Description

If you are an Avalon Hill collector, this game is certainly one of the Holy Grails, and may well be the proverbial IT. The big one. Certainly one of the harder titles to track down. This is JZ, a.k.a. WJZ, the game created by WJZ-TV channel 13 in Baltimore, copyrighted by the Robert Goodman agency.

According to AH's Silver Jubilee guide, "WJZ was never in the Avalon Hill line; having been the only game Avalon Hill ever published as a private-label job. [p.25]" Aside from copies retained by Avalon Hill personnel, this game was distributed solely as a promotional item by WJZ-TV in Baltimore, MD (USA).

JZ bills itself as, "The TV ad man's game." Two to six players compete for high score in the form of advertising accounts and advisory fees. Players can make their accounts more valuable with fortunate advertising time purchases.

Contents for the game are as follows:

• Instruction sheet
• Game board
• 2 dice
• 6 pawns
• 6 strips for marking each accounts' class
• 24 pink "Buy Time" cards
• 12 green "Regional" account cards
• 12 blue "Local" accounts
• 8 brown "National" account cards
• 2 small cardboard storage inserts

JZ comes in the standard flat box form typical of AH games made in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The "Buy Time" cards, of course, are an exercise in shameless self-promotion by WJZ's advertising department -- both for the station and its parent company, Westinghouse. Some of the cards are now a bit dated, with references to buying time on the Buddy Deane Show and the Steve Allen Show.

Luck plays a far greater role than skill, as JZ is a simple roll-and-move game. Each player hopes to land on favorable spaces or draw cards that will allow them to land on and upgrade advertising accounts, going along the board until they bail out at "Retirement" or reach "THE BITTER END". The person with the most valuable advertising portfolio at the end of the game is the winner.