Board games

Snakes & Ladders

The game of Snakes and Ladders actually began as a game called Moksha-Patamu in ancient India, where it was used to teach Hindu children...

Candy Land

Imagine that the Brothers Grimm invented a board game. Now take out the witches. Welcome to Candy Land. Eleanor Abbott was recovering from polio when...

Trivial Pursuit

The one with the cheeses . . . or wedges . . . or little pieces of pie. Call them what you will. Trivial...

Scrabble

Scrabble was invented in 1938 by unemployed architect Alfred Mosher Butts. Butts created the game as a variation of another word game he had...

Trouble

Kohner's game of Trouble was introduced in 1965, and back then, a wooden die came in the box. The players rolled the die and then...

Tiddly Winks

Tiddlywinks originated in England during the late 1800s. The name comes from "tiddly wink" which is English slang for an unlicensed pub. Tiddlywinks became...

Sorry!

For those of us who have hurled board games into the air after a humiliating, teeth-clenching defeat, it's doubly embarrassing when Sorry! is the...

Stratego

Simpler than chess, quicker than a game of Risk, Milton Bradley's Stratego was the strategy board game that young generals-in-training were weaned on. Even after...

Mousetrap

First released in 1963, this colourful, kooky trap was complex, but a set of blueprints on the game board made sure even the youngest...

Monopoly

Can anyone agree on a set of rules for playing Monopoly? The game of capitalist supremacy celebrated its 40th anniversary in 1975. Over 200 million games...