Category Archives: Celebrities and Entertainment

Where does all the money go?” – Pay Day

• Pay Day is a two to six player board game, depending on the version, that involves earning (or losing) money by moving across a board mimicking a monthly calendar.
• The typical aim of Pay Day is to have the most money and savings in possession by the end of the game, by earning interest and receiving monthly pay, and avoiding mailed bills.
• Although luck-based in movement, Pay Day requires particular strategic use of money and other finances to be successful.
• ‘Pay Day’ is also known as ‘PAY DAY’ and ‘Payday’; and has been produced in a number of different languages including Italian, French and Dutch.
• Pay Day was designed by the American game designer Paul Gruen, and released in 1975, and it was the designer’s biggest hit.

• Pay Day was first produced by Parker Brothers, which later became Hasbro’s property, and is now produced by Winning Moves.
• There are  number of editions of Pay Day which include the original 1970s one; the 1990s edition; the 2000s ‘Big’ version, which has a customisable game board with interchangeable day tiles; and a 2011 modernised version of the original known as the ‘Classic Edition’.
• Each edition of Pay Day has had various changes, including board design and layout, different mail and deal card options, and a change of activities on the calendar.
• The original version of Pay Day featured a savings account, however this feature was removed in the 1990s game.
• Pay Day was very favoured when it was first released; competing against the sales of Monopoly, although it has not remained as popular.

Bibliography:
Pay Day (Board Game), 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_Day_(board_game)

Review of the Pay Day Board Game, 2014, HubPages, http://hubpages.com/hub/Review-of-Payday-Board-Game#

Backgammon is a classic lucky game of skill, or a skilled game of luck.

• Backgammon is game that involves moving playing pieces around a board according to dice rolls, and is played by two people.
• The typical aim of backgammon is to move one’s own fifteen pieces, or counters, from a starting point to an end point and then off the board, before one’s opponent does the same with their own set of pieces.
• The board of backgammon has two sections with six evenly spread elongated triangles, or points, on each side of each section, alternating in light and dark colours, to make a total of 24.
• Counters are moved around the board in a U-shape, in turns across points using the roll of two dice, and generally a counter is chosen and moved the number shown on one dice, and another counter chosen and moved the number shown on the other, although counters cannot land on a point where two or more counters of the opposition are situated.
• In 1982, in the United States, a court case about backgammon commenced, the prosecutor stating the game was primarily gambling and should not become competitive, although eventually it was ruled as a game that uses skill.

• In 1967, backgammon world championships were held for the first time and won by Tim Holland, and were played in Nevada’s Las Vegas, in the United States.
• The origins of backgammon are uncertain, however a game extremely similar to the modern version was played from the first century AD by Romans and Greeks, and was known as ‘Tabula’, literally translated as ‘table’.
• The first online real-time server to accommodate backgammon was opened in July 1992, known as the First Internet Backgammon Server, or FIBS.
• During game play of backgammon, if a counter is sitting alone on the board, an opponent may land on the same space, and as a result send the counter back to the ‘bar’, off the board, so that it is required to re-enter the game.
• The term ‘backgammon’, or more literally ‘back game’, is said to originate from the Middle English words ‘back’ and ‘gamen’, in reference to the counters that go back to the ‘bar’.

Bibliography:
Backgammon, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backgammon

Driver M, A History of Backgammon, n.d, Backgammon Galore!, http://www.bkgm.com/articles/GOL/Nov00/mark.htm

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Chess – a game of complex strategy. What will be your next move?

• Chess is a strategic game played on an 8 by 8 square checkered board, by moving specific pieces to attack and capture.
• There are 32 pieces, 16 per player, and six different types of pieces in a game of chess; one king, one queen, two bishops, two rooks, two knights and eight pawns.
• Chess is a game played by two people that take turns, and only a single piece may move per turn in most circumstances, while legal movements vary across pieces.
• The aim of chess is to put the opponent’s king in a position where capture is unavoidable during the next turn, a position known as ‘checkmate’.
• Pieces in chess are usually colour-coded white and black, and white always moves first in a game and is generally considered to have an advantage.

• A form of chess was played in Persia around the 600s AD, where it was called ‘chatrang’ or ‘shatranj’, and it is said to be based on a game known as ‘chaturaṅga’ originating from 280 to 550 AD in East India, which featured predecessors of the modern rook, pawn, bishop and knight.
• Chess reached Europe by the 800s, and alterations to the game were made from the 1200s and continued through to the late 1400s, with notable updates to the rules regarding the pawns, bishops and queens.
• Englishman Howard Staunton coordinated a chess competition in 1851 in the United Kingdom’s London, and this first contemporary contest was won by German Adolf Anderssen, while the first World Championship occurred in 1886, won by Wilhelm Steinitz from Austria.
• In its history, chess was used as a way to teach soldiers and knights tactical manoeuvres and strategies for battle, although it is now a game played by children and adults, mostly for entertainment purposes.
• Through the use of complex computer algorithms, computers have been designed to be able to play chess almost since the birth of the first digital computers in the mid 1900s, while the first computer to beat a World Chess Champion was Deep Blue in 1997, and since then computers have become increasingly difficult for humans to beat.

Bibliography:
An Illustrated History of Chess, n.d, Ancient Chess, http://ancientchess.com/page/01.htm

Chess, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess

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