#1018 JARVIS PORTER LTD. - KAN-U-GO (Around 1960)

T. G. Porter Ltd. copyrighted this game in the year 1934, and many other companies followed and exploited the license, such as Milton Bradley (MB) or Waddington´s. The game I own is a reprint or reissue, probably from the late 50s or early 60s by Jarvis Porter Ltd.

We could easily describe the game as a card Crosswords or maybe a Scrabble (which, by the way, was patented in 1948), that consists of a set of 58 cards with letters printed on them, each of them with a value assigned, the higher the value, the more often (in Scrabble it is the opposite) that the card appears in the English language plus two Kan-U-Go cards. Players have to get rid of their hand cards by forming one word in the manner of a crossword, and the first person to do that, wins the round. All the other players score the sum of the numbers written on the cards that they could not place. It is only allowed to place up to 4 cards in each turn (although the word formed may be longer, as your hand cards combine with the cards lying on the table).

The cards are small sized, and not many, so you can play in an ordinary table. Well, an ordinary table from many years ago, not the current standard table from your 40 m2 apartment. The instructions come in a booklet pasted to the cover of the box. There is “patience” version as well.

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: KAN-U-GO
• Year: 1934 (Game) / Around 1960 (this reissue)
• Company: Jarvis Porter Ltd. (United Kingdom)