How to use this quiz: choose an answer before opening the explanation. Each answer is supported by two independent sources checked on 2026-08-27.
10 game design and history questions
1 · Warm-up
Before he was Mario, what was the main character of Nintendo's Donkey Kong called?
- Jumpman
- Stanley
- Foreman Spike
- Mr. Do!
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: Jumpman. The character was called Jumpman.
In Donkey Kong, the character was called Jumpman and worked as a carpenter. Nintendo later renamed him Mario and eventually made him a plumber.
Sources: Nintendo and The Strong National Museum of Play.
2 · Warm-up
On a scrambled 3×3 Rubik's Cube, what does each fixed center piece reveal?
- Which face was turned last
- Which color belongs on that face
- How many moves remain
- Where solving must begin
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: Which color belongs on that face. Each center identifies the solved color of its face.
The six center pieces stay fixed relative to one another. Each center identifies the solved color of its face, so the moving edges and corners must match it.
Sources: Rubik's and Lutterworth Press.
3 · Core
The name Tetris combines the Greek root for four with the name of which sport?
- Soccer
- Chess
- Tennis
- Table tennis
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: Tennis. Tetris combines “tetra” with tennis.
Each tetromino uses four squares, supplying the Greek “tetra.” Creator Alexey Pajitnov added tennis, his favorite sport, to complete the name.
Sources: The Tetris Company and The Strong National Museum of Play.
4 · Core
Lizzie Magie's Landlord's Game, an ancestor of Monopoly, was designed to demonstrate what?
- The value of saving cash
- The risk of railway travel
- The luck behind property prices
- The harms of land monopolies
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: The harms of land monopolies. The game was designed to criticize land monopolies.
Magie used the Landlord's Game to illustrate how rent and concentrated land ownership enrich landlords at the expense of tenants. Monopoly later emphasized competition and property acquisition.
Sources: Smithsonian National Museum of American History and British Library.
5 · Core
Why do common letters such as E have low values while rare letters such as Q have high values in English Scrabble?
- Counts of letters in printed English
- Lengths of letters in Morse code
- Votes from early tournament players
- Positions of letters in the alphabet
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: Counts of letters in printed English. Alfred Butts used counts of letters in printed English.
Alfred Butts tallied letters in sources including newspapers. Frequent letters received more tiles and lower scores; rarer letters were scarcer and worth more.
Sources: Dictionary.com and Lemelson-MIT Program.
6 · Core
Merle Robbins sold early UNO decks from his own workplace. Which workplace was it?
- A school classroom
- A barbershop
- A funeral home
- A print shop
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: A barbershop. Merle Robbins sold early UNO decks in his barbershop.
Robbins, a barber, developed UNO after disagreements over Crazy Eights rules. His family financed 5,000 decks, which he first sold through his shop.
Sources: Mattel and The Strong National Museum of Play.
7 · Core
Nintendo's original business in 1889 centered on making which product?
- Wooden puzzles
- Tin wind-up toys
- Hanafuda playing cards
- Mechanical arcade games
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: Hanafuda playing cards. Nintendo's first product was hanafuda playing cards.
Fusajiro Yamauchi started Nintendo producing hanafuda, traditional Japanese playing cards. The company entered electronic games many decades later.
Sources: Nintendo and Smithsonian Magazine.
8 · Core
In Twister's breakthrough design, the players themselves function as what?
- The referees
- The spinner operators
- The team scorekeepers
- The game pieces
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: The game pieces. The players function as the game pieces.
Reyn Guyer's floor-mat design made people serve as the playing pieces. The unfamiliar format initially made the game difficult for some retailers and shoppers to understand.
Sources: The Strong National Museum of Play and Smithsonian Magazine.
9 · Challenge
In medieval European chess, the piece that became the queen could usually move how?
- One square diagonally
- Any distance diagonally
- Two squares forward
- One square in any direction
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: One square diagonally. The piece could move only one square diagonally.
The earlier counselor or queen moved only one square diagonally. Around the late 15th century, new rules gave the piece its modern ability to move any distance along a rank, file, or diagonal.
Sources: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and World Chess Hall of Fame.
10 · Challenge
How did scholars recover rules for the ancient Royal Game of Ur?
- They were painted on the board
- They were written on a cuneiform tablet
- They were inferred from worn squares
- They survived in a Greek poem
Show the answer, explanation, and sources
Answer: They were written on a cuneiform tablet. The rules were recovered from a cuneiform tablet.
A Babylonian cuneiform tablet preserves rules for the twenty-squares game family. It allows modern scholars and players to reconstruct a game represented by much older boards.
Sources: British Museum and Guinness World Records.
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