Help, It's Happening Again! Quiz | Hobbies

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1. I look like a tower from a Medieval castle, only I'm all black. I am standing on a red square, way over on the side of a board that has a lot of black and red squares. There are lots of other, different shaped pieces around me, and I stand for a long time, watching them get moved around in complicated ways. Then this hand picks me up, moves me straight down a row for about 5 spaces before putting me down again. I sit there for what feels like forever, watching other pieces move and get taken away completely. Then I hear someone say "Check.", and find myself lifted up, moved backwards and placed in front of this piece with a cross on its head. What game am I playing?

Answer: Chess

Although a chess board doesn't have to be red and black, it is always two-toned and checkered. While the pieces are often black and white, different variations of light and dark are also used. A strategy game for two people, the object of chess is to place your opponent's king in checkmate; a position wherein he cannot stop from being captured on the next move.

This can be done very quickly or can take hours, and the number of other pieces captured before this occurs can also vary widely. Chess has been around for centuries, and there are many theories about where it originated. One of the most popularly accepted theories is that it originated in India, during the 6th century, but many believe that the Chinese were playing a very similar form of the game as early as the 2nd century BC.

2. I am a round, white disk with ridges on the edges. I sit on the top of a pile of other white disks, on a table beside piles of red and blue disks. Then I hear somebody say "I'll call.", and I am tossed into a pile of mixed up disks in the centre of the table. What game am I trapped in this time?

Answer: Poker

There are many variations of the card game, but they all involve the basic principal of being dealt and discarding cards, in order to build the best hand possible. You then bet on the likelihood of your hand being better than everyone else's hand. Bluffing is a very important part of the game, and involves convincing the other players that your hand is much stronger than it really is, causing them to back out of the betting and allowing you to win without necessarily having the best hand. While some believe that Poker developed from a 16th century Persian card game known as As Nas, others believe it grew out of the French game Poque, which is itself a variation of the German game Pochen. Wherever it started, it certainly acquired a lot of its popularity in the frontier land that was America in the early 1800s, when many colourful, professional gamblers earned their living at the poker tables!

3. This time I am a strange, little, three dimensional piece, that's shaped like a three-sided star. I am sitting on a board, inside one country, beside a lot other pieces that are the same shape and colour as I am. We are facing one little piece that is the same shape, but a different colour. Some dice are thrown, and the next thing I know I'm being pushed, along with a bunch of the pieces that are on my side, across the board into another country. I struggle to read the name underneath me, but all I can see are a few letters. What game am I trapped in?

Answer: Risk

Made by Parker Brothers, Risk is billed as a strategic board game...which is a nice way of saying that the purpose of the game is to take over the world! Anywhere from 2 to 6 players divide the world up between them and then battle it out (using the outcome of the roll of the dice) to capture the other players' territory.
It's not a game that I particularly enjoy in numbers of more than two, because the strategy really encourages players to gang up on individual players, in a 'last man standing' kind of approach. This can be very boring for player(s) eliminated early in the game.
It was invented by Albert Lamorisse (a French film director) in the early 1950s, as a simplified version of the more involved war games of the time.

4. I am a small, strangely shaped piece with some interesting colours on one side. My edges are very wavy and I'm tempted to say that I'm two-dimensional, but I am about an eighth of an inch thick, so that wouldn't be entirely true. Until a few seconds ago, I was sitting on a table with a bunch of other, oddly-shaped pieces, but someone has picked me up and snapped me into place on a larger piece. Oh look, from here that black dot on my side makes sense. It looks like it's part of a kitten's little black nose. What is that thing that all of us little pieces go together to form called?

Answer: jigsaw puzzle

Jigsaw puzzles come in many different shapes and sizes, and degrees of difficulty. Pictures chosen for a jigsaw are often ones of landscapes, animals and works of art, although anything is fair game.
Early jigsaws were made by literally cutting up a picture, painted on wood) by use of a jigsaw. Today wooden puzzles (other than those created for young children) are unusual, and computer puzzles are very popular. I know I enjoy these, because it's impossible to lose any pieces!
London mapmaker, John Spilsbury generally gets the nod for having made the first jigsaw, around 1760.

5. I am a round white ball with a red stripe around my middle, sitting on what looks to be a large expanse of green felt. There is a number on that red stripe, and I am just twisting my head around to try and read that number when wham, I am struck by a white ball with tiny blue marks on it. I go flying across this green felt and fall into a little pocket where it's way too dark to read my number. What game am I trapped in this time?

