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3/5


Tuesday 12 March 1968

72nd day - 294 days to come


In Wall St. Journal Hammacher Schlemmer had ad for TRIPTIC (Invento)
It is a 3D TICK-TACK-TOE played on a 3x3x3 board with 28 pcs.

Went to I-S to meet Arnold Shapiro of X. He is quite frustrated about working on the games without a staff or a budget. However, Don Hall, the head of the company has just recently been told of the project and is favorable. Their research dept. will make a complete survey of the game market. They have made a success of a gift book line & a gift craft kit line which should help acceptance of the games at the top.
Their first line will consist of :-
CONSPIRACY (A spy game they developed)
SHAPE AND SHATTER (I'm to send the skill version in again.)
COLOR CONFUSION
DEDUCTION
TRIPPLE CROSS
STACK STICKS (Still having some trouble with costing the material)
COLOR GUARD (A children's game of the Checkers-Chess type. Bought out right.)
BROKER (They have an arrangement to buy this when ready)
RED LETTER is just about sure for the next issue. They are looking at another game WHIZ WORDS (they will change the name if they use it) which they may also use since it is entirely different, although based on words & letters.
CAPTURE THE CARGO:- They are still having trouble getting the rules written so that they are not too difficult to under- stand. They would also like a still more adult theme. Arnold will send me a draft of the rules for my games for comment before they are finalize.
CINEMA:- He was not sure if the theme was timely since Hollywood has lost its glamor. Also scoring is too difficult and slows up the spirit after the fun of trading. I told him that if they really are interested in it again I can simplify the scoring.
Their initial line will be in the $5 to $7 range. They will then work on more elaborate games and also deluxe models of their others - up to as high as $20.

Called Bob Claude and spoke to him twice. He may come tomorrow for supper. We are meeting at 11:30 in any case, at the 3M tape exhibit. Although they are not officially selling games the customers are asking for and buying the bookshelf and sports games.

At meeting with Alice the game INSTANT FUN came up. Felicia had reported it selling well at Bentanos even tho it had a lousy package. After Arnold left I called Bren- tano's and asked about that and also MINITAR. They didn't have either.
(cont. on 3/5)