History of games

Indian Ambassadors presentChaturanga to Khosrau I, from "A

treatise on chess", 14th century
The history of games dates to the ancient human past.[1] Games
are an integral part of all cultures and are one of the oldest form of
human social interaction. Games are formalized expressions of play
which allow people to go beyond immediateimagination and direct
physical activity. Common features of games include uncertainty of
outcome, agreed upon rules, competition, separate place and time,
elements of fiction, elements of chance, prescribed goals and
personal enjoyment.
Games capture the ideas and worldviews of their cultures and pass
them on to the next generation. Games were important as cultural
and social bonding events, as teaching tools and as markers of
social status. As pastimes of royalty and the elite, some games
became common features of court culture and were also given as
gifts. Games such as Senet and the Mesoamerican ball game were
often imbued with mythic and ritual religious significance. Games
like Gyan chauper and The Mansion of Happiness were used to
teach spiritual and ethical lessons while Shatranj and Wiq (Go)

were seen as a way to develop strategic thinking and mental skill by

the political and military elite.
In his 1938 book, Homo Ludens, Dutch cultural historian Johan
Huizinga argued that games were a primary condition of the
generation of human cultures. Huizinga saw the playing of games as
something that is older than culture, for culture, however
inadequately defined, always presupposes human society, and
animals have not waited for man to teach them their
playing. [2]Huizinga saw games as a starting point for complex
human activities such as language, law, war, philosophy and art.
Contents
[show]
Pre-Modern[edit]
Some of the most common pre-historic and ancient gaming tools
were made of bone, especially from the Talus bone, these have been
found worldwide and are the ancestors of knucklebones as well
as dice games.[3] These bones were also sometimes used for
oracular and divinatory functions. Other implements could have
included shells, stones and sticks.
Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean world[edit]
A series of 49 small carved painted stones found at the 5,000-yearold Baur Hyk burial mound in southeast Turkey could represent
the earliest gaming pieces ever found. Similar pieces have been
found in Syria and Iraq and seem to point to board games having
originated in the Fertile Crescent.[4] The earliest board games seem
to have been a pastime for the elite and were sometimes given as
diplomatic gifts.[5]
The Royal Game of Ur, or Game of Twenty Squares was played with
a set of pawns on a richly decorated board and dates from about
3000 BC.[6] It was a race gamewhich employed a set of knucklebone
dice. This game was also known and played in Egypt. A Babylonian
treatise on the game written on clay tablet shows that the game had
astronomical significance and that it could also be used to tell one's
fortune.[7] The Ur game was also popular with the lower classes, as
attested by a 2,700-year-old graffiti version of the game, scratched
onto a gateway to a palace in Khorsabad. Similar games have been
found in Iran, Crete, Cyprus, Sri Lanka and Syria.[7]
Among the earliest examples of a board game is senet, a game
found in Predynastic and First Dynasty burial sites in Egypt (circa
3500 BCE and 3100 BCE, respectively) and in hieroglyphs dating to
around 3100 BCE.[8] The game was played by moving draughtsmen
on a board of 30 squares arranged into three parallel rows of ten
squares each. The players strategically moved their pieces based on
the throw of sticks or bones. The goal was to reach the edge of the
board first. Senet slowly evolved over time to reflect the religious
beliefs of the Egyptians. The pieces represented human souls and
their movement was based on the journey of the soul in the afterlife.
Each square had a distinct religious significance, with the final
square being associated with the union of the soul with the sun

god Re-Horakhty.[8] Senet may have also been used in a ritual

religious context.
Excavations at Shahr-e Sukhteh ("The Burnt City") in Iran have
shown that a board race game existed there around 3000 BC which
is the earliest ancestor ofBackgammon. The artifacts include two
dice and 60 checkers.[9][10] Games such as Nard and the Roman
game Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum (game of 12 points, also known
as simply "dice", lat. "alea") developed from this Iranian game. The
Byzantine game Tabula is a descendent of the game of twelve
points.
In Ancient Greece and in the Roman Empire, popular games
included ball games (Episkyros, Harpastum, Expulsim Ludere - a
kind of handball), dice games (Tesserae), knucklebones, Bear
games, Tic-tac-toe (Terni Lapilli), Nine Men's Morris (mola) and
various types of board games similar to checkers. Both Plato and
Homer mention board games called 'petteia' (games played with
pessoi', i.e. 'pieces' or 'men'). According to Plato, they are all
Egyptian in origin. The name 'petteia' seems to be a generic term
for board game and refers to various games. One such game was
called 'poleis' (city states) and was a game of battle on a checkered
board.[11]
The Romans played a derivation of 'petteia' called 'latrunculi'
or Ludus latrunculorum (the soldiers' game or the bandits' game). It
is first mentioned by Varro (11627 BC) and alluded to by Martial
and Ovid. This game was extremely popular and was spread
throughout Europe by the Romans. Boards have been found as far
asRoman Britain. It was a war game for two players and included
moving around counters representing soldiers, the object being to
get one of the adversary's pieces between two of one's own.[12]
Gallery[edit]

