Alga AB is a

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

publisher founded in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, Sweden, in 1917, which has produced board games in multiple languages for the

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; ) are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe, as well as the Arctic Ocean, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic oceans. It includes the sovereign states of Denm ...

. It was formed as a subsidiary of

Pressbyrån Pressbyrån () is a chain of convenience stores in Sweden that sells magazines and newspapers, convenience foods such as chilled drinks, potato chips, candies, ice cream, hot dogs, tobacco and snus products, as well as weaker alcoholic drinks (u ...

, a chain of convenience stores. Alga took care of the distribution of postcards and writing materials. In 1938, it started manufacturing board games. In 1940, Pressbyrån itself took over the production of postcards, and the connection between Alga and Pressbyrån was broken by the

Bonnier Group Bonnier AB (), also the Bonnier Group, is a Privately held company, privately held Swedish media conglomerate, media group of 175 companies operating in 15 countries. It is controlled by the Bonnier family. Background The company was founded in ...

, which owned both companies. The old Alga was later transformed into

Bokförlaget Forum Bokförlaget Forum ( Swedish: ''Forum bokförlag'') is a Swedish publishing company and a member of Bonnierförlagen, a publishing house within Bonnier Books Nordic. Other publishing companies in the collective publishing house are Albert Bonniers ...

, while the game production continued under the brand name Alga.Arne Sandström, ''Vykortets historia'', Trafik-Nostalgiska Förlaget, Stockholm, 2015, p. 58. It took over the publication of ''Monopol'' (

Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

) from Åhlén & Åkerlund, another Bonnier company. In the 1960s, the company was modernized with, among other things, the current logo, Alga in white text against a red circle as a background. The company also moved from Stockholm to

Vittsjö Vittsjö () is a locality situated in Hässleholm Municipality, Scania County, Sweden with 1,665 inhabitants in 2010. History During the Kalmar War, Vittsjö was the site of the 1612 Battle of Vittsjö, where recently crowned Swedish King Gusta ...

where a new factory and headquarters were built.Johannesson, Ika & Wilhelmsson, Jimmy, ''Boken om ALGA'', Fandrake, Stockholm, 2023
At the same time, Alga also became a distributor of toys, including

Monchhichi is a line of Japanese stuffed monkey toys from the Sekiguchi Corporation, first released in 1974. They were licensed by Mattel in the United States until 1985, and later distributed worldwide directly by Sekiguchi. Five television series were pr ...

. Dan Glimne was product development manager at Alga from 1980 to 1989. Alga has been owned by

Brio Brio (stylized BRIO) is a wooden toy company founded in Sweden. The company was founded in the small town of Boalt, Scania, Götaland in 1884 by Basket making, basket maker Ivar Bengtsson. For a long time the company was based in Osby, Scania, in ...

since 1983. The factory in Vittsjö was closed in 2006 and the head office was moved to

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

. In 2015, Brio and Alga were bought up by German toy manufacturer

Ravensburger Ravensburger AG is a German game, puzzle and toy company, publishing house, and market leader in the jigsaw puzzle market. History The company was founded by Otto Robert Maier in Ravensburg, a town in Upper Swabia in southern Germany. He began ...

Games publications (selection)

Original Swedish designs

*''Bondespelet'' ("The Farmer Game", taken over from the defunct publisher Aristospel ca. 1974; also published in Danish, Finnish, and Norwegian) *'' Drakborgen'' (1985; later published in English as ''Dungeonquest'') **''Drakborgen II'' (1987 expansion set; also published in English as ''

Heroes for Dungeonquest ''Heroes for Dungeonquest'' is a supplement published by Games Workshop (GW) in 1987 for the fantasy board game ''Dungeonquest''. Contents ''Heroes for Dungeonquest'' is the first expansion set that was published for ''Dungeonquest'', adding twe ...

'' and ''Dungeonquest Catacombs'') *''Jägersro'' (a horse racing game first published in the 1950s, named for the racing facility in

Jägersro Jägersro is a neighbourhood of Malmö, situated in the Borough of Husie, Malmö Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden. Jägersro trav & galopp is a horse racing facility located in the neighbourhood. It was opened in 1907 and is the oldest one of ...

) *''Oljan'' ("The Oil", first published 1960) *''Tjuv och polis'' ("Thief and police", first published 1943)

Games adapted from overseas originals

*''

Alfapet ''Alfapet'' was the original Swedish name for the popular word game ''Scrabble''. In 1954, the Swedish board game company Alga was granted a license by J. W. Spear & Sons to market ''Scrabble'' in Sweden. For almost four decades, Alga sold the ga ...

'' (Scrabble) *

Cluedo ''Cluedo'' (), known as ''Clue'' in North America, is a murder mystery game for three to six players (depending on editions) that was devised in 1943 by British board game designer Anthony E. Pratt. The game was first manufactured by Waddingt ...

