"There's a statistical theory that if you gave a million monkeys typewriters and set them to work, they'd eventually come up with the complete works of Shakespeare. Thanks to the Internet, we now know this isn't true."
~ Ian Hart
~ Ian Hart
The Real Cock & Bull Story? *
The true origin of the game of Cock & Bull is still a matter of debate, but some say that it can be traced quite reliably to the year 1308. It is said that what could be the original game was recently uncovered during an excavation in the UK. It is alleged to have been found, along with an undisclosed quantity of gold, concealed beneath a stone in the ruins of a once magnificent castle. The stone may well have been part of the floor in what many believe to be the court of the legendary King Fredrick "The Mirthful" himself.
The unearthed "original" game mysteriously disappeared again, but not before being copied and reproduced into modern versions.
As the story goes, King Fredrick's only son met his fate in a glorious battle and was considered a hero. This saddened the king yet filled his heart with pride. Some years later, perhaps to choose a new heir to the throne, the king decided to hold a tournament in his court using a game of his own device. The game was emblazoned with the royal coat of arms, and the king allegedly wagered his crown on the outcome.
The old king was a gambler by nature, who claimed that, "Every toss of the dice is predetermined in the heavens." He invited his most loyal and trusted knights to compete and, being the mirthful king that he was, allowed his beloved pet monkey, Merlin, to toss the dice in his stead, "Should the Almighty favor him and deem the other players unworthy of a victory." This did not sit well with the knights.
Hour after grueling hour, the king's knights were eliminated one by one. Then, as fate would have it, Merlin emerged victorious to the bellowing laughter of the king, who crowned his little companion, addressed him as "Lord Chimpington," and then paraded him out into the courtyard. The king then dubbed a nearby rooster "Baron of Brain," and a prized bull "Sir Loin of Beef." Needless to say, this was a pivotal moment in the king’s rule.
Wild rumors began circulating that Merlin was no monkey at all, but a sorcerer in disguise, and possibly the true creator and manipulator of the king’s game. Soon treachery and betrayal led to the storming of the castle, and the game of the once great king disappeared along with him.
By the 16th century, King Fredrick's castle lay in ruin, It was decided by the crown that the castle would undergo repairs "otherwaies it were a grate defacement unto the said territory." During the 17th century, the castle was seized multiple times by people claiming hereditary ownership.
In the early 18th century, a lease was obtained for the castle and its site by the Crown for fifty years but this was still disputed. Finally an Act was proposed to demolish the castle and build a church in its place, however the act never passed due to continuing protests and the site was eventually abandoned and forgotten.
The legend of King Fredrick seems inspiration enough for someone to go forth in search of his lost riches. Most likely the game was unearthed by treasure hunters, but is it conceivable that someone might have gone in search of his legendary game alone? The only thing for certain is that the mirthful spirit of the king lives on in the players of his game.
The Coat of Arms decoded?
Many believe that the game board bears King Fredrick's "Shield of Power." The symbols, possibly conjured by sorcery, may have been key to his rein. Some say it was his recipe for victory.
The Cocks represent the fears his armies would instill in others. The Bulls represent the power of his invincible warriors. The Monkey of righteousness turns a deaf ear to all and trumpets his horn unabated, protected by the 5 charges on his shield.
The laurel wreath surrounding the shield is a traditional symbol of victory. The five points on the crown reflect the five charges on the shield that protect it. The word "MIRTH" on the crown is an homage to King Fredrick.
Something else that should be noted: During game play you must either Chip-In or Peg-Out to win.
To Chip-In also means to "do your part," to Peg-Out also means "to die."
This alludes to the "do or die" philosophy of the warrior.
The unearthed "original" game mysteriously disappeared again, but not before being copied and reproduced into modern versions.
As the story goes, King Fredrick's only son met his fate in a glorious battle and was considered a hero. This saddened the king yet filled his heart with pride. Some years later, perhaps to choose a new heir to the throne, the king decided to hold a tournament in his court using a game of his own device. The game was emblazoned with the royal coat of arms, and the king allegedly wagered his crown on the outcome.
