May 20, 2004
Game Theory
The most amazing cultural artifacts have a way of turning up on ebay. This game is one of my recent purchases. Six Day Bike Race was a game created by the Lindstrom Tool & Toy Co. (Bridgeport, CT), a family owned business existing from 1913-1940s. At the moment I don't really have any clue about how it works. All I have is the game itself with no additional instructional material. A cursory search for Lindstrom Tool & Toy Co. information has turned up nothing. I found someone else's recent unsuccesful query on the UConn Archives & Special Collections Library listserv asking for information and some images of other Lindstrom products, but nothing very useful. The game is approximately 12"x24" and is constructed of tin with a wooden edge. The front side has a rotating disk with 10 different teams represented. The back side has some instructions involving dice, but I have yet to figure out how one plays it.
I think it would be interesting to create some type of virtual 6-day bike racing universe in the manner of the Cosmic Baseball Association. If only there were 35 hours in a day and I had something remotely resembling a clue when it comes to computer programming, I'd be all over it. For the moment, or maybe a rather indefinitely extended moment, this pipe dream will be nudged to the back burner.
