Emileigh Board Games 39

The transcript is a conversation between two friends discussing various topics, including a funny incident with a cookie, their experiences with board games, and the history of board games. They mention the earliest evidence of board games being dice found in Turkey, the use of sticks for rolling dice in Mesopotamia, the popularity of board games among Egyptian pharaohs, and the significance of the game Senet in Egyptian culture. They also mention the adaptation of board games by the middle class and the game Mahen, which represents the deity Mahen in Egyptian sun cult. Overall, they express their love for board games and share personal anecdotes. Okay. I will bring us into the episode if you're ready. I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready, okay. Welcome to Ill-Equipped History, where two best friends who are not equipped to tell you about history do so anyway. I am joined by Morgan. How are you? Oh, I'm doing good. Well, I'm doing good now. I told you I had a story. Let me tell you what my husband did to me. So, we, I promised the kids that I would take them to Crumble Cookie. And while at Crumble Cookie, she, the lady very easily talked me into a four pack because sweets. And so, the kids had their two cookies, and then I got two for Nick and I to share. And like the next day, because we don't eat really that many sweets, we were still kind of just munching on the cookies, and while I am not even a full cup of coffee in the next morning, he comes up to me, and he shoves like a third of this cookie, and it's an Oreo stacked cookie, it's delicious, and he shoves it in my mouth. And I look at him, and I'm like, you know, full mouth, thanks, honey, eating it. And then, and then I realized what he's done. And it hits me that he put hot honey in the cookie. So, I'm eating this beautiful, lovely Oreo with like a, like a marshmallow filling sandwich cookie from Crumble Cookie. And the next thing I know, my mouth is on fire at 9 a.m. See, and this is why I keep playing, because sometimes it's a cookie, and sometimes it's spicy. But sometimes I get tricked, and he thought it was the funniest thing. He like turned around to like watch my face for when I realized what was happening. I was so mad. It was the last of the cookie, too. No. No, I didn't. I just chugged my coffee. He did make me more iced coffee, so I'll give him that, because I ran out very quickly with my mouth on fire. So, how are you? I know. I know. I thought he loved me. Nice. Yeah. It do be like that. That's great. That's all you got. Cool. Well, that means we can get into the skit real quick, like, okay, some notes real quick. Will, Brenda, and Ashley are chill. Brian is chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. I'm chill. It eventually comes back to Brian. He rolls the dice and makes his move. I'm sorry, but it's the rules. That'll be $400, please. Dramatic crash sounds in the background. Brian flips the board off the table in a fit of rage and storms off, leaving the house completely. Remind me not to invite him to the next game night. Agreed. Monopoly has been ruining friendships for over 100 years now, but it's just one of the many popular board games that have been created and loved over history. So what was the first one, and how did they develop into the games we have today? More games. I guess you know what we're talking about today now. Board games. I love a good board game. No. I mean, growing up, I don't know how many games we played, and as good as I say I am, I do lose, and it's fine. It's fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, oh, I talk a lot of shit for someone who's bad at a lot of things. Truly. But you were saying you have some friends that... Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know we were with, like, children, sore loser children. I thought I was with other adults. Okay. Thanks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was playing Trouble with the kids the other day, and my son, he just kept sneaking in. He kept trying to sneak in those extra ones, or he'd, you know, count the little things wrong. He'd, like, skip over ones, and I was caught. The whole game was just telling him, and my daughter as well, but telling them both, like, the rules about 50 million times, and they were just like, okay, and just bumbling through life. Like, they were fine. Like, if a four- and a six-year-old has more emotional intelligence than you do, I think you need to do some inner perspective for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Hey. William hasn't cried once when I've beat him in Mario Kart so far, so, or my son hasn't. But, yeah, because I'm not letting him win. If he wants to win, he's got to get good. So, yeah, just, you know, family game nights. It's fine. Okay. Back on track. So, how old do you think the first board game was? Or any, like, kind of game like that. It doesn't necessarily have to be, like, a board, because obviously, yeah, just games of that nature. Actually, look at you being all smart. About 5,000 B.C.E. is when they started seeing the first board games. So, yeah, that's a long time ago. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. 5,000 B.C.E. is when they started seeing the first, the earliest evidence of games, and it was dice. So, the earliest game ever found was 49 small carved painted stones, and they were found at Basur Hoyuk, which is a burial mound in southeast Turkey. So, similar games have been found in Syria and Iraq and seem to point to board games originating in the Fertile Crescent, which is the regions around the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates River in the Middle East. What? No! Get out of my head! Why are we the same people? I literally picked this topic, and I was like, there's no way. She's going to be able to find one that has anything to do with this. That is so wild. Oh, my God. Okay. So, the earliest, other early origin dice games were created by painting a single side of a flat stick. These sticks were tossed in unison, and the amount of painted side showings would be your roll, so they kind of rolled them with sticks. Mesopotamian dice were made from a variation of materials, including carved knuckle bones, wood, painted stones, and turtle shells. Now, find your way back to the skit and scroll on down. You'll see the Mesopotamian dice and some of those sticks as well, and you can see they're kind of carved and painted, and it's really cool. Eventually, the dice were made from a larger variety of materials, including brass, copper, glass, ivory, and marble, and dice in the Romanian era looked very similar to the dice today. So, scroll down. It's going to blow your mind how similar they look. That looks like some D&D shit right there. And, yeah, and some even have the cut corners for added possibilities, and that, yeah, to get, like, the higher number, and the source even said very similar to D&D games now, like