Hexagames
Defunct board game company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hexagames was a German game publisher in Dreieich, which existed from 1982 to 1992.[1] It was one of the most famous German game publishers of the 1980s, notable for publishing games such as Lines of Action (1988) and Cosmic Encounter (1992).
| Industry | Board games |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1982 |
| Defunct | 1992 |
| Headquarters | Dreieich, Germany |
Key people |
|
History
Hexagames was created by Langden Hensley, with the trademark being registered by the German Patent and Trademark Office in late 1982.[1] In 1982, he and Jürgen Hagedorn released the game Long Short, developed by Hensley.[2]
After the game publisher Bütehorn went bankrupt around 1982, Hexagames included several of their games in its program.[3][4] Hagedorn retired from Hexagames in 1988. Joe Nikisch, the founder of the board game company Abacusspiele, was responsible for the product range of Hexagames as product manager beginning in 1986.[5][6][7] After the dissolution of Hexagames in 1992, the Berlin games manufacturer Sala took over some of the games under the Salagames label.[8] Salagames also disappeared from the market after about two years and in 1994 some Hexagames games were republished by Abacusspiele.[5]
In 1994, Hensley lost the "Hexagames" trademark, which was re-registered by the publishers "BOB Marketing & Sales GmbH" in Langen.[9] Some Hexagames games were later published by other publishers: Osiris (1995),[10] and Karriere Poker (1996).[11]
Awards
Several Hexagames games received various awards or been nominated for Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year):
- Spiel des Jahres
- 1987: The 1st Million by Sid Sackson (nominated)
- 1988: Lines of Action by Claude Soucie (nominated)
- 1989: Uisge (1984) by Roland Siegers (special award for "Most Beautiful Game")[7][12][13]
- 1989: Abilene (1985) by Roland Siegers (nominated)[7][12]
- 1990: Dino by Reinhold Wittig (nominated)[14]
- Deutscher Spiele Preis
- 1990: Römer by Rudolf Ross (7th place)
- 1992: Cosmic Encounter by Bill Eberle, Peter Olotka, Jack Kittredge, and Bill Norton (6th place)
- Á la Carte Card Game Prize
- 1992: Res Publica by Reiner Knizia (1st place)
- 1992: Musketeers by Franz Josef Lamminger (4th place)
Other notable games
- Conquest by Donald Benge (1984)
- Black Monday (1988)
- Karrierepoker by Klaus Grähnke and Brian Walker (1988)[15]
- McMulti by James J St Laurent (1988)[6]
- Can't Stop Express by Sid Sackson (1989)
- Digging by Reiner Knizia (1990)
- Manager by Peter Pfeifer and Waltraud Pfeif (1991)