Mouse Trap (board game)

This article is about the board game. For other uses, see Mousetrap (disambiguation).

Mouse Trap (board game)

Mouse Trap playing board and box.
Players	2 - 4
Age range	6 +
Setup time	< 10 mins
Playing time	30 mins approx
Random chance	High
Skill(s) required	Dice rolling, careful finger dexterity

Mouse Trap (originally titled Mouse Trap Game) is a board game first published by Ideal in 1963 for two or more players. Over the course of the game, players at first cooperate to build a working Rube Goldberg-like mouse trap. But once the mouse trap is finished, the object is to then use the machine to trap all of one's opponent's mouse-shaped game pieces.

Gameplay

The basic premise of the game has been consistent throughout the game's history. However, the turn-based gameplay has changed somewhat over the years.

The original version, designed by Hank Kramer of Ideal Toy Company, allowed the players almost no decision-making, in keeping with other games for very young children such as Candyland, or Chutes and Ladders. In the 1970s, the board game surrounding the Mouse Trap was redesigned by Sid Sackson, adding the cheese pieces and allowing the player to maneuver opponents onto the trap space.

Current rules

Each player is represented by a mouse-shaped game piece which travels along a non-continuous, roughly square-shaped path around the game board from the start to a continuous loop at the end. The path is segmented into spaces, some of which are marked with instructions, and "build" spaces that are marked simply with numbers ("2", "2-3" and "2-3-4").

The object of the game is to trap all of one's opponent's mice using the game's Rube Goldberg-style mouse trap, which is built upon the board during the course of the game. The trap begins with a crank which turns a set of gears. This begins a series of stages which ends in a cage being lowered over the "cheese wheel" space on the board, which is one of six spaces in the ending loop of the game path.

Players roll the six-sided die in turn-based play, and move their mouse the number of spaces rolled. If a player lands on a "build" space that corresponds with the number of players in the game (e.g. only "2-3-4" spaces for a four-player game), they must build the next unbuilt piece of the mouse trap, and take a piece of cheese, represented by cheese-shaped tokens. If the players reach the final loop of the board, they continue around it until the game ends; each "build" space in the loop requires a player to build two pieces of the mouse trap, and take two pieces of cheese.

Another space on the board is the "turn crank" space. Once the mouse trap is built, a player landing on one of these spaces while there is an opposing mouse on the "cheese wheel" space must turn the crank to start the mouse trap. If the mouse trap successfully runs its course (there are several stages in which the mouse trap may fail if not properly set), the cage will fall on any opposing mice on the space, and they are out of the game. If there are no opposing mice on the "cheese wheel" space, the player may trade one piece of cheese, for the opportunity to choose an opponent who is not on a "safe" space and roll the die to move their mouse. One may repeat this trade as many times in a turn as they have pieces of cheese; when an opposing mouse is on the "cheese wheel" space, the crank can then be turned. Once there is only one mouse left in the game, that player wins. Others spaces require the player to move their mouse in a prescribed manner. Another way to win is by collecting all eight cheese pieces, these can be collected by landing on mousetrap spaces. If a player is caught that player must return one of the cheese pieces they have collected. If a player holds seven out of the eight cheese slices required to win and lands on a mousetrap circle the player picks up the last remaining cheese of their colour, forgetting about the second cheese. They then flush the toilet and if they are trapped, the cheese they collected is returned, leaving them once again with seven. This is the rule stated at www.mousetrap.co.uk/rules/winningthegame If a player lands on the 'boot' space they wait there until the player's next go. However, if the toilet is flushed and that player is 'booted out' then must return to the previous mouse trap space and return a cheese unless it is stated otherwise in the rule book as different editions' rules vary.

The mouse trap in the game has never changed in operation, though the color and shape of some pieces has been slightly modified over the years. There are several stages which form the mouse trap, and most stages are composed of multiple pieces. A 1990s ad campaign for the game involved a song which listed most of the stages of the mouse trap.

In a proper operation, the player turns the crank, which rotates a vertical gear, connected to a horizontal gear. As that gear turns, it pushes an elastic-loaded lever until it snaps back in place, hitting a swinging boot. This causes the boot to kick over a bucket, sending a marble down a zig-zagging incline which feeds into a chute. This leads the marble to hit a vertical pole, at the top of which is an open hand, palm-up, which is supporting a larger ball (changed later on to a marble just like the starter one). The movement of the pole knocks the ball free to fall through a hole in its platform into a bathtub, and then through a hole in the tub onto one end of a seesaw. This launches a diver on the other end into a tub which is on the same base as the barbed pole supporting the mouse cage. The movement of the tub shakes the cage free from the top of the pole and allows it to fall.

There are several points at which the mousetrap can commonly fail. If not built level, or if kicked too hard, the marble can fall off the incline; it can also miss the chute if not properly aligned; the contact of the marble with the pole may fail to dislodge the ball above; the ball may fail to propel the diver into the tub; the movement of the tub may be insufficient to dislodge the cage; or the cage may get stuck on the barbed pole partway down.

Licensing controversy

The game designer Marvin Glass (and his company, Marvin Glass and Associates) refused to pay licensing fees or royalties to Rube Goldberg, despite Marvin acknowledging being inspired by Goldberg as well as the clear similarities between the game and a Goldberg drawing. Glass went on to develop two less well-known games based on Goldberg designs, Crazy Clock Game (released 1964) and Fish Bait (1965), neither of which credited Goldberg's influence. Elderly and near retirement, Goldberg declined to take legal action against Glass because inspiration and ideas are not intellectual property that can be protected with a copyright, trademark, or patent, and chose to sell licensing rights for his drawings to another toy company, Model Products instead, which was intellectual property he owned and could make royalties on.^[1]

Game redesign

In 2006, the game was re-released in the United Kingdom with a completely new design in which there are three mousetraps, and in which the board and plastic components are completely different. The most obvious change is the addition of a model toilet at the top of the tallest part of the game. Another key difference is that all of the mousetrap is set up in advance of the game.

Television

Mouse Trap was adapted into a game show which featured on the British children's television show Motormouth.^[2][3] A life-size board game was created and the child contestants took the place of the mice.

See also

• Crazy Machines
• Crazy Machines 2

References

1. ^ Timeless Toys: Classic Toys and the Playmakers Who Created Them from Google Books
2. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/years/1962/toys3.shtml
3. ^ http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Motormouth

External links

• Hasbro Games' Mouse Trap product page
• Mouse Trap at BoardGameGeek
• The original 1963 Mouse Trap box cover