A Senet gameboard and game pieces from theKV62 tomb

ofTutankhamunoriginally from Thebes.

Royal Game of Ur, southern Iraq, about 2600-2400 BC

Board game with inlays of ivory, rock crystal and glass paste,
covered with gold and silver leaf, on a wooden base (Knossos,New
Palace period 16001500 BC, HeraklionArchaeological Museum,
Crete)

Ludus duodecim scriptorum table in the museum at Ephesus, an

ancestor of Backgammon.

Modern reconstruction of the Roman board game,Ludus

latrunculorum (The bandits' game or the soldier's game), Museum
Quintana of Archaeology, in Knzing, Germany

Roman Statue of a girl playing astragaloi 130 - 150 BC. Berlin,

Antikenmuseum.
Middle East[edit]

Shatranj set, glazed fritware, 12th century

After the Muslim conquest of Persia (638-651) Shatranj spread to the
Arab world. While pre-Islamic chess sets represented Elephants,
Horses, Kings and Soldiers; the Islamic prohibition against image
worship led to increasing abstraction in chess set design. Islamic
chess pieces were therefore simple cylindrical and rectangular
shapes. The game became immensely popular during Abbasid
Caliphate of the 9th century. The Abbasid Caliphs Harun alRashid and Al-Ma'mun were avid Shatranj players.[13] During this
period Muslim chess players published several treatises on chess
problems (mansubat) and chess openings (ta'biyat). Elite players
such as Al-Adli, al-Suli and Ar-Razi were called aliyat or "grandees"
and played at the courts of the Caliphs and wrote about the game.
Al-Adli (800-870) is known for writing Kitab ash-shatranj (book of
chess), a comprehensive work on the game, including history,
openings, endgames and chess problems. Al-Adli also developed a
system for ranking players. During the reign of the TurkoMongol conqueror Timur (13361405), a variant of chess known
as Tamerlane chess was developed which some sources attribute to
Timur himself who was known to be a fan of the game.

A Persian miniatureillustrating the poemGuy-o Chawgn ("the Ball

and the Polo-mallet") from theSafavid dynasty
Various games in the Tables family were also quite popular and are
known as ifranjiah in Arabic (meaning "Frankish") and as Nard in
Iran. Many of the early Arabic texts which refer to these games often
debate the legality and morality of playing them. This debate was
settled by the eighth century when all four Muslim schools of
jurisprudence declared them to be Haraam (forbidden), however
they are still played today in many Arab countries. Other popular
games included Mancala and Tb.
Polo (Persian: chawgan, Arabic: sawlajan) was first played
in Sassanid Persia.[14] It passed from Sassanid Persia to the
neighboringByzantine Empire at an early date, and
a Tzykanisterion (stadium for playing polo) was built by
emperor Theodosius II (r. 408450) inside theGreat Palace of
Constantinople.[15] After the Muslim conquests, it passed to
the Ayyubid and Mameluke dynasties, whose elites favored it above
all other sports. Notable sultans such as Saladin and Baybars were
known to play it and encourage it in their court.[16]
Playing cards were imported from Asia and India and were popular
during Mamluk Dynasty Egypt, featuring polo sticks, coins, swords,
and cups as suits.
India[edit]