those kinds of games. No. Yeah. Is it? So, skipping forward to 3100 BCE, and this is the ancient Egyptian pharaohs' loved board games, specifically a game called Senet. And the Senet board itself is a grid of 30 squares, and you can scroll down and see two pictures of one is a hieroglyph and the other is the actual board. And they were arranged in three rows of ten. There are two sets of pawns, at least five in each set, some shorter, some more, and, you know, it varied. So historians have made, like, a guesstimation for the actual rules, and it's been adopted by different countries, which makes sense for sale today. So it might not be exactly what it is, but you can buy a version of Senet. Yeah, it's like if you, instead of a square, it's like a rectangle, and it's like three rows of ten, and there are little pieces that look like chess boards. And the hieroglyph, if you look at it, it looks like a chess board because it's from the side, yeah. Yeah. So, I'm sorry. So Senet has been found in pre-dynastic and first dynasty burials and is found in several illustrations in tombs. So it's a very important game. So by the time the New Kingdom rolls around in Egypt, which is between 1550 and 1077 BCE, it had become kind of a talisman for the journey of the dead. So Senet boards were often placed in the grave along with other objects. We all know those kinds of objects for the dangerous journey through the afterlife. It was thought that the high element of luck in the game of Senet was strongly tied to fate, and the Egyptians were really into the idea, the concept of fate. And a successful player was under the protection of the major gods of the national pantheon, Ra, Thoth, and sometimes Osiris himself. And the game is even referred to in chapter XVII, which is 17, of the Book of the Dead. What are you, Yod? Okay. So in 3000 BCE, so about a hundred years after our previous mention, board games became adapted by the middle class. So beforehand, it was all the upper class, pharaohs, you know, wherever you are in the world, that was it. And it quickly became tied to religious beliefs. And Mahen is one of those. The game represents the deity Mahen, who was envisioned by the sun cult, which is Egyptian, as a huge serpent who wrapped the sun god in its coils. And you can see a picture of that one. It looks like a snake all coiled around. So sometime before the Old Kingdom, the game and the god became intertwined. And it became synonymous with the serpent deity in text. And one ancient Egyptian historian, Tim Kendall, believes that it isn't possible to know whether this deity was inspired by the game or was an already existing mythology. So they don't know if the game was inspired by the deity or the deity was inspired by the game. Can you imagine being a deity and then your only existence is because of a board game? Fine. It's giving the same vibes as, like, I read, did you read The Hogfather? Okay. In The Hogfather, it's a Christmas book by Terry Pratchett. I highly suggest listening to it because the narrators are great. But there is a god or there, yeah, there's a god of hangovers. And the whole premise was, like, he was created because people believed in hangovers. And he had, like, a little dude on his head hitting him in the head with a hammer. And it was hilarious. But it's giving that vibe. So a similar Arab game, A-Rab game? I feel like that should be it. My brain. Similar Arab game, A-Rab. Known as the hyena game, shared several characteristics with, why can I not stop yawning? Shared several characteristics with Nahin. And because of this, the game utilized in, oh, the gameplay utilized in the hyena game has been adopted to fit the game of Nahin. So because of its similarities, they're like, well, we don't really know how they were playing it. So we're just going to take the rules of another game. Tweak it a little bit. You can make it bigger if you want to. I have a rough explanation. So players each begin with six marbles and one lion, a lion. So stick dice, as depicted above, those, you know, they determine your movement. Players start at the tail along the outer edge, so the outside tail, and move towards the center where the snake's head is. I'm assuming in a circle. And the players race to the center with their marble pieces, so the six marbles. And once the marble reaches the center, the movement reverses, and the players move towards the start again. The lion piece is put into play, and somehow that lion piece is a predatory piece, and it has to capture, it tries to eat the marbles. Yeah, right? I want to play. Yeah. I just want to know, like, how they would know how far to move the dice. Oh, that would make sense. Yeah. It's not like there's squares. Yeah, it's not like there's little positions. You are very right. I was, like, staring at it thinking, how are the pieces going to stay on that rounded surface of the snake? So dumb. So in 2650 BCE, this is, like, blowing my mind. So the pieces just comes on. The Royal Game of Ur is the longest running board game. So I think this means, because, you know, we have discussed other games that are being played right now. So what I think, how I interpreted this is they 100% know the rules, how to play it, and they're not just, like, guessing at it. So it was previously thought to be backgammon, but this is a little different. It was originally thought to be long dead, but listen to this story. A game enthusiast, Irving Finkel, discovered the game's rules carved into an ancient stone tablet. What a hobby. So then he spotted a photograph of an identical board game from modern day India. And then soon after, Finkel met with a retired school teacher who had played the game as a kid. So it was just kind of under the radar the whole time. People had still been playing it. Correct. Like, it just, people were just doing it, and they weren't, you know, it's not like you could go out and just buy one at Walmart or whatever. Yeah. And he discovered the game's rules carved into an ancient stone tablet. So he was able to tie what was still going on to something that was happening way back then, which is fascinating to me. He was just a game enthusiast. So, like, going above and beyond Irving Finkel, good for you. And the game gets its name from its founding within the royal tombs of Ur in Iraq. And there was also a set found in King Tut's tomb. Wow. And the Royal Game of Ur was played with two sets, one black and one white, of seven markers and three four-sided dice. And there is a picture of the Royal Game of Ur if you go down. I don't know. I think it's almost painted. But they look very specific as well. It's like there's a pattern to what's going on here. So I don't know how to play it. It is really pretty. And the little pieces are giving, like, if dominoes were round. So around 2000 BCE, I am going to butcher this because it's Latin. Okay? So sorry. Duodesum Scriptorum was a board game popular during the time of the Roman Empire. And the