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The story of 345 Games begins back in 2004 as part of a young boy’s elementary school project. This boy, Yanni Dahmani, came up with a novel way to teach US geography through a game he called Vamanos To America (Let’s Go to America). The game was enjoyed by Yanni’s classmates and his father, Dahmane, a former Intel engineer. Seeing how innate games were to childhood development, learning and pleasure, Dahmane became interested in developing more games that the whole family could enjoy together. Dahmane and Yanni formed a sole proprietor company "DYD Games" to market and sell family oriented games.
2006: Launching ZingaMino™
- Soon after Yanni realized that the classic game of dominoes that his father loves playing with friends was no longer very interesting to the average modern player, he took on himself to develop a new game with appeal to modern players: games that are more challenging, more attractive to young children, yet still retained something in its foundation that was attractive and intuitive to learners. The father and son team decided that their first project together would be to update the Domino Game for the new generation, which led them on a journey to becoming game developers. A few months later, after spending many hours working closely together, they had created a new Dominoes adaptation now known as ZingaMino™.
- Why ZingaMino™ name ?
- Taken from Swahili, the word "Zinga "means to turn in circles; and that’s just what players do when playing the ZingaMino™ with a race to fill four circles that must connect sequentially and the word 'Mino" is from the DOMINO.. and thus ZingaMino™ was born.
- The family team also created a charter they called "ZingaMan". The team trademarked it with the name ZingaMino™ with the different world organization of trademarks in the USA, Europe and Algeria (North Africa).
Entering the Games & Toys Industry:- With this new game on the market Dahmane and Yanni entered the games industry. After an article about the father and son game invention team appeared in the Sacramento Bee newspaper, they immediately sold over 1000 units and were inspired to make this hobby into a family business. They then started attending many tradeshows to show off their creation and build interest for it within the industry.
The ZingaMino™ was first launched at the 2006 International New York Toys and Games show that is held at The Jarvis center .
2007: Licensing ZingaMino
- Then in 2007 at the Orlando Inventors Game Fair, the company Jax, Ltd. saw and liked ZingaMino™ so much they decided to license it. In December 2007, Jax, Ltd signed a licensing agreement to market and sell the ZingaMino™ game under the new name: Link-O™ in USA, Canada, and Mexico.
In 2016, Yanni’s twin sisters, Annya and Katia Dahmani joined the game development team as Game Testers and together they all formed a new company, LZG Games and Toys, LLC. or the international market to tap into the European, North African, and Gulf markets.
In December 2020, 3-4-5 Games, LLC obtained the rights to manufacture, market and sell Link-O™.
2018: Launching Zinga-Zinga™
- In 2018 Dahmane saw an opportunity to launch an international version of original ZingaMino™ game. Thus, the LZG Games team developed and launched a new version of ZingaMino/LinkO game and named it: Zinga-Zinga™ . This new game is being sold in many countries: France, Algeria, Morocco and more countries are being considered for the game availability on local markets.
The Ancient Game-
Additional Information
- In 2017, LZG Games and Toys decided that they would expand their catalog by adapting other ancient games that, like dominoes, were disappearing from daily play but still had value as a form of entertainment and a way to develop mental prowess. The search for their next game was on.
- The next quest was indeed interesting when Dahmane Dahmani returned to visit his native village Ath Saidha, Bejaia, Algeria after many years, to his surprise, he discovered some ancient "El Felja" game boards carved into stone surfaces there. This made him realize just how long this game had been a part of the local culture. Then, upon researching it further, he realized that "El Felja" was actually a variation of one of the most ancient games in the world, more commonly known as Nine Men's Morris" . The games was an important one to the whole world's culture and had entertained countless generations, though under numerous names, throughout the centuries. Yet, it was hardly being played anywhere in the 21st century.
After carefully studying the "Nine Men Morris Game" (known as "El Felja" in Algeria, Tries in Spain, Moraboraba in South Africa...), Dahmane felt that it was still an exciting challenge but needed to be adapted to make it more appealing to modern audiences. He made some changes and updates to this over 3000 years old game to come up with the new game named ZhiZhu™!
ZhiZhu™! Goes to Nuremberg Game Event
- With these changes came new frontiers to overcome and new fun, while still keeping the wisdom of the ancient world alive. Out of that grew the company’s second game ZhiZhu™! with its newly rounded playing space and updated rules.
In 2018, the newly developed game ZhiZhu™! was shown at the Nurembger Games and Toys show.