List of fictional games
This is a list of fictional games, that is games which were specifically created for works of fiction, or which otherwise originated in fiction.
Many fictional games have been "translated" to the real world by fans or ludophiles by creating pieces and rules to fit the descriptions given in the source work. For example, unofficial versions of Fizzbin can be found in reality, and Mornington Crescent is widely played in online forums.
Billiards games
Board games
- 110th Congress the Game - Last Call with Carson Daly
- Angela's Ashes the Game - MADtv
- Azad - the novel The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
- Citizenship - The Simpsons
- Clam Traffic Jam - "Grift of the Magi" episode of The Simpsons
- Cobra Pult - Homestar Runner
- Color Wheel Roulette Stupid Home Edition! - Homestar Runner
- Command Board - Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
- Counter-Feet - Magyk board game played in the Septimus Heap series.
- Coupling - "Bed Time" episode of Coupling
- Crapple - "The Five Diamonds (aka A Hard Act to Follow)" episode of Stroker and Hoop
- Crazy Chase - "The Whitest Kids U' Know", described as "the only board game with literally one thousand dice".
- Cyvasse - George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series
- Dejarik - played on the Millennium Falcon by R2D2 and Chewbacca in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Rules (fan-created),
- Don't Whiz on the Electric Fence - Ren and Stimpy
- Dotcomopoly - from the "Dotcomopoly!" article by Dave Itzkoff in the February 2001 issue of Maxim magazine.
- Double Cranko - a game made up by Hawkeye Pierce and B.J. Hunnicutt on the TV series M*A*S*H, combining checkers, chess, poker and gin rummy. A checker cannot be "kinged" (as in checkers) if it is "in check" (as in chess), and if a player has a gin hand, both players have to drink from the distillery in their tent, "the Swamp." When Radar O'Reilly asks how to play, Hawkeye says, "Bishops are worth three jacks, checkers are wild, and you have to be 21 or over to open." When Hawkeye plays Colonel Potter, he uses an apparently strange move, and the Colonel asks B.J., "Is that in the rules?" B.J. replies, "What rules?" Colonel Potter remarks (to himself) "I think I'm beginning to understand this game," (as the realization dawns that perhaps the game is played for the financial benefit of the teacher, Hawkeye). Hawkeye then says, "I think you're ready for Triple Cranko!"
- The Dutchman's Treasure Hunt - SpongeBob SquarePants
- Edna Krabappoly (a fictionalised version of Monopoly) - The Simpsons
- Eels and Escalators (similar to Snakes and Ladders) - SpongeBob SquarePants animated TV series
- Energy-Shortage Game - The Simpsons
- Euthanasia (a parody of The Game of Life concerned with controlling the pet population) - Robot Chicken animated TV series
- Exclusive Possession (a fictionalised version of Monopoly) - Discworld
- Gallipolopoly (a fictionalised version of Monopoly) - The Simpsons
- The Game of County Seats - "Grift of the Magi" episode of The Simpsons
- The Game of Fencing - The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner
- The Game of Lent (parody of The Game of Life) - The Simpsons
- Goblin's Teeth - Who's Afraid of Beowulf? by Tom Holt
- Gringo - Mad Magazine - Board is combination parody of Monopoly and Scrabble
- Hippo in the House - The Simpsons
- Hungry, Hungry Oprahs - The Man Show (redesigned Hungry Hungry Hippos game with the hippos replaced by Oprah Winfreys)
- Icehouse - The Empty City by Andrew Looney (an example of a fictional game that now exists as a real-world one)
- Immigrants out - MadTV
- Interstellar Pig - in the novel of the same name by William Sleator
- Jetan - a chess-like strategy game from the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel The Chessmen of Mars
- Jumanji - from the book and movie of the same name
- Jurvy-Skat - Homestar Runner
- Kadis-kot - Star Trek: Voyager
- Kaissa - Kaissa - and related variants - is a chess like game described in John Norman's (Dr. John Lange) World of Gor. Various rules exist, but the object is always to capture the opponents Home Stone, a non capturing piece that is limited to one space moves and is placed on the board after play has begun.
