Candy Land

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About Candy Land

A place to celebrate everyone's favorite 1st game! A sweet little game for sweet little folks.

The history of Candy Land (from the Hasbro website):
Once upon a time… in San Diego, California, a woman named Eleanor Abbott created a game. Recovering from polio herself, Mrs. Abbott decided to create an activity that would entertain children who were also affected with the disease. So she submitted her board game to MILTON BRADLEY, who enthusiastically accepted it, and in 1949 a new game called CANDY LAND was introduced.
The first CANDY LAND games were sold for only $1.00. The advertising said it fulfilled “the sweet tooth yearning of the younger set without the tummy ache aftereffects.”
“A sweet little game … for sweet little folks,” as its packaging proudly stated for almost 30 years, would soon become an enduring part of our collective childhood. The theme and its simple color matching play were a perfect fit for all-family play.
At the time, few could have comprehended just what an impact the game would have, both on the Springfield, Massachusetts game manufacturer and on generations of children. To date, its distinctive red-and-white peppermint name has been printed on well over 40 million games.
In a world filled with advanced technology and fads that are quick to fade, the sweet simplicity of this classic game keeps it continually popular, even after more than half a century.

From the Wikipedia:
Candy Land is a simple racing board game. It has become a cultural icon in the U.S., where it is often the first board game played by children because it requires no ability to read and only minimal counting skills.
The race is straightforward, woven around a simple story line about finding the lost king of Candyland. The board consists of a winding, linear track made of 134 spaces, most of which are one of the rainbow colors (aside from indigo). The remaining few spaces are named locations such as Candy Cane Forest and Gum Drop Mountain, or characters like Queen Frostine and Gramma Nutt.
Players take turns removing the top card from a randomized stack, most of which show one of six colors, and then moving their marker ahead to the next space of that color. Some cards have two marks of a color, in which case the player moves his or her marker ahead to the second-next space of that color. The deck also contains one card for each named location, and drawing such a card moves a player directly to that location's space on the board. This move can be either forward or backward in the classic game; backward moves are ignored in the current game. Finally, there are three colored squares marked with a dot. A player that lands on such a square is stuck (all cards are ignored) until a card is drawn of the same color as the square. The game is won by landing on or passing the final square - the official rules explicitly specify that any card that would cause the player to advance past the last square wins the game, but many play so that one must land exactly on the last square to win.
The classic game takes longer to complete than one might expect, because the location cards can send players backwards.
The game was designed in the 1940s by Eleanor Abbott, while she was recovering from polio in San Diego, California.
The game was bought by Milton Bradley Company (now owned by Hasbro) and first published in 1949. Hasbro produces several versions of the game and treats it as a brand. For example, they market Candy Land puzzles, a travel version, a PC game, and a handheld electronic version.
A December, 2005 article in Forbes magazine analyzed the most popular American toys by decade, with help from the Toy Industry Association. Candy Land led the list for the 1940-1949 decade.
At least four different versions of the Candy Land board game were made. The first version, from 1949, is shown in the picture on the right. This version, and other early versions, had only locations (Molasses Swamp, Gumdrop Mountains, etc.) and no characters. The next version, as shown in a picture from the Elliott Avedon Museum, of a board copyright 1962, shows a track layout different from the more modern versions. The next revision, from the 1980s and 1990s, has the characters such as Mr. Mint and Gramma Nutt, has the modern track layout, and ends with a purple square. The rules specify that any card that would cause you to advance past the purple square wins the game, but many people play you must land exactly on it. In the most modern version, there is a rainbow-striped square at the end to make the official rule visually explicit. The rules for the modern game also specify that a character card resulting in a backward move can be ignored, resulting in a much shorter game if desired. Some of the characters are renamed in the modern version - Queen Frostine is Princess Frostine, for example. Finally, the classic Molasses Swamp is changed to Chocolate Swamp, presumably because the children of 2002 are more familiar with chocolate than molasses.
A VCR board game version of the game was made in 1986, although distribution of the game appears to have been limited. An animated 2005 feature Candy Land: The Great Lollipop Adventure was produced and later spawned a DVD game version of Candy Land.
The Give Kids the World: Village edition of Candy Land was produced by Hasbro especially for the Give Kids the World Village. The GKTW Village is a nonprofit resort in Kissimmee, Florida for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families. In this version, traditional Candy Land characters and locations were replaced with the venues and characters of the Village. Characters like Mayor Clayton, Ms. Merry, and others are represented on the board.
Mathematically, Candyland is very nearly a Markov chain, and would be exactly such a chain if the deck were re-shuffled after each card is drawn. There have been several analyses of game play (see references below)
There is no optimal strategy, or indeed any decision making, involved in CandyLand. The moves are wholly determined by the cards, which are drawn in order. The only random chance element comes from each shuffling of the deck. Every time the deck is shuffled, one of three outcome is pre-determined - one of the two players wins, or the deck will need to be shuffled again after it is used.
The Candy section of Toys R Us in NYC's Times Square maintained a CandyLand theme, until losing their license for the characters in 2006. The theme included a colored pathway that mimicked the board for the game, several CandyLand characters, and candy-themed shelving and ceiling decorations.
The Candyland game appears in popular culture because the game and its characteristics are well known. In particular, since the game has no strategy, most adults, or even older children, find it un-challenging and boring. Furthermore, the backwards moves (and the 'stuck' cards', see game play) make what is already a boring game last even longer, another dis-incentive for adults. In contrast, other well-known children's games such as Battleship do involve strategy and may be enjoyed by adults as well as children.
Therefore, if adults are reputed to be playing Candyland without small children involved, the reader or viewer is expected to know that this is very unlikely. Either the characters are lying, there is an ulterior motive, or the game being used as a symbol of a meaningless and boring endeavor. Examples are:
In an episode of Full House, D.J. Tanner, who sneaked Stephanie and Michelle into the movies and got caught convinced Michelle to tell Danny that she played Candyland with D.J. The viewer is expected to realize that this cannot possibly be a realistic excuse.
An episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Parts: The Clonus Horror, featured a game of Candyland in which Brain Guy became trapped in Molasses Swamp. His time there was apparently extensive as he referred to it as his "own personal hell."

http://www.hasbro.com/games/preschool-games/candyland/