History of Board Games, Playing Cards, and Puzzles.

By Mary Bellis, About.com Guide

(Continued from Page 1)

11. Monopoly

A Monopoly game as seen during the Monopoly U.S. National Championship tournament

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Monopoly is a board game for two to six players who throw dice to advance their tokens around a board, the object being to acquire the property on which their tokens land.

Charles Darrow became the first millionaire board game designer after he sold his Monopoly patent to Parker Brothers. However, not all historians give Charles Darrow full credit as the inventor of Monopoly.

12. Othello or Reversi

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In 1971, the Japanese inventor, Goro Hasegawa created Othello a variation of another game called Reversi.

In 1888, Lewis Waterman invented Reversi in England. However in 1870, John W. Mollet invented "The Game of Anexation", which was played on a different board but was very similiar to Reversi.

13. Pokémon

nine-years-old plays with his Pokemon cards

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The Wizards of the Coast Inc. are the world's largest publisher of hobby games and a leading publisher of fantasy literature and owners of one of the nation's largest specialty game retail store chains. Founded in 1990 by Peter Adkison, Wizards of the Coast is headquartered just outside Seattle in Renton, Washington. The company employs more than 1,700 people with international offices in Antwerp, Paris, Beijing, London and Milan.

Wizards of the Coast created the world's best-selling games Pokémon® and Magic: The Gathering® trading card games.

14. Rubik's Cube

Hungarian educator Erno Rubik holds up his invention, the Rubik's cube

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Rubik's Cube is considered the most popular brain puzzle in history. The idea of the toy puzzle is simple, players have to make very side of the cube to be one color. However, solving the puzzle is far from easy.

Hungarian, Erno Rubik invented Rubik's Cube.

15. Scrabble

A game of Scrabble in progress during the Mind Sports Olympiad at Olympia in London.

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Dave Fisher, About's Guide to puzzles, has written this history behind the popular board game Scrabble invented by Alfred Butts in 1948.

16. Snakes and Ladders

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Snakes and Ladders is a racing boardgame where a player's token follows a track from start to finish. It is one the first and most popular of board games. Snakes and Ladders was invented in 1870.

17. Trivial Pursuit

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Trivial Pursuit was invented by Chris Haney and Scott Abbott on December 15, 1979. The board game involves answering trivia style questions while moving around a game board.

18. UNO

Merle Robbins was an Ohio barbershop owner who loved to play cards. One day in 1971, Merle came up with the idea for UNO and introduced the game to his family. When his family and friends began playing UNO more and more, Merle took notice. He and his family decided to pool together $8,000 and have 5,000 games made.

UNO went from 5,000 game sales to 125 million in a few years. At first, Merle Robbins sold UNO from his barbershop. Then, a few friends and local businesses sold them, too. Then UNO took the next step towards card-game fame: Merle sold the rights to UNO to a funeral parlor owner and UNO fan from Joliet, Illinois for Fifty thousand dollars, plus royalties of 10 cents per game.

International Games Inc. was formed to market UNO, and sales skyrocketed. In 1992, International Games became part of the Mattel family, and UNO had a new home."