Avalon Hill HASC00960000 "Acquire" Game

Product Information

Since Hasbro has decided to change the "safe number" they really needed to change the price ranges for the companies worth at anytime during game play. It would seem that the logical brain would think to change the range to a number of 6-9 tiles and then the subsequent series as 10-19 and so forth until the 40 & over. That method would be beneficial for the players to be able to retain those price ranges amongst all the other information that must be retained during the game of ACQUIRE. In a perfect world, Acquire would be sitting in everyone’s household with ten thousand variants and obnoxious intellectual properties, while Monopoly would’ve been left as an interesting footnote in board game history. Unfortunately, the reverse happened. Once the player has determined what tile they are looking at, they now look at the board to see that they can't see where they are supposed to play the tile because the board has illegible square designations. At least Hasbro made the board smaller (100 squares as opposed to 108 - 1-A thru 10-J) so that the 10 x 10 grid allows the seasoned ACQUIRE player the ability to count the squares to figure out where their tile can be played. What a frustrating way to play a game. Games should be fun not frustrating.

Mergers happen when someone places a tile that connects two or more companies together. The larger entity, indicated by having more connected tiles, will assume control of the smaller one. Shareholders of the smaller company can choose to either sell a portion of their shares or opt for a 2-for-1 share exchange with the larger company, or keep their shares in case the company gets founded again. MEGAcquire increases the size of the game of ACQUIRE. With the hexagon configuration of the playing tiles, MEGAcquire also heightens the level of strategy. Opportunities to create, merge, and grow companies are 50% more likely for each tile, compared to the traditional square shape (six chances to connect instead of four). The size of the board and the number of available companies allows for an ebb and flow of power throughout the game. Dated 1968/66 plastic tiles, clear plastic board with paper underlay (Both 1966 inner box games have a lot of mixed parts) In 1995 Avalon Hill abandoned the “bookshelf” look and produced a bigger, flat board with cardboard tiles. It was a disappointing version in terms of the tiles being able to slide across the board, but it introduced the “Special Power Variants” to the United States. The tiles are a nice size, but the choice of font for the printing of the designations on the tiles makes them very cumbersome to use. It appears to be some type of italicized font and they chose to print the numbers smaller than the letters. The human brain can read two things together when they are the same size. When they are made as two different sizes, the human brain tends to have to process them separately. This causes a longer time to process what tile a player is looking at.

Computer Acquire

If you love business sims, you will enjoy this excellent ASCII classic that is very faithful to the board game, with a tremendous replay value and good AI. Dated 1995 Large box cardboard edition with chipboard board and tiles, Special Powers Variant Tiles inspired by German editions It would be really nice, after 53 years, if someone who was in charge of designing the next edition of ACQUIRE would actually take the time to play the game of ACQUIRE. Hasbro released the 2016 edition of ACQUIRE in November of 2016. There are plenty of games in my collection where high production values somehow elevate it’s rating in my mind- maybe I’m more shallow than I care to admit. But it isn’t often this works the other way, where poor design choices effect a game’s rating as usually, the gameplay will always come through. But in the case of Acquire, I think this is one of the exceptions where the component choices took some of the shine off my overall enjoyment, and that is a shame. Greed Is Good!

We have made a few minor changes between the production run of MEGAcquire and this next production run of MEGAcquire GOLD. The money has been changed to prepaid debit cards and the denominations have been raised to 1, 5, 10, & 50 million. Players can now become a billionaire in the game of MEGAcquire GOLD. Guests will be allowed to participate in all Side Events (Open Gaming, Game Library, Exhibitor Hall, Ceremonies, etc.) Guests are NOT permitted to participate in any of the 16 Ring Games, or ORG Games (Outer Ring Games). Dispose of shares: press 1-7 for the corresponding button (left-to-right), K for Keep All, T for Trade ▲, Shift-T for Trade ▼, S for Sell ▲, Shift-S for Sell ▼, 8 or O to move to the OK button, enter to press it. Before play begins, the players must decide whether the numbers of players' shares will be public or private information. Keeping this information private can greatly extend the game since players will be less certain of their status, and therefore less willing to end the game.Acquire, the classic 1960s board game considered by many as one of the best alternatives to Monopoly, will see a new edition later this year. Now, you can play without screens; the money and shares are single-sided so can be kept on the table upside down to effectively hide them from other players, but to be honest this just looks rubbish. Overall it feels shoddy and in a game with very few premium pieces to ramp up production costs, it’s not acceptable to leave out components which make the game work as it’s meant to be played.

There are 14 different companies to choose from when building an empire -- seven hotels and seven corporations. Each company has a colored Company Marker that represents that company's designation. The companies have different starting values that include low, medium, & high-priced companies. But what if there is no third player that has invested in that company? Even if the decision is to forget the third bonus when no players hold Third Majority, then the other players are still farther behind the "early jumpers" than in a traditional game of ACQUIRE. If the decision is to split the third bonus between the top majority holders, then the game has increased its long running problem of keeping the games competitive on a regular basis and attracting new players. Plastic board, building tiles, and headquarters! Updated board size, 9x12 space grid with space designations printed on the board. As much as Hasbro thinks that adding the Third Majority is going to "spread the wealth" in the game of ACQUIRE, it actually adds more wealth to those players who get the "early jump." Since the First Majority amounts remained the same in this edition as in earlier editions, it would appear that the players who hold Second Majority will gain more wealth than in previous editions. However, if there is a tie for First and Second Majority, then both players benefit from the extra amount. The compensation to this effect is that there can be a third player that gets the traditional amount of a Second Majority. Here, you can play the Acquire board game. Many user interface and game play elements are based on Kensit's NetAcquire Windows application. Thank you Kensit for the great design!are paid to the two largest shareholders of each chain, and players cash out their shares at market price (shares in any defunct chains are worthless). The player with the most money wins. The first commercially-produced version was produced by 3M Company in 1962 and sold over 500 million copies worldwide since then.

GAMES magazine inducted Acquire into their buyers' guide Hall of Fame. [10] The magazine's stated criteria for the Hall of Fame encompasses "games that have met or exceeded the highest standards of quality and play value and have been continuously in production for at least 10 years; i.e., classics." Dated 1976 plastic tiles, yellow hard plastic board, redesigned money, no inner box (This edition was also produced in 1977, 79, 81, 82, & 86) I hope I have provided enough information so that you can make an informed decision on whether you too want to waste your money on the 2016 Hasbro game of ACQUIRE.It takes approximately two to three hours to fill the entire board of MEGAcquire GOLD, but shorter time limits can be set. If you only want to play for an hour and a half, just be sure to let all players have equal turns and end the game at the designated time. At that time, all companies are cashed out at the current market value, which is based on the number of tiles in the company. All players count their earnings and the player with the most money is the MEGAcquire GOLD Master. While the two games play very differently, Acquire is often described as a superior successor to Monopoly in its themes of ruthless money-hoarding capitalism and competitive property management. Rest assured, the game’s strategic tile-laying rules and careful investment choices make it a far more tactical and deliberate experience than Monopoly’s random roll-and-move turns. Shelley, Bruce C. (2007). "Acquire". In Lowder, James (ed.). Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Green Ronin Publishing. pp.1–4. ISBN 978-1-932442-96-0.