name translates as, quote, game of 12 markings. And that likely refers to the three rows of 12 marks found on the board. And the game Tabula is thought to be a descendant of this game. And both are similar to the modern backgammon. So this is where we see kind of like backgammon roots. And the only difference with modern backgammon were the use of an extra die, so three rather than two. And the starting of all pieces off the board. Instead, they entered in the same way that pieces on the bar entered in modern backgammon. I don't know how to play backgammon. Yeah. Yeah. I watched a lot of videos trying to figure out the history of backgammon because it is kind of elusive. Like, some people say some things, and you're going to find this with, like, backgammon and chess and checkers, I believe. They were all just, like, kind of convoluted and really hard to kind of narrow down. So if one source says one thing and another source says another thing, I am very sorry. I tried to get it all as streamlined as possible. But it's like I watched a lot of videos, and a lot of the videos were just middle-aged men saying how serious backgammon is. And I don't understand why they called it. And this was even, like, back in the early 1900s, and I might get into this later. They referred to it as the cruelest game, like, quote, the cruelest game. And I think because it's, like, half luck and half skill, so you've only got so much control. And, yeah, so they wouldn't know what the actual cruelest game was. They wouldn't know Mammal Jimmy being absolutely ruthless with some, like, seven-year-olds. They didn't have Mammal Jimmy as a mammal, or they would have called it the cruelest game. Listen, I love Mammal Jimmy, but she was not playing around with Monopoly for some reason. So 1300 BCE is the Ludus Lantern Chlorum, and that was a two-player strategy board game played throughout the Roman Empire. And it has references as early as Homer's time and is said to resemble chess. So this is, like, the earliest version, iteration of chess. And because of limited sources, reconstruction of the game's rules is difficult, but it's generally accepted to be a game of military tactics, which is kind of what chess is anyway. Yes, there is. And, I mean, you are going after, like, the king and the queen, and you've got, you know, you've got your bishops and your pawns and the knights. I used to be pretty good at chess. I haven't played in years, though. I played for years with my uncle. Like, I would just, I don't know. And then I just stopped playing one day. But because of the large number of wars during the 13th century, it's believed that that was the influence on the game's theme of the military strategy. Yeah. War. War. So, you scared me a little bit. It's okay. The board is called the city, and each piece is called a dog. Don't send the dogs to war in this game of war. Are you calling someone a dog, like, a bad thing? Or are you sending puppies to war? I don't. It's like the puppy bowl, but bloodier. Yes. Go to Australia. Take all the emus. There's plenty of them. And they're bulletproof. So would they be arrow-proof, do you think? Yeah, surely the arrows aren't that sharp. Well, I mean, they'd outrun the arrow anyway. Zoom, zoom. That's a fox boy. So, my favorite. I can't not say it. You can say it any time. I'll allow it. Okay. You're welcome. The pieces are two colors of two colors, so separate. They're not, like, two-color each piece. And the art of the game consists in taking a piece of one color by enclosing it between two of the other color. So instead of, like, chess where you just, like, kick the shit out of their pawns and their knights and stuff, you just, like, mine, you have to, like, strategically get two around the one. Yeah, so, like I said, it is theorized that this game, not going to try to say the name again, may have had influence on the historical development of early chess. And we are going to get into backgammon chess and even checkers and a couple others later on in more detail. But for the sake of the timeline, I thought I'd keep this concise for now. So around 500 B.C., so we skipped from 1300 to 500, so I guess not a whole lot was going on between there except, I'm sure, more war because it's always going on. This is where we start to see children playing games, because before it was a very adult thing to do. The kids didn't really play these kind of games. And while technically not a board game, I'm throwing it in here as an honorable mention, hopscotch was invented. No shit. I was like, I just thought that was some stuff we did as children. It was one of the first board games. Go back to the skit. Look at this hopscotch board from Rome. It looks... It's beautiful. They didn't have chalk, Morgan. They had to get very serious with it. Yes. It's very pretty. And it looks exactly like hopscotch. I mean, nothing's changed. Yes. Yes. And the rules are the same. There are many variations of the game all over the world, of course, but the general rules are, you toss a stone, a coin, a bean bag, something into one of the squares, and then you have to not hop in that square. That's the rules. And the game's first recorded reference in English-speaking world dates back to the 17th century and is usually under the name Scotch Hop or Scotch Hopper, which is cute. Why? So extra. I mean, we love you, but you're so extra. And according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the name formation came from the word hop, which I don't need to define hop, and scotch meaning an scratch, like a line scratched in. So you hop in the line. In 400 BCE, Liubo was the first board game to be developed in Asia. So games were played there, but they were iterations of other board games from other places. And this was one of the first ones, at least that they found, that was developed in Asia. And the game was played by two players. It is believed each player was given a piece of paper It is believed each player had six game pieces that were moved around the points of the square game board and that, like, it had symbols, patterns. There were other stick dice things going on. I'm not going to get, I don't know. I didn't understand it, so I'm not going to try to reiterate the rules to you of a game we're not going to play today. So, yeah. So Liubo was super popular in the Han Dynasty but it rapidly declined afterwards and almost became fully forgotten by, like, the next dynasty. So knowledge of the game increased in recent years with archaeological discoveries of Liubo, like, found in ancient tombs. And because the board games, these boards were made out of very, mostly organic material, typically only, like, the dice or other various pieces were found. But, and I'm quoting literally what the source wrote because it cracked me up. I was sitting in the coffee shop and I giggled to myself because it says, quote, however, they found a whole freaking set in 1973 that was well preserved with an exclamation