Redartz: What board game, released in 1981, became a national craze selling millions of game sets? Trivial Pursuit, of course! Looking back to my college days in the later Bronze age, I recall many fun parties. Parties oriented around trivia; specifically, Trivial Pursuit. There was a married couple among our little circle of friends, and one holiday season they sprung for this new game (initially, Trivial Pursuit was fairly pricey; what with that giant box of cards and all-out of the budget for an art student). The game was an instant hit with our group, and with the public at large.
Innumerable evening get-togethers were enlivened with a round of Trivial Pursuit. The pursuit of those little colored "wedgies", as we called them, was often accompanied by pizza, Coke and wildly variant music. Anything to sharpen the memory and enhance the wit; both needed to win at TP. The categories (in the original Genus edition) included Science, History, Geography, Entertainment, Literature and Sports (each category represented by a specific color). Sports was my big weakness, but I killed at Science and Geography...
The game basically involved maneuvering around a wheel-themed board, answering questions and filling your gamepiece with wedges. The questions varied widely, though, as Trivial Pursuit soon added many variations and expansions.Silver Screen Edition, Genus 2, Baby Boomer Edition, those were just the first of many. Some years later our family was playing a DVD version on the tv. My wife even found a set of Elvis question cards! A card box could be found for almost any area of interest.
In retrospect, my interest in pop culture surely aided my fortunes at Trivia. I wager many of you were pretty sharp players as well...
