Spinning top game
Spinning top is the generic name under which the large number of related game forms with the physical toy spinning top are collected and systematized in game science .
Origin and Distribution
Top games are widespread in almost every country in the world in a colorful variety. They can often look back on a long tradition there and have produced numerous toy variants, game forms and names in their history.
In the European cultural area, spinning top games can be found early on in the Netherlands in the painting " The Children's Games " by the peasant painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder from 1560, documented and illustrated.
Two hundred years later, spinning top games were also known to the philanthropist Johann Bernhard Basedow . They were taught and practiced in his Dessau Philanthropinum and can be found in his “Elementarwerk” published in 1774. The graphic artist and illustrator Daniel Chodowiecki put them in the picture in the same book. Another leading head of the educational reform movement of the Enlightenment , Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths , included the games in his famous collection of games from 1796.
Game forms
Table top games
Hand or finger gyroscopes
The hand or table top is a contemplative game in which different types of top are set in a rotating motion by hand, for example by rubbing between the two palms or by a twittering movement of the thumb, index and middle finger. Games of this kind were already known and loved by children and adults as a parlor game for collecting deposits in Goethe's time.
Sakai tops
The Sakai top game uses a wire construction, for example made from a paper clip , which is bent so that it can be moved as a top on a horizontal surface. Originally conceived in 1986 by a Japanese physics professor to teach his students the principle of the top game, it developed into an easy-to-manufacture table top that gives the play instinct the opportunity to act out.
Take
The take- away game (also known as “put and take” in England) dates from the first third of the 20th century. The toy, popular with children, consists of a tiny top that has six flattened sides with different game prompts such as “Take two”, “Give one” or “Take all”. To do this, the handle of the top is turned by hand to provoke a response from the cube-like toy. The Nimmgib moves around in the player group and promises the individual player gain or loss of small stakes such as candy or marbles .
Dreidelspiel
The Dreidelspiel , also called "Toton", is played with a top with four sides, each of which has a different label. After turning it acts like a dice that, after falling, signals to the respective player what he should do or what he has won, that he has to deposit a deposit, that the player's pot will be awarded to him or that nothing happens. The peasant painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder has already documented this game in his painting The Children's Games from 1560. In Israel, the dreidel is still turned by the children during the Hanukkah Festival of Lights , with the upper side showing the profit, such as a candy.
Rocking stone game
The rocking stone game is said to go back to Celtic times and was used by priests for ritual purposes and divination. The eponymous ellipsoidal , boat-like toy is made of different materials such as wood, stone or plastic and functions as a top. If one of its upwardly curved ends is pressed lightly, an imbalance arises which sets the top in a wobbling, oscillating and rotating movement, which can also be oriented backwards from the initial direction.
Humming top game
The humming top game got its name after the noise it made when it was circling: through small openings in the top body, which is usually made of sheet metal, the centrifugal forces of the rotating movement produce different tones through the outflow of air from the inside . The vibration of small metal tongues creates a humming sound that has a different pitch depending on the speed of rotation of the top. So-called “chorale gyros” of more complex construction can even play simple children's songs.
Rate gyro
The turning or standing top resembles a slightly opened parasol mushroom when lying down. If it is set in a rotating movement on its handle, it will straighten up due to the force of gravity in order to automatically lie on its back again after the rotation has ended. Playing with him is a game with surprising physical laws.
Ground gyro games
Floor gyro games are characterized by a greater vehemence of movement and expansive play. You therefore usually need more space as a playing field.
Throwing top game
The throwing top or Preckel game is a dynamic game that, according to the image analysis by Warwitz / Rudolf, looking back on contemporary testimonies, was already played as a war game at the time of Pieter Brueghel. Over the centuries it has produced numerous variants in many countries around the world and was particularly preferred by boys: a heavy hardwood top wrapped with a string is violently thrown onto the ground, causing the unwinding string to rotate. A player can then try to hit the rotating Preckel on the ground with his own Preckel, thereby incapacitating and capturing him.
Whip top game
In contrast to the Preckel game, the game with the whip top is played more as a game of skill and is preferred by the girls. After pulling the whip from the wrapped top, it can be kept moving for as long as desired by means of measured whips. Competitions can also be held to see who will be the first to reach a certain line with their top or who will succeed in driving their top up an inclined surface or around a turning mark.
Other top games
Beyblade game
The Beyblade game is a Japanese invention from 1999. The game played in its own arenas as a competition spread very quickly from 2000 onwards, supported by a television series, to become one of the most popular games worldwide with sales of several hundred million units. The point is to keep your top in a bowl-shaped so-called "Beystadium" rotating against the competition of other players for as long as possible.
Todays situation
In contrast to countries such as Vietnam , India or South Africa , the roundabout games that were practiced everywhere until the 1970s, like almost all games, have almost disappeared in today's streetscape in European cities. Electronic toys have surpassed them in attractiveness. But even the dense traffic has largely deprived the game of space in the public area. The forgotten children's games have withdrawn to the educational area and to the relatively cramped play areas in reserves such as school grounds, sports fields and classrooms. They have become part of teacher training and play pedagogy and must first be rediscovered as a valuable cultural asset by students , prospective teachers and children in this context .
literature
- Johann Bernhard Basedow's "Elementarwerk" with the copper plates by Chodowiecki, critical treatment in three volumes, edited by Theodor Fritzsch, third volume, Ernst Wiegand Verlagbuchhandlung Leipzig 1909, newer edition Olms, Hildesheim-New York 1972.
- J. Ch. F. Guts Muths: Games for exercise and relaxation of the body and mind . Hof 1796 (8th edition 1893)
- Anita Rudolf, Siegbert A. Warwitz: Playing - rediscovered. Basics-suggestions-help . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1982, ISBN 3-451-07952-6 .
- Erika Szegedi: Games of other times and peoples, further developed with children , Scientific State Examination Work GHS, Karlsruhe 1998.
- Siegbert A. Warwitz (ed.): Games of other times and peoples - discovered and experienced with children . Karlsruhe 1998.
- Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: From the sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . Schneider Verlag, 4th edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1664-5 .
- Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann u. a. (Ed.): What we played. Insel, Frankfurt / Main 1981, ISBN 3-458-33071-2 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: The children's games by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Ä. In: Dies .: The sense of playing. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition. Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 191–195
- ^ Johann Bernhard Basedow's "Elementarwerk" with the copper plates by Chodowiecki, critical treatment in three volumes, edited by Theodor Fritzsch, third volume, Ernst Wiegand Verlagbuchhandlung Leipzig 1909
- ↑ J.Ch.F. Guts Muths: Games for exercise and relaxation of the body and mind . Hof 1796 (8th edition 1893)
- ↑ Celtic rocking stone in motion
- ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Kreiselspiele , In: Dies .: Vom Sinn des Spielens. Reflections and game ideas . 4th edition. Schneider Verlag, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 115 + 116
- ↑ Anita Rudolf, Siegbert A. Warwitz: Playing - newly discovered. Basics-suggestions-help . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1982, ISBN 3-451-07952-6 .
- ↑ Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann u. a. (Ed.): What we played. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1981, ISBN 3-458-33071-2
- ↑ Erika Szegedi: Games of other times and peoples, further developed with children . Knowledge State examination thesis GHS, Karlsruhe 1998