point. Like, whoever wrote that was so excited. And if you scroll down, I have a picture of the set. It's beautiful. Yeah, the whole freaking set. I know. Is that not amazing? Your freaking kid. No, it could stay. I say, I mean, not worse things, but, like, I call them my goblins, so. To their face. You goblin. Yeah. Here, let me, let me, I did, I do have a list of what is contained. So we have one lacquered wooden game box, one lacquered wooden game board, 12 cubic style ivory game pieces. Well, cuboid. They're not exactly cubes. They're like flat cubes. Six black, six white, 20 ivory game pieces, 30 rod-shaped ivory counting chips, 12 ivory throwing rods, one ivory knife, one ivory scepter, and one 18-sided die with the numbers 1 through 16 and characters meaning win and lose. Right? Isn't that? Yeah, I don't know how you would do that. Lots of carving. Math. Also, can we take into appreciation that they did not go to their local Walmart and or Target and buy these sets. Somebody took the time and meticulously made this beautiful, like, game board set. Yeah. Someone was like, I've got an idea. I'm going to make us a new game. And it, like, popped off, and they had to make a bunch more of them. And there isn't an official set of rules for this game because there just wouldn't have been. Like, you were just expected to know what the rules were. And, yeah, just get good. Have you ever thought about just knowing the rules? I mean, duh. But it's, but they have, like, a, literally, I wrote, but there's a theorized version. That's very complicated. I was going to write out a brief summary of the rules. There's no briefing to it. You either, like, read it all the way through or not. Oh, my God. Yeah, just know that the point of the game is to get six tokens. The first to do so wins. So that's. Are we stabbing people? Like, what kind of game is this? If anybody knows the rules or how to play Liubo, send one over to the studios. We'll play. As long as we don't have to stab each other with it. It's too much. So, now we've got, we're going a big skip. We're going from 400 BCE to 400 CE. I don't know what was going on between then. Again, I mean, probably more important things than board games. Yeah. That's 800 years of just, ah. So. Yeah. Yeah. Humanity happened is what happened. I don't know what else to say. So, Tafel, it's T-A-F-L, Tafel or Tafel, games are a family of ancient Germanic and Celtic strategy board games played on a checkerboard with two armies of uneven numbers. I don't know how that works. Why uneven numbers? I mean, I guess that would be more realistic. But if you had the less amount of numbers, like a less army, you'd have to just be good to win, I guess. Possibly. Possibly. Or maybe they have different strengths. Like you might have a big army, but maybe they're not as powerful as like the smaller army individually speaking. I don't know. So, it's presumed that this indicated the cultural aspect by mimicking the success of Viking raids. So, I guess we just answered that. Still don't know how it was played, though. So, Tafel spread everywhere that the Vikings traveled. So, I guess they were like, we're going to take over your land. But here's a board game. This is fair. So, that included Iceland, Britain, Ireland, and Lapland. And several iterations of the game were played across much of, you know, northern Europe. Oh, I did it again. It's presumed that Tafel branched off into an iteration called Chataranga. Chataranga. And Chataranga is an ancient Indian strategy game developed in the Gupta Empire. Don't know why I stuttered on that. It's not that hard. India, Gupta Empire in India around the 6th century A.D. So, in the 7th century, it was adopted as Chataraja in Sassanid in Persia, okay, which in turn was the form of chess brought to the late medieval Europe. So, as a recap, Tafel was spread thanks to the Vikings. And then Tafel branched off into an iteration called Chataranga. Chataranga was in India. And this is a physical manifestation of my brain right now. We should start recording just for this reason. I cannot talk without my hands. I literally cannot. So, you know. So, then in the 7th century, the Chataranga was adopted in Persia, and that turned into the form of chess that was brought into late medieval Europe. It came around. It came around. And like I said before, like I said before, we talked about a different form of chess, you know, a thousand years before this. So, again, it's like convoluted where it's like I think some of it came around and then something inspired this and then this is similar to that. But it's kind of I guess you only had so many options in the early times of humanity on how to play games. I mean, you base it off of life, like of what's going on around you. And a lot of that's war and strategy. Yeah. It does? You're correct. So, by the year 1000, it had spread throughout Europe and then was introduced into the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors in the 10th century. It was described in a famous 13th century manuscript covering the satyrage, which is the Persian chess. And this 13th century manuscript covered not only the Persian chess, but backgammon and dice. And the dice game was named Libro de los Huagos. Isn't Huagos egg? Libro de los Huagos. Egg. Egg. It's either book or freedom. Same thing. I'm surprised I got Huagos right. Okay. Any of my fellow This Paranormal Life hardcore listeners will know that eggs are really funny for some reason in that podcast. So, that's all I'm thinking about right now. Eggs are basically in the commune. The commune. Sorry. It's not a cult, but it's your currency. Eggs are everything. Eggs are life. Yeah. Okay. I listen to them backwards. I listen to the most recent to, like, the very first one, and now I kind of want to start at the very first one and listen to it the correct way again. I don't know why I did that. So, around 700 CE is when we see Mancala. Have you ever played Mancala? No. Okay. Around 700 CE is when we see Mancala. Have you ever played Mancala? No. Are you thinking of Cracker Barrel? No. Not that one. So, Mancala is actually a family of games instead of just, like, one specific game. I have played what is now you just go to the store, you buy Mancala, that's the game you get. When I was in my car accident when I was in the fifth grade, because that was the early 2000s, 2003 specifically, I'm not much of a movie person. So, as we've established. So, me and my family played a lot of games while I couldn't walk for 10 months. So, I got really good at Rummy and I, yeah, Monopoly and Mancala, and I would just sit at the hospital and play a lot of Rummy. So, yeah. So, I have played Mancala. It's been a long time, probably since then since I've played it. But it is known around the world as sewing games or count and capture games. So, if you look at the pictures again, you'll see this is a Mancala board that was made into the ground instead of actually having a