about us

The basics of TZAP came from the desire of Bill and Marge Weigl of Troy, Ohio in the summer of 2001 to convert the "double deck" tile rummy game of Rummikub® into a single deck card game. They enjoyed Rummikub®, but wanted to be able to carry the game easily in pocket or purse, rather than in a large carrying case. They also sought to avoid the irritating dropping and knocking of tiles from the racks during play.

TZAP, three years in development, incorporates some of the features of Rummikub®, Manipulation and Shanghai, all rummy games that require one to get rid of all tiles or cards, i.e., to be the first to "go out." TZAP uses wild cards for melding, but goes much, much further by adding the play features of "locking" and "unlocking" runs with wilds cards and substituting wild for numbered cards, both of which are believed to be unique only to TZAP. The locking/unlocking feature is patented and two other features are 'patent pending.'

About two years into the project, they also added the new penalty feature of "zapping" opponents to prevent them from going out. The zapped player lost one turn and also made a blind draw of one card from the "zapper's" hand. Then, in early 2004, Bill added the most exciting and boisterous part of the game. That was when players were given the option of using TZAP cards either for melding cards on the table or for zapping an opponent, a very tough decision indeed. A wrong decision could spell disaster. A special feature was also applied, namely, that if a zapper's last card was taken from his hand on a blind draw, the zapper did not actually go out until it was his turn again. That gave someone else the opportunity to zap the "zapper" and continue the game, one of the most hilarious parts of the game.

The combination of all of the novel features makes stymies extremely rare even though only a single deck of cards is used for as few as two or as many as eight players. Play continues after the draw pile is exhausted, and all games should come to a conclusion.