There are resourceful netizens who have produced nice javascript and Shockwave
versions of the deck, too. You might try them when you're tired of using
the cards at this site.
I've included a virtual copy for the deck for use and
edification of our Mac and Windows-using readers. You will note that these
versions represent earlier versions of the deck, so you're invited to update
them if you wish (drop me a line if and when you do, and I'll add it here
in order that your work may offer some succour to the masses.
- Here's a Mac OS hyperstack version
to download and unpack.
- Here's a StuffIt archive with an Apple OS Applet inside.
- Here are ZIPped archives for Microsoft Windows
and Windows 95 users.
- Lonnie Foster has written a lovely Palm Pilot version of the Oblique Strategies which lets you
choose the version of the Decks you wish to use, or create your own deck.
Okay. What's the bad news, then?
As you already know, there were initially three editions of the Oblique Strategies
produced and offered for sale through Eno and Opal in the late 1970s. After
Peter Schmidt's death, no more commercially available copies of the deck
were produced until a fifth edition was released in early 2002.
While there appears no limitations on the size of the fifth edition of the deck currently on offer, the number of copies of the original three editions of the Oblique
Strategies is a fixed number. A footnote in the Eno/Mills book "More
Dark Than Shark" provides us with the answer:
So far Oblique Strategies has been published, privately, on three occasions.
The first printing was in 1975 (500 copies); the second with slight revisions,
was in 1978 (2,500 copies); and the third, with further revisions, was in
1979 (2,500 copies).
Brian Eno/Russell Mills, "More Dark Than Shark", Faber and Faber, 1986, P. 98 (footnote 12)
So, if you're looking for, say, a first edition copy of the deck signed by both Brian Eno and Peter Schmit, it remains a very rare item which you'll only find at auction, if at all. That's true for all of the first three editions. Happy hunting. Got any artist or muso friends who
were in their 20s in the mid-seventies? You could always start there. Another possibility is to save up a huge wad of cash and bid on copies on eBay,
should they come up for auction...