board that can go with you. And I believe that's from maybe, oh, I don't think I wrote down actually where that was found. But more than 800 names of traditional Mancala games are known. So, they've all got their own little twist. And, however, they all are the same somehow. It's just they're all the same, but they're a little different, I think. But basically there's rows of the same amount and there's little pits. And you use stones or seeds for each opponent. And you have to, like, pick up yours. And I'm trying to remember from when I played. Like, you would pick one up and then you would capture the other players, like marbles or seeds or stones or whatever you're using. And I think the player with the most at the end wins. Yeah. So, that's kind of where we're at as far as, like, a timeline of development on the more ancient games. So, let's get we're going to back up just a little bit and go specifically into popular games throughout history that are still played today. So, starting as far back as 2000 BCE, we did mention the origins earlier. And with the invention of the double cube in the 1920s, so this is modern day, more modern day. So, we talked about the origins. Now we're getting into, like, what it is now. And the popularity of backgammon surged again in the mid-1960s, partly due to the charisma of Prince Alex Obelinsky, who was a Russian-American socialite. And he was the first Russian-American socialite to be able to And he became known as the father of modern backgammon. And he co-founded the International Backgammon Association, which published a set of official rules. He also established the World Backgammon Club of Manhattan, which devised a backgammon tournament system in 1963. And he later organized the first major international backgammon tournament in March of 1964, which attracted royalty, celebrities, and the press. So, he was just, like, getting it with the backgammon. And from there, backgammon clubs were formed and tournaments were held, resulting in a world championship, which was promoted in Las Vegas in 1967. And the game became a huge fad and was played on college campuses and country clubs and places, you know, like that. People all across the country, young and old, dusted off their boards and, you know, about to spill my drink, and came running. So, it got so popular that cigarette, liquor, and car companies began to sponsor the tournaments, and Hugh Hefner held backgammon parties at the Playboy Mansion. Can you imagine going to the Playboy Mansion and, like, I'm sure the bunnies are walking around, but, like, you're really there for the backgammon. It's like, bug off, Susan, it's my turn. Oh, my God. Like, all right. Some priorities. So, most recently, the United States Backgammon Federation, or the USBGF, was organized in 2009 to repopularize the game in the United States. So, I guess since then it has gone downhill. Board and committee members include many of the top players, tournament directors, and writers in the worldwide backgammon community. And, like I said before, it was a game of skill and luck. You had to be, you had to have both to win. And I did, I watched a lot of these videos, and I should have put a picture on here, but most of the, like, more ancient artworks, and by ancient I mean probably medieval times, if it depicts backgammon, typically they're, like, in a dingy bar, everyone's hammered, and someone's flipping the board. I'm not going to lie, it looks like modern Monopoly, but, like, in a bar. They're, like, mad. There's, like, a bartender, like, it's actually pretty funny. But, during my research, I found backgammon boards for sale. And they're bougie. How much do you think I found one for? This is just one side I found it on. Yeah. $14,000. Y'all, this is why we need to do video, because her, her money, I mean, I don't know how much it is, but it's, like, $14,000. $14,000. Y'all, this is why we need to do video, because her, her mouth is on the floor, cartoon style. Dropped. Yeah, $14,000. Let me see if I can, let's see. No. I don't either. Okay, I figured out which one it is. I'm going to put it in the skip. I'm putting it right under the backgammon picture. Okay, click on that. Oh, the picture of the backgammon carved into the ground. Not backgammon, mancala. I'm sorry. It says, like, Alexandria Llewellyn. Okay, now just scroll to the bottom. Yes, I do apologize. Sorry. Oh, sorry, the one to the right, the Marilyn Monroe one's $19,720. Coming soon. The 14, it's $14,780, and it's just got a big butterfly in the middle of it. The geometric one is really cool, but I think that would stress me out, the pattern of it. Oh, my God, there's more. Oh, there's more. I did, I did, you can, yeah, grab them. $19,000, like, the cheapest one I'm finding is $5,700. Oh, poppies and cranes, that's pretty. But why? What is it made out of? Wait. Okay. I mean, yeah, I'm sure they're handmade, but that's more than I made in my part-time job last year. I am, too. They're beautiful. Yeah. Like, look, if I had fuck-it money and knew how to play backgammon, I could see it. But to the average Joe. Oh, the engraving is an extra $530. I mean, when you compare it to the $14,790 pocket change. That is just wild to me. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my God. That's huge. I would never want to play with it, though. So stressed about just owning it. Very pretty. Okay. No. Backgammon. Okay. So on to the next game. Chess. I know we did get into the origins. So when chess came to Germany, the term for chess and check, which is kind of what they said in Persia, entered the German language as schach, but that word was already a native German word for robbery. So as a result, ludus latrin colorum, which was mentioned earlier, was often used as a medieval Latin name for chess. And around 1200 AD, the rules for the Persian form of chess started to be modified in southern Europe. And around 1475, several major changes made the game today's game, basically. So the pawns gained the option of advancing two squares on their first move, while bishops and queens acquired their modern abilities. So the queen can go anywhere and do anything because she is the queen. And that's the only one I remember, really, except the horse moves up and over like an L. So the queen replaced the earlier vizier chess piece. Is it vizier? Vizier? Vizier chess piece towards the end of the 10th century and by the 15th century had become the most powerful piece. As she should. And consequently, modern chess was referred to as queen's chess or mad queen's chess. Okay. So these new rules quickly spread throughout Western Europe and the rules concerning stalemates were finalized in the early 19th century. So during the age of enlightenment, chess was viewed as a means of self-improvement. Benjamin Franklin even wrote an article titled, quote, the morals of chess in 1750. And he stated, this is a long one, so buckle up, quote, the game of chess is not merely an idle