Board Game

There is some debate among archaeologists and scholars about the exact dating of the earliest-known game boards. Some artifacts, particularly from Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, dating back to the Neolithic period (around 9,000-6,000 BC) have markings or depressions that could be interpreted as game boards. However, these interpretations are often contested. The markings might have had other purposes, like religious rituals or record-keeping.

There are clearer examples of game boards from the Early Bronze Age (around 3,300-2,100 BC). These include boards found in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) and ancient Egypt. These boards have distinct features like playing squares, markings for pieces, and even dice or game tokens found alongside them.

Senet is one of the oldest ever board games. The game dates from ancient Egypt from around 3100 BC and was even referred to in Chapter XVII of the Book of the Dead.The full name of the game in Egyptian was zn.t n.t ḥˁb meaning the "game of passing".

Below is a game box and pieces for playing the game of Senet found within the intact KV62 tomb of king Tutankhamun

The game of backgammon was first played over 5000 years ago. The game's history can be traced back to the ancient civilizations of the Mesopotamian region, which encompasses present-day Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, and parts of Syria and Turkey. The game evolved over time and spread to other parts of the world, including the Middle East, Greece, and eventually the Roman Empire. It gained popularity in various civilizations due to its simple rules, element of chance with dice, and strategic elements. In the Middle East, backgammon has maintained its popularity throughout the centuries, becoming a beloved traditional board game

The Royal Game of Ur is a two-player strategy race board game that was first played in ancient Mesopotamia over 4,500 years ago. The gameboard is composed of two rectangular sets of boxes, one containing three rows of four boxes each and the other containing three rows of two boxes each, joined by a "narrow bridge" of two boxes. The gameplay involves elements of both luck and strategy. The game was popular across the Middle East among people of all social statuses and boards for playing it have been found at locations as far away from Mesopotamia as Crete and Sri Lanka. 

Royal game of Ur gameboard found by Sir Leonard Woolley in the Royal Cemetery at Ur,

 
Vikings enjoyed board games such as Chess and Kings' Table where there are two sets of pieces attackers aiming to capture the King and defenders aiming to get him safely to the edge of the board. Game boards have been found scratched into floors and rocks. Pieces could be stones, shells, carved of wood or ivory, clay figures or anything like that.

Chutes and Ladders was a 13th-century Indian game called "Mokshapat" that was designed to teach Hindu values. The game made its way to England and was sold as "Snakes and Ladders", then the basic concept was introduced in the United States as "Chutes and Ladders" by game pioneer Milton Bradley in 1943.

The earliest known modern board game went on sale in 1759 in the United Kingdom priced eight shillings. John Jeffreys devised the game, called A Journey Through Europe, or The Play of Geography. It was a race game, with players moving their pieces around a board representing the countries of Europe. The first player to reach the end of the board won the game.

The original version of The Game of Life board game, created by Milton Bradley in 1860, was called The Checkered Game of Life. It was US's first popular parlour game. The game board was divided into 63 squares, each representing a different stage in life. The player would start at the "Infancy" square and move their piece around the board, making decisions about their education, career, and family.

The Checkered Game of Life was a much darker and more serious game than the modern version of The Game of Life and the possible outcomes of the game were much more varied. The player could end up in a variety of different professions, including doctor, lawyer, merchant, or criminal. They could also end up in poverty, ruin, or even suicide.

The modern version of The Game of Life was originally published in 1960. It was created by toy and game designer Reuben Klamer 

The first mass-produced, travel-sized board games were made for bored soldiers during the American Civil War.

George Swinerton Parker founded Parker Brothers in 1885. The first game produced was Banking, in which the player who amasses the most wealth is the winner. Their best known game is Monopoly.

Mark Twain invented a 3-piece board game called Mark Twain's Memory Builder: A Game for Acquiring and Retaining All Sorts of Facts and Dates. The game was designed to help players memorize historical facts and dates. It consisted of a board with 100 numbered squares, each representing a year. Players would take turns placing pins on the board, each pin representing a different fact or date. The player with the most pins on the board at the end of the game won.

Memory Builder was not well-received by the public. Critics found it to be too complicated and boring. The game was also expensive, which made it inaccessible to many people. Published in 1891, it was a commercial disaster.

After selling the rights to Monopoly in 1935, Charles Darrow became the world's first millionaire game designer.

Anthony Ernest Pratt, a Birmingham musician working in an engineering factory during World War II, created the game of Cluedo. He came up with the idea for the game in 1943, while he was playing murder mystery games at country hotels. He named the game Murder!, but it was later renamed Cluedo.

In a game of Cluedo, the odds of correctly guessing, on the first attempt, the correct murderer, location and weapon used are 323-1.

Chris Haney and Scott Abbott invented Trivia Pursuit in 1979. They were both journalists working at the Montreal Gazette, and they came up with the idea for the game while they were playing Scrabble. They were frustrated with the fact that Scrabble didn't test their knowledge of general trivia, so they decided to create a game that did.

Haney and Abbott spent two years developing Trivia Pursuit. They wrote the questions, designed the board, and created the game pieces. They also had to find a company to manufacture the game. They eventually found Selchow and Righter, a toy company based in New York City.

Trivia Pursuit was first published in Canada in 1981. It was an immediate success, and it was soon released in the United States. 

Risk, is a board game in which players try to dominate a map of world. When Parker Brothers tried to introduce a German version of Risk in 1982, the German government threatened to ban it on the grounds that it might encourage imperialist and militaristic impulses in the nation’s youth.

In 1986, Rob Angel, a 24-year-old waiter from Seattle, Washington, developed Pictionary, a game in which partners try to guess phrases based on each other's drawings.

Before getting a driver's license in Sierra Leone you have to buy a board game called The Drivers' Way and play it at least once. The game involves rolling stoplight-themed dice and moving models of classic cars around a board, together with answering questions about the country’s road laws.

More board games are sold in Germany than anywhere else on Earth.