Hindu deities Shiva and Parvatiplaying chaupar, ca 169495

The use of cubical and oblong dice was common in the Indus
Valley Harappan civilization (c. 2300 BC). The earliest textual
mention of games in India is the Rig-Veda's mention of the use of
dice (c. 1000 BC). Texts such as the Mahabharata indicate that dice
games were popular with Kings and royalty, and also had
ceremonial purposes.[17] Cowry shells were also widely used.
Another early reference is the list of Buddha games (circa 500 BC)
which is a list from the Pali Canon that Buddhist monks were
forbidden to play. This list mentions games on boards with 8 or 10
rows (Ashtapada and Daapada), games which use floor diagrams
(one game called Parihra-patham is similar to hop-scotch), dice
games and ball games. Ashtapada and Daapada were race games.
Chaturanga (which means 'quadripartite' and also 'army'), the
predecessor of Chess, possibly developed in the Indian
subcontinent or Central Asia during the Kushan (30375 CE)
or Gupta (320550 CE) periods from an amalgamation of other
game features and was transmitted to Sassanid Persia (where it was
known as Shatranj) and China through the Silk Road.[18]The oldest
text to mention Chaturanga is the middle Persian work Wizrshn
chatrang ud nhishn nw-ardakhshr (The explanation of Chatrang
and the invention of Nard, c. 600 AD). This texts tells the arrival of
Chatrang in an embassy from 'Hind' during the reign of Khosrau
I (531579).[19] The name 'Hind' was often used to refer to eastern
regions such as Balochistan.[20]Another game named Chaturaji was
similar but played with four sides of differing colors instead of two,
however the earliest source for this four sided board game is AlBiruni's 'India', circa 1030 AD. Historians of Chess such as Yuri
Averbakh have surmised that the Greek board game petteia may
have had an influence on the development of early
Chaturanga. Petteia games could have combined with other
elements in the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek Kingdoms. [21][22]
Cross and circle games such as Chaupar and Pachisi may be very
old games, but so far their history has not been established prior to
the 16th century. Chaupar was a popular gambling game at the
court of Mughal emperor Akbar the Great (1556-1605). The emperor
himself was a fan of the game and was known to play on a
courtyard of his palace using slaves as playing pieces.
East Asia[edit]
The extinct Chinese board game liubo was invented no later than
the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, and was popular during
the Warring States period (476 BCE 221 BCE) and the Han Dynasty
(202 BCE 220 CE).[23][24] Although the game's rules have been lost,
it was apparently a race game not unlike Senet in that playing
pieces were moved about a board using sticks thrown to determine
movement.
Go, also known as Weiqi, Igo, or Baduk (in Chinese, Japanese, and
Korean, respectively), is first mentioned in the historical annal Zuo
Zhuan[25] (c. 4th century BC[26]). It is also mentioned in Book XVII of
the Analects of Confucius[26] and in two of the books of Mencius[27] (c.

3rd century BC[26]). In ancient China, Go was one of the four

cultivated arts of the Chinese scholar gentleman, along
with calligraphy, painting and playing the musical instrument guqin,
and examinations of skill in those arts was used to qualify
candidates for service in the bureaucracy. Go was brought to Korea
in the second century BC when the Han Dynasty expanded into the
Korean peninsula and it arrived in Japan in the 5th or 6th century AD
and it quickly became a favorite aristocratic pastime.
Chinese Chess or Xiangqi seems to have been played during
the Tang Dynasty, any earlier attestation is problematic. Several
Xiangqi pieces are known from the Northern Song Dynasty (9601126). It is unknown exactly how Xiangqi developed. Other
traditional Asian Chess variants
include Shogi (Japan), Makruk (Thailand),Janggi (Korea)
and Sittuyin (Burma).
Playing cards were invented in China[28] as early as the 9th
century during the Tang Dynasty (618907).[29][30][31] The first
reference to card games dates from the 9th century, when
the Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang, written by Tang Dynasty
writer Su E, described Princess Tongchang, daughter of Emperor
Yizong of Tang, playing the "leaf game" in 868 with members of
the Wei clan, the family of the princess' husband.[32][33]:131
The modern game of Dominoes developed from early Chinese tile
based games. What appears to have been the earliest references to
gaming tiles are mentions ofkwat pai, or "bone tiles", used in
gambling, in Chinese writings no later than 900 AD.[34] The earliest
definite references to Chinese dominoes are found in the literature
of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), while Western-style dominoes are a
more recent variation, with the earliest examples being of early18th century Italian design.[35] The modern tile game Mahjong is
based on an older Chinese card game called Mdio () (also
known as Ma Tiae, hanging horse; or Yz [], leaf) from the
earlyMing dynasty.[36]
The pre-modern Chinese also played ball games such as Cuju which
was a ball and net game similar to football, and Chuiwan, which is
similar to modern golf.
Gallery[edit]

A pair of Eastern Han Dynasty (25220 CE) ceramic tomb figurines

of two gentlemen playingliubo

A screen painting depicting people of theMing Dynasty playing Go,

by Kan Eitoku

Xiangqi game pieces dated to the Song Dynasty(9601279)

Shogi, Go and Sugoroku; Japan, 1780.

