The World of Milton Bradley Games Quiz

Answer: Moral virtues

"The Checkered Game of Life" was created in 1860 by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts. Instead of money, players moved across a large board of squares. The squares represented various life choices. The players tried to gain points by choosing good actions such as honesty, education, or success while avoiding bad decisions.

The game mirrored the values at the time, trying to show that good decisions in life mattered more than a quest for wealth. This became an extremely popular board game in America and would go on to inspire a modern version of "Life", which did focus on money and careers.

Answer: Literature

The "Authors" card game is a classic educational game that first gained popularity in the mid-1800s. Milton Bradley produced their version in the late 1880s. The game was designed to help players memorize the names of famous writers and their most celebrated works. The deck is made up of sets of four cards, with each set featuring a specific author (e.g. Mark Twan) and four of their famous book titles.

The play is very similar to "Go Fish", making it easy for people of all ages to learn. On their turn, a player asks a specific opponent for a book title by a certain author to try and complete their set of four. If they have the card, they hand it over and the player continues on; if not, the player draws from the deck. The goal is simply to collect more completed book sets than anyone else.

Answer: Messenger boy

"Messenger Boy" is a board game from the 1920s that reflects the era's fascination with career advancement and self-made success following the Gilded Age. The game was designed to teach young players that hard work and reliability would lead to corporate success with the goal of climbing the professional ladder.

In the game, players take on the role of a young messenger boy working for a telegraph company. By moving their pieces across the board based on the spin of a dial, they attempt to rise through various ranks, such as a clerk, with the ultimate goal of becoming the president of the company. Along the way, players can land on squares that either reward them for honesty or hard work but can penalize them for being lazy.

Answer: Polio

"Candy Land" was created in 1948 by Eleanor Abbott, a retired schoolteacher, while she was recovering from polio. She designed the game as a cheerful distraction for children in the same hospital wards as she, and it was eventually published by Milton Bradley in 1949. Because the game requires no reading and uses a simple color-matching system, it became a staple for preschoolers, allowing young children to play a board game independently for the first time.

The game is played on a winding path through a magical world filled with sweet-themed locations like the Peppermint Forest and the Gumdrop Mountains. Players draw cards with colored squares and move their gingerbread character to the next matching space on the board. The idea is to race to reach King Kandy's Castle first at the end of the path.

Answer: Cavity Sam

"Operation" was invented in 1962 by a university student who sold the rights to the concept for only $500. Milton Bradley officially released the game in 1965, turning it into a massive success by leaning into a humorous theme. The game features Cavity Sam, a patient on an operating table with various pun-filled ailments, like a "funny bone", a "breadbasket", and a "spare rib," all of which players must attempt to remove.

The game involves the use of steady hands and fine motor skills, since players use a pair of metal tweezers connected to a battery-powered circuit. They try to extract the plastic pieces from narrow openings without touching the metal edges; if the tweezers slip, Sam's red nose lights up and a loud buzzer sounds, ending the turn.

Answer: WWI

"Dogfight" was released as part of Milton Bradley's American Heritage series, which focused on famous historical battles and eras. Set during World War I, this game allowed players to command a squadron of vintage biplanes, representing either the Allied forces or the Central Powers. It had impressive plastic miniatures and a large, colorful game board that depicted the skies over the front lines.

The gameplay centered on tactical movement and positioning to outmaneuver the opponent and line up a shot. Players used a deck of specialized movement cards to climb, dive, or perform loops, trying to get directly behind an enemy plane to attack. Combat was resolved using dice, and the ultimate goal was to shoot down the opposing squadron or destroy their home base.

Answer: The Tonight Show

"Twister" was first released by Milton Bradley in 1966, but it initially struggled because many retailers thought the concept of using people as human game pieces was too scandalous. That changed almost overnight when it was featured on "The Tonight Show", where host Johnny Carson played a match against actress Eva Gabor. The sight of them getting tangled in knots on the plastic mat was an instant hit with viewers, leading to over three million copies being sold in the first year alone.

The game is played on a large mat featuring four rows of colored circles-red, blue, yellow, and green. Someone spins a dial that tells players which hand or foot they must move to a specific color. As the game progresses, players are forced into increasingly awkward and precarious positions while trying to avoid falling over or touching the mat with an elbow or knee. The last person remaining upright is the winner.

Answer: Simon

"Simon" was launched by Milton Bradley in 1978 at a star-studded event at the legendary Studio 54 nightclub in New York City. Created by Ralph Baer (the "Father of Video Games") and Howard Morrison, the game was a pioneer in the handheld electronic toy craze. Its iconic saucer shape and four brightly colored panels were inspired by an earlier, less successful arcade game called "Touch Me", but "Simon" improved the experience by adding musical tones that made even random sequences sound fun.

The gameplay is a test of short-term memory and concentration. The device generates a random sequence of lights and sounds that the player must duplicate exactly; each time the player succeeds, the sequence grows one step longer and the pace quickens. If a player hits the wrong color or takes too long to respond, the game emits a harsh buzzing sound to signal the end of the round.

Answer: A lawsuit claiming the idea was stolen

Released in 1981, "Dark Tower" was a groundbreaking fantasy adventure game that featured a massive, battery-powered electronic tower as its centerpiece. Players acted as warriors on a quest to retrieve an ancient magic scepter by traveling through four distinct kingdoms to find three hidden keys. The tower served as the game master, using a small internal computer, a keypad, and a rotating carousel of backlit images to track resources, resolve battles, and create random events like an attack from a dragon.

The game, however, faced a massive legal battle that forced Milton Bradley to pull it from store shelves just as it was becoming a huge hit. Two inventors successfully sued the company for $750,000, claiming Milton Bradley had stolen the idea after they had pitched a similar concept years earlier. Because the original game was never reprinted after the lawsuit, functional copies became highly prized collector's items.

Answer: Restroom

First released in 1988, "Mall Madness" highlighted the era's obsession with shopping mall culture. While the original version was a standard board game, the 1989 electronic version transformed the experience with a talking electronic center that acted as the mall's intercom. The game board was three-dimensional, featuring two levels, plastic walls, and cardboard storefronts for various shop. It even had tiny plastic credit cards and cash.

The objective was a race to purchase six items from a personalized shopping list and return to the parking lot. The electronic voice directed the action, announcing random sales at specific stores or clearance events that lower prices, while also throwing in obstacles like "the mall is closing" or telling a player to go to the restroom.