Читать книгу Montegue Blister’s Strange Games: and other odd things to do with your time - Alan Down - Страница 15

If Rock, Paper, Scissors is the king of playground hand games, Slapsies, or Slaps, is its boorish, dysfunctional half-brother who’s heading for Borstal. There are records of it being played in the 1940s, but its popularity fluctuates and presently it is making something of a comeback.

For two people playing, both hold their hands as if praying but with arms stretched out in front of them and fingertips touching. Each then takes it in turn to try to slap the back of one of their opponent’s hands before they can be with-drawn. If they succeed, they get another go. If they miss, their opponent has their turn, and so on.

If a player withdraws their hands three times when a slap has not been attempted, their opponent has a free slap (usually it is delivered with the utmost venom and is therefore very painful).

The term ‘tipsies’ is shouted if the striking player catches the fingertips of the slappee. This still counts as a hit and he gets another go.

Play continues until a player’s will to go on disappears as his hands glow an ever deeper red.

Slapsies is in the unusual position of being a hand game with no official governing body and no organised championships as yet.

An interesting Slapsies variation is My Mother Says.

For two players: each places their hands alternately on top of one another’s on a firm surface, such as a table, as if they were playing My Mother Says That You Are This High (where players all place their hands together in a pile then pull them out and on top whilst chanting the phrase, until the moment when one player’s hand movement corresponds with ‘High’ and so becomes ‘It’). Now, with their hands in position, the player whose hand is at the bottom must withdraw it as swiftly as possible and attempt a hard slap on the topmost hand. Obviously the player whose hand is exposed must try to withdraw it, avoiding the slap and hopefully causing the player in motion to slap his own hand with force. Play now alternates with the hand at the bottom of the pile having the next go. The faster the game is played, the more confusing, and often painful, it becomes.

There is a superb online computer simulation of Slapsies called Operation Slaps, which allows you to play slapsies virtually against a friend or against a computer opponent. In this online game you can decide to be one of five different characters, ranging from Lieutenant Lindequest (a cold and cruel female, Russian, Ground Force operative) to Sergeant Shaw (a well-hard marine from Guantánamo Bay). The action is accompanied by realistic slapping sounds, brooding atmospheric music and, of course, a pain meter.