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Robert Abbott (born March 2, 1933) is an American game inventor, sometimes referred to by fans as "The Official Grand Old Man of Card Games". Though early in his life he worked as a computer programmer with the IBM 360 assembly language, he has been designing games since the 1950s.〔Abbott 1962, p. 53〕 Two of his more popular creations include the chess variant Baroque chess (also known as Ultima) and Crossings, which later became Epaminondas. Eleusis was also successful, appearing in several card game collections, such as ''Hoyle's Rules of Games''〔Morehead 2001, p. 67〕 and ''New Rules for Classic Games'',〔Schmittberger 1992, p. 74〕 among others. In 1963, Abbott himself released a publication, ''Abbott's New Card Games'', which included instructions for all of his card games, in addition to Baroque chess.〔Abbott 1963〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Robert Abbott's Games )〕 Abbott also invented logic mazes, the first of which appeared in Martin Gardner's ''Mathematical Games'' column in the October 1962 issue of ''Scientific American''.〔〔〔Abbott 1997, pp. vii-ix〕 One of the more prominent of these is ''Theseus and the Minotaur'', which was originally published in the book ''Mad Mazes''.〔Abbott 1990, pp. 34-35〕 His game ''Confusion'' was named "Best New Abstract Strategy Game" for 2012 by GAMES Magazine.〔 == Biography == Abbott was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and attended St. Louis Country Day School. Abbott went to Yale for two years, then attended the University of Colorado for another two, but never graduated. Soon after, Abbott moved to New York, where he and his games were discovered by Martin Gardner. In 1963, after Abbott's book, ''Abbott's New Card Games'', received only moderate success, he "got tired of being poor"〔 and moved back to St. Louis. There, he became a computer programmer at the Washington University Computer Research Laboratory. In 1965, he moved back to New York, where he continued to work as a computer programmer, mostly with the IBM 360 assembly language.〔 Abbott created all of his card games during the 1950s, starting with Babel in 1951,〔 and ending with Auction in 1956.〔Abbott 2001, p. 1〕 Soon after, he moved to New York City, where the rules for his game Eleusis were first published by Martin Gardner in his ''Mathematical Games'' column.〔〔 Motivated by the article, Abbott self-published the rules for four of his card games in the book ''Four New Card Games'' in 1962, which Abbott sold by mail. In 1963, the book ''Abbott's New Card Games'' was published by Sol Stein of Stein and Day, containing the rules for all eight of his card games and the rules for his chess variant, Baroque chess.〔 In 1968, the publisher Funk & Wagnalls published a paperback edition of ''Abbott's New Card Games'',〔Abbott 1968, pp. 121-138〕 in which Abbott slightly modified the rules of Baroque chess, but these changes never became popular.〔 Around the same time that ''Abbott's New Card Games'' was published, Abbott sent his maze, ''Traffic Maze in Floyd's Knob'', to Martin Gardner. This was the first logic maze to be published, appearing in Gardner's ''Mathematical Games'' column.〔〔〔 Since then, Abbott has created various mazes, most of which appeared in the books ''SuperMazes'' and ''Mad Mazes''.〔Abbott 1997〕〔Abbott 1990〕 In 2008, RBA Libros published a Spanish version of his book ''Abbott's New Card Games'', under the title ''Diez juegos que no se parecen a nada'', which translates to ''Ten games that do not resemble anything''.〔Abbott 2008〕 This version was not just a Spanish translation of the original, however; the most up-to-date rules for the various games were used; in addition, the rules for Eleusis Express and Confusion were included.〔 In 2010, his ''Where are the Cows?'' maze was published by the Oxford University Press in the book ''Cows in the Maze''.〔Stewart 2010, pp. 179-193〕 In 2011, his game Confusion was published by Stronghold Games. The game was named "Best New Abstract Strategy Game" for 2012 by GAMES Magazine.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.gamesmagazine-online.com/gameslinks/gameofyear.html )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Robert Abbott (game designer)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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