amusement. Several very valuable qualities of the mind useful in the course of human life are to be acquired and strengthened by it. So as to become habits ready on all occasions for life is a kind of chess in which we have often points to gain and competitors or advisories to contend with. And in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events that are in some degree the effect of prudence or the want of it by playing at chess. Then we may learn. End quote. He's very passionate about chess. Do you think? I mean, it was Ben Franklin. Was that before or after he got shocked by the lightning? So chess was soon after implemented into schools where the first chess clubs began. So in this time period where backgammon was seen as we're going to play this at the bar and get drunk and then flip the thing when it doesn't go our way. Chess was seen as very classy in the home. Yes, that's a great word for it. It was like we played it in the home with some music playing in the background and we like stir our brandy or, you know, painting a picture for y'all. But thank you. Thank you. So, yeah, it was seen as like classy and you wouldn't act like that when you were playing chess. You only got wild on backgammon. So fun little fact here. While chess isn't officially in the Olympics, it is recognized as a sport by the International Olympics Committee. And it even has its own Olympiad held every two years as a team event. And most countries have a national chess organization as well. So, listen, we are already an hour in. I deleted two pages worth of notes on the development of the chess world championship and then decided we didn't have time for it because I was at like 16 pages of notes at that point. And I was like, I think I need to cut this. So, please know, I meant well. A lot of bullshit was going on. At one point, the winner of like the chess championship was like, this was before like official rules, they're like, I don't want to defend it. I'm going to go 10-year streaks without accepting like an opponent so I can hold on to the world championship title for like longer. He was being a baby about it. And it was like 10 years and then he won again and then it was like another 10 years. And people were like, you have to play somebody. You can't just win one time and then be like, I am the champion. Yeah. Yeah, no, you have to. Eventually, through like all sorts of bullshittery, they eventually were like, you have to defend your title every three years. So, that's what happened. So, the chess world championship was made official in 1886, but they had like an unofficial title for more than 50 years before that. So, they were kind of doing their own thing, local things, and then it became official in 1886. So, I literally wrote, there's so much more, but it would take up the rest of the episode. There was eventually a women's championship in the 1920s. So, that's when that happened. So, the current, yes, please Google it. I will tell you the current grandmaster is Ding Liren from China. That's the men. The current women's grandmaster is Zhu Wenjun from China. So, they're both from China. So, they're really killing it out there. Good for you, China. So, the next one, checkers. And I put this third because it could either be third or it could be first because who the fuck knows, honestly. Some say the earliest artifacts were found as long ago as 3000 BCE in Ur in Iraq. So, apparently they were maybe considering like the game of Ur part of it or maybe they had multiple games going on at the same time. I don't know. Some say that checkers were inspired by the 1400 BCE game from Egypt called Al-Kerke, which is a multi-piece strategy game. Where in the 1000s, a Frenchman tried to play Al-Kerke on a chess board with 12 backgammon pieces. He Frankensteined this game together and he called it fierges, making it the first iteration of the game we play today. And in 1756, an English mathematician, William Payne, wrote the first official rule book. And that's when it started to become known as drafts in the UK, checkers in the US. So, I don't think one has to be wrong. Oh, also, some say it originated in Spain. No other explanation as to that. So, thank you, source. Who knows on that one? But I think it's probable that the games were adapted into checkers we know today. The sources say different things, so that doesn't mean that the 3000 BCE one didn't inspire the other or, you know, how things evolve over time. Yeah, yeah. I'm just thinking of like, I keep going back to the beer episode where it was just chaos until now we have beer. So, you know. So, in the original game of checkers, with the first original rule book, capture was optional. I don't know why you wouldn't, though. But anyway, compulsory capture was introduced in the 16th century. If a player neglected to capture, he was penalized by being hewed. I don't know what that means. Hewed. Hew, hew. So, this version of the game started to be known in France as Joufforce. Joufforce. Also known in other areas as checkers. So, more chaos is ensuing. I don't know why. So, in France, Joufforce was replaced by another form of checkers known as La Grande. La Grande. It's spelled Forcat. F-O-R-C-A-T. Forcot? Forca? It's France. It's France. It's France. I just said France. It's France. So, that became obsolete in the 1720s and was replaced by the game we call Polish or Continental Checkers, which was being played throughout mainland Europe. So, again, and I'm putting this in quotes because this is what the source said. It said, various authorities have different theories to the specific origin. And I wrote, sounds like a whole lot of he said, she said, who freaking knows? Because who knows? Yeah. Yeah, well. Yeah, exactly. And all I know is that when I think of checkers, I think of Cracker Barrel. You too? Because what else do you do when you're waiting? You play checkers or you shop and I can tell you which one's cheaper. No, I haven't been to a Cracker Barrel in years. Okay. So, now we're getting into more modern games. One of my absolute favorites, the game of life. Yeah. I just wanted someone to play board games with me. I was desperate. Thanks. And this is why we're friends. So, okay, so the beginning of the story doesn't seem like it would tie into the creation of a board game, but trust the process. Unlike Brian from our skit, this is a good process, not his shitty strategy. So, in 1856, Milton Bradley landed a job as a mechanical draftsman. From there, he developed his skills as a lithographer, where he was successful in making Abraham Lincoln's lithograph when Abraham Lincoln was still clean shaven. That's an important factor. So, for all that don't know, lithography is the process done by stone and metal that closely resembles painting, but it's more like you carve the image into stone or metal, and it's like a stamp. So, you, you know, stamp it onto the fabric instead of it being painted or, like, rolled on as, like, a printing