SCRABBLE (originally known as Lexico) was created sometime during the Great Depression by an out-of-work architect named Alfred Butts. The quantity of each letter tile to be used in the game and its point value was derived by studying the frequency of the letters used on the front page of The New York Times.
http://www.hasbro.com/scrabble/pl/page.history/dn/home.cfm
SCRABBLE means “to grope frantically”.
http://www.hasbro.com/scrabble/pl/page.history/dn/home.cfm
Miniature golf started life in the early 1900’s as small version of regular golf played with a putter on real grass. In the 1920’s and 1930’s rails or bumpers were added to help confine the ball – and a hard playing surface of pressed cottonseed hulls provided a smoother playing surface.
http://prominigolf.com/history.html
“Rinkiedink” miniature golf courses were created during the depression around 1929 using any available plot of ground (preferably lighted) and whatever could be scrounged up for obstacles or hazard holes. These were the basis for the miniature golf courses of today.
http://prominigolf.com/history.html
Chinese Checkers did not originate in China and the game has no relationship to checkers. It was first patented in Germany in 1928 as Stern-Halma which was a star-shaped version of “Halma”, a similar game developed in the U.S. around 1883 or 1884 and played on a square “field”.
http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Halma.htm
Pac-Man was first introduced in Japan in 1979 as Puck Man. The name comes from the Japanese slang “paku paku” which refers to the motion of opening and closing the mouth while one eats.
http://www.classicgaming.com/features/articles/pacmanseries/
The Pac-Man ghost’s names are Shadow, Speedy, Bashful and Pokey. The common nicknames for them are Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man
http://www.classicgaming.com/features/articles/pacmanseries/
The first video game was a Chase Game – two squares chasing each other – developed in 1966 by Ralph Baer, an engineer at Sanders Associates in New Hampshire.
http://www.pong-story.com/intro.htm
The first game designed to be played on a Cathode Ray Tube however, simulated a missile being fired at a target. Its patent was issued in December of 1948.
http://www.pong-story.com/intro.htm
And the very first home video game system that played table tennis and 11 other games? The Magnavox Odyssey made available to the public in May of 1972. Atari’s PONG, first as an arcade game and then later available as a home video game, turned out to be a driving force behind the video game industry.
http://www.pong-story.com/intro.htm
The opposite sides of a standard die (that would be like one out of say, a pair of dice) always add up to 7.
Aw, come on… you knew that already…
Each one of the spots on a die – or playing card or domino – is called a pip.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pip
The original, ancient dice were commonly made from bone or ivory. “Roll them bones!” Other materials used as “dice” include plum and peach stones, pebbles, seeds, seashells, wood, etc.
http://members.aol.com/dicetalk/history1.htm
Knucklebones from hoofed animals are the mostly likely ancestors of our modern, standard dice.
http://members.aol.com/dicetalk/history3.htm
The Rubik’s Cube was invented by Erno Rubik, a lecturer in the Department of Interior Design at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest, Hungary in 1974. The first cubes were exported from Hungary in 1980.
http://www.rubiks.com/lvl3/index_lvl3.cfm?lan=eng&lvl1=inform&lvl2=medrel&lvl3=histry
The Rubik’s Cube has 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 different possible configurations. In only one of these configurations is the Cube “solved”.
http://www.rubiks.com/lvl3/index_lvl3.cfm?lan=eng&lvl1=inform&lvl2=medrel&lvl3=cubfct
The fastest official time (as of 12/06) for solving a 3x3 Rubik’s Cube puzzle is 11.13 seconds recorded by Leyan Lo, a California Institute of Technology student.
http://www.rubiks.com/lvl3/index_lvl3.cfm?lan=eng&lvl1=inform&lvl2=medrel&lvl3=ltsnew
A slot machine is never “due” for a payoff. Pumping more money into the one-armed bandit will not improve your chances for winning.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/trivia/questions/?p=185
The 1876 Customs Act was instituted in Britain after it was discovered that indecent chess pieces were sent to an all-girls boarding school.
http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/reference/html/i.3.html
Wilhelm Steinitz defeated Johann Hermann Zuckertort in the first world championship of chess, in 1886. Chess was the second sport to have a world championship, after billiards (1873).