The old king was a gambler by nature, who claimed that, "Every toss of the dice is predetermined in the heavens." He invited his most loyal and trusted knights to compete and, being the mirthful king that he was, allowed his beloved pet monkey, Merlin, to toss the dice in his stead, "Should the Almighty favor him and deem the other players unworthy of a victory." This did not sit well with the knights.
Hour after grueling hour, the king's knights were eliminated one by one. Then, as fate would have it, Merlin emerged victorious to the bellowing laughter of the king, who crowned his little companion, addressed him as "Lord Chimpington," and then paraded him out into the courtyard. The king then dubbed a nearby rooster "Baron of Brain," and a prized bull "Sir Loin of Beef." Needless to say, this was a pivotal moment in the king’s rule.
Wild rumors began circulating that Merlin was no monkey at all, but a sorcerer in disguise, and possibly the true creator and manipulator of the king’s game. Soon treachery and betrayal led to the storming of the castle, and the game of the once great king disappeared along with him.
By the 16th century, King Fredrick's castle lay in ruin, It was decided by the crown that the castle would undergo repairs "otherwaies it were a grate defacement unto the said territory." During the 17th century, the castle was seized multiple times by people claiming hereditary ownership.
In the early 18th century, a lease was obtained for the castle and its site by the Crown for fifty years but this was still disputed. Finally an Act was proposed to demolish the castle and build a church in its place, however the act never passed due to continuing protests and the site was eventually abandoned and forgotten.
The legend of King Fredrick seems inspiration enough for someone to go forth in search of his lost riches. Most likely the game was unearthed by treasure hunters, but is it conceivable that someone might have gone in search of his legendary game alone? The only thing for certain is that the mirthful spirit of the king lives on in the players of his game.
The Coat of Arms decoded?
Many believe that the game board bears King Fredrick's "Shield of Power." The symbols, possibly conjured by sorcery, may have been key to his rein. Some say it was his recipe for victory.
The Cocks represent the fears his armies would instill in others. The Bulls represent the power of his invincible warriors. The Monkey of righteousness turns a deaf ear to all and trumpets his horn unabated, protected by the 5 charges on his shield.
The laurel wreath surrounding the shield is a traditional symbol of victory. The five points on the crown reflect the five charges on the shield that protect it. The word "MIRTH" on the crown is an homage to King Fredrick.
Something else that should be noted: During game play you must either Chip-In or Peg-Out to win.
To Chip-In also means to "do your part," to Peg-Out also means "to die."
This alludes to the "do or die" philosophy of the warrior.
* Unbelievable But True?
A far less plausible story is that King Fredrick is a myth, perpetuated by the alleged "true" inventor of the game. This purported California Fredrick is said to have created his first table game using felt pens and a piece of cardboard as a young and "weird" school boy, while living with his family in an old stone grove house they liked to call, "The Golden Dragon," somewhere in the foothills north of Cucamonga.
Cucamonga... seriously?
Supposedly, after many fruitless attempts at different game ideas over the years, he resigned himself to create a game called "Cock & Bull" without so much as a clue as to what the game would entail. He then somehow pulled ideas out of thin air, put them together, and then miraculously this game of antiquity was born 700 years later in the far more recent year of 2008, right smack in the age of video games, which begs the question: “Why?”
Reportedly, this madman then proceeded to mercilessly use his own children as guinea pigs, relentlessly tearing them away from the television, forcing them to play the game as he continuously changed the rules. And as if his cruelty knew no bounds, he would bore them as well with endless stories of how he was raised playing Chinese Checkers and Chess back in the dark ages before Pong.
As for the old style look of the game, some say it was influenced by his fondness of old pub games, and a sinister scheme to create a new game that appeared like it had been around for centuries, but somehow had escaped common knowledge until now, as if people were that gullible. They also say that the game could "redefine" the well known yet archaic idiom he chose for the name... like that's going to happen.
Ridiculously, another claim is that the layout of the game was determined by the size of the cheapest readily available wooden plaque at a nearby craft store. And if you can buy that, the original wooden dice, chips, and peg markers were purchased there as well... with coupons no doubt.
