Spintronics Review

boardgamequest.com:

When we talk about tabletop games, one factor that can come up is “table presence.” There are just certain games that, when you walk by the table, you can’t help yourself from stopping and taking a longer look. Foundations of Rome, Cthulhu Wars, Return to the Dark Tower, Heroscape, Startropolis (totally biased here), and Fireball Island all come to mind.

When I first saw Spintronics, I couldn’t help but be interested in giving it a deeper look. It’s a game featuring spinning gears connected with a series of chains. What’s not to love? Sounds like something you might want to check out? Read on to find out more.

Spintronics is an educational activity where you learn how electronics work over a series of puzzles with increasing difficulty. The game features a spiral-bound book that doubles as both a thematic comic book and also a teaching tool. There are 67 puzzles that accompany the story, and the game walks you through the concepts of each component.

The game starts you out with just a couple of gizmos: the spring-powered “battery”, a couple of resistor gears, and some links of chain. It will then explain basic concepts to you (this is how electricity works, this is what a resistor does), etc… And then it will present a series of puzzles. Each puzzle will have an initial setup, and then give you a goal (and usually a list of pieces you can use to accomplish the goal). As you progress through the book, it will step you through a series of puzzles in each chapter, with new pieces being added as you go.

Throughout all of Act 1 (the box we were sent), players will interact with the battery, a capacitor, an ammeter, and a couple of junctions, resistors, and switches. Once players finished all the puzzles in the box, they