Name That Board Game In Three Clues! Quiz

Answer: Trouble

"Trouble" was released in the United States in the 1960's and quickly became one of Milton Bradley's most popular board games. Developed by the Kohner Brothers the game shows a remarkable resemblance to Parcheesi in that both games feature a player trying to move four of their pieces around the board to safety before their opponents do. It's unique feature is the "Pop-o-matic" which is a clear plastic bubble found in the center of the board containing the die. Underneath the bubble lies a metal sheet which causes the die to tumble when the bubble is depressed. This way players never actually touch the die but instead press the bubble to determine their outcome. One of the advantages of this set up is that players can take turns in rapid succession and the sound of the clicking can add a frenzied tempo to the game.

Parcheesi is the American version of the game Pachisi. Having originated in ancient India, Parcheesi is a cross and circle board game. In the American version players roll dice to move their pieces around 72 spaces to reach home in the center of the board with 12 spaces as safe havens where your pieces cannot be taken by your opponents. The first player to get all four pieces home wins and, traditionally, screams "Parcheesi!"

Sorry! is also a cross and circle board game. While originating in England, Sorry! was released in the United States by Parker Brothers in 1934. Like Trouble and Parcheesi a player needs to move their four pieces home before their opponents. However, instead of a die, Sorry! uses cards with directions to move their pawn forward and backward including the Sorry! card which allows you to move your pawn to an opponent's space and send them back to start.

Pay Day was introduced to the public in 1975 by Parker Brothers and was an immediate smash. Created by Paul Gruen, the game involves players moving around a gameboard with 31 spaces each representing a day of the month. Each space gives a player the opportunity to receive a Deal or Mail card on his way to reaching the Pay Day space where the player collects his monthly wages. The player who finishes the game with the most money becomes the victor.

Answer: Careers

Careers was first introduced to the American public by Parker Brothers in the 1950s. It was distinctive for allowing each player the opportunity to devise his or her own Success Formula which would need to be satisfied to win the game. The player would choose to pursue Fame, Happiness or Money or a combination of all three of these categories with the goal of reaching a total of sixty points. One could try to achieve 60 points all in Happiness, perhaps split it evenly among the three with 20 points each or whatever the player chooses. Since this formula is set by the player at the beginning of the game, he or she can choose different paths well suited to fulfill his or her Success Formula hoping to achieve it prior to any other player and, therefore, winning the game.

Billionaire is a game of bidding and trading in a race to become the first billionaire. Released by Parker Brothers the game requires two to four players each given an upright dollar sign as a piece and five Profit cards. A player moves by rolling a die and tries to amass his or her fortune by investing in commodities from around the world including bidding on secret sealed bids and analyzing other players' investments.

Monopoly is one of the world's most famous board games. Patented by Charles Darrow in 1935 and released by Parker Brothers, the game consists of forty spaces and twenty-eight properties. By rolling two dice, players move around the board collecting money and property with the goal of ultimately owning every property and driving the other players into bankruptcy. While the places in the first game reflected locations in Atlantic City, New Jersey, there have been over a hundred different worldwide versions incorporating various city locations and other theme-based places.

Life also known as The Game of Life was the first game created by Milton Bradley in 1860. On its 100th anniversary the game was reintroduced and redesigned by Reuben Klamer in much like its current format. The game took off in the 60s with spokesman Art Linkletter appearing on the game's box and even on its money. Each player is given a car and travels around a track choosing careers, earning money and even picking up a spouse and children along the way. One of the game's hallmarks is the spinning wheel numbered from one to ten which is used instead of traditional dice. Usually the player with the most money in retirement wins the game; the exception would be if a player at the end gambles everything and succeeds in becoming the Millionaire Tycoon.

Answer: Cranium

Cranium was invented by Whit Alexander and Richard Tait in 1992. Released by Hasbro, the game involves teams moving around the board by performing activities as outlined by the Cranium cards. Each team is made up of at least two players and face categories that test artistic, language, performance and knowledge skills. Factoid reveals the players' knowledge of general trivia while Lexicon requires players to guess the definition of an obscure word among four choices. There are over a dozen of these categories in the four subject boxes allowing for a diverse game playing experience.

Trivial Pursuit was created in the late 1970s by two Canadians, Scott Abbott and Chris Haney. Upon release in the early 1980s, the game was an instant success with over 20 million units sold by 1984. The first edition of the game had six categories to master: Geography, Entertainment, History, Arts and Literature, Science and Nature and Sports and Leisure. For each category mastered by answering the subject question correctly, the player receives a wedge to fill in the their round playing piece. First player to get all six wedges and answer a final question selected in a category chosen by all the players wins the game.