Early Rattanakosin period Makruk set with pieces made from albino
and black water buffalos' horn.

The Ming EmperorXuande (1425-1435) playing Chuiwan.

Africa[edit]

Pit marks supposed to be ancient Gebeta (i.e. mancala) boards in

the base of an Aksumite stele, Axum,Ethiopia
The most widespread of the native African games is Mancala.
Mancala is a family of board games played around the world,
sometimes called "sowing" games, or "count-and-capture" games,
which describes the gameplay. The word mancala: comes from
the Arabic word naqala: meaning literally "to move". The earliest
evidence of Mancala consists of fragments of pottery boards and
several rock cuts found in Aksumite in Ethiopia, Matara (now
in Eritrea), and Yeha (also in Ethiopia), which have been dated by
archaeologists to between the 6th and 7th century CE. More than
800 names of traditional mancala games are known, and almost 200
invented games have been described. However, some names
denote the same game, while some names are used for more than
one game. Today, the game is played worldwide, with many distinct
variants representing different regions of the Third World.
Americas[edit]

Patolli game being watched byMacuilxochitl as depicted on page

048 of the Codex Magliabechiano
Archaeologist Barbara Voorhies has theorized that a series of holes
on clay floors arranged in c shapes at the Tlacuachero
archaeological site in Mexico's Chiapas state may be 5000 year old
dice-game scoreboards. If so this would be the oldest archaeological
evidence for a game in the Americas.[37]
Dice games were popular throughout the Americas. Patolli was one
of the most popular board games played by mesoamericanpeoples
such as the Mayans, Toltecs and Aztecs, it was a race game played
with beans or dice on square and oval-shaped boards and gambling

was a key aspect of it. The Andean peoples also played a dice game
which is called by the Quechuaword pichca or pisca.

Sak Cheen, lord of Motul de San Jose c.8th century,[38] dressed as a

ball player.[39]
One of the oldest known ball games in history is the Mesoamerican
ballgame(llamaliztli in Nahuatl). llamaliztli was played as far back
as 1,400 BC and had important religious significance for
the mesoamerican peoples such as the Maya andAztec.[40] The game
evolved over time but the main goal was to keep a solid rubber ball
in play by striking it with various parts of the body or with tools such
as rackets. The game may have served as a proxy for warfare and
also had a major religious function. Formal ballgames were held as
ritual events, often featuring human sacrifice, though it was also
played for leisure by children and even women.
The indigenous North American peoples played various kinds
of stickball games, which are the ancestors of modern Lacrosse.
Traditional stickball games were sometimes major events that could
last several days. As many as 100 to 1,000 men from opposing
villages or tribes would participate. The games were played in open
plains located between villages, and the goals could range from 500
yards (460 m) to 6 miles (9.7 km) apart.[41]
European games[edit]
The Tafl games were a family of ancient Germanic and Celtic board
games played across much of Northern Europe from earlier than 400
CE until the 12th century.[42] Although the rules of the games were
never explicitly recorded, it seems to have been a game with
uneven forces (2:1 ratio) and the goal of one side was to escape to
the side of the board with a King while the other side's goal was to
capture him. Tafl was spread by the Vikingsthroughout northern
Europe, including Iceland, Britain, Ireland, and Lapland.[43]
Chess was introduced to the Iberian emirate of Cordoba in 822
during the reign of Abd ar-Rahman II. By the middle of the 10th
century it was being played in Christian Spain, Italy and Southern

Germany. By 1200, it had reached Britain and Scandinavia.