Fredrick of California has offered this account and timeline of the game's alleged development:
The Idea, 2007
The first concept of the current game began with the idea of making six-sided dice that were similar to the wheels of a slot-machine, meaning the dice would have certain faces that were repeated to change the odds. This reduced the possible dice rolls from the usual twenty-one, down to a mere six. There was no game board yet, and different options of how to use these new dice in a game were considered. My first thought was to make a gambling game similar to Crown & Anchor.
Deciding on a name for a game is the hardest part I think. I always thought that Cock & Bull was the perfect name for a game, so I styled the new dice to fit that name. Why the monkey? Well, to make the dice work the way I wanted, there had to be a third face. The humorous and unpredictable nature of the monkey seemed a perfect fit. And for my Spanish speaking friends, cock, bull, and monkey translate to gallo, toro, chango, which all rhyme and sound funny when shouted out during play.
Next came three 2-sided cards, a cock, bull, and monkey, that could be flipped over and passed between four players. The cards were green on one side, and red on the other, and the object was to either flip all cards to red and move them to your three opponents to force them to put money in a pot, or alternately, flip all cards to green, move them to yourself and collect money from the pot. The cards were later replaced with wooden cut-outs of the three animals. This game never really worked the way I had hoped, so I racked my brain for another idea. I had virtually unlimited time to think about it on my very long commute to and from work each day.
March 11, 2008
I created the first version of the Cock & Bull game board for play testing. This was a simple sheet of printed paper taped down to cardboard. I was designing a coat-of-arms for another project, which was not a game, when it dawned on me that a coat-of-arms might make a cool game board.
The original board had no Mantle, and the only way to win was to capture the Arms. I had wanted to divide the coat-of-arms into pieces, like a wooden puzzle, but when you flipped the pieces over, they did not fit together the same way, this led to using the six chips as a substitute. After play testing, I quickly realized that the game could go on forever without a winner.
While working on yet another project, this time one with holes drilled on a wooden board, the idea to add the Mantle to the Cock & Bull game board hit me. The Mantle had 50 points on it originally, but was soon reduced to 36 points, and served to limit the duration of game play. I was still using push-pins for pegs, and paper circles for chips, and wooden cubes with paper faces for dice at this point.
The rules went through many variations in 2008. In the beginning, the game had no strategy, rolling pairs earned you chips to win, and your turn was lost with the single monkey. With the addition of the Mantle, the focus shifted to scoring points. It was the function of the Cock & Bull roll that evolved the most. Originally, this roll simply meant that you did not lose your turn. Later, the roll would allow you to parlay consecutive Cock & Bull dice rolls to remove groups of chips from the board, 3 for the bend, 4 for the Field, 5 for the Shield, 6 for the Crest, and 7 to win the game. Eventually, I attached a sheet of paper to a blank wooden plaque, drilled in the holes, and bought some blank wooden nickles and pegs. This became the first game board, and was used to finalize the rules.
Rule variations with the pegs were also tried. One version used a second set of pegs that would move backward from the top of the Mantle each time you rolled a single Monkey. A cock and Monkey would move the peg 2 spaces, a Bull and Monkey would move the peg 3 spaces. When your regular peg met the second peg, you would Peg-Out, effectively limiting how many points you could score.
I was still determined to make Cock & Bull a four-player game in 2008, so a second set of green and white chips and pegs were made for play testing. The four pegs moved from opposite ends of the Mantle, and if a player moved their peg to where it met an opponent's peg the game ended. The additional chips were troublesome because you could not simply flip a red chip to green, or a white chip to black, you had to stack them. The main problem with the four-player version was that the game frequently ended before all players had a chance to roll the dice.
March 10, 2009
After a solid year of play testing the game, the rules evolved into the "Chip-In or Peg-Out" version that prevailed. I felt confident enough to submit a final version of the game and rules to the United States Library of Congress for copyright protection. This version of the game rules has not changed since. I was still very reluctant to share the game with anyone at this point. But little by little, my confidence increased and I began introducing it to friends over the course of 2009.
To show that I make the games by hand, every Cock & Bull game board has a serial number on the front, behind the Monkey's head. In 2009, I produced a total of 12 pinewood game boards, #0001 - #0012. These games can also be easily identified by the IX for '09 that I marked on the back of the boards. The dice were made from 16mm blank white cubes with paper faces added to them.
