Retail Notebook: Queen Anne shop brings back the magic of board games

By DAN RICHMAN
P-I REPORTER

Col. Mustard, put down that lead pipe. No one's saying you're irrelevant in the world of board games. You're just not the killer you used to be.

European offerings have taken the lead in originality and sophistication, say the co-owners of a new store atop Queen Anne Hill devoted entirely to non-electronic games.


		Dan DeLong / P-I
	Playing the game "Power Grid" at Blue Highway Games are, clockwise from top, Matthew Felton of Seattle, his sons Peter, 11, and George, 14, and their friends Max Hopkins, 11, and Sam Hopkins, 14.

Scott Cooper and Brian Bennink, though both former computer-game makers, think there's a bright future in board games, and they recently opened 1,800-square-foot Blue Highway Games on the strength of that belief. The store sells about 1,000 different games, none of which uses electricity.

"Many people are saying they'd like to have an alternative to video games and computers -- something that gets people collected around a table," said Cooper, 40.

"There's something you get from playing around a table, where you're face to face with each other and you're bantering back and forth," he said.

"For kids, you're working on your social skills, taking turns, success and failure, negotiation -- so there are all the social elements that come into play."

Visitors to Blue Highway Games will still find American-made classics such as Clue, which featured Col. Mustard among a cast of possible killers, weapons and locales to be eliminated by logic. Major American publishers such as Parker Bros., Hasbro and Mattel are well represented.

So are local publishers, including Cranium Inc. of Seattle, with its wellknown game "Cranium"; Front Porch Classics Inc. ("Old Century Baseball," a pinball-style game); and Matter Group LLC ("Xeko," a card game about endangered species).

But the world's best game right now, the owners said, is "The Settlers of Catan," a $38 German offering that won the 1995 Game of the Year award in its home country and the equivalent American award in 1996.

Described by its publishers as "a game of discovery, settlement and trade," "The Settlers of Catan" "might be the best board game ever made," Cooper said.

Other outstanding newer games include "Niagara," $50 ("a rapid battle in the river for two to five fearless canoeists ages 8 and up") and "Ticket To Ride," $40 ("see who can travel by rail to the most cities in North America in just seven days"). Both are German.

"These games are very elegantly designed," said Bennink, 45. "The individual decisions are simple, but the strategies can be very complex. ... They are better than the games we played when we were young."

Skeptics and the merely curious can try out those games, and most others sold there, at the comfy wooden tables in the rear of the store. A sofa accommodates tired parents hanging out while their children play, and drinks and snacks are available behind the counter.

Additional game tables are located high in a loft that Cooper and Bennink shored up using recycled building materials from R.W. Rhine Inc. in Tacoma.

Shelves 8 feet high line both long walls of the store, filled with games. Islands scattered about the concrete-andhardwood floors contain more games, some opened to show their contents. A glass case contains dice in a large variety of colors, sizes and styles, as well as trading-card games such as Pokémon.

Items range in cost from a 5-millimeter die in your choice of colors (10 cents) to a deluxe edition of "The Settlers of Catan" in a wooden chest ($380).

The store's plans call for grouping games by type -- children, families, parties, word games, strategy -- and for noting award-winners, staff recommendations and best-sellers. The store, set to hold a grand opening July 21, also will offer a game-of-the-month program, in which customers are invited to play the selected game on Saturday nights and a tournament is held at monthend.

There also will be an afterschool children's club, family game nights and talks by game designers.

The owners said they spent three months rehabilitating the former day spa, buying consignment store furniture and recycled material from The ReStore in Ballard. They are funding the store themselves, and although mark-ups on games are hefty, they said they don't expect to get wealthy from it.

"We're mostly doing it because it's something that would be fun, and we think it's a nice way to plug into the community," said Cooper, who lives nearby with his young family.

The store's timing is fortuitous, as Queen Anne Hill is growing increasingly family-oriented and has a large population within walking distance of the store, the men noted. Board games are becoming popular with people in their 20s and 30s, too, they said.

The Seattle area has other stores selling board games, but nothing with as big a selection, according to the owners.

"If we were going to do a store this specific, we wanted people to say, 'If you like board games, go to Blue Highway Games, because they'd have anything you could ever imagine,' " Cooper said.

They chose the store's name because its allusion to less-traveled roads suggested "an alternative path to electronic and video games without coming out and saying it," he said.

Cooper and Bennink met at Microsoft after the Toledo, Ohio-based company where they both worked was acquired by the software giant. They are the store's sole employees, though they plan to hire help so they can attend game conventions.

They like computers and use them to help run the business. But games with even a minimal electronic element will find no home at Blue Highway.

Nor will Harry Potter games, despite this summer's frenzy.

"They do exist, but they're not good games -- they don't have much staying power," Bennink said. "They're a quick game with the brand on top of it."

Sandra Ferguson, a lawyer whose family lives in Queen Anne, said Thursday that she discovered Blue Highway by accident and left with "Take Off!," a geography game.

"It's really cool how they have it set up to be a game room and community center," she said. Her daughter Sydney, 10, also approved.

"I like this place because it's really big and it has so many games," she said.