[44]
Initially there were many differing local Chess games with
varying rules orassizes such as Short assize chess, Courier
chess and Dice Chess.
An important source of medieval games is the Libro de los juegos,
("Book of games"), or Libro de acedrex, dados e tablas, ("Book of
chess, dice and tables", in Old Spanish) which was commissioned
by Alfonso X of Castile, Galicia and Len in 1283.[45] The manuscript
contains descriptions and color illustrations of Dice
games,Chess and tabula, a predecessor of Backgammon. The book
portrays these games within an astrological context, and some
game variants are astronomically designed, such as a game titled
"astronomical chess", played on a board of seven concentric circles,
divided radially into twelve areas, each associated with a
constellation of the Zodiac. The symbolism of the text indicates that
some of these games were given metaphysical significance. Chess
was also used to teach social and moral lessons by the Dominican
monk Jacobus de Cessolis in his Liber de moribus hominum et
officiis nobilium super ludo scacchorum ('Book of the customs of
men and the duties of nobles or the Book of Chess'). Published circa
1300, the book was immensely popular.
Other pre-modern European board games include Rithmomachy or
"the philosophers game", Alquerque, Fox & Geese, Nine Men's
Morris, Draughts, Nim, Catch the Hare and the Game of the
Goose. Dice games were widely played throughout Europe and
included Hazard, Chuck-a-luck, Glckshaus, Shut the
Box andknucklebones.
Card games first arrived in Italy from Mamluk Egypt in the 14th
century, with suits very similar to the Swords, Staves, Cups and
Coins (also known as disks, andpentacles) and those still used in
traditional Italian, Spanish and Portuguese decks.[46] The
four suits most commonly encountered today
(spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs) appear to have originated in
France circa 1480.[47] 1430s Italy saw the rise of tarot cards and this
led to the development of Tarot card games such as
Tarocco, Knigrufen and French tarot. The decks were also
sometimes used for Cartomancy.
Outdoor games were very popular during holidays and fairs and
were played by all classes. Many of these games are the
predecessors of modern sports and lawn games. Boules, Lawn
Billiards (later brought indoors as Billiards), Skittles (an ancestor of
modern ten pin Bowling), medieval football, Kolven, Stoolball (an
ancestor ofCricket), Jeu de paume (early racketless tennis), Horseshoes and Quoits all predate the early
modern era.
Gallery[edit]

Hnefatafl reconstruction

Christian And Muslim Playing Chess. Libro de los juegos.

Wood carving of two youths playing ball on a misericord at

Gloucester Cathedral, c. 1350.

Italian Sancai Bowl depicting a card game, Mid 15th Century

'Game of Skittles', copy of 1660-68 painting by Pieter de Hooch in

the Saint Louis Art Museum

Medieval illustration of tabula players from the 13th

century Carmina Burana.
Modern games[edit]
Professional board games[edit]

Emanuel Lasker (right) playing Steinitz for the World Chess

Championship, New York 1894
Modern chess rules began taking shape in Spain and Italy during the
15th century with the adoption of the standard Queen and Bishop
movements (initially called "Mad Queen chess"). Writings on chess
theory also began to appear in the 15th century with the first text
being the Repeticin de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez (Repetition of
Love and the Art of Playing Chess, 1497) by Spanish churchman Luis
Ramirez de Lucena. Chess books by authors such as Ruy Lpez de
Segura and Gioachino Grecobecame widely studied. Chess was the
favored game of Voltaire, Rousseau, Benjamin
Franklin and Napoleon.[48]
In 1851, the first international chess tournament was held in
London and won by Adolf Anderssen. Soon after modern time

control rules were adopted for competitive play. The first Official
World Chess Championship was held in 1886 in the United States
and won by Wilhelm Steinitz. By the 20th century, the game
of Chess had developed into a professional sport with chess clubs,
publications, player ratings and chess tournaments. The World
Chess Federation (FIDE) was founded in 1924 in Paris.
A large number of Chess variants were also developed, with
varying pieces, rules, boards and scoring. Among them
areKriegspiel, Capablanca Chess, Alice Chess, Circular chess, Threedimensional chess, Hexagonal Chess, Chess with different armies,
and Bobby Fischer's Chess960.
In Japan, Go and Shogi became the major board games played at a
professional level. Both games were promoted in Japan by
the Tokugawa shogunate in the 17th century, and top players
(Meijin) received government endowments. During the 20th century
the Japan Shogi Association and the Japan Go Association were
founded and began organizing professional tournaments. During
the Qing dynasty, many Xiangqi clubs were formed and books
published. The Chinese Xiangqi Association was formed in 1962, and
Xiangqi tournaments are held worldwide by national Xiangqi
associations.
In 1997 the first Mind Sports Olympiad was held in London and
included traditional as well as modern board games. Other board
games such as Backgammon,Scrabble and Risk are also played
professionally with dedicated world championships.
Commercial board games[edit]

