Memory

Flinch is played with a deck of 150 cards numbered 1-15. Players are allowed to play cards in sequence (building up from 1 to 15) to piles formed in the center of the table. "1" cards must be played to start the piles, but others may be played or held at the player's discretion. Cards may be played from a number of sources: a player's hand (five cards to start), a player's "game pile" (a stack of 10 cards of which only the top card is face up and playable), or a player's "reserve piles" (whenever a player passes or completes a turn, they must add a card from their hand to their reserve piles - up to five reserve piles may be formed). Hands are continually replenished with new sets of five cards during the game. The object is to play all 10 cards from game pile to the center of the table.

Flinch is based on the traditional card game Spite 'N' Malice.

The little magician apprentices have lost some magic objects inside of the master’s maze. Now they try to collect them before the Master notices anything. However, in the maze there are invisible walls and only one of the missing objects is revealed at a time. So they have to make their way through the maze by means of a good memory and lots of skill.

Each player moves their magician over the board while trying not to bump the labyrinth below. Each magician is joined with a magnetic ball so if you hit a wall the ball drops and you have to start all over again.

In the adventure game North Wind, cities are suffering heavily under constant raids from pirates. As freelance trade captains, the players bring food and other goods to the cities, in addition to fighting the pirates whenever they encounter them. Fighting without cannons leads to poor results, however, and cannons are expensive. With each success, though, a player can better equip his three-dimensional ship and strengthen his crew.

In the end, the player who finds the best mix of trading and fighting will prove to be the victorious captain.

First published in today's form by Ravensburger in February 1959.

There are versions known from Japan in the 16th century - matching pictures painted on shells. Known as Awase or Kai-awase.

In USA and England known as Pairs, Pelmanism, or Concentration. But these are played with simple playing cards.

In Switzerland was a domino-like game named Zwillingsspiel with the same roots.

In Czech Republic this type of game is known as Pexeso. It usually consists of 32 pairs of square cards. There are thousands of Pexeso sets with different themes.

There are hundreds of different Memory games - starting with 24 cards for the youngest, with all kinds of animals, art, about countries, also a gay and a "Breast Memory", several free giveaway Memory games published by companies.

The most famous publisher is Ravensburger - they have the rights for the brand name Memory.

The game's theme is based on answering questions relating to popular advertising logos and brands. Players move their pawns around a spiraling board for answering questions correctly relating to a logo, until they get to the Winning Zone at the centre of the board. Movement depends on the successful answering of questions to proceed to the next coloured area on the board.

Different countries have different versions of the game, with many local brands represented in each edition.

There are 400 cards with 4 questions on each card - blue, green, yellow and red.

The winning player is the first person to get around the board by answering the most questions correctly. They then win by answering all the questions on a card (blue, green, yellow and red question) whilst in the Winning Zone.

Game play alternates as players take it in turn to ask questions and move around the board.