Trivial Pursuit trivia

Trivial Pursuit trivia
By: Ben Silverman


Some three decades after first stumping board game fans, the foremost name in trivia gaming is still kicking. Trivial Pursuit comes in a million forms -- there's the standard board game version (the latest is the high-stakes 'Bet You Know It' edition), the online version, the portable version, the video game version, etc. -- but it's always the same basic deal: no matter how much you know, Trivial Pursuit probably knows more.

So we decided to turn the tables. Get to know the know-it-all with these trivial tidbits:


Q: What famous board game helped create Trivial Pursuit?
A: Scrabble.

When Canadian newspapermen Scott Abbot and Chris Haney met up to play a game of Scrabble in December of 1979, little did they know they'd stumble upon one of the most lucrative game ideas in history.

As the story goes, the two friends noticed that a few Scrabble tiles were missing, thus rendering their game moot. But instead of packing it in, they decided to use their lost time wisely and concocted a new game entirely. First published in 1981, Trivial Pursuit only took a few years before catching on: in 1984, over 20 million copies were sold in North America.


Q: What TV detective was nearly responsible for derailing Trivial Pursuit just as it started taking off?
A: Columbo.

Years before Trivial Pursuit became the de facto authority on all things trivia, that honor belonged to a fellow named Fred L. Worth. Worth published a series of popular trivia encyclopedias in the 1970s, but he faced a curious copyright issue: you can't copyright facts themselves, only the manner in which they're presented. So Worth cleverly added a false fact in case anyone tried to plagiarize his work.

Sure enough, the very first edition of Trivial Pursuit incorrectly claimed that the answer to "What's Columbo's first name?" was "Philip" (the right answer is "Frank.") Incensed, Worth filed a $300 million lawsuit in 1984, but it didn't work out. While the Trivial Pursuit folks admitted copying info from Worth's "Super Trivia" book alongside many other sources, the courts decided that the two works -- one a book of facts, the other a set of questions and answers broken down into various categories -- were substantially different from one another. A judge threw out the case, clearing the way for the Trivial Pursuit juggernaut.


Q: How many questions and answers were in the first edition?
A: 6,000

One thousand cards, six questions apiece -- that's the standard for most every edition of Trivial Pursuit. But while that number seems like a lot, according to Robert Heller, author of 1983's "How to Win at Trivial Pursuit," it's perfect for some truly shady strategy. Heller actually suggested memorizing all 6,000 questions and answers as a way to gain a competitive edge...and a whopper of a headache.


Q: Genus, Baby Boomers, Totally 80s...how many different editions are there, anyway?
A: Over 50

And all those different versions seem to sell just fine. In roughly 30 years, the game has sold more than 100 million units in 26 countries worldwide. It's been translated into 17 languages, too: a tall task considering there have been over 200,000 trivia questions over the years.

Quoted: http://blog.games.yahoo.com/blog/381-trivial-pursuit-trivia