Gyan chauper, Late 18th CenturyJain game board on cloth in the

decorative arts gallery of the National Museum of India. Acc. No.
85.312
The Ancient Indian game of Pachisi was brought to the west by the
British in the 1863 and an adaptation of the game
namedParcheesi was first copyrighted in the United States by EG
Selchow & Co in 1869.[49] A version of the game called Ludo was
patented in 1896. A similar German race game, Mensch rgere dich
nicht ("Man, don't get annoyed"), became immensely popular with
German troops during World War I. Another Indian game which was
adopted by the West was Gyan chauper(a.k.a. Moksha Patam),
popularly known as snakes and ladders. This was a game which was
intended to teach lessons aboutkarma and good and bad actions,
the ladders represented virtues and the snakes vices. The moral
lesson of the game was that spiritual liberation, or Moksha could
only be achieved through virtuous action, while vice led to endless
reincarnation. The game dates to medieval India were it was played
by Jains and Hindus. A Buddhist version, known as "ascending the
[spiritual] levels" (Tibetan: sa gnon rnam bzhags) is played in Nepal
and Tibet [50] while a Muslim version of the game played during
the mughal period from the late 17th or early 18th centuries
featured the 101 names of God. The game was first brought to
Victorian England and it was published in the United States
as Chutes and Ladders (an "improved new version of England's
famous indoor sport") by game pioneer Milton Bradley in 1943.
The first board game for which the name of its designer is known is
'A Journey Through Europe or the Play of Geography', a map-based
game published in 1759 by John Jefferys, a Geography and writing
teacher.[51] Designed in England by George Fox in 1800, The Mansion
of Happiness became the prototype for commercial board games for
at least two centuries to follow. The first board game published in
the United States was 'Traveller's Tour Through the United States',
published by New York City bookseller F. Lockwood in 1822. The
earliest board games published in the United States were based
upon Christian morality and included The Mansion of Happiness
(1843) and The Game of Pope or Pagan, or The Siege of the
Stronghold of Satan by the Christian Army (1844). While
demonstrating the commercial viability of the ancient race game
format, its moralistic overtones were countered by Milton Bradley in
1860 with the introduction of a radically different concept of success
in The Checkered Game of Life, in which material successes came as
a result of accomplishments such as attending college, marrying,
and getting rich. Likewise the Game of the District Messenger
Boy (1886) also focused on secular capitalist virtues rather than the
religious.

The Game of the District Messenger Boy (1886) encouraged therags

to riches idea that a lowly messenger boy could ascend the
corporate ladder to become president
First patented in 1904, The Landlord's Game, designed by Elizabeth
Magie,[52] was originally intended to illustrate the economic
consequences of Ricardo's Law of Economic rent and
the Georgist concept of a single tax on land value.[53] A series
of board games were developed from 1906 through the 1930s that
involved the buying and selling of land and the development of that
land. By 1933, a board game had been created much like the
version of modern Monopoly by the Parker Brothers.
Though the first commercial version of the game of
Battleship was Salvo, published in 1931 in the United States by the
Starex company, the game itself dates to before the first world
war when it was played on paper by Russian officers.[54] The French
board game L'Attaque was first commercially released in 1910,
having been designed two years prior as a military-themed
imperfect knowledge game based upon the earlier Chinese
children's board game Dou Shou Qi. L'Attaque was subsequently
adapted by the Chinese into Luzhanqi (or Lu Zhan Jun Qi), and
by Milton Bradley into Stratego, the latter having been trademarked

in 1960 while the former remains in the public domain. Jury Box,
published in 1935, was the first murder mystery game which served
as the basis for games like Cluedo.
Initially designed in 1938, Scrabble received its first mass-market
exposure in 1952, two years prior to the release ofDiplomacy, in
1954. Diplomacy was a game favored by John F. Kennedy, and Henry
Kissinger. Originally released in 1957 asLa Conqute du
Monde ("The Conquest of the World") in France, Risk was first
published under its English title in 1959.
Starting with Gettysburg in 1958, the company Avalon
Hill developed particular board wargames covering specific historical
themes such as Midway, D-Day and PanzerBlitz. Board
wargames such as Squad Leader, Tactics and Europa developed
extremely complex and realistic rules. Avalon
Hill's Civilization introduced the use of the technology tree (or "tech
tree"), variants of which have been implemented in numerous later
board and video games such as Sid Meier's Civilization.
Recentwargames such as 'A distant plain', 'Labyrinth' and the
satirical War on Terror have focused on counterinsurgency and
contemporary terrorism.
A concentrated design movement towards the German-style board
game, or Eurogame, began in the late 1970s and early 1980s in
Germany,[55] and led to the development of board games such
as Carcassone, The Settlers of Catan, Agricola, Ticket to
ride and Puerto Rico.
Card games[edit]
Main article: Playing card

British soldiers playing cards inFrance, 1915.