- Klin Zha - Klingon game from the Star Trek novel The Final Reflection (not considered part of the current canon)
- Klunk - Smallville
- Lab Rats - Episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (a pseudo-Clue game)
- Land Baron (a fictionalised version of Monopoly) - DC Comics
- Latrotabuli - Pastel Defender Heliotrope
- LIVING (parody of LIFE) - South Park
- Logos - "Bad Words" episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (a pseudo-Scrabble game)
- Mamba - A supernatural board game from the film Open Graves
- Manopoly (a parody of Monopoly) - For Better or For Worse
- Marshgammon - from How I Met Your Mother episode Game Night
- Misery Date - mentioned on Ren and Stimpy (parody of Mystery Date)
- Monopolyopoly - mentioned on The Colbert Report a game where every square is a different version of Monopoly.
- Monotony (a parody of Monopoly) - Green Acres TV series; also mentioned on Ren and Stimpy
- Neurosis - Rugrats
- No Mo Homos - MadTV
- Nuke 'Em - RoboCop
- Organ Harvest - Aqua Teen Hunger Force
- Pai Sho - Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Personality Chess - from The Tar-Aiym Krang, by Alan Dean Foster
- Purecheesi - Ren and Stimpy (parody of Parcheesi)
- Quintet - Quintet (film)
- Rasta-Monopoly (a fictionalised version of Monopoly) - The Simpsons
- Ravenous, Ravenous Rhinos - The Simpsons (thinly disguised version of Hungry Hungry Hippos)
- Research Lab - The Big Bang Theory
- Regicide - [A strategy game within the Warhammer 40,000 background, particularly in Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn series]
- Rockopoly - The Flintstones version of Monopoly
- Rice-a-Roni - MADtv
- The Running Man home game - The Running Man
- Satan's Path - The Simpsons
- Scot Free - board game based on the Kennedy assassination, The Kentucky Fried Movie
- Scrabbleship - A combination of Scrabble and Battleship a game Lisa claims makes no sense. The Simpsons
- Scribble (a parody of Scrabble) - Green Acres TV series; also mentioned on Ren and Stimpy
- Sha'rah - From The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Strategy game involving the capture and manipulation of The Fisher, a neutral piece.
- Spank the Monkey - Rockos Modern Life
- Stars and Comets - in Andre Norton novels
- Starchase - in C. J. Cherryh's novel Cyteen
- Stealth Chess - chess variant played in the Assassins' Guild, in which pieces move invisibly, Discworld
- Stone The Sinners, MADtv
- Stones, - Probably Go, from The Wheel of Time by Robert Jorden. Known as no'ri in the Age of Legends.
- Surgeon - An Operation clone - House
- Super Twister - Son of the Mask
- Taasen - Unicorn Jelly
- Tadek - A game in Farscape that involves building holographic columns while pushing game pieces around a board, as in chess. This game can be used for gambling.
- Tcheran - From The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Mentioned only once, as a popular game in the Age of Legends.
- THE SHOW! Stupid Home Edition! - Homestar Runner
- Three Cornered Pitney - Mad magazine
- Throws - The White Rose novel by Glen Cook: Throws was essentially four-player checkers. The board was four times the usual size. Players played from each side. An element of chance was added by throwing a die before each move. If a player’s throw came up six, he could move any combination of pieces six moves. Checkers rules generally applied, except that a jump could be declined.
- Thud (game) - a Chess-like game of Trolls and Dwarves appearing in Terry Pratchett's novel of the same name.
- Tool Time - Home Improvement
- Tower of Cows - Arthur
- Travel-Up - Starship by Brian W. Aldiss (1958) (Non-Stop in British editions)
- Tri-Dimensional Chess - first seen on Star Trek, and was later developed into a real game.
