So apparently I haven't written about Looney Pyramids yet! Formerly known as Icehouse Pyramids, these were invented by Andy Looney in 1987 as a prop for a science fiction setting for his book The Empty City. The game was called Icehouse, and it was meant to be a Martian counterpart to Chess, but "alien" in every possible way:
- The game is for 4 players, with no assigned partners. Diplomacy is allowed but only once play begins.
- Pieces cannot be moved after placing, except in rare circumstances, similar to Go.
- There is no board! The game is played on any flat surface, typically a coffee table. Each player is allowed a small reserve space for their 'out of play' pieces, and literally everywhere else is considered 'in play'.
- There are no turns. You can move whenever you feel like it. You can make lots of quick moves, or you can wait and make lots of late moves.
- To prevent stalling, there is a timer set to 'about 30 minutes', and placed where nobody can see the remaining time.
These design concepts were ahead of their time in my opinion. Andy Looney and friends, I think they called themselves the 'Wunderland Toast Society', they absolutely changed board gaming in a way we wouldn't see again until James Ernest started Cheapass Games and started selling cut-and-play titles like Kill Doctor Lucky in 1996. In fact, whenever a James Ernest game says to use 'tokens of your choice', I always use Looney Pyramids.
Anyway, I had to blog about this because I found Bill Adams' Origami Icehouse Pieces page buried in the Internet Archive. I've downloaded a local copy in case anything happens to the Archive and I'll probably mirror it at some point unless he objects. I'm not sure if he's still around or how to get in touch with him; if you do then let me know.
The pieces are a bit tricky to fold! When he says "fold the corner to the right", you actually have to hold the previous fold in place and fold over it. I should take my own pictures honestly. Right now I just want to show off a few pieces I folded for fun though. Ok bye!