suitable for play on a giant scale with the addition of new rules, including one where players have to change places. Justine explained, ‘the new rules are to help with the play where the players are always in the game as counters, keeping all players active even when it is not their turn’.
She also said, ‘When we designed the game we had to play for hour after hour to make sure we had the number of snakes and ladders just right. If we had too many snakes the game never ended and too many ladders meant it was over too quick. So we just played and played and kept adjusting. It was fun.’
Its a brilliant job. The game is superb. But she did leave us with one mystery. She refused to tell us why the game is 9 squares by 9 squares with 81 squares in total, rather than the more normal 100 snakes and ladders squares in a 10×10 format.
Do you know why?
The London Design Festival runs from the 19th September to 23rd September 2009 and features a truly amazing Giant Chess set in the heart of London in Trafalgar Square. Pieces will be moved by two movers whilst the players sit on Thrones. It promises to be a superb spectacle and we promise you we will be posting pictures.
Book to play online at http://londondesignfestival.com/tournament
Buy your own Giant Chess set at http://www.gardengames.co.uk/acatalog/Garden_Games_Giant_Chess_5.html
We love Giant Chess. It plays in a totally different way from a normal desktop game, and looks fantastic as a garden display. Tell us where you have seen Giant Chess sets on display, and tell us your Giant Chess stories.
