Triade and The Game of Pegpen

Pipopipette or Quadratini are Italian names (at least in the 1980s) for Dots and Boxes (invented by François Edouard Anatole Lucas in 1889). The game is quite well-known being, perhaps, the second most famous of the pencil and paper games after Tic-Tac-Toe.

there were even published games for Dots'n'Boxes

I'm mentioning the Italian name because I found at Pergioco, issue of July 1981, a curious variant of this game, called Triade. The game is played in the same grid and colors, but players are also able to connect diagonals.

Rules:

• At his turn, a player makes a new connection between two corners of a square.
• A player scores for each triangle with all three sides drawn by him
• The value of the triangle is given by its area (e.g., the smallest triangles value 0.5 points)
• Notice that after a move, several triangles can be closed
• If a player scores, he does not play again (unlike Dots and Boxes)
  
• When the game ends, wins the player with highest score (players may also decide a fixed value to achieve a win)
  

The original page with the game description:

An automatic translation of the Triade rules:

The game represents the triangular equivalent of Pipopipette, but adds to the game a greater richness of strategic themes, ultimately being more varied and interesting than its predecessor. Here too, the material consists of graph paper and two pens of different colors, and the game begins by defining a playing area. Players take turns making a move, which consists of drawing a line segment in two possible ways: either by retracing a side of any square or by drawing one of the two diagonals, always of a square of their choice.

Points are scored in the ways shown in the examples in Figure 2; from these it is clear that only triangles with all three sides of the same color score points, and they have a minimum size of half a square. In Triad, unlike Pipopipette, the move does not remain with the player who has "closed" triangles, but passes alternately from one to the other.

In this game it is possible that with a single move, multiple triangles can be closed.

In the example in Fig. 3, the player with the solid line, by drawing the segment A-B, simultaneously closes the triangles E-F-G (worth 4 points), A-C-E (worth 1 point), A-B-C (worth ½ point) and A-B-D (also worth ½ point), thus obtaining 6 points with a single move.

In Fig. 4 we see a diagram that shows the situation of a game already in progress; in this situation, if it were the turn of the player with the solid line, he could, by drawing the segment A-B, obtain 2 and ½ points; if instead it were the turn of the player with the dashed line, he could draw the segment A-B to take away this good opportunity from his opponent, or, if he wanted to score points, draw the segment C-D and obtain 3 points.

Triad can be played until all possible moves are exhausted, but it is more fun and simpler to set a score to reach before the opponent.

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The Game of Pegpen is a 1929 uncredited game, published at Stoll & Edwards Company.

This is also a variant of Dots and Boxes, but where instead of four moves to own a square, the players need eight moves (!)

The rules:

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Another iteration of this concept is 1968's Squaresville by Cadaco Publisher.

 

The golden squares value two points for the player that surrounds them. Notice also that some walls are already placed, so the board does not start empty.

The rules:

Up & add'em!

Up & add'em! is a 1976 uncredited game, published at Aladdin.

The game is played on a central 9x9 area, with an outer layer where the pieces start.

Each player has nine pieces labelled from 2 to 4 (four 2s, three 3s and two 4s). These are stackable pieces. A stack ownership and move range is determined, respectively, by the top piece's color and label.

Rules

• Initially, players setup their nine pieces in any order they like.
• On his turn, the player moves one of his stacks.
• A stack moves the number of steps given by his label, going thru empty positions or even jumping over other stacks (each step costs one unit of movement).
• Stacks move orthogonally, and can change direction during their movement.
• Stacks can stop on top of enemy stacks, provided that (a) the final size of the two stacks together is four or less pieces, (b) the top piece of the moving stack is greater or equal than the top piece of the captured stack.
• The game ends when no more captures are possible. 
• A stack value is the sum of all its pieces 
• The player with the highest score wins the game 

The official rules:

I'm not so sure that the end condition is obvious to check in every situation. It is easy to verify that one player cannot capture enemy stacks (given the remaining numbers of their stacks with less than four pieces). But if, say, both players have one remaining stack of size two with a top-piece labelled 2, what happens then? Can one trap the other? I'm not so sure about that. Probably an extra stop condition is needed. Something similar to Chess, that after N turns without captures the game does end.

Rescue

Rescue is a 1983 game by R. Wayne Schmittberger, published in GAMES #36.

This is a stack-based game, played on a 9x5 board, with nine pieces each. Players need to reach their home squares to rescue their pieces:

Schmittberger was the author of the 1992 classic book New Rules for Classic Games.

Link-Up and Nebula

Link-Up is a 1972 uncredited game, published at American Greeting Co.

there are two unavailable positions, at d4 and e6

Each player has 31 tiles of three different type (check below). The goal is to score points by making lines of connecting friendly lines, either orthogonally or diagonally.

The rules:

The different tiles provide different threats of making points, which seems an interesting idea. However, it is doubtful that players are able to score six or more lines in a row, given the board's size.

don't know why there are two unavailable placements,
 but I assume there's a good reason

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A similar n in-a-row game, where larger sequences get larger scores, is 1976's Nebula.

L'enclos

L'enclos is a 1986 game by Michel Boutin, published at the magazine Vers l'Éducation Nouvelle, issue 402.

The game is played in the following board (and setup) has a tiling of hexagons and squares (the black triangles are not part of the game):

Each player has three pieces (les moutons, the sheep), and enough walls (a maximum of 90).

Rules:

• The player, on her turn, makes two actions by any order:
• Moves a friendly sheep to an adjacent hexagon (without walls in-between them)
  
• Drops a wall in an empty square
  
• Wins the player that stalemates the adversary
  

This game has the same essential ludemes as the classic Amazons, but L'enclos is older.

Panic Button

Panic Button is a 1978 uncredited game, published at Mego Co.

The game is played on a 8x8 board which is split in four rotating quadrants:

 

This is a Checkers-like game, with multiple short-jumps to capture adversary pieces. The original element is the possibility for a player to rotate the board within itself.

These are the official rules:

 

 

Attacco

Attacco is a c.1900 game by George Howard Monks (the inventor of Halma), published by Adolf Sala.

It is played in a 11x17 board with the following markers,

Each player has 22 pieces that start at the dotted squares. The filled square is the player's stronghold.

Rules:

• On his turn, a player selects one friendly piece and either:
• moves to an adjacent light-colored square (orthogonally or diagonally)
• jumps over any piece landing on the immediate next square, that must be empty and light-colored
• if the jump is over an opponent piece, this piece is captured
• jumps can be multiple but are not mandatory, and the player may stop jumping whenever he wants
• Dark squares are walls that cannot be moved in or jumped over
• Wins the player that moves a piece into the opponent's stronghold, or captures all enemy pieces
  

There is a (possibly less interesting) variant of the game [1], that only allows jumps over enemy pieces.

[1] Fred Horn - Attacco, AGPI Quarterly 8 [1] (2024)