Although board games have lost a great deal of popularity to their video counterparts, a few continue to capture the public's imagination and leisure time. Toward the end of the twentieth century, none was more successful than Trivial Pursuit.

As the name suggests, the game tests players' knowledge of obscure facts. In the basic game (known as the "Genus Edition"), the facts are divided into five categories: Art and Literature, History, Sports and Leisure, Geography, and Science and Nature. A die roll moves each player around a circular board, each square of which represents one of the five categories. Questions are contained on preprinted cards, and a player must correctly answer a question in each category to have a chance of winning. Various supplementary sets of questions may be purchased, all of which can be used with the basic board.

The game was conceived in 1979 by...