press. So, a printing press, it, like, rolls and then, like, the – or not the printing press. You know what I'm trying to say. There's a roll. The lithograph is like a stamp. So, when Lincoln was – won the election in 1860, he then decided to grow his beard out, which made Milton Bradley's lithographs plummet in value, and he had a very large stock in them, and it bankrupted him, all because of Lincoln's beard. Yeah, it made all of the ones he had stockpiled, because he was like, woo, Lincoln won, and I was like, he grew out his what? He does not. Very different. Because I saw the picture of the lithograph. I don't think I put it on here, and I'm very sorry about that. So, the – back at it. So, he was thinking of a way to get back on his feet after his loss, and he was playing a board game with his friends, and he thought of an idea for a game that would simulate a person's life, and that's when he created the game called the Checkered Game of Life. Now, I do have that. If you go below, I got the order mixed up, so go below that one, and you'll see like a checkerboard almost. It's the Checkered Game of Life. So, it had 64 squares. Players used a spinner to move their counter across the board. They would begin on the infancy tile at the bottom left of the board and make their way towards happy old age. So, along the way, players could land on squares such as poverty, school, bravery, and idleness, and others that were darker. So, I want to know if you see any that are kind of – and you can make it bigger if need be here. I'll make it – oh, no, I didn't see that one. A fat office? Oh, maybe it's a good job. Yes. Yep. Yep. There's crime. You go to prison. And there's one – oh, gambling. You go to ruin. And the way that I'm seeing it is you start infancies in the bottom left corner, and it looks like checkers. So, imagine that, listeners. And I'm imagining like chutes and ladders style. You go all the way to the right. You go up. You go all the way to the left. You go up. You go all the way to the right is how I'm seeing it. Oh, he's got a little dunce cap. Let's hope you don't roll a two. So, the game was an overnight success, and during that first winter, Bradley sold more than 40,000 copies. And in the next spring was the beginning of the Civil War, and he then saw a target audience created an inexpensive game kit that were super small so the soldiers could carry them with them. So, when they had idle time, they could play games. And in 1866, he earned the patent for the game. And I'm sure you'll be able to see this pattern now that I'm pointing it out. Due to his religious upbringing, the game had a very clear moral code, and it taught about taking the high moral road and walking the appropriate path. And the game had a spinner instead of dice, because dice were associated with gambling. So, he didn't want to be associated with that, so he created the spinner. And when Bradley – sorry, go ahead. You know, I don't. I don't know that. Yeah. Matrimony. It's just telling me, like, other games with spinners, but I think maybe it was. I could be wrong on that. I'm not seeing anything that says it wasn't the first one. But I think Milton Bradley's company also created Twister, so that's fun. Yeah. So, when Bradley died in 1911, the game started to shift from the moral lesson to – okay, so before you were just trying to have a happy end of your life. And now it's more of, like, materialistic American dream. The point of the game is to have as much money as you can have and retire as wealthy as possible. So, this is when we see the removal of the suicide ruin and other squares like that. Now, the board itself stayed the same until its 100th anniversary in 1960, and that's – if you scroll down below, that is one of the first iterations of the original, like, 1960s, how we see it today. Very similar to what we have. I mean, the squares look different. The colors are very, like, 60s. I'm not going to lie. But it's bright and fun. Yeah, the spinner does look the same. But it's very bright and fun. And even the little, like, buildings where they're at that you, like, pop them in are the same. And I love the little bridges and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Which, I mean, they didn't change it too, too much. They put more squares in there, of course. But it's still one line you're following, basically. I mean, there's a couple branched off, but you still end up on the same line. It's just they made it all twisty-turvy. So, on to the next. Monopoly. So, it was originally invented by Lizzie Maggie. And she was one of America's first board game designers. And it was originally called the Landlord's Game. And I do have that as well. I'm sure you saw it. It looks pretty much, you know, like a not-colorful version of Monopoly. There's some, I mean, questionable squares, like the poor house. Yeah. Go to jail, no trespassing. Mother Earth gives you $100. Thank you, Mother Earth. So, it was designed to be a practical demonstration of land grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences. So, I think it was teaching. She based it off the principles of Georgism, which is a system proposed by Henry George with the objective of demonstrating how rents enrich property owners and impoverished tenants. Yes. Yes. So, the game, like it does today, consisted of a square track with a row of properties around the outside that players could buy. The game board had four railroads, two utilities, a jail, and a corner named Labor Upon Mother Earth Produces Wages, which earns players $100 each time they pass instead of the now $200. So, Maggie also hoped that when played by children, the game would provoke their natural suspicions of unfairness and such, and that might carry their awareness into childhood. But Maggie sold the patent to Parker Brothers in 1935, and they had originally rejected the game, but upon its popularity, they kind of changed their minds. Do you know how much she sold that game for? $500. In 1935. Okay. 1935. $500. Today. $11,558.12. She made a sale for at least a couple million in today's month. Oh, absolutely. Keep that money coming. Guys, if you make a successful thing, do not sell it for a flat fund. You want to continue to get money from it if you can do that. New podcast idea, financial advice from two broke-ass bitches. I love it. I can hear the intro now. Welcome to Illiquid Finances. We're not equipped to tell you anything about money, but we're going to do it anyway. Don't sue us. Yeah, right? Do you want my tears? I made you a sweater with my tears. I hope y'all got that SpongeBob reference. Okay. So the last game specifically that we're going to talk about today, and then we've got a couple other things, but it's the Settlers of Catan. And it turns out my mom and dad used to play this game. Yeah, I was like, you did what? I've never played this game. I live under a rock, but yeah. Yeah. One of those. Yeah. Oh, no. Okay. We should buy it, and then we