- Two Decades of Dignity - Family Guy episode "Petarded"
- Vivisection - Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories - An Operation-like game where the player dissects real rats
- Vlet It's a strategic sort of game involving a complex landscape board, small figurines, rolls of dice and card draws to determine fates and outcomes, etc. - Triton (novel)
- Waterloo - Psychonauts
- Welfare - MadTV Parody of Monopoly
- Who Killed Who? - The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy Parody of Clue.
- Wizard Chess - Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. Played exactly the same as real chess, with the exception of the fact the pieces move when given voice commands, e.g. knight to king 5.
- Zaggle! The Fun Phonics Game - from the Missing School installment of the webcomic Perry Bible Fellowship
- Zathura - from the book and movie of the same name
- Zuffstaffle Geese Fighters - Computer Gaming World
Card games
Role-playing games
Sports
- 12 Ball - a game similar to 4 player ping pong but plays on a table shaped like an + with a player standing at each point and wielding 2 double ended paddles a hand that comes out of the middle serves the ball then periodically ads more the longer there is no score until there are 12 in play. The Wizards of Waverly Place
- 43-Man Squamish - fictional college sport from Mad Magazine
- Aargrooha - Troll football, traditionally played with a human head, Discworld
- Aeroball - futuristic version of basketball played with jet packs in the 2000 AD strip Harlem Heroes
- Aerocrosse - variable-gravity game featuring elements of lacrosse, from Orbital Resonance by John Barnes
- Anbo-Jitsu - from Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Apopudobalia - encyclopedia fictitious entry
- Assassin's Guild Wall Game - " a cross between squash, urban rock climbing and actual bodily harm", Discworld (named after the Eton Wall Game)
- Australian Indoor Rules Quiddich - A game created by webcomic MacHall. Link to Comic
- BASEketball - from the movie of the same name
- Baskiceball - From the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, a game that consist mainly of "wailing on each other" with no real rules.
- Blernsball - 30th century version of baseball, Futurama
- Blitzball - Final Fantasy X, also a game created by Phineas in the novel, "A Separate Peace."
- Blood Bowl - a fictional form of football from the tabletop wargame of the same name
- Brockian Ultra-Cricket - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Boxer Hockey - Boxer Hockey Webcomic A mix of Cricket, Rugby, and Hockey all played on a pitch with frogs as the ball
- B'tduz - A game in which two dwarfs stand a few feet apart and throw rocks at each others' heads. Discworld
- Bungee Ball - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fast Forward
- Calvinball - A game where there are only 2 rules: players can make new, ridiculous rules at will, and you can never play the same way twice. Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
- Centrifugal Bumblepuppy - Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Croquet using flamingos as mallets - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- Crossball - a tennis-like game from The Vorkosigan Saga
- Eggboard, a team sport invented by Dada artist Jean Arp, in which both teams leave the field of play
- Electro-Magnetic Golf - from Brave New World
- Escalator Squash - from Brave New World
- Eschaton - the novel Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
- Farnarkeling - created by John Clarke, in the 1980s Australian TV comedy show The Gillies Report. It was played on a field called a grommet in periods called umlauts, with players 'warbling vigorously' with 'the bevelled orb'. Dave Sorensen was 'the hope of Australian farnarkeling'.
- Fightball - the basketballish game played by the gangs in the Fightball card game
- Fire Ball - game invented by Chandler and Joey - Friends TV series
- Five Bar Gate - A game reminicsent of both squash and ice hockey from the comic book Cerebus.
- Fizzball - Involves hitting beer cans with bats or other sticks, with no points or competitive elements, popularized in Sam & Max comics
- Flonkerton - created by Jim in the Office episode, Office Olympics.
- Frungy - played by the Zoq-Fot-Pik in Star Control II
- Futuresport - from the movie of the same name.
