Monopoly turns 75 this year — well it sort of turns 75 this year.  There are “folk” versions of the game that exist which were handmade by people long before the credited inventor, Charles Darrow (below right), created his game.  One of these folk games was acquired by the Strong Museum this year.  (see the “Heap” folk game made by John Heap at right)  This creates some haziness to where Darrow got the idea for Monopoly and who really came up with it.  In recent years, most have started to credit Lizzie Maggie, a Maryland Quaker, who patented a very similar game called The Landlord’s Game in 1904.  The similarities of the two games are staggering as they both have the same number of spaces and “lots”/”properties,” Go to Jail corners, one railroad per side, a version of an electric and a water company and players buy properties from a bank-like entity and you pay rent to the owner of the property you land on.  (sounds like a knockoff to me)  But regardless of this inventor nastiness, there is one date that is crystal clear: December 31st, 1935 – the date the patent was issued for the Monopoly game we play today.

Putting aside my unsettling feeling regarding the origins of Monopoly, one part of the story I do enjoy is that Charles Darrow initially showed Monopoly to both Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers (now both part of Hasbro) and Parker Brothers REJECTED it.  Why?  They said it had “52 fundamental errors” including the complexity of play and the length of a game. (I think they might have been onto something with that second one.  It’s one of the main reasons I’m not really a fan of Monopoly, although I respect its place as an American icon.) Oddly enough, back in 1909 George Parker rejected Lizzie’s version of the game for being too complicated.  So essentially the game was rejected TWICE!

So what did Darrow do?  He did what a lot of inventors do today, he started self-producing the game and sold copies to local stores.  When Parker Brothers saw how well Monopoly was selling they realized that their initial views on the game might have been a little off and they reconsidered Darrow’s submission.  So in 1935, Parker Brothers started selling the game and in that first year they were selling around 20,000 a week for $2 each.  Not bad considering a loaf of bread was ~8¢ and the average cost of a new home was ~$3,450. Ironically, 1935 was also year that the first cans of beer went on sale so it looks like game nights just got more interesting.

I think we all know the rest of the story from here.  Monopoly is now played in upwards of 100 different countries and there are a zillion versions of the game, including the one that was released this year for the 75th anniversary: Monopoly Revolution (you know “the round one” that spent so much time in the media right around Toy Fair last year).  People either loved or HATED the round version of the game, but the funny thing is – it’s not the first Monopoly game to have a round board.  Charles Darrow handmade a couple copies before he pitched his game to Parker Brothers (at right).  Personally, I like the 4-sided version better but it’s interesting to see how things come full circle. (ha! terrible pun.)

I should also mention that there is a new movie out called Under the Boardwalk:The Monopoly Movie which delves into the world of competitive Monopoly.  It also talks more about the history of the game and it’s worldwide popularity; definitely an interesting flick for anyone who is a game industry buff.  You can find out more about that movie HERE.

Information for this article was from:

• The Story Behind Strong’s Folk Art Game, National Museum of Play’s Play Stuff Blog, HERE
• Monopoly’s 75th, Hasbro Press Release, HERE
• Monopolizing History (citing Phil Orbanes’ book: Monopoly: The World’s Most Famous Game—And How It Got That Way), The American Interest, HERE

I first got to play with Scrabble Flash at the Hasbro showroom of New York Toy Fair this past February and I desperately wanted to take it home with me, but I’m pretty sure that the hoards of other people waiting to play would have noticed.  It’s just so cute and magical that it’s hard not to like it!  The game is made up of five small LCD square tiles that recognize when they are touching each other, which allows the tiles to identify if they are in the proper order to make a word.  This concept is the backbone of all three games you can play with your Scrabble Flash tiles.

When you turn all of the tiles on by pressing each of their buttons, the tiles give you a choice of games 1, 2 or 3.  Game 1 is a 1-player game in which you find as many 3, 4, and 5 letter words as you can from one set of letters before the little timers appear on the screens.  Every time you line up the tiles to make a word they flash to let you know that the word’s been counted.  In a way it feels a lot like the old Boggle handheld just with fewer letters to choose from.

Game 2 is also a 1-player game where you find as many 5-letter words as you can in the allotted time.  After you find a word, you get a new set of letters to unscramble.  The third game is the same as game 2, but it’s for multiple players.  Once you get a word you pass the tiles to the next player.  If time runs out while you’re looking for a word it will display OUT and you have to pass the tiles to the next player.  Last man standing wins.