I added a hanger hook and attached feet to the back of the game boards so the games could be hung from a wall in plain sight, like a family coat-of-arms, rather than gather dust in a closet like other games. My mother-in-law was kind enough to lend me her sewing skills and produce the game bags.
March 5, 2010
I was ready to introduce the game to the public, so I organized the first ever Cock & Bull game event for this date. It was basically a group of my co-workers who had expressed an interest in learning how to play. I brought two game boards, #0004 and #0005 into the packed and extremely loud "Small Bar" in San Diego, a little before 7 pm on a Friday night not quite knowing what to expect.
I explained the basics of the game to my friends who then proceeded to play, and before I knew it, my friends were teaching several patrons how to play. If anyone watched our table long enough, they were invited over to give the game a try. Some new enthusiasts stayed for an extended period of time and played several matches. I stayed until they booted us out at 2 o'clock in the morning.
May 30, 2010
On this date I went to Hamilton's Tavern in San Diego with my friend, Chris. He introduced me to Scot the owner, who also owns Small Bar, and we sat down to play a couple of games with him. Chris had taught Scot how to play a week earlier, and Scot was more enthusiastic about the game than anyone. Scot then offered to buy 10 games to put in his pubs right on the spot. He insisted I put the rules on the back of the boards so they would not get lost. These games are numbered #0026 - #0035. This turned out to be the big confidence booster that I needed.
In 2010, I produced 53 games, #0013 - #0065. The game boards were randomly made on either poplar, pinewood, or fiber board, as I was still experimenting with materials. I further experimented with making my own dice, and enlisted the help of my brother-in-law with a CNC router on the blank white cubes. The dice definitely came out cool looking, but were way too much work in the long run with all the hand coloring and sanding. I think only about 26 games ended up with these dice.
March 10, 2011
Producing the dice was one of the toughest obstacles to overcome, so I finally caved in and enlisted the help of a US dice manufacturer to get some decent dice made and they arrived on this date. The dice came out beautiful and really make the games. I produced only 35 games, #0066 - #0100 in 2011. Games made in 2011 have a slightly different mantle that includes the numbers 12 and 24, which divide the holes into six sets of six holes, much easier for counting. Games #0086 - #0100 have the rules added to the backs of the game boards.
Finally, 2012
I have a good feeling about this year. I am going to focus on making as many games as I can before the year (or the world, ha) ends. I am still a one man operation so it will definitely be a limited number. By popular demand, I am now putting the game rules on the backs of all the game boards, and changing the cocks to red on the dice making the rolls a bit easier to determine.
I am making Pub Club a regular monthly thing in San Diego, the internet alone can only do so much, it's the live demonstrations that really get people excited. I will also be doing demos of Cock & Bull at the Gamex trade show in Los Angeles, Memorial Weekend, May 25-28. This will be my first appearance at any trade show, and should be a lot of fun.
Cheers! ~F. M. S.
Cucamonga... seriously?
Supposedly, after many fruitless attempts at different game ideas over the years, he resigned himself to create a game called "Cock & Bull" without so much as a clue as to what the game would entail. He then somehow pulled ideas out of thin air, put them together, and then miraculously this game of antiquity was born 700 years later in the far more recent year of 2008, right smack in the age of video games, which begs the question: “Why?”
Reportedly, this madman then proceeded to mercilessly use his own children as guinea pigs, relentlessly tearing them away from the television, forcing them to play the game as he continuously changed the rules. And as if his cruelty knew no bounds, he would bore them as well with endless stories of how he was raised playing Chinese Checkers and Chess back in the dark ages before Pong.
As for the old style look of the game, some say it was influenced by his fondness of old pub games, and a sinister scheme to create a new game that appeared like it had been around for centuries, but somehow had escaped common knowledge until now, as if people were that gullible. They also say that the game could "redefine" the well known yet archaic idiom he chose for the name... like that's going to happen.
Ridiculously, another claim is that the layout of the game was determined by the size of the cheapest readily available wooden plaque at a nearby craft store. And if you can buy that, the original wooden dice, chips, and peg markers were purchased there as well... with coupons no doubt.
