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Author: Subject: The History of Wizard Cards
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posted on 6-18-2002 at 01:19 AM Edit Post Reply With Quote
The History of Wizard Cards






History


Wizard was created in 1983-84 by Ken Fisher of Toronto, Canada. Ken is the creator of the popular series of books and games titled "Isaac Asimov Presents SuperQuiz, by Ken Fisher". The quiz is now in its 30th year in daily newspapers syndication across North America. To view a sample link to King Features.SuperQuiz



The first production run of Wizard took place in June, 1986. The game rules have stood the test of time, but the graphics have undergone several changes. The original game box and one of the jester and wizard cards are shown below:


Original Wizard CardOriginal Wizard BoxOrignal
Jester Card


In 1991 fueled by an enthusiastic public response to the fascinating game-play afforded by Wizard, a complete graphical redesign was undertaken which brought the card-fronts essentially to their present design. However, the back of the cards were as shown below.


Redesigned Back


In 1993 Wizard awarded its first license to Canada Games,(the license was restricted to Canada) . Design changes were required to meet the legal requirement for both French and English languages. The card back and a wizard and jester are shown.












Wizard Card Back Jester



In 1994 Wizard granted world rights, excluding Canada, to U.S. Games Systems of Stamford, Connecticut. The overall quality of the cards was vastly improved and the current card back was instituted with other minor but important modifications.










Current Card Back Card Box



In 1996 a license was granted to Amigo-Spiele for manufacture and distribution in lor="#00ff00">Germany. The company which deals exclusively in playing cards instituted graphical changes of immense proportions: new card suits, a new card back, a new box and a different medieval character depicted on each card. The German decks contain four non-standard suits with values from 1 to 13, four Z cards labelled der zauberer (the sorcerer) and four N cards labelled der narr (the fool).

The box-front, back of the card and five other cards are shown.


Box Front







Wizard Back

1069cardcard




In 1999 Canada was added to the US Games license. A complete overhaul of the Canadian product resulted in a game of much higher quality with sharper graphics and new packaging. The Canadian distributors selected were Kroeger (416-752-4382) and Touch the Sky (800-268-8844)



 



Wizard Junior was introduced in 2006. It is a family version of the popular "Wizard Card Game". Wizard Jr. contains all the elements that make the original game so much fun. The junior version consists of a 36-card deck made up of 2 Wizards, 2 Jesters and 32 cards of 4 different colors numbered 1-8. The junior version features all new graphics and brings the excitement of Wizard to young and old alike.
Save a family...Play Wizard Junior
The 4 suits are Lightning (orange), Moon (purple), Stars (blue) and Sun (green).
The back of the cards, one of the suit cards and a Wizard and Jester are shown below








WIZARD FANTASY DECK
The North American Fantasy Deck was introduced in an online version in late 2009. The suits are color-coded for easy identification. The back of the cards, a jester and 3 of the suit cards are shown below.







During 2010-2012 Wizard apps were introduced both on Apples i-pad and Googles Android systems.
Wizard World Championships began in Europe with the first tournament being held in Frankfurt (2010), followed by Budapest (2011) and Vienna (2012).

To locate additional information about Wizard visit Wikipedia.org and do a search for "Wizard Card Game".

Wizard 2020 Wizard 2020 was introduced on January 1, 2020 to replace the original game which had become archaic. The online version is much faster and adds a number of new features. No download is required.

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