Crossbows and Catapults ''Crossbows and Catapults'', also known as ''Battlegrounds'', is a game of physical skill first released in 1983. It has since been published by several different game publishers including Lakeside, Alga ( Brio), Base Toys, Tomy (trade ...

*''Den försvunna diamanten'' (

Afrikan tähti ''Afrikan tähti'' (; Finnish for 'Star of Africa'), known in Swedish as ''Den försvunna diamanten'' ('The Missing Diamond') or Afrikas stjärna ('The Star of Africa'), is a Finnish board game designed by Kari Mannerla originally in 1951. It ...

) *

Formula 1 Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

* Girl Talk *''Karriär'' (

Careers A career is an individual's metaphorical "journey" through learning, work and other aspects of life. There are a number of ways to define career and the term is used in a variety of ways. Definitions The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines ...

) *''Memory'' (

Concentration In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: '' mass concentration'', '' molar concentration'', '' number concentration'', ...

) *''Monopol'' (

; ca. 1938-1978) **''Matador'' ( Danish derivation of ''Monopoly'' with a circular track; taken over by Brio in the 1970s and continues to be marketed by Alga as Brio's board game subsidiary) * Rack-O *''Rail'' (

Railway Rivals ''Railway Rivals'' is a railroad-themed board game that was originally published by Rostherne Games in 1973. A German language edition was released by Bütehorn in 1979, and a mass-market edition in the UK by Games Workshop in 1985. The game in ...

) *

Risk In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environ ...

*''2001: the space age game'' (

Domain A domain is a geographic area controlled by a single person or organization. Domain may also refer to: Law and human geography * Demesne, in English common law and other Medieval European contexts, lands directly managed by their holder rather ...

) * Table Soccer *

Yatzy Yatzy is a dice game similar to Yacht and Yahtzee. It is related to the Latin American game Generala and the English game of poker dice. Yatzy is most popular in the Nordic countries. Gameplay Yatzy can be played solitaire Solitaire may refe ...

Traditional board games

Backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back at least 1,600 years. The earliest record of backgammo ...

Chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

Chinese checkers Chinese checkers (US) or Chinese chequers (UK), known as ''Sternhalma'' in German, is a Abstract strategy game, strategy board game of German origin that can be played by two, three, four, or six people, playing individually or with partners. The ...

*''Fia (

Mensch ärgere Dich nicht ''Mensch ärgere Dich nicht'' (English: ''Man, Don't Get Angry'') is a German board game (but not a German-style board game), developed by Josef Friedrich Schmidt in 1907/1908. Some 70 million copies have been sold since its introduction in 1 ...

)'' *

Gomoku ''Gomoku'', also called ''five in a row'', is an Abstract strategy game, abstract strategy board game. It is traditionally played with Go (game), Go pieces (black and white stones) on a 15×15 Go board while in the past a 19×19 board was standa ...

Hnefatafl Tafl games (), also known as hnefatafl games, are a family of ancient Northern European strategy board games played on a checkered or latticed gameboard with two armies of uneven numbers. Names of different variants of tafl include hnefatafl, t ...

Mancala Mancala ( ''manqalah'') is a family of two-player Turns, rounds and time-keeping systems in games, turn-based Strategy game, strategy board games played with small stones, beans, marbles or seeds and rows of holes or pits in the earth, a board ...

Peg solitaire Peg Solitaire, Solo Noble, Solo Goli, Marble Solitaire or simply Solitaire is a board game for one player involving movement of pegs on a board with holes. Some sets use marbles in a board with indentations. The game is known as solitaire in Bri ...

Reversi Reversi is a strategy board game for two players, played on an 8×8 uncheckered board. It was invented in 1883. ''Othello'', a variant with a fixed initial setup of the board, was patented in 1971. Basics Two players compete, using 64 identi ...

Games based on TV series

Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter ''Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter'' (''Five ants are more than four elephants'') is a 1973–75 Swedish TV-series for children, hosted by Magnus Härenstam, Brasse Brännström and Eva Remaeus. The TV-series included songs and sketc ...

Kojak ''Kojak'' is an American Action film, action Crime film, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theophilus "Theo" Kojak. Tak ...

(from an English-language original published by

Milton Bradley Milton Bradley (November 8, 1836 – May 30, 1911) was an American business magnate, game pioneer and publisher, credited by many with launching the board game industry, with Milton Bradley Company, his eponymous enterprise, which was purchased ...

) * Mysteriet på Greveholm{{cite web, title=Regler & Manualer: Mysteriet på Greveholm, url=https://algaspel.se/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/mysterietpagreveholmsepdf.pdf, publisher=Alga, language=sv, access-date=2024-09-11 *

Teletubbies ''Teletubbies'' is a British children's television series created by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport for the BBC. The programme focuses on four differently coloured characters known as the Teletubbies, named after the television screens on t ...

* Vem vill bli miljonär? (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?)

References

External links

Official websiteFull list of games at ''BoardGameGeek''
Toy companies of Sweden Game manufacturers Companies established in 1917 1917 establishments in Sweden 1910s establishments in Stockholm