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Openers:\xa0Knarr,\xa0Faraway Closers:\xa0Ordering games nominated for the IGA and SdJ awards Mark Johnson @MarkEJohnson Mark Jackson @akapastorguy Recently I asked my listeners for more feedback about this old podcast. What I heard back was very encouraging--thanks for that. Most of you just tell me to keep doing what I like & want. Good, I will! Some other comments called back to the All About\u2026 episodes I used to do, deep dives into individual games. Others remembered the 100 Great Games series fondly, a collaboration I did with Mark Jackson and Stephen Glenn. More ideas came up, too. I\u2019ve mulled those over and devised something that should be fun for me and worthwhile for the listeners. I\u2019ve invited an old friend to join me in discussions about the Spiel des Jahres winner from a particular year. That makes it kind of a deeper dive into that title, but we also talk about the other nominees from that year. Not only that, but the longer list of recommended games, too. Along the way, we briefly mention the winners of the Kennerspiel, Deutscher Spielepreis, and the \xc0 La Carte, all notable awards in Germany where the Spiel des Jahres is still the preeminent award for our hobby. \xa0 \xa0 When this podcast is released, we\u2019ll be only a week away from hearing the list of nominees and recommended games for this award year, 2024. I\u2019ll be very interested in that, however this new, occasional podcast series is about the SdJ in prior years. The award itself goes back to 1979--and I may cover those oldies someday--but for this episode I\u2019m starting with something much closer to our present time. Five years ago seems like a good place to start--recent enough that the games are familiar, but distant enough that most gamers will have had plenty of opportunity to play them, if desired. Future episodes may jump around to other years that interest me, like a goofy time machine. My co-host for this episode is Mark Jackson, a well-known writer about boardgames. He\u2019s had multiple websites, is active on social media, is part of the Opinionated Gamers editorial board, a member of the International Gamers Awards panel, and has been on my podcast several times. I\u2019m happy to call him my friend, too. Really, the only downside to this guy is the confusion we generate with our similar identities. Mark & I have similar histories, but not always the same taste in games. Nonetheless, I know I can count on him to appreciate the kind of family strategy boardgames I focus on in this podcast--it\u2019s in the opening to every episode! That\u2019s what the Spiel des Jahres awards and selection jury are all about, too. It\u2019s a great fit. \xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 By setting our Spiel des Jahres Wayback Machine to 2019, Sherman & Peabody Mark & Mark will be going back to when Just One took home the prize over fellow nominees Werewords and L.L.A.M.A. Do you know all of those? How about the list of recommended titles, Belratti, Dizzle, Krass Kacke/Who Did It?, Reef, and Sherlock? We do our best to talk about all of those, while also mentioning that Wingspan won the Kennerspiel & DSP, while Belratti won the \xc0 La Carte. Let us know what you think about these games, and the SdJ Wayback Machine itself. Is there a particular year you want us to visit next? With 44 more years to choose from, we\u2019re not going hit them all or go in any order. Future episodes will be occasionally interspersed with the \u201cregular\u201d episodes of Boardgames To Go. Very soon we\u2019ll have this year\u2019s nominees to discuss on our Discord server or elsewhere. I\u2019m looking forward to all of it. -Mark