IPP
The International Puzzle Party


The author (left) with world-famous puzzlist Nob Yoshigahara at the IPP 1996 in Seattle (click to enlarge).

The author with friend, phycisist, JORM editor, inventor, collector Harry Nelson (click to enlarge).


What ?          The IPP is a yearly convention of Puzzle collectors, inventors, and sellers.
                      At the IPP puzzles are exchanged, sold, bought, tested, given away etc.
                      One full day is dedicated to puzzle exchanges only, another for buying and selling of puzzles.
                      There are also informational talks and seminars on vaious related subjects.
Who?            You only get there by personal invitation. If you are interested, carefully read the details below.
                      If you think you qualify you can contact me or one of the organizers,
                      e.g. Jerry Slocum, Box 1635, Beverly Hills, CA, 90213.
Where ?        It happens each year in a different place in the world.
                     (e.g. Antwerp, London, Luxembourg, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Tokyo,...)
                      The convention venue is usually close to an international airport.
When?          Usually around the middle of August.
More Fun?   There is a week of cultural and social acticities usually associated with it.
How big?       The IPP guest list is growing every year, especially at IPPs in USA or Europe.
                      You can expect to meet around 300 people.
How much?   There are separate fees for attendance, additional family members, table reservations etc.
What else?   There is a email mailing list (NOBNET) of puzzle enthusiasts which is active all year round.

In Detail:
You may have a Rubik's Cube or two collecting dust in the closet, perhaps alongside a Pyramix or a wooden barrel that comes apart into a dozen pieces. But they won't get you an invitation to the IPP as a collector, where  people with only 500 puzzles  might call themselves "small" collectors. (Jerry Slocum, the party's founder, owns more than 17,500.) Guests have presented not only selections from antique puzzle collections, but also such new puzzles as the Moody Ball, Oskar's Cube, and the PuzzleCal.

During the three-day party, guests share their love of games, thriving on the complexity, discovery, and surprise found in puzzles, illusions, and magic. These collectors value mechanical puzzles, the kind you manipulate with your hands and solve through reasoning, insight, luck and dexterity.

For example the object of Escape from Alcatraz, Edward Hordern's diabolical ball-in-cage, is to remove a steel ball from a tiny wooden cell that has only six bars. Sometimes you simplz have to use your head to figure out "impossible objects" that seem to defy explanation, like Nob Yoshigahara's wooden arrow thorugh a Chinese coin, or Harry Eng's tennis shoe in a cider bottle,
or the Toyo Glass Company's one-of-a-kind 22-pound slab of granite with a wooden arrow through its middle.

The Puzzle Party also represents the perfect opportunity to showcase ideas that haven't yet made it to the market.

Karl Scherer
Atlantis Puzzles & Games
11 Utting Street, Birkdale, Auckland, New Zealand
Within NZ: Telephone: 09 483 42111
Internationally: Telephone: 0064 9 483 4211
E-mail: karl@kiwi.gen.nz

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