Board game:The Game of Life: Twists & Turns

Milton Bradley Company's 1960s advertising slogan for The Game of Life jingled thus: You will learn about life when you play The Game of Life. Players began with $2,000 and a car--a convertible with room for six pegs, representing family members. A spinner advanced players along Life's twisting board, encountering Life's ups and downs along the way. Choosing college (the longer route) meant earning more money in the end, while business made the first "payday" come sooner. From his start as a lithographer in the 1850s, Milton Bradley first branched into jigsaw puzzles, later turning to games. He brought out his Checkered Game of Life, the first game he published, in 1860. It proved an immediate success, selling 45,000 copies by the end of the year. Bradley was in the game business.

Milton Bradley Company's (now Hasbro, Inc.'s) later Game of Life was played in a very different way from The Checkered Game of Life, but both attempt to parallel the process of living a life. Though criticized for its focus on earning money, brisk sales from the start made The Game of Life a family favorite. Subsequent versions attempt to add points for good deeds such as recycling and donating to charity, but the core of the game remains centered on a player's net worth. Today Hasbro makes a standard version and this, the 2005 Twists and Turns version--updated similarly to 2004's Monopoly, Here and Now version. The most significant change is that the classic, clicking Life spinner is replaced with a circular electronic "brain" which keeps track of players' money by means of individual Visa cards. Hasbro has also produced Simpsons, Pirates of the Caribbean, and SpongeBob SquarePants specialty editions. Parent's Choice Awards recently presented Life its CLASSIC award. Played all over the world, the game is translated into twenty different languages.