With today being Pi Day (March 14th), I figure I should make a list of some of the best math games and puzzles in history. Some are the simple number-matching games, while some need a lot of logical strategies. Some games you may already have, while some games you may be intrigued to get someday. All in all, it was a tough process to select the 31 games (and write large summaries for each), so I added in more for your consideration (with small summaries for each).
If I missed one particular game, let me know in the comments! Thanks and enjoy!
Card Games
UNO
UNO was created by Hungarian barber Merle Robbins because of an argument he and his son had regarding the rules of Crazy Eights. While it was similar to the original card-shedding-and-matching game, it was distinguished by the inclusion of wild and action cards. With many variants, spin-offs, and theme decks, it remains the best-selling commercial card game worldwide.
http://www.mattel.com/games/uno
http://letsplayuno.com/
http://www.toy-tma.com/kids-toys/card-games-pokemon/uno-history-classic-card-game/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uno_(card_game)
Blackjack
Blackjack is one of the most popular casino games, where players try to get as close to 21 without going over while beating the dealer in the process. Its exact origins are unknown, yet are often traced back to Europe, namely in the game “vingt-et-un” (twenty-and-one) played in French casinos around 1700 A.D. The use of card-counting strategies originated from this game; presently, they are illegal in some circumstances.
http://www.blackjackinfo.com/
http://www.gypsyware.com/blackjackHistory.html
http://www.blackjacktactics.com/blackjack/history/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackjack
Set
Set was designed by Marsha Jean Falco in 1974 while working in Cambridge, England as a population geneticist; in her work, she used symbols that had different properties. Given a field of cards, the object is to find sets of 3 cards that are all the same or all different in all four categories: symbol, number of, shading, and color. It won the Mensa Select award in 1991.
http://www.setgame.com/set/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_(game)
Krypto
Krypto is a card game created by Daniel Yovich in 1963, and continues to be played in several school tournaments around the United States. The objective is to use all of five given number cards and any arithmetic operations to equal a sixth target number card. Similar games include Math Magic Mixer (which uses dice) and the Windows Entertainment Pack game Go Figure!
http://mphgames.com/krypto/index.htm
http://everydaymath.concordnhschools.net/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=100856&sessionid=6f17be4a32a0c9dd869b7284d563a815
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krypto_(game)
Cribbage
Cribbage was created in the early 17th century by English poet Sir John Suckling as a variation of the game Noddy. The goal of the game is to reach a target score by earning points from the hand and crib (the dealer’s extra hand) via card combinations that create sums of fifteen, pairs, runs, and flushes. The game serves as an official pastime for American submariners during World War II.
http://www.stanwardine.com/HistoryOfGame.htm
http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Cribbage.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cribbage
Skip-Bo
Skip-Bo is a commercialized version of the card game Spite and Malice (thought to have originated in Europe in the mid 19th-century) initially produced by Hazel Bowman of Texas. The players’ objective is to deplete their personal stock piles by creating build piles that start with 1 and end with 12, with Skip-Bo cards acting as wild cards.
http://www.indepthinfo.com/skip-bo/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skip-Bo
Mille Bornes
Mille Bornes (French for “a thousand milestones”) is a car-racing card game developed by Frenchman Edmond Dujardin in 1954. The objective is to travel 700 (or 1,000) miles while remedying hazard cards played by their opponent. While similar to the Parker Brothers game Touring, it included a key variation in the coup-fourre play: playing a safety card on a hazard for a bonus.
http://everything2.com/title/Mille+Bornes
http://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/MilleBornes.PDF
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mille_Bornes
Sequence
Sequence is a board-and-card game invented by Douglas Reuter from Minnesota. The board consists of a grid of playing cards, and players place or remove chips on the board based on the cards they play as they try to form rows of 5 chips. The game is loosely based off the tic-tac-toe variant Gomoku or Five-in-a-Row.
http://www.jaxgames.com/seq.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequence_(game)
http://www.springfrog.com/games/gomoku/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomoku
Dice Games
Yahtzee
Yahtzee was created by an anonymous Canadian couple in 1954, originally named “The Yacht Game” because it was made popular playing it with their friends on their yacht. The game combines concepts from several dice games such as Generala, Poker Dice, and Cheerio. In each turn, players roll five dice up to three times and score in one of 13 unique combination boxes.
