Hexagames was a German game publisher in

Dreieich Dreieich () is a town in the Offenbach district in the of Darmstadt in Hessen, Germany. The town is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area and is located roughly south of downtown Frankfurt am Main. With a population of more than 40,000 ...

, which existed from 1982 to 1992. 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 ''Cosmic Encounter'' is a science fiction–themed strategy board game designed by "Future Pastimes" (collectively, Peter Olotka, Jack Kittredge and Bill Eberle, with Bill Norton) and originally published by Eon Games in 1977. In it, each playe ...

'' (1992).

History

''Hexagames'' was created by Langden Hensley, with the

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...

being registered by the

German Patent and Trademark Office The German Patent and Trade Mark Office (; abbreviation: DPMA) is the German national patent office, with headquarters in Munich, and offices in Berlin and Jena. In 2006 it employed 2556 people, of which about 700 were patent examiners. Function ...

in late 1982. In 1982, he and Jürgen Hagedorn released the game '' Long Short'', developed by Hensley. After the game publisher Bütehorn went bankrupt around 1982, Hexagames included several of their games in its program. Hagedorn retired from Hexagames in 1988. Joe Nikisch, the founder of the board game company , was responsible for the product range of Hexagames as product manager beginning in 1986. After the dissolution of Hexagames in 1992, the Berlin games manufacturer Sala took over some of the games under the ''Salagames'' label''.'' Salagames also disappeared from the market after about two years and in 1994 some Hexagames games were republished by Abacusspiele. In 1994, Hensley lost the "Hexagames" trademark, which was re-registered by the publishers "BOB Marketing & Sales GmbH" in Langen. Some Hexagames games were later published by other publishers: ''

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wikt:wsjr, wsjr'') was the ancient Egyptian deities, god of fertility, agriculture, the Ancient Egyptian religion#Afterlife, afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...

'' (1995), and '' Karriere Poker'' (1996).

Awards

Several Hexagames games received various awards or been nominated for

Spiel des Jahres The Spiel des Jahres (, 'Game of the Year') is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the purpose of rewarding family-friendly game design, and promoting excellent games in the German market. It is thought that the existence an ...

(Game of the Year): * Spiel des Jahres ** 1987: '' The 1st Million'' by

Sid Sackson Sid Sackson (February 4, 1920 in Chicago – November 6, 2002) was an American board game designer and collector, best known as the creator of the business game ''Acquire''. Career Sackson's most popular creation is probably the business game '' ...

(nominated) ** 1988: '' Lines of Action'' by Claude Soucie (nominated) ** 1989: '' Uisge'' (1984) by (special award for "Most Beautiful Game") ** 1989: '' Abilene'' (1985) by Roland Siegers (nominated) ** 1990: ''

Dino Dino may refer to: Prefix * dino-, a common prefix in taxonomy, meaning "terrible", "formidable" **Dinosaur ** Dinosaurus People * Dino (given name), a masculine given name and a nickname * Dino (surname), a surname found in Albania and Turkey ...

'' by

Reinhold Wittig Reinhold Wittig (born 1937) is a prolific award-winning board game designer and geologist from Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to ...

(nominated) *

Deutscher Spiele Preis __NOTOC__ The Deutscher Spielepreis (, ''German Game Prize'') (DSP) is an important award for boardgames. It was started in 1990 by the German magazine ''Die Pöppel-Revue'', which collects votes from the industry's stores, magazines, profes ...

** 1990: ''

Römer The Römer (German surname, "Roman") is a medieval building in the Altstadt of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and one of the city's most important landmarks. The Römer is located opposite the Old St. Nicholas Church and has been the city hall ( ...

'' by Rudolf Ross (7th place) ** 1992: ''

'' by Bill Eberle, Peter Olotka, Jack Kittredge, and Bill Norton (6th place) * ** 1992: ''

Res Publica ', also spelled ''rēs pūblica'' to indicate vowel length, is a Latin phrase, loosely meaning "public affair". It is the root of the ''republic'', and '' commonwealth'' has traditionally been used as a synonym for it; however, translations var ...

'' by

Reiner Knizia Reiner Knizia () is a prolific German-style board game designer. He was born in West Germany in 1957 and earned a doctorate in Mathematics from the University of Ulm before designing games full time. He is frequently included on lists of the gre ...

(1st place) ** 1992: ''

Musketeers A musketeer ( ) was a type of soldier equipped with a musket. Musketeers were an important part of early modern warfare, particularly in Europe, as they normally comprised the majority of their infantry. The musketeer was a precursor to the riflem ...

'' by Franz Josef Lamminger (4th place)

Other notable games

* ''

Conquest Conquest involves the annexation or control of another entity's territory through war or Coercion (international relations), coercion. Historically, conquests occurred frequently in the international system, and there were limited normative or ...

'' by Donald Benge (1984) * ''

Black Monday Black Monday refers to specific Mondays when undesirable or turbulent events have occurred. It has been used to designate massacres, military battles, and stock market crashes. Historic events *1209, Dublin – when a group of 500 recently arriv ...

'' (1988) * '' Karrierepoker'' by Klaus Grähnke and Brian Walker (1988) * '' McMulti'' by James J St Laurent (1988) * '' Can't Stop Express'' by Sid Sackson (1989) * ''

Digging Digging, also referred to as excavation, is the process of using some implement such as claws, hands, manual tools or heavy equipment, to remove material from a solid surface, usually soil, sand or rock on the surface of Earth. Digging is actual ...

'' by Reiner Knizia (1990) * ''

Manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

'' by Peter Pfeifer and Waltraud Pfeif (1991)

References

{{reflist Board game publishing companies German companies disestablished in 1992 German companies established in 1982 Companies based in Hesse Defunct companies of Germany