

Some gameplay aspects were different as well. Some of these unused weapons and characters appeared later in spin-off versions of the game. In addition, there were nine weapons, including the unused bomb, syringe, shillelagh (walking stick/ cudgel), fireplace poker, and the later used axe and poison. Originally there were 11 rooms, including the eliminated gun room and cellar.

The game allowed for play of up to eight remaining characters, providing for nine suspects in total. White and Colonel Mustard for the actual release. The characters of Nurse White and Colonel Yellow were renamed Mrs. In particular, Pratt's original design calls for 10 characters, one of whom was to be designated the victim by random drawing prior to the start of the game. There were several differences between the original game concept and the one initially published in 1949.

It was simultaneously licensed to Parker Brothers in the United States for publication, where it was renamed Clue. Īlthough the patent was granted in 1947, postwar shortages postponed the game's official United Kingdom launch until 1949. In 1944, Pratt applied for a patent of his invention of a murder/mystery-themed game, originally named Murder! Shortly thereafter, Pratt and his wife, Elva Pratt (1913–1990), who had helped design the game, presented it to Waddingtons' executive Norman Watson, who immediately purchased it and provided its trademark name of Cluedo (a play on "clue" and Ludo, ludo being Latin for "I play"). Pratt, an English musician and factory worker, recalled the murder mystery games played by some of his clients at private music gigs as well as the detective fiction popular at the time, most notably Agatha Christie. Holed up in his home in Birmingham, England during air raids on the city during World War II, Anthony E.

Since then, it has been relaunched and updated several times, and it is currently owned and published by the American game and toy company Hasbro. The game was first manufactured by Waddingtons in the United Kingdom in 1949. Cluedo ( / ˈ k l uː d oʊ/), known as Clue in North America, is a murder mystery game for three to six players (depending on editions) that was devised in 1943 by British board game designer Anthony E.
