The third installment in my Dippy Game series is a recreation of a "box game" called Bazaar put out in the late 1960's by the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, better known as 3M. My mother bought the game at a flea market some time in the 1970's and I've been playing it since then.

This is actually the fourth incarnation of this game for me. The first was as a DOS-based BBS door program called Emporium and was released in the mid 1990s. I sold this version as shareware and made a few bucks off of it. The second incarnation was as an ASP based web page here at Bumpkinland. This version didn't go over very well. Having to reload the whole game board for each turn slowed the game play down too much. The third incarnation was a Java version. I did that one when I was learning Java (much as I'm doing now learning Actionscript). It was never fully completed. That brings us up to now. The fully complete Flash version of the game. I hope you enjoy!

The basic concept of the game is very simple. You are attempting to get the right combination of colored tokens needed to purchase the cards in the Wares stalls. How you go about getting these tokens is where the skill comes in.

There are two ways to get these tokens, Drawing and Trading (in the original game, it was rolling a die and trading). When you click the Draw Token button, you will get one of five colored tokens (chosen at random) or Choice. If you get Choice, you get to pick the color you want. You are allowed 50 draws per game. In theory, you could just keep drawing tokens until you get the right combination to buy a card. However, you are only allowed to have 10 tokens at one time. Therefore, sooner or later, you will fill up on tokens and not have the right combination to buy a card. This is where trading comes in.

If you look back up at the screen shot of the game, you will see the exchange rates in the center of the game screen. These rates dictate how you are allowed to trade. The rates change from game to game. To trade tokens, simply select the tokens you want to trade from your inventory then click on the trade you want to make. If you selected tokens matching either side of the trade, the game will take those away and give you the tokens on the other side of the trade. There is one limit. You cannot make a trade that would leave you with more than 10 tokens. If you make a trade and decide you don't like it, you can use the Undo button to undo the last trade made.

The game is over when you have bought all the cards in the stalls. The game is also over when you run out of draws and trades. Since you are allowed to continue trading after you have run out of draws, it is up to you to decide when to end the game. At the game over screen, you are given the chance to submit your high score and then view the current high scores. You can also Play Again.

You get points by buying cards. The amount of points you get per card is determined by two factors. The number of stars, and the number of tokens you have left after the purchase. More stars equals more points, less tokens remaining equals more points.

Stars need a little more explanation. There are two types of stars. The stars on the cards, and the stars at the bottom of each stall. The stars on the cards easy to understand. A card either has one or it doesn't. The stars in the stalls are a little different. Those stars are only revealed once you have bought all the cards in a stall. The number in the bottom right corner of the stall tells you how many cards are left in that stall.

Once you buy the last card in a stall, you will see a star. This star gets added to the number of stars scored for every card you buy after that. So, all cards with no star now have one star, all cards with a star now have two stars. When you empty the second stall, you will see yet another star. You can ignore that one, and any one you see after that one. You only get one added star from an empty stall.

The exact number of points you get for each combination of stars and tokens left is posted on the game screen during the game. After you buy each card, the game also tells you how that card was scored. This information is displayed in the little message box at the bottom of the game screen.

As with most games, learning how to play is very easy, learning how to get high scores can take a while. I have been playing this game on and off for over 20 years and I have yet to settle on one good strategy. There are a few tips however which will help you on your way.

Trading is Everything! Whenever possible, trade to get more tokens instead of drawing. To do this effectively, you have to look at least one trade ahead most of the time. In other words, if you need a red to buy a card and you have an extra white, you might have to trade that white for a yellow and then trade that yellow for the red you need. The farther ahead you can look, the better off you will be.

Once you get close to buying a card, it's a good idea to keep telling yourself what tokens you need and what tokens you have available to trade. Or, you could use what tokens you need, and what tokens you need in order to trade. Either one works. The goal is to know what you need and be able to see if you can get it through trading after each draw.

The one extra star you get from an empty stall is very important. It effects the scoring for the rest of the cards in the game. As such, it is a good idea to try to get one stall empty as quickly as possible using as few draws as possible. This usually leads to having lots of tokens left when buying the first five cards. However, the loss of points for that is small compared to the points you gain from having that extra star on the remaining 20 cards.

Draws left at the end of the game (once you've purchased all the cards) are wasted. To get the best scores, you need to balance the number of draws and trades. The goal is to use your last draw to get that one token you need to buy that last card with none left. Don't get your hopes up, this very seldom happens. The best you can hope for is to run out of draws with one or two cards left to buy, then use trading alone to buy those. Given the right exchange rates, I have bought as many as 5 cards after running out of draws.

The only other tip I could pass along is practice makes perfect. The more you play, the more you'll memorize the exchange rates and the easier it becomes to play. Just keep trying!