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Submitted by Kyle M
While Chutes & Ladders, like Candy Land was devoid of any necessity for skill, it was somehow more entertaining to have your character climbing up and sliding down, rather than being arbitrarily sent to locations on the board. The spinny wheel was also far superior to the cards.
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The version I had was called “Snakes and Ladders”. I’m not sure why you’d slide down a snake though.
cos snakes are slippery.
…No, they’re not.
I had “Snakes & Ladders”, too. I think it was the original version, and then some marketing person decided that “chutes” might sell better than “snakes”.
Man, I wish I had my original copy of Snakes & Ladders. No one believes me that it existed!
Hmm… last time I looked online for it (years ago!) I couldn’t find it at all. Now there’s a huge variety of different Snakes & Ladders games with very different board designs– but none of the images look like the game I had back in the 70’s. =^(
Wait! I have no idea what the heck “Ludo” is supposed to be, and my version of Snakes and Ladders didn’t have another game on the back, but the board on the left is the closest thing I’ve found to my old S&L game
http://www.childishtoys.com/snakes-ladders-ludos.php
Snakes and ladders is still on sale in the UK!
That’s the version I had! Except I didn’t play Ludo because I didn’t like it.
I’ve played Ludo on my DS, and it’s kinda like “Trouble” or “Sorry!”, if your kids have ever played those.
I remember Snakes and Ladders – my brother and I played it as kids. I was a sore loser.
This game was tied with Candyland as my favorite when I was a kid!
ummm… the original is SNAKES and ladder. Obviously some parent in American tried to sue because of the snakes so it had to be renamed… nice.
Is chut a bad word in Britain which is why they went with snakes? Or is that island so creepy to have a child’s game where a pawn gets eaten by a snake and pooped out in an earlier part of the board?
The snakes come from the indian version and chut isn’t used much in english but it has a similar meaning.
The word is “chute”.
And we use it plenty, we just don’t use it to refer to the item of playground equipment, which we tend to call a slide.
Now, now, don’t assume that the US version came first. It’s almost ALWAYS the other way around.
I heard that someone spilled a hot snake in her lap and sued, and that’s why they changed it.
ROFL, guess no one else noticed the joke here? :p made me laugh anyway
Actually it wasd first called Vaikuntapaali or Paramapada Sopanam. Wikipedia told me so .
In addition to being “far superior” to the cards, the spinny wheel was also more resilient. Cards of any type were lucky to last two days in my family.
We had dice.
This game also showed that actions – both good and bad – have consequences.
I love this board; it’s so dated. Some of the kids are getting openly punished by adults, one square shows a kid yanking a cat around by it’s tail, but the one the one that really caught my eye was #36, the kid eating his wonder bread sandwich and getting big and strong. Many parents I know today won’t let white bread near their house. It just shows how much American culture has changed in 40 years.
I had one that linked up with a VHS tape somehow. Did anyone else have that one? I remember playing it without the tape on but can’t for the life of me remember how it linked up.
Ok, how on EARTH do you have a Snakes and Ladders Video tie-in?!
Next, we’ll have the Ludo Choose-your-own-adventure book!
Lols.
I had Video Chutes and Ladders! It was a plot about a brother and sister, and you played the game along with it. I was utterly obsessed with it and drove my family nuts… probably because I was the only one who never figured out that it ended the same way every time:)
Every single one of those kids is white.
Yeah, I’m impressed they represented redheads, as we make up less than 6% of the world’s population. Back then everyone didn’t feel the need to be politically correct and show at least one black child, one Asian, and one Hispanic in every kid’s game, TV show, or book. In some ways it was more free and innocent, and in other ways it was very sad and stifling… it just depends on how much you want to read into it and compare it with the way things are now. I think the saddest thing is, that when that board was first designed, showing a non-white child would have brought up just as much criticism as not showing one does now. And I’m glad that’s changed.
Every time I get the chance, I force my friends to play it! Nothing beats mocking your friends for what the characters end up doing!
I hate this game. Seriously. My kids loved this game, but it could go on for DAYS. It’s not even possible to cheat and THROW the damned thing. (No adult should EVER win a children’s game.) Candyland I love, because it’s possible to palm the Plummy card and always end up back at the beginning if it looks like you’ll win. Even my card-counter 4-year-old was willing to accept the possibility that the same player could get Plummy four times in one game. But there is NO WAY to subtlely throw this thing. I even considered setting off the FIRE ALARMS to make the torture stop, or offering monetary bribes to make it end. But what kind of lesson would THAT have taught. Certainly none of the self-righteous nonsense promulgated by this thinly-disguised morality play.
And they were always a bit vague as to which square exactly the snakes and ladders actually lead. Not mentioning the kids who loose the manual before they can read it and end up having to make up their own rules.
Ooh, I had a little magnetic snakes/chutes and ladders game. It’s win.
Ooooh! My uncle (dearly departed) designed this game
Hubby apparently played a strip version of this. He won’t tell me how old he was. Ladders were upper-body and shoots were lower-body. Sheesh. At least he wasn’t playing with his mom when he did that.