During the 15th century card suits began to approach the

contemporary regional styles and the court cards evolved to
represent European royalty. Early European card games
included Noddy, Ruff, All
Fours, Piquet, Basset, Hofamterspiel,Karnffel, and Primero. In 1674
Charles Cotton's published his 'Compleat Gamester', one of the first
books which set out to outline rules for many card and dice games.
During the mid 16th century, Portuguese traders introduced playing
cards toJapan. The first reference to twenty-one, the precursor
of Blackjack is found in a book by the Spanish author Miguel de
Cervantes. Cervantes was a gambler, and the main characters of his
tale Rinconete y Cortadillo are cheats proficient at
playingventiuna (twenty-one).
The game of Cribbage appears to have developed in the early 17th
century, as an adaptation of the earlier card
game Noddy.Pinochle was likely derived from the earlier Bezique, a
game popular in France during the 17th century. 1742 saw the
publication of Edmund Hoyle's 'Short Treatise on the Game of Whist'
which became one of the bestselling publications of the 18th
century.[56] Whist was widely played during the 18th and 19th
centuries,[57] having evolved from the 16th century game
ofTrump (or Ruf) by way of Ruff and Honours.[58][59] During
the French Revolution, the traditional design of Kings, Queens, and
Jacks became Liberties, Equalities, and Fraternities because the
revolutionary French national assembly believed the people should
not play with Kings or Queens, but with the ideals of the revolution
at hand. This would ultimately be reversed in 1805 with the rise of
Napoleon.
While possibly dating back as far as the reign of Charles VIII of
France (14831498), Baccarat first came to the attention of the
public at large and grew to be widely played as a direct result of
the Royal Baccarat Scandal of 1891,[60][61] and bears resemblances to
the card games Faro andBasset, both of which were very popular
during the 19th century. The rules of Contract bridge were originally
published in 1925, the game having been derived from Bridge
games with rules published as early as 1886, Bridge games, in turn,
having evolved from the earlier game of Whist.
The first documented game of poker dates from a 1834 Mississippi
river steamer. The game derives from a Persian game called "as
nas", as is named after a similar French game, "poque".[62] During
the American Civil War the game was popular with soldiers and
additions were made including stud poker, and the straight.
Moderntournament play became popular in American casinos after
the World Series of Poker (WSOP) began, in 1970.[63] Poker's
popularity experienced an unprecedented spike at the beginning of
the 21st century, largely because of the introduction of online
poker and hole-card cameras, which turned the game into
a spectator sport. In 2009 the International Federation of Poker was

founded in Lausanne, Switzerland, becoming the official governing

body for poker.
Collectible card games or trading card games while bearing
similarities to earlier games in concept, first achieved wide
popularity in the 1990s. The first trading card game was the 'The
Base Ball Card Game' produced by The Allegheny Card Co. and
registered on 4 April 1904 featured 104 unique baseball cards with
individual player attributes printed on the cards enabling each
collector to build a team and play the game against another person.
[64]
The 1990s saw the rise of games such asMagic: The
Gathering and the Pokmon Trading Card Game.
Miniature wargaming[edit]
Main article: Miniature wargaming

H. G. Wells playing Little Wars

Miniature figure games have their origin in a German chess variant
called 'The King's Game', created in 1780 by Helwig, Master of
Pages to the Duke of Brunswick. It had a board with 1,666 squares
of varying types of terrain, with pieces representing modern military
units.[65] In the early 19th century, the Prussian army developed war
games or 'kriegspieler', with staff officers moving pieces around on
a game table, using dice rolls to indicate chance or "friction" and
with an umpire scoring the results. After the stunning
Prussian victories against Austria and France in the 19th century,
the Austrians,French, British, Italians, Japanese and Russians all
began to make use of wargaming as a training tool. By 1889
wargaming was firmly embedded in the culture of the U.S. Navy.[66]
The first non-military wargame rules were developed by Naval
enthusiast and analyst Fred T. Jane in 1898. H. G. Wellspublished
rules in his Floor Games (1911) and Little Wars (1913) designed for
wargaming with toy soldiers. In 1956, Jack Scruby, known as the
"Father of Modern Miniature Wargaming" organized the first
miniatures convention and he was also a manufacturer of military
miniatures and editor of a wargaming newsletter. Miniature war
games became affordable and mainstream in the late 1950s with
the rise of cheaper miniature production methods by miniature
figure manufacturers such as Scruby Miniatures, Miniature Figurines
and Hinchliffe. During the 1980s there was a boom in miniature

wargaming with the development of games such as Warhammer

Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000. Today miniature wargaming
includes most historical eras, fantasy and science fiction settings as
well as Naval wargaming (Don't Give Up the Ship!, General
Quarters), Air wargaming and Space combat wargames (Full
Thrust, Attack Vector: Tactical).
Role playing games[edit]
Main article: History of role-playing games

D&D game in progress.