Answer: Pool

There are many variations of billiards, or pool as it is less formally known in many circles, but they all have the sinking of balls as their objective. This is accomplished by hitting the white ball (or cue ball) with a long wooden stick known as a cue. The white ball then must hit the ball of your choice, propelling it towards one of six pockets situated around the table.
The version played in this house involves two players (or two teams of players) taking turns trying to sink all of their balls (either solid coloured or striped) before the other team manages to sink theirs. Once all of your balls are sunk, then the sinking of the 8 ball is required in order to win the game.
Historians believe that these games have evolved from stick and balls games which were traditionally played outdoors. There is some speculation that the word "billiard" evolved from the French word for billart, an game piece that was very similar to a golf club.

6. I am a small black rectangle with a raised pattern on one side, and white dots on the other. On my dotted side I have a line across my middle with six dots above and six dots under the line. Someone picks me up from where I am lying face down on the table, and puts me on a little holder thing. In a couple of minutes I am lifted up again and placed face up on the table, at the end of a line of other rectangles that have different kinds of dots on them. What am I this time?

Answer: domino

Dominoes do not have to be black with white dots, they can come in any of a number of different colours. In fact older sets are more likely to be white with black dots. Standard domino sets are numbered from zero (blank) to six, but we do own a lovely set with numbers up into the teens.

The dominoes are generally laid down in different configurations, connected by matching numbers, and there are many different ways of winning. The game of Dominoes was first thought to be played in China, with the dominoes being fashioned after dice.

The version that we are most familiar with is believed to have come from the Dominican Republic, some time in the 18th century.

7. I am a two-dimensional piece made up of 4 red squares. The squares are laid out in a straight line, so that I look like a long board, and I am slowly falling down the face of a computer screen. Someone hits a few keys and I find myself twisted around so that I am now falling in a vertical position, and I am shifted over to the side of the screen, where I finally come to rest in a space, defined by different shaped and coloured pieces, that looks like it was custom made for me. What game am I trapped in?

Answer: Tetris

Although the colours of the shapes may vary, depending on what version you are playing, the seven basic shapes themselves do not. The purpose of this computer game is to place the falling pieces together in such a manner as to leave no spaces behind. Completely full lines disappear from the screen, leaving more room for more falling pieces to be placed.
Tetris, designed by Russian Alexey Pazhitnov in 1985, had a version released for Nintendo's Game Boy system in 1989, allowing it to score frequently on lists of popular video games.

8. This time I'm a little, yellow, plastic car, sitting on a square with a bunch of other cars. Someone spins a spinner and I find myself being moved around the twisted path around the board. As I am moved along, I do things like go to university, get married and have kids. Along the journey someone sticks these pink and blue pegs in me, until all my seats are filled. What game am I stuck in?

Answer: The Game of Life

Players make their way around the board, landing on spaces and following the instructions that they find there. These are tied in to real life events like getting jobs, changes in salaries, investing in the stock market and buying insurance. At the end of the game, s/he who has been the most successful at life wins.
The Game of Life that we are most familiar with was first produced by Milton Bradley in 1960. It was based on an earlier version of the game, known as The Checkered Game of Life, which Milton Bradley also produced in 1861. Rueben Klamer is credited with having designed the game.

9. I am a two-dimensional blue dot, lying on a piece of plastic on the floor. I can see other blue dots in front and behind me, with red and yellow dots on either side. Someone yells out 'left foot blue' and the next thing I know, there's a stinky blue foot in my face. As time passes, hands and feet are alternately put down and lifted off of me, until someone falls amid a great deal of laughter. What silly game is this?

Answer: Twister

The object of Twister is to have two to four people following the directions of a spinner, moving their hands and feet as it directs them. Because the number of spots is limited, players soon find themselves becoming contortionists, in order to reach the correct spot with the correct appendage and not be disqualified. Neil Raben and Charles Foley presented the idea to Milton Bradley who released it in 1966 with some trepidation.

Indeed public reaction about the need of players intertwining their bodies was not initially good.

The game got a terrific boost when Johnny Carson and Eva Gabor played it on "The Tonight Show".

10. I am a wooden, red ball, lying in the grass and soaking up the heat from the sun. I see that there are other balls of other colours lying around me, and think about striking up a conversation. It's actually a rather pleasant experience, until massive wooden mallet comes swinging down at me, sending me propelling though these wire hoops and rolling across the grass. Ouch - that smarts. What game have I become trapped in now?

Answer: Croquet

In croquet, players try to be the first to direct their ball from one stake, through the standardized pattern of wickets (the little wire hoops that I noticed), to the other stake on the other side of the field of play. According to the rules of play, points can be awarded for various skill testing shots, but these are generally ignored in regular, backyard play with the win generally going to the first to reach the other side.

The balls can be made of either wood or of a hard plastic. Closely related to golf, origins of the game are traced back to Ireland in the 1830s. Played by gentlemen and ladies alike, it fast became a favourite among the gentility of England.

Source: Author skunkee

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Leau before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Help, It's Happening Again! Trivia Quiz

Oh no, I'm back in that dream where I keep changing into different pieces from different games. Help me get out of this nightmare by figuring out what game I'm playing.

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