The Uncommon Code

Though I've been trying to play various games in my collection that haven't seen the light of a game table in a long time, some entirely new things have made their way into the mix as well. One was brought to the mix by "Snarky Smurf," who had to go to some length to do so.

The game is called Code 777, and it has been out of print for some time. And in the absence of the ability to actually pay a company for publishing it, many net-savvy gamers have offered ways to print the cards online. Consequently, this forgotten gem has a rather loyal following. And for good reason -- it's actually a very fun game.

Code 777 is a deductive puzzle game, along the lines of Sleuth or (the game most everybody is going to be familiar with) Clue. There's a deck of 28 cards, one numbered 1, two 2s, three 3s, and so on up to seven 7s. Cutting across that are possible colors for each number -- four instances of seven different colors. Each player draws three numbers to form his own personal "code," but rather than looking at it himself, he displays the cards with the backs toward him so that everyone else sees his code.

Players then take turns drawing cards from a second deck of questions. When it's your turn, you draw a question, read it aloud, and then answer it based on what you see in the other players' codes. You'll get questions like:

"Do you see more Pink sixes or Green sixes?"

"On how many racks is the sum of the numbers 18 or more?"

"On how many racks is there a same number in different colors?"

And so forth. Every time someone else answers a question for the group, you apply the answer he gives to what you see, and potentially come one step closer to knowing your own code. You score a point whenever you correctly guess your code, but reset your code with every guess (whether correct or not). The first player to three points wins.

It's a fast-paced and fun little game that requires a satisfying degree of thought. After a game or two, I dug deeper and found another level of intuition that could be applied to certain questions. But though I really enjoy the game, I still prefer Sleuth just a bit. Code 777 can have some streaks of randomness, where the "wrong person" gives you an answer to a question and reveals nothing to you; Sleuth seizes on this possibility by adding a strategic element to the game -- you direct your questions at the player of your choice. It's been suggested in my play group that a similar rule might be applied to the question drawing in Code 777 as an optional variant, but we haven't yet attempted it.

It's almost unfortunate that this is a game I would recommend, because as I mentioned, it's out of print. But if you're a bit resourceful, or want to prowl eBay, you might get your hands on a copy. If if you like logic puzzles, I'm sure you'd enjoy it.