I love mysteries. I like board games. And I also enjoy the two's lovechild, Clue. Clue was created in England during the World War II so that there was something to play during air raid drills. Originally entitled "Murder!", the game was taken to a company named Waddington's, and was rebranded "Cluedo". The game was patented in 1947, but because of the scarcity of supplies in post-war England, the game wasn't published until two years later. The game was very different from the version we play today, and included ten characters eleven rooms, nine weapons, and drastically different rules. But then we released the state of the game was stupid, and the game slowly morphed into the recognized version today.
Gameplay revolves around solving the murder of Mister Boddy, who is sometimes referred to as Mister Black, by drawing cards in the beginning and traveling to the different rooms in the mansion and making suggestions to narrow down the lists of possible rooms, suspects, and weapons. And then, when you think you've got it all figured out, you take a guess and peek at the cards set aside in the beginning of the game.if you're right, it's over, everyone goes about their business and life moves on. If you're wrong, you lose and the others continue playing.
The game proved to be hugely popular and spawned everything from movies, to books, to a video game. The move was particularly well received, and was released in 1985. The plot revolves around the typical characters involved in a murder mystery, and even branches off into multiple endings. The move is set in 1954, but I find it interesting how multiple timeline mistakes are made, such as the obvious power outage during the policeman's phone call death. His phone call would've been cut off long before his death, as in the 1950's a power outage meant all calls ended and no calls could be made, unlike with modern telephones. Another, less obvious one, is Mirs. Peacock's use of the word "beatnik", which was coined in 1957 after the launch of Sputnik, three years after the story takes place.
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Whodunit?
Clue's a fun game with a storied history, and it seems it won't be dead anytime soon. In 2008, Hasbro introduced a new way to play clue, further changing up the formula by rearranging the room order, introducing Intrigue Cards (Basically the same concept as Chance cards from Monopoly.), and changing the rules so that players must be in the pool room to make an accusation. With changes like these, one could say that Clue will adapt to new generations for ages to come, and continue to entertain with games of intrigue and logical deduction.