Scene It? is a DVD trivia-based game first released by Screenlife in 2002 and in its first five years has sold over 15 million copies. The game is a mix of trivia card and DVD-based questions where players answer questions from a movie or music clip. The first player to reach the end of the track and answer the final three DVD questions is declared the victor. Many expansion games have followed in various subjects, even some entirely about Harry Potter, Doctor Who and James Bond.

Mastermind is a decoding game invented in the 1970s by Mordecai Meirowitz, an Israeli telecommunications expert. It is a two player game with one player the codemaker and the other player the codebreaker. The codebreaker tries to guess the color of the four hidden pegs set up by the codemaker and for each peg he or she guesses correctly a point is rewarded. Each player is given a chance to be codebreaker and whoever has the most points after each player has played is the winner.

Answer: Backgammon

Backgammon was played in Mesopotamia thousands of years ago. Variations of the game have been found in Egyptian and ancient Roman cultures and believed to have spread to India where dice games were a favorite diversion. The two player game involves moving 15 checker pieces around a horse shoe-shaped track by a roll of two dice. After a player moves all his checkers to his home board, he may start removing them (called bearing off). The first player to remove all his checkers from the board wins the game. The doubling cube which is used to raise the gambling stakes of the game had its first recorded introduction to the game in the 1920s in gaming clubs in New York City.

Go originated in Asia more than 2500 years ago. The traditional Go board consists of a 19 by 19 grid with 181 black stones and 180 white stones, enough to cover the entire board. Each of the two players choose a color and lays down stones with the object of covering more of the board than their opponent. An opponent's stone or group of stones can be captured and removed if it is completely surrounded by the player's stones of opposing color. A highly strategic game despite its apparent simplicity, Go has been the focus of major international competitions and titles for decades and national recognition in east asian countries for centuries.

Checkers (also known as draughts in the United Kingdom) is a two player game played on a 8 by 8 board of alternating colored squares. Each player is given 12 checkers which he will move diagonally forward as the game progresses. Players are able to eliminate opponent's pieces by jumping over them with the ultimate goal of capturing all his pieces or leaving him without any legal moves. A piece reaching the opponent's back row is "kinged" which allows it to jump over opponent's pieces forward and backward diagonally. The computer program "Chinook" rocked the checker world when it won the USA National Tournament in 1996 by a wide margin and in 2007 the developers of "Chinook" announced that the program had been modified so that it could not lose.

Chess is a widely popular international two player game. With the earliest predecessors of the game traced to 6th century India, chess spread to Persia and the Muslim world reaching Southern Europe via the Arabs. The modern version of the game came into being in Europe in the 1400s with tournament play starting in the 1800s. Like checkers, chess is played on an 8 by 8 grid. Each player is given 16 pieces with various moving capabilities. Pieces are moved to an open spaces or to a space occupied by an opposing piece which in effect would allow it to be captured and taken from play. The goal of the game is to put the opponent's king in checkmate which occurs when an opponent's king is placed in check and there is no way to take it out of attack.

Answer: Jenga

Jenga is a game of manual dexterity whereupon players remove pieces of wood from a tower while trying prevent its collapse. Marketed by Hasbro, Jenga comes from the Swahili word build despite the fact each player is actually dissembling the built tower only to reassemble it on a more shaky foundation. One player builds a tower with the 54 wooden blocks into an 18 story structure. He or she then removes a block and places it on the top with each player doing the same in turn. The game ends when the tower collapses with the loser being the player whose turn it was when the tower fell and the winner the player who went before him or her.

KerPlunk is a game involving marbles and straws first introduced to the public in the 1960s. The straws are aligned in a criss-cross fashion creating a web on top of which is placed 32 marbles. In a test of hand-eye coordination, players go around and pull a straw from the web hoping that no marbles fall through during their turn. Any marble that falls during a player's turn counts toward their score. After the last marble has fallen, the player with the fewest marbles is declared the winner. The name comes from the sound the marbles make when they hit the tray below.

Topple is a balance game first marketed in 1983. The Topple board is perched precariously on a thin game stem connected to a plastic base. Based on a roll of the die, players place round pieces on the board with each piece potentially causing the board to sway and swerve. Each piece successfully placed without knocking over the board is awarded points with further points being rewarded if entire rows have been completed. A Topple occurs when a player causes one or more pieces to fall off the board. That player loses ten points and the player who went directly prior to that player scores three points. The player who reaches the set number of points decided by the players beforehand wins the game.

Barrel Of Monkeys is a game for children three and up. Originally created by Lakeside Toys in the 1960s and later marketed by Milton Bradley, Barrel of Monkeys came in sets of 12 plastic monkeys in three different colors: red, blue and yellow. The monkeys' arms are aligned in such a way as to create an S-shape which function as hooks to link the monkeys. The aim of the game is to link as many of the monkeys' arms together to form a chain. Your turn is over when a monkey is dropped and the score you receive is dictated by how many monkeys you have successfully linked. The first player with 12 points wins.

