I can remember, when I was four years old, at my grandparents’ home in Wisconsin, sitting on the cold floor, putting together puzzles. One was a Hopalong Cassidy one and another the Cisco kid. That might give you a clue to the ancient era of this memory. My mother, later, told the story that when there, I was sleep-walking, my hands moved as if putting the puzzle pieces in place in my sleep. I was hooked on puzzles.

Six years later, at age ten, I was introduced to a brand-new game, Tactics II (Avalon Hill) which changed my view of what games could be. (Up until then, they were just luck and I wasn't very lucky. Suddenly I saw that games could depend on being smart.)

I love games. All sorts, even athletic ones, although my knees, which got kicked in by a six-foot four Swede exchange student in college, did reduce my on-field life.

So, when I discovered HeroScape, especially in conjunction with my reduced mobile life due to two bouts of cancer (colon...