- German batball - from Kurt Vonnegut's novel The Sirens of Titan
- Goblin Football - from Goblins of the Labyrinth by Terry Jones and Brian Froud. The object is to eat the ball, which is made difficult by the fact that the ball is several feet in diameter and made of solid teak
- Gravball - Mentioned by Spartan John-117 in the novel Halo: The Fall of Reach
- Grifball - Red vs. Blue
- Guyball - Ball game played by Green Wing's Dr Guy Secretan.
- Hadaul - from Jack Vance's Demon Princes book The Face
- Hussade - from Jack Vance's Alastor series.
- Indoor hang gliding - Geoff Maltby in the television series Benidorm claims to be North West champion at it.
- Ja'La dh Jin - from Terry Goodkind's The Sword of Truth series.
- Jiggly Ball - from Scrubs' My Jiggly Ball episode.
- Jugger - from the movie The Blood of Heroes
- Kasaba ball - from the show Jungle Cubs in the episode 'Kasaba ball'.
- Killball - referenced several times in the book The Running Man, but not described much
- Kohlii - from Lego's Bionicle franchise.
- Kosho - from the TV series The Prisoner
- The Game - From Piers Anthony's Apprentice Adept series of novels. Includes almost all known games and competitions; winners of the yearly Tourney get to become Citizens.
- Laserball - from the movie The Fifth Element
- Lifting - Popular extreme sport, similar to surfing, but in the air; practitioners ride "reflection boards" on waves of "Transparence Light Particles". From anime/manga series Eureka Seven.
- The Long Walk - from a Richard Bachman/Stephen King book of the same name.
- The Maze (or Glide) - from The Maze Game by Diana Reed Slattery
- Motorball - from the Battle Angel Alita manga
- Nib - an exceedingly violent sport mentioned in the Starship Titanic novel and computer game.
- Obstacle Golf - from Brave New World
- Parrises Squares - an athletic, full-contact sport in Star Trek
- Podracing - violent vehicular racing sport from Star Wars
- Pro Thunderball - from Upright Citizens Brigade
- Pyramid - a ball game played on a pyramid-shaped court in the new Battlestar Galactica series
- Quantum soccer - from Greg Egan's "Border Guards"
- Quidditch - from Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
- Quodpot - from Quidditch Through the Ages by J. K. Rowling
- Real Foosball - from I Am Weasel
- Rollerball - from William Harrison's story Roller Ball Murder, on which the movie Rollerball was loosely based
- Shirling - The Kids in the Hall
- Skeet Surfing - a combination of skeet shooting and surfing seen in the film Top Secret!, possibly parodying the biathlon.
- Sky-surfing - appearing in numerous Judge Dredd stories.
- Sniffleball - a variation of baseball from an episode of Chowder of the same name.
- Speedball - Futuristic mix of Handball and Hockey featured in the games of the same name.
- Spheda - A golf-like game from the PlayStation 2 adventure game Dark Chronicle (Dark Cloud 2).
- Springball - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Star Racing - low-to-medium altitude hovercraft racing sport from Oban Star-Racers; superficially similar to Podracing
- Struggle - "Kingdom Hearts II"
- Taking the Stone - In Farscape, a game played by the youth of an unnamed royal cemetery planet. The game consists of jumping into a deep well, and chanting while falling. A sonic net at the bottom of the well, sustained by the participants voices, cushions their fall. When the youth reach the age of 22 cycles, rather than grow old and be deformed by the planet's radiation, they stop chanting part way into the leap and die against the rocks. This death is called Taking the Stone.
- Thrashball - a game that sounds similar to American Football. Gears of War
- Thunderball - Full contact basketball with a hockey-like playing area, and encouragement of wrestling, fighting and general manhandling of other players.
- Timmyball - Fairly Odd Parents
- Transcontinental Road Race - Death Race 2000
- Triad - a contact sport with elements of football and basketball from Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)
- Troll Ball - from supplementary material published for the RuneQuest roleplaying game and other Glorantha references.