Answer: Othello (Reversi)

Othello is based on the game Reversi which itself is quite similar to Go. Reversi was first introduced into England by Lewis Waterman and James Mollett in the late 1800s. While popular in England, the game was reinvented and introduced worldwide in the 1970s as Othello, named after Shakespeare's classic play because of the black and white chips. Each of the two players chooses a color and places pieces in turn flipping over the opponents chip to his or her color when it is caught between two of the player's chips. This continues until no more valid moves can be made and the player with the most pieces with his or her color on the board wins. Deceptively simple, Othello relies heavily on strategy for the experienced player and computer programs have been built that can defeat even the best players.

Clue (Cluedo) was created by Anthony E. Pratt, a solicitor's clerk and clown from the United Kingdom, and was first marketed there in 1949 under the name Cluedo. The game takes place in a mansion where a murder has taken place. Each player through deduction is expected to determine who committed the murder with what weapon and in which room. Once a player has sufficiently determined these facts, he or she may make an accusation and, if correct, wins the game. The hugely popular game has been spun off as a 1985 movie, a number of television shows and even a VCR/DVD game. Variations of the game have used subjects such as Harry Potter, The Twilight Zone and The Simpsons.

Despite its name, Chinese Checkers was first devised in Germany as a variation on the American game Halma, called "Stern-Halma" with stern meaning star in German. The name was a marketing ploy in the United States to make the game sound more exotic. The shape of the board is a six-pointed star with each player starting with ten marbles in one of the star's point. Players move by moving a marble to an adjacent spot or jumping over an opponent's piece to a spot two places away. The object is to get all of your marbles into the opposing point before any other player.

Yahtzee is a dice game where a player tries to roll the highest number of scoring combinations in order to win the game. The game was first patented in 1956 by Edwin Lowe. Through 1973 Lowe sold the game through his company before Milton Bradley purchased the corporation and produced and sold the game itself. The Yahtzee scorecard is broken up into two sections: the upper and lower. Much like playing cards, the five dice can be arranged as a set of three, four or five of the same kind or lined up as a straight. Different point values are placed on each combination based on the difficulty to achieve it. The player with the most points after thirteen rounds is the winner.

Answer: Candyland

Candyland is board game where players race to the top to win. The game was invented by Eleanor Abbott while she was recovering from polio and marketed by Milton Bradley for the first time in 1949. It is a favorite of toddlers because it doesn't require them to read and has minimal counting. Players move on a track of 134 spaces depicting one of six colors or named locations. Instead of dice, players pick up cards with a color on it and move forward to that color. On occasion, a player may choose a card with a location like Gum Drop Mountain and move instead to that space. The first player who arrives at the end wins.

Hi Ho! Cherry-O is a children's counting game first published in 1965. The game revolves around players collecting cherries from a cherry tree based on a spin of a central spinner. Depending on the spin a player could pick up as many as four cherries or lose up to two cherries. The first player to reach 10 would be the winner. A later version of the game has all players working together to collect as many cherries as possible before a nine piece bird puzzle is complete. This has been hailed as a good teaching point for kids for cooperative play.

Mouse Trap was first published in 1963 by Ideal and later by Milton Bradley. It is a two to four player game with each player a mouse that moves across a board by the roll of a die. As the game progresses an elaborate mousetrap with multiple pieces intricately interconnected is erected. Players attempt to catch one another by collecting cheese cards which send opponents to the cheese wheel. There, by turning the crank, the mousetrap can be activated and the mouse caught. The winning mouse is the last mouse who escapes the clutches of the mousetrap.

Chutes and Ladders originated in India and was brought to the United Kingdom in the late 1800s where it was called Snakes and Ladders. In the 1940s the game was introduced to America by Milton Bradley under the name Chutes and Ladders. A luck based game, the object is to move up the one hundred spaces to the top. By spinning a spinner with numbers on it, players advance forward sometimes landing on a ladder which may advance them further upward or on a chute which sends them hurtling back down. The first player to reach square one hundred is the victor.

Answer: Outburst

Outburst is subtitled "The Game of Verbal Explosion!" as players on a team shout as many guesses as time allows. The game was originally developed in 1986 by Hersch and Company and later licensed by Parker Brothers for a 1995 version. The game is composed of two teams each of which are required to come up with a list of ten items associated with a topic heading. For each item guessed the team gets a point and the first team to sixty points wins. Cards are placed in a special reader preventing the answers to be read. This way if a team skips a topic, the other team can still play it on their next turn.