The cute little tiles also score!  At the end of game 1 if you line up the 5 tiles your score will appear as well as how many words were possible.  At the end of game 2 it shows you not only the word you missed but also how many sets you were able to unscramble before time ran out.  The only downfall I see is that it doesn’t save scores so there’s no running high score that you’re constantly striving to beat.  But I will totally forgive that small shortcoming because it comes with a nice hard plastic travel case!  You get to toss out the big box you brought home from the store and instead everything – including the instructions – packs easily into a box that’s a little larger than 2 in. x 2 in. x 4 in.  How nice is that?!  And because it’s not intrusive, it’s been on my desk for weeks now – I use it as a mini-break every now and then.  Love it!

Scrabble Flash Stats:
$30 at Target, Toys ‘R Us, Kmart, Amazon and many others
1 or more players, most games are for 1-player
~3 minutes per round so it’s up to you
Ages 8 and Up (although some words might be difficult for an 8 year old)

You don’t really need to have a huge vocabulary to win – you just need to be quick.  You get 1 point for 3-4 letter words and more for longer words.  So if you come up with zillion 3-letter words, you can beat the person who found only a couple of crazy long ones.  And I must admit, my favorite part (besides winning) is when you get to the end of the round it’s really satisfying to see how many great words you have that no one else found.

I like Boggle so much that in the past I’ve been known to have paper, pencils and a mini dictionary crammed into the Boggle box so I could take it with me on trips.  But the bad thing was, the old Boggle game was designed so if you put the clear plastic cover on top of the dice tray, it wouldn’t fit in the box.  Annoying right?  Then Hasbro fixed that problem by giving the lid a new odd shape, but the dice didn’t shake as well in that one (and it felt kind of cheap) so I didn’t even bother purchasing it.  Well now they’ve completely redesigned the dice holder and it’s a very cool travel-friendly solution.  You twist it to shake the dice, then twist back to lock them in place.  So now, with the absence of a removable lid, you don’t have to worry about losing one of the dice.  And then to make it an all-in-one game, it’s got a timer built in.  Now all you have to do is hunt down some pencils and paper and you’re ready to roll!

Boggle’s been around since 1972 although it failed and was relaunched in 1976 after some revisions – including the addition of a shaker.  It was invented by Alan Turoff and as a fun bit of trivia the longest words that can be made are 17 letters long because the Q and U are on the same tile.  They are: inconsequentially, quadricentennials, and sesquicentennials.  Personally, I’ve never been able to get any of them.

Boggle Stats:
~ $15 at Wal-Mart, Target, Toys ‘R Us and pretty much everywhere that sells games
2 or More Players
~5 Minutes per round (including scoring) so it’s up to you
Ages 8 and up

Thankfully, it’s not just me; I think my entire family has a weakness for dice games. Every one of us has at least one well-loved copy of Yahtzee and if you asked, I’d say we probably all have a copy tucked away in our cars “in case of an emergency.” I’m not kidding. Two winters ago, I was riding through the middle of nowhere Wisconsin in a blizzard with my father heading to my aunt’s 50th birthday party when we slid off the road. As we waited for the tow truck to arrive, I climbed into the back of his van to fish out Yahtzee. We played about ten games before the tow truck arrived. Unfortunately, I lost almost all of them, which seems totally unfair since he was the one who drove us off the road. Guess luck had to roll his way at some point!

Yahtzee is really a well-loved classic and if you haven’t played in a while, it’s worth another look. There were tons of similar poker-dice style games that are probably quite a bit older than Yahtzee, like Yacht and Cheerio. But Yahtzee showed up on store shelves in the mid-1950s and beat out other similar dice games like Kismet to become probably the best-known dice game of all time. And since the mid-1970s it’s been a strong dice-game brand with more than ten line line extensions, although classic Yahtzee is still my favorite.

As a note to parents, Yahtzee is a great way to teach your kids math (adding & multiplying) and probability. Take the time to let them add up their dice, and explain why they’d have better odds rolling for one thing over the other. Unfortunately they may start beating you, but it’s still a heck of a lot more fun than insisting they do math workbooks.

Yahtzee stats:

• $10 and up at all major retailers
• 2 or more players
• ~5-30 minutes (Depends on how quick the players are)
• Ages 8 and up