Cluedo & Clue Standard Boardgames
Original Cluedo / Clue:
Where it all started
- the original board game was created in 1946 by Anthony E. Pratt and some
of his friends, and submitted to Waddingtons Games in Leeds, Great Britain.
The idea was to create a game of deduction and elimination, where the players
played detective in a murder hunt. Over the years since it's release, Cluedo
has become a classic game that no respectable house shouldn't have in its
hall cupboard.
The idea is quite
simple - Dr. Black has been murdered in his home of Tudor Close, and was
found at the bottom of the cellar stairs by one of his guests - Miss. Scarlet.
Miss. Scarlet, along with the other five guest staying at his house that
weekend (namely Mrs. Peacock, Mrs. White, Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum
and Reverend Green) are the chief suspects in the crime. There are nine
possible rooms he could have been killed in and six possible weapons that
could have been used (the lead piping, spanner, rope, revolver, candlestick
or dagger). Players take on the character of one of the six suspects, and
move their playing piece around the board (a plan of Tudor Close) and into
the rooms. By asking other players, questions about the cards that they
have in their hand, each player must discover Whodunit, with what and where.
In Britain, the rooms in the original game have always just been outlines
on the board - unlike most other countries where they have the furniture
etc. drawn in. Finally, the 1996 version of the game has put this right.
See the map for what it now looks like. Unfortunately
(in my opinion) they made a few other changes. The stylised "cone and sphere"
playing pieces have been changed with plastic figures, and the traditional
drawings of the characters and weapons that we all grew up with, have been
changed into newspaper reports with the characters looking like complete
psychopaths and the weapons looking like a child of five drew them ! The
rooms on the other hand, do look quite impressive; and it was a nice idea
to try and create a story line of what had happened on the fateful night
by text on the cards - though there a couple of errors such as putting
the revolver in the lounge (instead of the study) and Reverend Green in
the lounge (instead of the study) - Hmm ... maybe it was Rev. Green, in
the lounge with the revolver ....
Image of playing board (1996 Version)
Braille Cluedo:
This
game of Cluedo has been adapted with a tactile board, with all the written information on the board (rooms, characters etc.) in braille.
All the squares on the outer edges of the rooms are marked by a raised line.
The cards are also provided in braille, and a tactile dice is included.
The playing pieces have different shapes e.g. square, circle, hexagon, plus sign and multiply sign (click image to left to see).
Clue / Parcheesi:
Andrew N. from St. Louis, Missouri
found this edition of Clue which is combined with the game Parcheesi. It comes in a tin case. Click on the images for a closer look.
© Paul Howls, 1998-2005
Cluedo & Waddingtons are © Hasbro International Inc. Distributed in the UK. by Waddingtons Games, Castle Gate, Oulton, Leeds LS26 8HG