Pictionary is similar to Charades but with drawing instead of acting out clues. The game was first published in 1985 by Parker Brothers and quickly became a party hit. Each team on their turn has one member draw a word or phrase written on the playing card. If the team is able to guess it before the one minute timer is up, the team gets to roll again. The first team to reach the last space wins the game.

Taboo is a party word game first introduced in the United States in 1989. Released by Hasbro, the game consists of teams who have to guess a topic based on a description by a teammate. However, he or she must describe it without mentioning five related words. If one of the taboo words are mentioned, the other team buzzes the clue giver and the team loses a point. If guessed correctly, the team gains a point. Gameplay continues until a point total is achieved as determined by player consensus.

Balderdash was first produced in 1984. Based on the parlor game Dictionary which goes back to at least the 1970s, Balderdash requires at least three players who write down what they believe to be the definition of an obscure word on a card or, if the definition is unknown to them, to write down the most convincing sounding definition possible. If any person accurately identifies the definition, they are automatically awarded points. Otherwise, the reader of the card reads the definition of each player and of the correct definition as taken from the card. Players earn points by guessing the correct definition or by getting other players to guess their definition. The player who makes it to the end first wins.

Answer: Settlers of Catan

The Settlers of Catan was known under the title Die Siedler von Catan upon its release in Germany. In order to gain victory points players build settlements on hexagonal tiles representing different land types which produce resources for the player which can later be traded in for roads, more settlements and city upgrades. Whichever player amasses enough victory points to build up their civilization wins the game. Expansion packs are available which add more complexity to an already challenging game.

Princes of Florence is also from Germany and was designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Richard Ulrich and released in 2000 by Rio Grande Games. Each player is a Prince of Florence, building villas which attracts various professionals and in turn leads to building renaissance cities. Attracting the professionals such as an architect or astronomer depends on the right combination of building, social freedom and landscape features most suited to each professional. The more well suited, the more work points earned and when a minimum requirement of points is attained, a work can be created. These works can then be traded in for victory points which can help win the game.

Empire Builder was introduced to the public in 1980 by Mayfair Games. The original game involves building railroads to various cities in North America. Money is earned by making deliveries of goods on your railroad tracks laid out between cities. This allows players to build more road, connecting more cities and making more deliveries for a cash return. To win the game one must connect five major cities on the map and possess 250 million dollars.

Carcassonne was invented by Klaus-Jurgen Wrede of Germany and published by Rio Grande Games in 2000. The game begins when the first player lays down one of 71 tiles on the way to building a medieval landscape which will ultimately contain roads, cities, fields and cloisters. Each player is given seven followers to place on one of these four features in order to score points of varying degree. When all the tiles have been laid, a point tally is taken and the player who has earned the most points over the course of the game wins.

Answer: Diplomacy

First released commercially in 1959, Diplomacy is a game of pure negotation and, therefore, it should be no surprise is a favorite of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Players choose one of seven powers in early 20th century Europe made up of 56 land regions many with supply centers vital for industry or commerce. The game begins in 1901 and the year broken up into two seasons, Spring and Fall. Following a negotiation phase where one tries to form alliances, there is a movement phase where secret orders are written and later revealed and executed simultaneously with the greatest concentration of force prevailing during an attack. Play continues until a player loses all his or her supply centers or someone controls 18 of the 34 supply centers and is named the winner.

Battleship was first brought to public attention as a pencil and paper game in the 1930s called "Salvo". Over time the game progressed to a peg and board game and in the 1970s became electronic. Each player secretly arranges five ships of various size inside a ten by ten grid. The ships can be laid out horizontally or vertically but not overlap. Your opponent calls out coordinates that he is shooting at and if it corresponds with your ship then you announce you've been hit. If all pegs on your ship are hit, your ship is sunk. If all of a player's ships are sunk, the other player is declared the victor.

Stratego was designed by Jacques Johan Mogendorf and released to the public in 1947. A two player game, the board is set up as a battlefield with an army of men on your side to invade your opponents' territory to capture his flag and win the game. There are ten different movable pieces including the Marshal, the Miner, the Scout and the Spy. Each piece is set up in rank order with a few possessing special powers that help in certain circumstances. There also are six bombs which are immovable until defused by an opponent's Miner. These pieces are placed by the player in any arrangement with the ultimate goal of protecting one's flag while at the same time trying to make most strategic infiltration of enemy territory.

Risk is a wargame with the goal being "total world domination". Invented by French movie director Albert Lamorisse who may be most well-known for his 1956 short film "The Red Balloon", Risk was released in France in 1957. A map of the Earth is divided into 42 territories over six continents with players controlling armies used to capture bordering territories. One undergoes combat with the role of the dice and by collecting sets of cards players are awarded reinforcements. Play continues and territories are won and lost until only one player remains and has conquered the world.