MEMORIES:

Manufacturer:

Probe told people, “If you can spell, you can play.” Being able to spell certainly helped at Probe (and other things in life too), but it was unique skill of coming up with long, bizarre, obscure words that really made you a Probe expert.

 

Combining parts of Scrabble, Wheel of Fortune, and Hangman, Probe asked players to come up with a secret word up to twelve letters long, with no apostrophes or hyphens. Then, each player selected the letter cards from their decks that were needed to spell their word, and put them out in racks that sat in front them with the Probe logo side out. If the secret word was less than twelve letters, they could make the game more tricky by putting blank cards before or after the word to make it look like more letters than it actually was.

 

Each player then took turns drawing from the activity cards, which gave instructions such as “take your normal turn” or “expose a blank.” A normal turn consisted of asking an opponent about a particular letter or possible presence of a blank card. If the letter guess was actually part of the word, your opponent had to flip over the appropriate card and reveal it. Therefore, you were one letter closer to guessing the secret word.

 

As the game progressed, each player kept asking about letters until he hit on one that was not part of the secret word. You couldn’t keep a list of what letters had been asked – it was all about relying on your memory. You won a point if you guessed correctly, and lost a point if you didn’t. With the “interruptive rule” you could guess another players word at any time during the game, but if you guessed wrong, you lost a lot of points. Winning was a combination of having a great word, a not-so-bright opponent, and some lucky cards.

 

Parker Brother called Probe "most provocative game of words since the invention of the modern alphabet". Or at least you know you needed the alphabet in order to play.