Game History of: B)

Backgammon

Backgammon had its beginning around the 1st century A.D. Emperor Claudius was a very avid player of Tabula. It was originally called Tables or Tabula.

Cards

Card games were co-created with playing cards themselves and may have been invented by the Chinese when they began shuffling paper money into various combinations. Though where and when cards originated is uncertain, China does seem the most likely place to have invented cards, and the 7th to the 10th century the earliest probable time playing cards appeared.


Checkers

A board game that appeared very similar to checkers (called "Draughts" in Great Britain} was discovered in the ruins of the ancient city of Ur in modern day Iraq. This board game dates to about 3000 B.C. Checkers as we know it today has been around since 1400 B.C. In Egypt, a similar game was called Alquerque.

Chess

Chess originated in Persia and India about 4000 years ago. A very early form of chess was called Chaturanga, a four handed game played with dice. Chess pieces were carved miniature elephants, horses, chariots and foot soldiers. Modern Chess as we know it today is about 2000 years old. The Persians and Arabians called the game Shatranj. Chess and cards were introduced to North America by Christopher Columbus. Howard Staunton, the world's leading chess player of the 1840's, organized the first international chess tournament and designed the classic chess pieces used in modern matches and tournaments today.

Cribbage

Cribbage is a card game invented in the early 1600s by the English poet and courtier, Sir Richard Swiveller.

Domino

The word "Domino" is a French word for a black and white hood worn by Catholic priests in winter.

• Domino Games
The oldest domino sets date from around 1120 A.D. Dominoes, as most of the Western world knows them, however, appear to be a Chinese invention. The name of the inventor cannot be traced.

• The History of Dominos
The game appeared first in Europe in 18th Century Italy, possibly in the courts of Venice and Naples. Although domino tiles are clearly of Chinese inheritance, there is debate over whether the game played by Europeans was brought by the Chinese to Europe in the fourteenth century or, in fact, was invented independently.

Jigsaw Puzzles

Englishmen, John Spilsbury invented the jigsaw puzzle in 1767.

Monopoly

Charles Darrow became the first millionaire boardgame designer after he sold his Monopoly patent to Parker Brothers. In investigating the history of the world's best selling board game, I discovered a trail of controversy surrounding Monopoly beginning in 1936.

Scrabble

Dave Fisher, About's Guide to puzzles, has written this history behind the popular boardgame Scrabble invented by Alfred Butts in 1948.

Uno :thumb: (uno attack--woo hoo)

The following information comes from the instruction booklet included in the "Silver Anniversary" edition of UNO. A special thanks goes to Richard Sommer for submitting the information to us.

"Merle Robbins, an Ohio barbershop owner, loved to play cards. One day in 1971, Merle came up with the idea for UNO and introduced the game to his family. When his family and friends began playing UNO more and more, Merle took notice. He and his family decided to pool together $8,000 and have 5,000 games made. That's how UNO got its start!

So how did UNO go from 5,000 games to 125 million? At first, Merle sold UNO from his barbershop. A few friends and local businesses sold them, too. Then UNO took the next step towards card-game fame: Merle, the Ohio barbershop owner, sold the UNO rights to a funeral parlor owner and UNO fan from Joliet, Illinois. The cost? Fifty thousand dollars, plus royalties of 10 cents per game. International Games Inc. was formed to market UNO, and sales skyrocketed. In 1992, International Games became part of the Mattel family, and UNO had a new home."


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