Have you ever wondered about the history behind a board game? Maybe just a little curious about why it's named the way it is?
Uno was created by a barber named Merle Robbins, who invented uno in 1971. He was inspired by Crazy eights, Merle and His families favorite card game, a certain card drawn and a player would have to draw two cards, another card meant gameplay switched direction, Merle’s variation was to write each card's specific action on the card. Soon he and his family realized they essentially created a whole new card game.
Risking the sales on their house they printed 5,000 copies of their game and sold them on the road, they ended up selling all 5,000 before a true telemarketer named Bob Tezak, who redesigned the game’s packaging and design.
Monopoly gained a lot of its popularity in the United States during the Great Depression. It was designed from an old 1904 patented game called ‘Landlord’s Game.’ A woman named Lizzie G. Magie created and designed the game and got it patented before the concept of the game got sold in 1935.
Leslie Scott was born in East Africa, she grew up fluent in English and Swahili. She designed Jenga from a stacking game her and her family played in England back in the 1980s. Leslie used “Jenga” as her trademark, a form of the Swahili word Kujenga, which means “To build”
Battleship dates back to WWI it was rumored that two german soldiers created it but there was no evidence behind this, it was played with paper and pencil but the idea moved in the 1960s to a board grid and plastic ships by Milton Bradley. Before it got redesigned to its famous name it was called “Broadside,” and was themed after the War of 1812.
A man named Anthony E. Pratt, came up with an idea for a murder mystery Clue, Cluedo is its name in Europe. Pratt named this game “Murder!” for his love of detective novels and his fascination with murder mysteries. They settled on “Clue” and “ludo,” which means “I play” in Latin, before it was rebranded to clue so America could distribute it all over the US.