FANS:

MEMORIES:

Manufacturer:

If there’s one thing suburban dens across the country had in common, it was the click-clack of a plastic shaker cup filled with dice. That simple combination was the game of Yahtzee, and it shaped a game-playing audience for decades.

 

This simple, yet addictive, game was invented by a wealthy Canadian couple in 1956. During their yachting excursions, they developed a dice game they liked to call their “yacht” game, and all their friends who played with them on their boat wanted their own set. The couple went to Edwin Lowe, who had developed the Bingo games in the 1920’s, to make some samples as gifts. Lowe realized they were on to something and bought the rights to the game. He manufactured them, threw his own Yahtzee parties to get the word out, and in 1973 the Milton Bradley Company bought the E.S. Lowe Company and brought Yahtzee to the masses.

 

Yahtzee is simply a dice-rolling game. You shake five-dice in a cup and let them go. A player can roll the disc three times, and can set aside certain dice as he goes. The goal is to get the largest combined score in each of the scoring categories. These categories are ones through sixes, a group of poker-like variations (three and four of a kind, full house, large and small straights), a “chance” slot and a Yahtzee slot. A “yahtzee” is five of a kind – and if you roll that, you’re rewarded with the thrill of random good luck. At the end of the game, all thirteen categories need to be accounted for. Everything was tabulated on score pads and added up.

 

Yahtzee may have started simply, but soon took on an array of variations for the ever-demanding Yahtzee aficionado. The company developed Travel Yahtzee, Word Yahtzee, Casino, Pyramid, Painted, Battle, Triple, Deluxe Triple, Ultimate, Showdown, and Electronic Hand Held. Today, it’s estimated that one hundred million people play Yahtzee in some form or other. It’s nice to know that a little bit of the good life on a yacht made its way into family dens across the country.