Darin
United States
Holland
Michigan
I do not run and hide... I strategically maneuver.
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Black Box is one of those few games that I liked when I was young, but still play today. My review is for the 1978 Parker Brothers version (which mainly affects my comments on components).
This is a two-player game (but can also be played solitaire -- see below). One player, designated the "hider," marks secret locations of 4 (or 5, if decided upon in advance) balls on an 8x8 grid. The game comes with a slick plastic copy of the 8x8 grid and a crayon -- but I have found that cleanup is a bit easier if one uses a dry erase or overhead transparency marker instead.
Once the hider has hid the balls, the other player (the "seeker") uses the remaining components to begin looking for the balls. These components include: a plastic 8x8 grid (about 12x12 inches) with shallow depressions to hold the 4 or 5 plastic balls, slots numbered 1 to 32 occurring at both ends of each row and column of the grid to hold markers, and three types of markers: "hit", "reflection", and several pairs of markers (each pair of markers shows a distinct symbol, so that the mate of each marker can be immediately recognized).
The seeking player then begins by choosing a number, and an imaginary ray is shot into the black box at that number, perpendicular to the side of the grid it emanated from. Rays cannot pass through or beside balls, instead, they terminate, reflect, or turn by some well-defined collection of rules.
Rather than try to list all of these rules carefully here in the abstract, I'll give an example. Let's suppose that the hider's board looks like this:
33322222
21098765
1--------24
2-o-o----23
3--------22
4------o-21
5o-------20
6---o----19
7--------18
8--------17
1111111
90123456
If the seeker calls "12", the result is a "hit", since the ray proceeds directly into a ball (the hider notifies the seeker, and the seeker would place a hit marker on the number 12). If the seeker calls 13, the hider tells the seeker that the ray exits the box at 18 -- notice that the ray turns 90 degrees away from the ball it is about to pass in the square before it passes (the seeker would place a pair of identical markers on 13 and 18). If the seeker calls "30", the result is a "reflection" -- since the ray can turn neither right nor left, it reflects back in its original direction (the seeker places a reflection marker on 30). Calling "4" or "6" also results in a reflection, since the ray cannot even enter the board. The most confusing results come from rays that get deflected a number of times -- for example, if the seeker calls "14", the result will be an exit at "27". This will look to the seeker like the ray passed through without any deflection, when in reality, it deflected 3 times! Similarly, a call of "3" results in a "hit" -- although the ray deflects before it hits.
The seeker's goal is to find the locations of all 5 balls using as few markers as possible. The seeker uses the plastic balls provided to mark suspected locations of balls, and these can be picked up and moved at any time. When the seeker thinks he has all of the locations identified, he puts the balls in those locations and says he is ready to end the game. His score is then the number of markers used, plus 5 points for each ball in an incorrect position.
The two players then exchange roles, and play another round. Low score wins. One round (with each player taking each role) often takes around 30 minutes. The game can be played to a set score (with each player still getting the same number of chances as seeker) or through a specified number of rounds.
There is also a solitaire version of the game included. The player plays one of a number of pre-set puzzles, and a chart tells her the outcome of each possible guess. The answer to the puzzles are provided, and the player can try for lowest possible score. (Nowadays, this can be done more effectively using a computer version -- there is one at BSW for instance -- but this was pretty cool for its time.)
Components: Top notch. All parts are sturdy plastic, and have held up for nearly 30 years. Add an erasable marker in place of the original crayon, and this game will last forever. Also, it is quite a nice game to look at.
Rules: The rules that came with the game seem fine. Still, some people find this game difficult to learn, especially if they are not used to thinking about abstract geometry. It is very difficult for a person to serve as the hider until they are really confident with the rules, and so this doesn't get played much at informal family gatherings, with very small children, etc. At the same time, my 8 year old likes this game (and beats me at it), and I think it helps develop abstract reasoning, and it is fun at the same time!
Strategy/Luck: There are lots of opportunities for being devious in terms of hiding -- although plans can sometimes be thwarted by a "lucky call" on behalf of the seeker. For example, the "14 to 27" ray in the puzzle above would put the seeker on the wrong track if it was the first call of the round, but it might be less misleading later in the round. The seeker can also make some nice choices to optimize her use of counters. I like games with a nice strategy/luck balance, and this seems to do nicely.
I should mention that there are some "unsolvable" configurations. That is, in some puzzles, a player could have perfect information (all 32 counter spaces filled) and still not be able to deduce the answer. One of these, with 5 balls, is:
33322222
21098765
1--------24
2--------23
3--o--o--22
4--------21
5---o----20
6--o--o--19
7--------18
8--------17
1111111
90123456
Note that no ray can penetrate the "square" of 4 balls, and so there is no way to determine the location of the 5th. With gamers who know the game, we usually just agree ahead of time to avoid unsolvable configurations -- and if a configuration is found to be unsolvable after the fact, I would suggest a "do over" for that round. It has never been a huge deal, as most players are not likely to construct an unsolvable configuration by accident.
Summary: I've always found this to be a very fun game. It is short, but it has some depth and nice decisions. I played this a lot in my youth. Now, it works well with my son, or with another gamer as filler, or if we are waiting for other gamers to show up. After this had sat in my closet for years, I rated it a 5 based on recollection. Now that I've had it out and played it a few times, I've raised the mark to 7 -- there are certainly things I would still choose over this game, but it remains a classic that is fun once in awhile.
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Posted Mon Jul 18, 2005 4:33 am