http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/reference/html/i.3.html
OK, just one more…
Francisco R. Torres Trois took 2 hours and 20 minutes to make one move in a game against Luis M.C.P. Santos, in Vigo, Spain in 1980. That's the slowest single move on record. Ironically, he only had two possible moves to consider!
http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/reference/html/i.3.html
Billiards likely evolved from a lawn game similar to croquet sometime during the 15th century. The name may have come from the French word “billart”, one of the wooden sticks or maces used to push the balls or from “billie”, a ball.
http://www.bca-pool.com/aboutus/history/start.shtml#top
Considering billiards’ probable beginning, it’s logical that the original game table included not only pockets but also a hoop similar to a croquet wicket and an upright stick used as a target.
http://www.bca-pool.com/aboutus/history/start.shtml#top
The sides of the early billiard tables were flat and were known as “banks” because they somewhat resembled riverbanks. This of course, provided the basis for the term “bank shot”.
http://www.bca-pool.com/aboutus/history/start.shtml#top
When Charles B. Darrow of Germantown, Pennsylvania first showed his MONOPOLY game to Parker Brothers in 1934, they didn’t like it because of its “52 design errors”. They later changed their minds…
http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/default.cfm?page=history
The longest MONOPOLY game ever played lasted for 1,680 hours – 70 straight days.
http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/pl/page.funfacts/dn/default.cfm
Since MONOPOLY was first introduced in 1935, over 5,120,000,000 little green houses have been produced. Also… in 1998 the racecar was announced as the “Favorite Classic Token”.
http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/pl/page.funfacts/dn/default.cfm
(And yes, MONOPOLY is a registered trademark of Hasbro.)
Some early slot machines paid with different flavors of chewing gum. The cherry and melon symbols used today started out as pictures of the flavors on these machines. The common “bar” symbol originated as a logo of the Bell-Fruit Gum Company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slot_machine
http://www.casinoman.net/content/slot-machines/antique-slots.asp
The Liberty Bell symbol used on slot machine reels was one of the five original symbols used on the first successful slot machine back in 1887. Developed by Charles Fey, the other symbols were the horseshoe, diamonds, spades and hearts. The slot machine by the way, was known as the “Liberty Bell”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slot_machine
http://www.casinoman.net/content/slot-machines/antique-slots.asp
http://www.libertybellereno.com/collectionpages/collectionslots.html
Some playing cards in India are round – not rectangular. (Known as Ganjifa.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_cards
http://www.pagat.com/class/ganjifa.html
It is believed that playing cards originated in China and may have been paper currency.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_cards
http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/Archives/Wilkinson/Wilkinson.html
The earliest 52 card deck of playing cards originated in Egypt and had four “suits” – polo sticks, coins, swords and cups. The three “court” cards were the King, Viceroy (or Deputy King) and the Second (or Under-Deputy).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_cards
Each king in a deck of
playing cards at one time represented a great king from history.
According to the Parisian tradition in the 16th century,
these were:
Spades - King David
Hearts - Charlemagne
Clubs -Alexander the Great
Diamonds - Julius Caesar
This varied somewhat depending on the company producing the cards. The
court cards in the modern Anglo-American playing card decks don’t
represent anyone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_cards
http://members.aol.com/rslancastr/blgupc/faq.htm
The term “Ace” (as in playing cards) came from a dicing term in the Anglo-Norman language that originated with a Latin word referring to the smallest unit of coinage. “Trey” (representing the number 3) is another dicing term.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_cards
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/trey
The “Joker” (as in playing cards) originated in American and was created for the game of Euchre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_cards
http://www.pagat.com/euchre/euchre.html#historical
In decks of playing cards, the Ace of Spades commonly displays a unique design. This started in England when King James I required an insignia on this card to indicate the card printer and that the tax had been paid on this deck.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_cards
http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/playing-cards/ace-of-spades.html
A deck of Italian playing cards commonly contains 40 cards. There are four suits; each with an Ace, numbered cards 2 through 7 and three court cards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_cards
http://www.pagat.com/national/italy.html
The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "shah mat", which means "the king is left unable to escape".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess
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