The Game of Life

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This article is about the board game. For the cellular automaton, see Conway's Game of Life. For the Arsonists Get All the Girls album, see The Game of Life (album).
The Game of Life
Designer(s) Reuben Klamer
Bill Markham
Publisher(s) Milton Bradley Company
Players 2 to 6
Age range 9 to Adult
Setup time 10 minutes (approx.)
Playing time 45 minutes (approx.)
Random chance High (spinning a wheel, card-drawing, luck)
Skill(s) required Counting, reading

The Game of Life, also known simply as LIFE, is a board game originally created in 1860 by Milton Bradley, as The Checkered Game of Life (and later produced by the Milton Bradley Company of Springfield, Massachusetts). The Game of Life was America's first popular parlor game.[1][2] The game simulates a person's travels through his or her life, from college to retirement, with jobs, marriage, and possible children along the way. Two to six players can participate in one game, however, variations of the game have been made to accommodate a maximum of only eight or ten players.

The modern version was originally published 100 years later, in 1960. It was created by toy and game designer Reuben Klamer[3] and was "heartily endorsed" by Art Linkletter. It is now part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. It later spawned a book, The Game of Life: How to Succeed in Real Life No Matter Where You Land (Running Press), by Lou Harry.

Contents

[edit] History

The Checkered Game of Life board

The game was originally created in 1860 by Milton Bradley as The Checkered Game of Life. This was the first game created by Bradley, a successful lithographer, whose major product until that time was a portrait of Abraham Lincoln with a clean-shaven face, which did not do well once the subject grew his famous beard. The game sold 45,000 copies by the end of its first year. Like many games from the 19th century, such as The Mansion of Happiness by S.B. Ives in 1843, it had a strong moral message.[4]

Bradley's game did not include dice, instead using a teetotum, a six-sided top (dice were considered too similar to gambling).

The game board was essentially a modified checkerboard. The object was to land on the "good" spaces and collect 100 points. A player could gain 50 points by reaching "Happy Old Age" in the upper-right corner, opposite "Infancy" where one began.

In 1960, the 100th anniversary of The Checkered Game of Life, the first modern version of The Game of Life, a collaboration between Reuben Klamer and Bill Markham, was introduced. There were many re-publishings over the years, including (1959?), 1961, 1966, 1978, 1985, 1992, 2000, and 2005.

[edit] Setup

The modern game consists of a track on which players travel by spinning a small wheel with spaces numbered 1 through 10 located in the middle of the board. The board also contains small mountains, buildings, and other three-dimensional objects. Playing pieces are small, colored, plastic automobiles which come in red, blue, white, yellow, orange, and green; each car has six holes in the top in which blue and/or pink "people pegs" are placed throughout the game as the player "gets married" and has or adopts "children". Some "early modern" editions have eight automobiles.

Each game also includes a setup for a bank, which includes play money (in denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, $50,000, and $100,000. The $500 bills were dropped by the 1980s, as were the $1,000 bills by 1992.), insurance policies (automobile, life, fire, and/or homeowners' insurance depending on the version), $20,000 promissory notes and stock certificates. Other tangibles vary with the game version.

[edit] 1960s version

The Game of Life, copyrighted by the Milton Bradley Company in 1963, had some differences from later versions. For example, once a player reached the Day of Reckoning, they could end up at the "Poor Farm", or become a Millionaire Tycoon, moving on to Millionaire Acres.

This version had Art Linkletter as the spokesman, included his likeness on the $100,000 bills (with his name displayed on the bills as "Arthur Linkletter Esq.") and a rousing endorsement from Linkletter on the cover of the box. It was advertised as a "Milton Bradley 100th Anniversary Game" and as "A Full 3-D Action Game."

[edit] 1970s/1980s version

About halfway through the production of this version, many dollar values doubled (possibly to reflect inflation). This description focuses on the later version with the larger dollar amounts. The late 1980s version also replaced the familiar convertibles from earlier versions with Chrysler-esque minivans. Early 1960s-era convertibles were still used in the 1978 edition sets.

[edit] 1991 version

The Game of Life was updated in 1991 to reward players for "good" behavior, such as recycling trash and helping the homeless.

[edit] CD-ROM version

In 1998, a CD-ROM version of the game was produced by Hasbro which added computerized moves and short animations to the game. An option was also given for players to compete in games over the Internet.

Several features of the 1980s version were also resurrected for this version of the game, such as "collecting presents" for marriage and kids and exacting "Revenge" on other players. Life tiles also provided mini-games to gain more money instead of drawing a tile. Finally, retiring had players choose between Countryside Acres and Millionaire Estates, where players spin the wheel to earn more money while waiting for others to finish. The payouts for Countryside were lower but safer, whereas the Estates had larger payouts but numerous chances for losing large amounts as well.

[edit] 2005 edition

An updated version of the game's 1991 format was released in 2005 with a few gameplay changes. The new Game of Life tried to add in extra elements to reduce chance, although it is still primarily chance based and still rewards players for taking risks.

[edit] Other versions

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/gameoflife.htm
  2. ^ http://springfield375.org/?p=126
  3. ^ "Hall of Fame Inductees". http://www.toyassociation.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Inductees. Toy Industry Association, Inc.. http://www.toyassociation.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Inductees. Retrieved 29 September 2011. 
  4. ^ Lepore, Jill. The Meaning of Life "The New Yorker," May 21, 2007.

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