…and thus it happend at a time, when mankind retreatet to their living rooms with video games and indulged in their gaming needs against a virtual opponent all on their own, that in the year 1986 a small, but eager group of game fans met in Castrop-Rauxel, Germany, and decided to play games with each other regularly from now on, looking their opponents straight in the eye.
Considering the time, it seems almost strange that this group grew rapidly, along with their self-imposed resposibilities. This group was the fundament on which the Hippodice Spielclub e. V. (Hippodice Games Club membership corporation) was officially founded in 1989, it’s aim being to promote the cultural asset of board and card games. It’s logo, the hippopotamus, underwent slight changes since then. Our special thanks go to Christof Birkendorf for his original design.
Dedicated players launched an internal magazine only shortly after their first meeting and named it Spielerei (ext.). This magazine is published quarterly and emerged to become one of the long since established games magazines, soon after cutting their economical ties to the club and nowadays having no relation to the Hippodice Games Club (except that almost all it’s editors are still Hippodice members).
1988 the Hippodice members had the idea to arrange a competition for new and unknown authors of games. This Games Authors’ Competition is staged yearly since then and is renowned worldwide for it’s significance for the national and international gaming community. 2008, the Hippodice Games Club was awarded the Inno-Spatz of Goettingen for it’s commitment to “20 years of Games Authors’ Competition”. This competiton has proved to be the first step of many authors into the “guild of game authors”.
Many games that were contestants of the competition have been published, which otherwise might never have touched any gaming tables. One of the competiton’s biggest achievements was the game “Rafting” by Werner Hodel, one of the entries in 1995. It was awarded the coveted German “Game of the Year” prize in 1997 as “Mississippi Queen”.
By now this List of published games from the competition has greatly grown – more are being planned for future release.
The Hippodice Game Club has its domicile in the rooms of the “Kino Cafe” within the Kulturzentrum Bahnhof Langendreer (ext.) in Bochum since 1995. Besides meeting fortnightly on Friday evenings during even calendar weeks, the Hippodice Games Club attends many events or arranges these: The annual games fair in Essen, Herner Spielewahnsinn, Essen spielt, Buergerwoche BO-Ost, Bänke raus, Ferienpassaktion of the City of Bochum, Bochumer Spieletag, Spieleturniere, presentation of the nomination list of the “Game of the Year” award, barbecues, gaming week ends – in short, there are many actions all over the year for playing games and spreading the fun of it.