http://www.hasbro.com/games/en_US/yahtzee/
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/yahtzee.htm
http://www.yahtzeeonline.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahtzee
Perudo / Liar's Dice
Perudo was an Inca game dating back hundreds of years, and its popularity spread when conquistador Francisco Pizarro brought it back to Spain. The basic premise of the game is that each player conceals and rolls a set of dice and bids relating to the dice he has plus all other concealed dice. It’s a popular gambling or drinking game, exhibited in the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and the video game Red Dead Redemption.
http://www.perudo.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar's_dice
Shut the Box
Shut the Box has an unknown origin but has references of it being played in France, the Channel Islands, and China dating back to the 12th century. The traditional game has tiles numbered 1 to 9, and the player rolls a pair of dice and covers (or “shut”) certain tiles that equal the total of the roll. A former TV quiz show High Rollers is based on this game.
http://www.ehow.com/about_5110706_shut-box-game-history.html
http://www.mastersgames.com/rules/shut-box-rules.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shut_the_Box
Craps
Craps is a simplification of the Old English game Hazard with its origin in debate between the British and the French. The basic game has players rolling two dice. A 7 or 11 wins; a 2, 3 or 12 loses; and any other number is “point” and wins if the player rolls it again before a 7. North American casino craps has an extensive betting system, yet it yields the best winning odds over any other casino game.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dice-play/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craps
Dominoes
Dominoes are tiles that were derived from Venetian Carnival white-with-black-spots masks known as domini. Each distinct tile has two numbers, represented by black spots. The tile-shedding game has players trying to deplete their tiles by placing dominoes end-on-end linked by the same number; with special rules given to doubles tiles (tiles with same number) and sometimes bonus points if the end numbers add to a multiple of five. For added fun, the tiles can be stand up on end in long lines and then toppled one after the other.
http://www.domino-games.com/
http://www.pagat.com/tile/wdom/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominoes
Dungeons and Dragons
DnD, co-designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, is often regarded as the start of modern role-playing game industry. Each player assigns themselves a specific character to play, and teams take part in imaginary adventures (detailed by the “Dungeon Master”) to solve dilemmas, engage in battles, gather treasure, and earn experience points. It remains among the best-known and best-selling RPG games to date.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/
http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_and_dragons
Board Games
Chess
Chess has had a long history in development dating back to 600 A.D. in Sassanid Persia up to the modern game finalized mid-19th century in Europe. Played on an 8x8 chessboard, each player has sixteen pieces to try and trap (namely, “checkmate”) the opponent’s king while protecting their own. While one of the world’s most popular games, played and later extensively programmed into computers, it spawned a number of puzzles and variants based on the pieces’ unique moves and the chessboard.
http://www.chess.com/
http://math.uww.edu/~mcfarlat/177hist.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess
Backgammon
Backgammon is one of the oldest board games, where primitive instances of the board existed in Persia (now Iran) around 3,000 B.C. The board is made up of 24 spaces (or “points”) and a certain number of checkers are place at certain points at the start of the game. The goal is to remove all of one’s own checkers from the board before the opponent does, each player going in opposite directions and moving by the roll of a pair of dice.
http://www.backgammon.org/
http://www.bkgm.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backgammon
Monopoly
Monopoly’s original concept began with Elizabeth Magie’s The Landlord’s Game in 1904; its objective was to show that rents enriched property owners and impoverished tenants; after several modifications, the version used now since 1935 was by Charles Darrow. The objective is to be the last player standing by buying and trading properties to form monopolies and bankrupt opponents. With many variants, spin-offs, and pop culture references, Monopoly remains a dominant game around the world.
http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/en_US/
http://www.worldofmonopoly.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_(game)
Go
Go is an ancient board game that emerged in China over two thousand years ago. Players take turns place stones on the intersections of a 19x19 grid to try and surround their opponent’s stones to capture them while trying to attain a large territory of the board. Despite its simple rules, the game is rich in strategy. Though it is overwhelming played in East Asia, over 40 million people play Go worldwide. The game is also featured in the mathematical films Pi and A Beautiful Mind.
http://www.intergofed.org/
http://gobase.org/studying/rules/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)
Risk
Risk is a strategic board game invented by French film director Albert Lamorisse originally released in 1957. Players try to achieve “world domination” by controlling armies and attempt to capture territories from other players by rolling dice. While the original uses Earth, several variants included from the small (countries and continents) to the large and futuristic (2210 AD and Star Wars).
