When a company grows, it inevitably aspires to improvement. For us, it was the use of colored ink and round-cornered cards. In 1998, Cheapass branched out with a full-color line of games called James Ernest Games. This independent brand has basically collapsed back under the Cheapass umbrella, which isn't surprising given the nearly unstoppable marketing muscle of the Cheapass brand. Anyway, every now and then we bring out a game in color, either because it just wouldn't work in black and white, or because it's just so clever it deserves the star treatment. Usually it's a brilliant combination of both.

Traditional Card Games:
James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game (2004): When the super-villain has the super-spy trapped and begging for mercy, why doesn't he just shoot him? Because if you don't taunt him first, he's not worth nearly as many points. James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game is a quick-playing card game with fabulous art, quotable quotes, and a whole bunch of funny spies to capture, taunt and kill. A long-awaited remake of a popular Cheapass game with a name that was, well, a little teeny bit too much like something really, really famous. Who knew?

Give Me The Brain (Color Edition, 2003): You're all zombies in a fast-food restaurant, with only one brain to pass around. Be the first to empty your hand in this whimsical re-print of a Cheapass classic.

Lord of the Fries (Color Edition, 2002): The sequel to Give Me The Brain was the first to make it into color. This time, the staff at Friedey's are hurrying to fill orders with hands of random ingredients.

Girl Genius: The Works (2001): Based on Phil Foglio's Girl Genius comic book, this is a highly strategic card game with plenty of luck thrown in.

Real Time Games:
Fightball: James Ernest and Mike Selinker are now in charge of the design studio Lone Shark Games, but before that venture they conspired on a real-time sports game that improved on the basics of FALLING and BRAWL. Fightball is a fast-paced basketball-style card game with six different team decks, in which the object is to put a player, ball, and shot on the table before your opponent can block it. Sounds easy? Check this. There are 24 places on the court, all open at once. Read more about the characters and the game at www.fightball.com.

BRAWL: BRAWL was the first real time game that didn't require a judge (FALLING, currently out of print, has a non-playing dealer). In BRAWL, players draw from their own decks at lightning speed, trying to capture and clear their opponent's piles with cards like Hit, Block, and Freeze. It's amazingly fast: an average game takes about 35 seconds. You can play it in turns, if you're interested in a more strategic game, but really, playing BRAWL at full speed is the closest you'll ever get to being in a fight. Except, you know, being in a fight. Catfight is the newest and coolest of the BRAWL series, featuring three cute catgirls by Bryce Nakagawa. You can also still get the six quirky characters of Club Foglio (Drawn by Phil Foglio), but the original six BRAWL characters (Ryan Kinnaird) are out of print. Each deck is just $5, so get them while you can!

Light Speed: This is a color game from the Hip Pocket series, and it's also one of our real-time games. Designed by James Ernest and Tom Jolly, this game gives each player a fleet of 10 ships and an asteroid to shoot at. Play your ships in real time (the first player to run out of cards ends the game) and then watch them shoot each other in the scoring round. Check out the whole Hip Pocket series here.

Diceland: Winner of a 2002 Vanguard Award for innovation in game design, Diceland is a tabletop game combining aspects of miniatures, trading cards, and marbles. Diceland has an official Web site at www.diceland.com.

Diceland: Cyburg (2005): A twelve dice expansion in Cyberspace.

Diceland: Extra Space (2003): Eight extra dice for Diceland: Space.

Diceland: Ogre (2003): Seventeen normal units and one giant Ogre die make up this expansion, based on the classic Steve Jackson games Ogre and G.E.V.

Diceland: Space (2003): With two versions (Terrans vs. Urluquai and Garthans vs. Muktians) Diceland: Space introduces nearly 50 new dice to the game, with spaceships based on the Cheapass computer game Strange Adventures in Infinite Space.

Diceland: Deep White Sea (2002): The original Diceland game, featuring five teams of five adventurers in a frozen world.

Button Men: Button Men is a quick-playing dice game that won the Origins Awards for Best Abstract Board Game and Best Graphic Presentation of a Board Game in 1999. Each player needs one button and several polyhedral dice; more than 200 characters have been printed and many more exist online. You can play Button Men at the Origins Award-winning online game at www.buttonmen.com.

Fightball Button Men (2004): Ten characters from Fightball.

Diceland Button Men (2002): Five characters from the original Diceland game, with art by Eduardo Muller.

Button Men: Samurai (2001): Six Japanese characters by artist Ric Frane.

Dork Victory Button Men (2000): Six characters from John Kovalic's Dork Tower comic.

Button Men: Fantasy (2000): Twelve characters with art by fantasy giant Larry Elmore.

Button Men: Freaks (2000): Four characters by artist Rob Schwartz.

Button Men: BRAWL (2000): Six original BRAWL characters, drawn by Ryan Kinnaird.

Button Men: Special (2000): Four fun buttons.

Button Men: Brom (1999): Twelve Button Men from incomparable artist Brom.

Button Men: Vampyres (1999): Six vampires from Brian Snoddy.

Button Men: Soldiers (1999): The original twelve characters from Brian Snoddy.

Punch Cards: Punch Cards area cute little throwaway game that's becoming something of a collectible. We give away single cards when we pack big orders, and sometimes we stuff them into convention show bags. If you'd like to buy them in complete sets, we're not going to stop you.

Great Brain Robbery Punch Cards: Three colored characters from the Zombie classic The Great Brain Robbery, new in 2005 and available for just $1.

Spy Game Punch Cards: Created in 2004 to promote James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game, this set of 9 punch cards is yours for $2.50.

Wasted Lands Punch Cards: A glorious set of artwork from Dave Dorman, promoting his Wasted Lands comic series. The original set of 20 Punch Cards, yours for $5.