- Ultimate Robot Fighting - "Raging Bender" episode of Futurama
- Walnut Hockey - "Rose Is Rose"
- Weltraumball - a funny mix of football and handball with authorized doping and cybernetics enhancements, played in weightlessness, from Roland C. Wagner's novel Mine de rien
- Wizard Squash - also called Real Squash (similar to real tennis), a much more leisurely game than ordinary squash, except that the ball may rebound off a wall it hasn't hit. Discworld
- Zero-G Football - Red Dwarf sitcom
- Zero-G Kickboxing - Red Dwarf sitcom
See also List of fictional sports teams
Other games
- Barbarian Invaders (a clockpunk arcade game, parodying Space Invaders) - Discworld
- Beetman - A videogame featured in American Dad, where the player is a beetroot. The game features levels such as avoiding a chef trying to cut you up, and freezing nuclear rabbits.
- Bob-stones a form of guessing game played by the rabbits in book Watership Down by Richard Adams.
- Chula - in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Move Along Home"
- Cock, Muff, Bumhole - in Nathan Barley, a variation of Rock, Paper, Scissors
- Dabo (a roulette-like game at Quark's) - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Deemo - A gambling game from Farscape that is lost if the player does not cheat well.
- "The game" in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Game" - head-mounted virtual reality game
- The Glass Bead Game - Hermann Hesse's novel of the same name
- Gobstones - Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, a marbles-like game where players are sprayed with foul-smelling liquid when they lose.
- Hacker Snack - Lost Boys, A video game written by the protagonist, similar to Chip's Challenge.
- House Rules Parcheesi - Ozy and Millie, a game similar to Calvinball but with predefined rules (only it's never explained what they are). The Zen idea that one must learn to let go of concrete ideas and objectives is very close to the dragons' hearts, so a game of House Rules Parcheesi only ends when a player accepts the current location of the roll of duct tape as being equally valid to the "goal," and serenely stops trying to move it. Whether the player then wins or is being rewarded for not-winning is ambiguous.
- Light Cycles -Tron
- Mornington Crescent - I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue radio comedy programme
- Moules ("a game of skill and dexterity, involving tortoises") - Discworld
- The 'Nonary' Game - Saw-esque game in which nine players must attempt to solve puzzles to escape from a sinking ship alive, used in 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
- Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006 - a side-scrolling video game depicted in an animated movie of the same name
- Poohsticks - Winnie-the-Pooh
- Questions - Verbal game played in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. [3]
- Quis - a building game from the Saga of the Skolian Empire novels by Catherine Asaro involving the laying down of geometric solid shapes (dice) in various combinations. The game rules contain encoded knowledge of one of the former empires in the novel series.
- The Quizzing Device (a water-driven, clockpunk quiz machine) - Discworld
- Rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock - An extension of rock, paper, scissors with rules not interrupting the original roles of rock, paper, or scissors. It is an actual game developed for the story line of 'The Big Bang Theory' and it's inclusion has inspired several shirts displaying the hierarchy of the game.
- Roshambo - while RoShamBo is actually rock-paper-scissors, in South Park, it involves two male competitors kicking each other in the testicles as hard as they can.
- Sej – a dicing game played in Serpent's Reach.
- Shibo Yancong-San (Tile-based Agatean game, similar to Mahjong, name translates as "Cripple Mr Onion") - Discworld
- Sim Sandwich - The Simpsons (A parody of the "Sim" games)
- Sink: A game generally played by Discordians (and people of much ilk). The rules are defined in the Principia Discordia.[1]
- Sphere Break - Final Fantasy X-2, a mathematical game in which coins of differing values are used to break a numbered sphere.
- Thou art Dead - Monster House
- Trolls and Bridges - A game in the Known Space universe used to recruit military officers into an underground command structure.
- Universal Baseball - A version of baseball played entirely by dice, from the novel The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop., by Robert Coover
- Wrestle Jam '88 - Pro wrestling video game, from The Wrestler (2008 film)
See also
References