should play it this weekend when you're in town, if we have time. If we have time. Oh, my God. We always do this. We're like, we're going to do all the things in two days. No. So Settlers of Catan came out in 1995 when we were just wee babes, two years old. So it was one of the first Euro games to achieve popularity outside of Europe. And over 24 million games in the Catan series have been sold, and the game has been translated into over 30 languages. Catan's popularity in the United States has gotten it dubbed, quote, the board game of our time by the Washington Post, and it's also featured in the 2012 American documentary filmed titled Going Cardboard, which details the game's impact on American gaming communities. So the game was created by Klaus Tuber, who was working as a dental technician outside the industrial city of Darmstadt, Germany, Darmstadt, Germany, sorry, guys, in the 80s. He was creating board games in his spare time, just kind of as a hobby, get away from work. And the source said he is baffled by the popularity of his game. He seems so nice. So Catan is considered a gateway to Euro games, like a gateway drug to Euro games. Euro games are, and I know this because my mom asked and I had to find it in here. So stand by. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Okay, I found it. Euro game genre is a class of tabletop game that generally downplays luck, has indirect player interaction, and focuses on economics and strategy. So it's giving like strategy world building vibes. Is that kind of what that is? Okay. Yeah. Right. Mm-hmm. Right. Okay. So are you like directly like trying to attack the other settlers as well? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Oh, no. Okay. So you're trying to win like achievements and stuff like that. Okay. Right. You're better than me. I haven't played it. So Settlers of Catan was a primary catalyst for the sudden popularity in board games in the United States. And it kind of made people more hungry for games. And for games that had like a very different set of rules and mechanics. So that's when we're starting to see a big, broad expansion of games. So a couple fun little facts is the Spiel des Jahres is a German title that simply translates to game of the year. So it's basically the Oscars of board games is what they call it. So it's rewarding the excellence in game design, promoting top quality games in the German market. And it is thought that the award is a really big driver of the quality of games coming out of Germany. So they're making really good games to try to get this award. And the winner of this can usually expect to sell 300,000 to 500,000 copies thanks to this award. Yeah. And the criteria on which the games are evaluated are the concept, meaning originality, playability, and game value. The rule structure, composition, clearness, comprehensibility. The layout, including the box, the board, and the rules. And the design, so like the functionality and the workmanship. So this award has been responsible for the popularity and growth of games like Settlers of Catan, Dominion, Hanniby, and Dixit. I've heard of Dominion. And also it is a big main driver of other Euro games making it to other places. So a brief PSA about Kickstarter. I don't know who does or does not know. Please, I live under a rock and I know about Kickstarter. But most game designers are doing it as a hobby. So there are tons and tons of Kickstarters out there for games. And the Conan board game Kickstarter campaign launched in January of 2015 with a goal of $80,000 to get their board made. Not only did it receive full funding within 5 minutes and 37 seconds, it went on to raise $3,327,757. Basically $3.3 million. I fucked that number up. And that happens a lot. So if you see a game and you really want it to go forward, go give them money on their Kickstarter. Yeah. Oh, my God. That's awesome. Yeah. That is so cool. I love when stuff happens like that. It's like you go. You go. So that's basically all I have on, you know, board games and the wild history of it. Yeah. Yeah. Rude. I don't think I've ever played Clue. I know. My rock. Because I am. I don't know. I played a lot of Rummy. Because I was kind of stuck playing what also my parents liked to play. And I played a lot of Solitaire. Because I was alone. No, unfortunately not. But Cory, the next year, Cory and I were friends. And she used to – I could see the school from my, like, backyard. And she used to bring – walk my homework to me every day and then hang out with me. And then her mom would come pick her up. It was great. But please, listeners, don't feel too bad for me. I was, like, homeschooled through the school that year. Not like – yes, okay, that. Thank you for the words. I only had to do, like, my homework at the house. And the teacher came and sat with me for three hours a week. So I was just living my wheelchair-bound best life that year. Yeah. I was. It was me. I also had a walker because I kept falling on my crutches. I fell down the stairs a few times. So my dad put a license plate on my walker. Yeah. It was really cool. I told you. I just encompass an old granny from, like, birth. I also learned – I think one of the times I fell on the crutches was because we had hardwood floors and my foot was – the foot that could touch the ground was cold. And I was wearing this sock. And I slipped. And I, like, kicked the wall with the foot in the cast. And my parents were like – they were like, are you okay? And I was like, just don't look at me for a few minutes. Just leave me alone. I'll get up. I wasn't in that kind of hospital. That's true. Actually, I'm not going to lie. My mom, because she works in nursing homes and assisted livings my entire life, she brought me home some of the grippy socks from the nursing home she worked at. So I had, like, a walker and, like, old lady grippy socks. I've been 85 since I was 10. If you can't laugh, you're not doing it right. Should we, like, get into socials or something? We should. Okay. If you liked this, you can find us on Facebook. That's group and page at, yeah, Patreon, Instagram, Gmail. What am I missing with TikTok? Listen, I keep laughing at the ones I make, so, you know. Yeah, beans. I'm going to be queen of beans. Okay. Also, we have for our January bonus episode, we have an awesome one out this month about New Orleans, and it's like two and a half hours of just deep dive history, but also somehow not deep dive because it's New Orleans and there's a lot of history. And at the end, you do get some stories. So at the beginning, you get some stories. So, you know, history and personal stories from New Orleans. Who doesn't like that? We did. We did. Yeah. You get to hear me almost falling into the poncho train. So go check that out on our Patreon. Yeah. And if you lose in Monopoly, be the bigger person and don't flip the board. Yeah. Yeah. But also, get good. I mean. I mean, I said what I said. So, all right. Well, okay. Bye.