http://www.hasbro.com/risk/
http://www.indepthinfo.com/risk/history.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_(game)
Life
Life is a mathematical model created by British mathematician John Conway in 1970. It is “played” on an infinite grid of square cells, each cell in an alive or dead state. Life is classified in game theory as a zero-player game, meaning its evolution is determined by an initial state and no further input. Once an initial state is set, each following state is determined by four rules to determine if each cell changes state or not.
http://conwaylife.com/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway's_Game_of_Life
Mastermind
Mastermind is a code-breaking game invented in 1970 by Israeli postmaster and telecommunications expert Mordecai Meirowitz. The game resembles a pen-and-paper game called Bulls and Cows. On each turn, the codebreaker makes a guess on the codemaker’s color code; the codemaker then states how many colors are correct and if they are placed correctly or not.
http://www.mastermindboardgame.com/
http://www.tnelson.demon.co.uk/mastermind/history.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_(board_game)
Nim
Nim is a simple, yet strategic, math game played since ancient times but without a definite origin. The basic concept is given a set of distinct heaps each with a set of objects, each player takes turns removing some or all of the objects from one heap. One common variation known to many is where the player who takes the last object loses the game.
http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~ajr/270/probsess/03/strategy.html
http://www.dotsphinx.com/games/nim/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nim
Puzzle Games
Sudoku
Sudoku is a logic-based number-placement puzzle that began with 18th-century Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler studying Latin squares. Japanese publisher Nikoli would create the modern version of the puzzle, which became a worldwide hit by 2005. The objective is to fill in a partially-completed 9x9 grid so that each column, row, and 3x3 subgrid that compose the gird contains all digits from 1 to 9. Many variants exist, include smaller and larger grids, using diagonals, irregular subgrid shapes, and even invoking basic math concepts (as in Kakuro and KenKen).
http://www.sudokuessentials.com/
http://sudoku.wetpaint.com/page/The+History+of+Sudoku
http://www.websudoku.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku
Nonograms / Picross
Nonograms is a picture logic puzzle initially developed by Japanese graphics editor Non Ishida and notably popularized by the video game company Nintendo. The goal is to create a picture by filling in cells of a grid using the given number clues. Each set of numbers measure how many groups of filled-in squares there are in each row and column, with each group separated by at least one blank square. The puzzle is also known by over 30 different names including Paint by Numbers, Hanji, and Griddlers.
http://nonograms.net/
http://picross.net/
http://www.nonogrampuzzles.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonogram
Rubik's Cube
The Rubik’s Cube is a three-dimensional mechanic puzzle toy invented by Hungarian sculptor and architecture professor Erno Rubik. A classic cube has six distinct colored faces each with nine stickers and a pivot mechanism enabling each face to turn independently and therefore mix up the colors. A solved cube has each of its faces all of one color. In 2010, it was proven that any configuration can be solved in at most 20 moves.
http://www.rubiks.com/
http://www.rubiksplace.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubik's_Cube
Tangrams
Tangram is a dissection puzzle that originated in China a long time ago that spread to America and Europe via trade ships in the 19th century. The seven small shapes used in this puzzle are five varying-sized triangles, one square, and one parallelogram and are created by cutting a square a distinct way. The object is to create specific shapes using all seven shapes without overlapping them.
http://tangrams.ca/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangram
Rush Hour
Rush Hour is a commercialized sliding block puzzle invented by well-celebrated Japanese puzzle columnist Nob Yoshigahara. The goal of the game is to get a red car out of a 6x6 grid filled with other obstructing automobiles by moving any and all of the vehicles forward or backward. It is a specific variation of Klotski, which refers to a group of similar puzzles where the aim is to move a specific block to a specific location.
http://www.thinkfun.com/rushhour
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_Hour_(board_game)
http://phil.freehackers.org/klotski/
Video and Other Games
Tetris
Tetris is a tile-matching puzzle video game initially designed and programmed by Russian computer engineer Alexey Pajitnov. The game consists of falling tetrominoes (shapes composed of four squares) that you move and rotate to create and clear horizontal lines without gaps. This game is available on almost every video game and computer console, as well as small devices like cell phones and graphic calculators.
