Officially Technological

OK, so this all started about umpteen years ago. My dad is an avid gamer. I don't mean the kind that sits in front of a video game for hours on end, more like the type who likes to play regular old games. If he has no one to play games with, he just plays them by himself. I recall many a happy childhood hour that my dad spent playing Parcheesi in the basement while I played with my toys. Back then there was very sophisticated gaming materials. There wasn't any personal computers or Gameboys or anything. So, he was old-school. He had a Parcheesi board game. He wore out at least one Parcheesi game during my childhood. He also played Yahtzee by himself. In recent years, he had a few games he enjoyed on the computer, but got his computer privileges revoked when my mom got a new Apple a few years ago which she didn't want him messing with (he's not what I'd call technologically savvy - unlike me, who is "officially technological" yuk, yuk). So, one Christmas, I bought him a hand-held Yahtzee game from Meijer. Best ten bucks I ever spent. Hand held games have totally revolutionized his life. He now is the proud owner of several hand-held games including Yahtzee, Boggle, Solitaire, and Tetris (to name a few), and he has been known to make phone calls at all hours to let us know of a new high score (which is big news since he plays so much he's ran up the high scores to impossible levels).

So, when we go home for a weekend there are periods of the weekend where no one is talking and everyone is playing their own hand-held game. It's great fun. The thing that's the biggest problem for me, is that I'm not very good at any of said games. I'm not very coordinated, so I can't play Tetris; I have the vocabulary of a four-year-old, so I don't do well with Boggle; I'm not lucky so I don't do well with Solitaire and Yahtzee. It is for this reason that I'm going to create a new Yahtzee game for people like me.

First of all, I'm not going to have a "large straight" on my game. Two smalls would be challenge enough. And you can forget about that stinking "full house" too. I'll call it an "almost full house" (two pairs would count for that). There would be about 5 or so slots for "chance". Yep, I'd be calling my dad at 6 in the morning every day to tell him about a new high score. Yep, I'll call it Julzee. It will be the latest rage for all of us underdogs. Move over Wii.