Early role-playing games such as those made by M. A. R.
Barker and Greg Stafford developed from miniature figure
wargames. Gary Gygax of the University of Minnesota's wargaming
society developed a set of rules for a late medievalmilieu. This game
was called Chainmail and was a historical game, but later editions
included an appendix for adding fantasy elements such as spells,
wizards and dragons. By 1971, Dave Arneson had developed a
miniatures game calledBlackmoor which contained elements that
would become widespread in fantasy gaming: hit points, experience
points, character levels, armor class, and dungeon crawls. Arneson
and Gygax then met and collaborated on the first Dungeons &
Dragons game which was released in 1974 by Gygax's TSR. The
game was very successful and several other games such as the
Science fiction RPG Traveller and the generic GURPS system
followed in imitation. In the late 1970s TSR launched Advanced
Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) which saw an expansion of rulebooks
and additions. The 80s saw several Dungeons & Dragons
controversies such as the claims that the game
promoted Satanism and witchcraft. Traditional Roleplaying games
were the basis for the modern Role-playing video game.
Other indoor games[edit]
In colonial America, the game of Hazard was called crapaud by the
French in New Orleans (a French word meaning "toad" in reference
to the original style of play by people crouched over a floor or
sidewalk). This was later shortened to craps and after several
adaptations became the most popular gambling dice game in the
United States.[67] Sic bo was introduced into the United States by
Chinese immigrants in the 20th century and is now a popular casino

game. Another casino game, Roulette, has been played since the
late 18th century, and was probably adapted from English wheel
games such as Roly-Poly and E.O.
With the possible exception of Carrom (a game whose origins are
uncertain), the earliest table games appear to have been the Cue
sports, which include Carom billiards, Pool, or Pocket billiards,
and Snooker. The cue sports are generally regarded as having
developed into indoor games from outdoor stick-and-ball lawn
games(retroactively termed ground billiards),[68] and as such to be
related to trucco, croquet and golf, and more distantly to the
stickless bocce and balls.
Dominoes, which originate in China and date as far back as
the Song Dynasty (AD 1120), first appeared in Europe during the
18th century. The Chinese tile gameMahjong developed from a
Chinese card game known as Mdio sometime during the 17th
century and was imported into the United States in the 1920s.
Outdoor games[edit]
Main article: History of sport
Modern sports developed from different European games, many of
them played by European royalty. Tennis developed in France,
French kings like Francis I of France(151547) and Henry II (1547
59) were well known players. Golf originated in Scotland, where the
first written record of golf is James II's banning of the game in 1457.
The ban was lifted by James IV in 1502 who also played
golf. Cricket can be traced back to Tudor times in early 16th-century
England and the modern rules ofassociation football and rugby
football are based on mid-19th century rules made to standardise
the football games played by English public schools. These team
sports were spread worldwide by the influence of the British empire.
Electronic games[edit]
Main articles: Electronic game and History of video games
The earliest reference to a purely electronic game appears to be a
United States patent registration in 1947 for what was described by
its inventors as a "cathode ray tube amusement device".[69] Through
the 1950s and 1960s the majority of early computer games ran on
university mainframe computers in the United States. Beginning in
1971, video arcade games began to be offered to the public for play.
The first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, was
released in 1972.[70][71]
The golden age of arcade video games began in 1978 and continued
through to the mid-1980s. A second generation of video game
consoles, released between 1977 and 1983, saw increased
popularity as a result of this, though this eventually came to an
abrupt end with the North American video game crash of 1983. The
homevideo game industry was eventually revitalized with the third
generation of game consoles over the next few years, which saw a
shift in the dominance of the video game industry from the United
States to Japan. This same time period saw the advent of
the personal computer game, specialized gaming home computers,

earlyonline gaming, and the introduction of LED handheld electronic

games and eventually handheld video games.