http://www.tetris.com/
http://tetris.wikia.com/wiki/Tetris_Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris
Minesweeper
Minesweeper is a single-player video game with original conceptions created in 1960’s mainframe computers, and now bundled with various operating systems. Given a set grid of squares, the goal is to find all the mines without denoting any of them. Squares with numbers clue on how many of the squares eight surrounding squares have a mine. Many variants exist, including as a mini-game in the video game The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2007/02/column_beyond_tetris_minesweep.php
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Minesweeper-how-to-play
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minesweeper_(video_game)
Deal or No Deal
Deal or No Deal is a popular television game show in several countries, first launched in the Netherlands with the name Miljoenenjacht (Dutch for “hunt for millions”). The game revolves around opening a set number of numbered briefcases, each with a different cash amount. The contestant chooses a case, opens other cases to determine what is not in their case, then accept or reject the banker’s deal offered at certain points of the show.
http://www.nbc.com/Deal_or_No_Deal/
http://www.dealornodealelectronicgames.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deal_or_No_Deal
NCAA Basketball Tournament Brackets
A single elimination tournament is used to determine a national champion for each of men’s and women’s college basketball. On the men’s side, it originally started with eight teams in 1939; since then, the field currently holds 68 teams. Henceforth, using a lot of statistics, analysts try to predict the teams that will make the tournament and their seedings (also known as “bracketology”); but moreover, with the sport’s growing popularity, millions of fans often fill out a bracket to predict each game and eventually the national champion once the official bracket is set.
http://www.ncaa.com/sports/basketball-men/d1
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Men%27s_Division_I_Basketball_Championship
Beyond the 31
These games and puzzles missed my cut of 31 games, but are here for your consideration.
Cryptarithmetic: a pencil and paper mathematical game consisting of an equation of unknown numbers whose digits are represented by letters
Dots and Boxes: a pencil and paper game where, on a grid of dots, you connect lines towards making the most 1x1 boxes
Tic-Tac-Toe: a pencil and paper game for two players played on a 3x3 grid using noughts and crosses; first to make three-in-a-row wins
Poker: a popular gambling game where you try to make the best card hand possible while trying to bluff your opponents
Phase 10: a commercialized variant of Liverpool Rummy where players try to complete ten different hands (or phases)
Flashcards: a studying tool to memorize anything from the times tables to vocabulary words
Bunco: a party dice game where teams use three dice to try and roll the target number 21 times (or a three-of-a-kind) to win a round
Farkle: a dice game where you accumulate points by rolling dice combinations; a player keeps rolling until they wish to stop or is busted by not rolling any combinations in a roll
Mixmath or S’Math or Equate: Scrabble-like board game where you make equations to earn points
Mancala: a count-and-capture game played on a hole-filled board; each turn, a player picks a hole with stones and places one in each following hole
Bingo: a game of chance played on a 5x5 matrix card filled with random numbers; players win by achieving a specified pattern
Payday: a board game where the objective is to have the most money; the game board is in the form of a calendar month, each day having a different event
Blokus: an abstract strategy board game where players place up to 21 different polyominoes, each connected by only its corner
Snakes & Ladders: simple race game with a 10x10 grid board with spaces numbered 1 to 100 from bottom to top
Hex: board game played on a hexagonal gird where players try to make a path from one edge to the opposite edge
Connect Four: a tic-tac-toe variant where players take turns dropping colored discs from the top into a vertically-suspended grid, trying to achieve four-in-a-row
Clue / Cluedo: a board game requiring logic to determine who killed Mr. Boddy, with what weapon, and in what room
Rummikub: a tile-based game that combines rummy with elements of dominoes, mah-jongg and chess
Hidato: a number placement puzzle where the goal is to form a numerical path from 1 to the number of spaces on the board, given several numbers pre-placed
Sokoban: a transport puzzle where a player pushes boxes around in a distinctive warehouse to specific locations
Peg Solitaire: a puzzle board game involving moving pegs on a board with holes; the player try to jump peg over peg to eventually end with one left
Tower of Hanoi: math puzzle where a number of disks must be moved one at a time between three vertical rods, eventually moving the entire tower from one rod to another
15-puzzle: sliding puzzle consisting of a frame of numbered square tiles in random order; objective is to rearrange the tiles in numerical order from left to right, top to bottom
Ghost Leg: a Korea lottery-based game to create random pairings by traversing along adjacent vertical lines and randomly-placed horizontal lines connecting them
Fantasy Sports: recreational game where players act as team owners and compete based on statistics generated by real individual players of a professional sport
The Price is Right: game show where the goal is to correctly identify the actual price (or bid closest to it without going over) of various expensive prizes
Number Munchers and Math Blaster: math edutainment computer games developed in the 1980’s where players solve math problems while avoiding monsters and errors
Bejeweled and Collapse: tile-matching video games best known as “match three” games: make groups of three or more to clear them and score points
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