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644.7311
1.800-622-rugs
open 7 days a week

HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE 1991

Fun

Continued from preceding page

August of this year, N.P.D.
lists the five top-selling adult
games in the country as
Milton Bradley's Scatter-
gories, Bradley's Taboo, Par-
ker Brother's Trivial Pursuit
with all its different card
sets, Pictionary by the
Games Gang, and Out-
burst from Western Publish-
ing. "Players really like these
games," says N.P.D.'s Ed Roth,
"because all of them require
a lot of interaction and in-
volvement with other people."
The success of most cur-
rent games can be traced to
1982 when Trivial Pursuit,
developed by four Cana-
dians, debuted. This game
not only gave a major shot in
the arm to the adult board
game industry, it opened up
doors for all sorts of new
games based on people so-
cializing with other people.
Criticized for being too ex-
pensive, too high-brow, too
demanding of its players,
and too heavy — the original
game weighed six pounds,
says Lee Gelber — Trivial
Pursuit dumbfounded its
critics and zoomed right to
the top of the game-tracking
charts. Today, most people
rank it in the classic board
game category with Monop-
oly and Scrabble.
In 1984, Games magazine,
a consumer-oriented
publication with a circula-
tion of about 200,000, in-
troduced a game Hall of
Fame. Recognized for quali-
ty and longevity, 14 of the
first 15 games honored are
still going strong. Hall of
Famers include such games
as Clue, Diplomacy,

Dungeons and Dragons, Mo-
nopoly, Risk, Scrabble,
Sorry!, and Stratego.
Selections for 1991 include
Mille Bornes, a Parker
Brothers card game; Twister
from Milton Bradley, on the
market for 25 years; and
Pente, a strategy game that
is being reissued this year by
Decipher.
Trumpet, by International
Games, was recently
selected as 1991 "Game of
the Year" by Games maga-
zine. Considering that 200 to
250 new games hit the
market each year, picking
number one is not easy.
Chief among the criteria for
Trumpet's selection was that
"it was fun to play," says
senior editor Burt Hochberg,
who calls the game "a com-
bination card and board
game that involves a lot of
strategy." Trumpet also
offers game buyers a nice
surprise — it retails for $10.
Set, a new puzzle-like card
game, was released too late
to be officially reviewed by
the Games staff. But Mr.

Hochberg predicts Set will be
"a smash hit."
One of the most innovative
board games to hit the
market this year is Play It
By Ear from Rykodisc Inc.
It's similar to Trivial Pur-
suit but besides question
cards, there are 381 sound
bits, on a compact disc,
taken from music, speeches,
movies, television, sports,
even short stories. For each
right answer, players move a
peg towards the winner's
circle. A CD is essential to
play this game.
Milton Bradley is the
major player in adult games.
Besides standards like
Scrabble, Scattergories and
Taboo, the company has
quite a few new games on
the market. True Colors
asks players to guess who
among the players would be
most likely to do things like
clip coupons after winning

The success of
most current
games can be
traced to 1982
when Trivial
Pursuit debuted.

the $5 million dollar lottery.
Gestures is a charade-type
team game with players ac-
ting out words against a
timer.
For people who like wear-
ing head gear and playing
games, the Games Gang has
introduced Hedbanz, The

Identity Crisis Game.
Players wear cards, display-
ing a name of something or
somebody from boxer shorts
to Napoleon, clipped to a
headband; players have to
guess within a time limit,
who or what they are.
Parker Brothers, now
owned by Hasbro, Inc., has
been inventing and selling
games since the 1880s. They
have quite a stable of hits,
including Sorry!, Risk and
Clue. In 1988, they secured
the rights to Trivial Pursuit.
Monopoly is their baby, too,
although they originally
turned down the game as too
complicated and too long
when it was brought to them
by inventor Charles Darrow
in 1932.
Today, Monopoly, printed
in 23 languages, is the
world's most popular pro-
prietary board game. Com-
pany spokesperson Pat
McGovern says, "One hun-
dred million Monopoly
games have been sold
worldwide." Adds N.P.D.'s
Ed Roth, "Monopoly is

