Thanks to my wife, Debby, who enjoys challenging me to board games on our front porch and likes to test out the latest games at CleverMedia.

Thanks to my mom and dad, Jacqueline and Jerry, who always had a closet full of games while I was growing up and never complained that I was playing the Atari too much.

Thanks to my brother, Larry, who played games with me while we were growing up, even though he was several years younger and I always won.

Thanks to my grandmom, Rebecca Jacob, who bought me my first computer. A week later I had written my first game.

Thanks to my aunt and uncle, Barbara and Richard Shifrin, who collected chess sets and taught me how to win at Risk.

Thanks to William Follett, Brian Robbins, and Jay Shaffer, my friends and co-workers at CleverMedia. When you work with these guys, you realize that the only thing more fun than playing games is making them.

Thanks to my in-laws, Tage and Anne Thomsen, and Andrea Thomsen for their support while I wrote this book.

Thanks to all the people at Que who helped put this book together: Candy Hall, Laura Norman, Tom Hayes, Tonya Simpson, Margo Catts, Chris Barrick, Doug Scamahorn, Cindy Teeters, Michael Hunter, Trina Wurst, Anne Jones, and William Follett.