Fredrick of California has offered this account and timeline of the game's alleged development:
The Idea, 2007
The first concept of the current game began with the idea of making six-sided dice that were similar to the wheels of a slot-machine, meaning the dice would have certain faces that were repeated to change the odds. This reduced the possible dice rolls from the usual twenty-one, down to a mere six. There was no game board yet, and different options of how to use these new dice in a game were considered. My first thought was to make a gambling game similar to Crown & Anchor.
Deciding on a name for a game is the hardest part I think. I always thought that Cock & Bull was the perfect name for a game, so I styled the new dice to fit that name. Why the monkey? Well, to make the dice work the way I wanted, there had to be a third face. The humorous and unpredictable nature of the monkey seemed a perfect fit. And for my Spanish speaking friends, cock, bull, and monkey translate to gallo, toro, chango, which all rhyme and sound funny when shouted out during play.
Next came three 2-sided cards, a cock, bull, and monkey, that could be flipped over and passed between four players. The cards were green on one side, and red on the other, and the object was to either flip all cards to red and move them to your three opponents to force them to put money in a pot, or alternately, flip all cards to green, move them to yourself and collect money from the pot. The cards were later replaced with wooden cut-outs of the three animals. This game never really worked the way I had hoped, so I racked my brain for another idea. I had virtually unlimited time to think about it on my very long commute to and from work each day.
March 11, 2008
I created the first version of the Cock & Bull game board for play testing. This was a simple sheet of printed paper taped down to cardboard. I was designing a coat-of-arms for another project, which was not a game, when it dawned on me that a coat-of-arms might make a cool game board.
The original board had no Mantle, and the only way to win was to capture the Arms. I had wanted to divide the coat-of-arms into pieces, like a wooden puzzle, but when you flipped the pieces over, they did not fit together the same way, this led to using the six chips as a substitute. After play testing, I quickly realized that the game could go on forever without a winner.
While working on yet another project, this time one with holes drilled on a wooden board, the idea to add the Mantle to the Cock & Bull game board hit me. The Mantle had 50 points on it originally, but was soon reduced to 36 points, and served to limit the duration of game play. I was still using push-pins for pegs, and paper circles for chips, and wooden cubes with paper faces for dice at this point.
The rules went through many variations in 2008. In the beginning, the game had no strategy, rolling pairs earned you chips to win, and your turn was lost with the single monkey. With the addition of the Mantle, the focus shifted to scoring points. It was the function of the Cock & Bull roll that evolved the most. Originally, this roll simply meant that you did not lose your turn. Later, the roll would allow you to parlay consecutive Cock & Bull dice rolls to remove groups of chips from the board, 3 for the bend, 4 for the Field, 5 for the Shield, 6 for the Crest, and 7 to win the game. Eventually, I attached a sheet of paper to a blank wooden plaque, drilled in the holes, and bought some blank wooden nickles and pegs. This became the first game board, and was used to finalize the rules.
Rule variations with the pegs were also tried. One version used a second set of pegs that would move backward from the top of the Mantle each time you rolled a single Monkey. A cock and Monkey would move the peg 2 spaces, a Bull and Monkey would move the peg 3 spaces. When your regular peg met the second peg, you would Peg-Out, effectively limiting how many points you could score.
I was still determined to make Cock & Bull a four-player game in 2008, so a second set of green and white chips and pegs were made for play testing. The four pegs moved from opposite ends of the Mantle, and if a player moved their peg to where it met an opponent's peg the game ended. The additional chips were troublesome because you could not simply flip a red chip to green, or a white chip to black, you had to stack them. The main problem with the four-player version was that the game frequently ended before all players had a chance to roll the dice.
March 10, 2009
After a solid year of play testing the game, the rules evolved into the "Chip-In or Peg-Out" version that prevailed. I felt confident enough to submit a final version of the game and rules to the United States Library of Congress for copyright protection. This version of the game rules has not changed since. I was still very reluctant to share the game with anyone at this point. But little by little, my confidence increased and I began introducing it to friends over the course of 2009.
To show that I make the games by hand, every Cock & Bull game board has a serial number on the front, behind the Monkey's head. In 2009, I produced a total of 12 pinewood game boards, #0001 - #0012. These games can also be easily identified by the IX for '09 that I marked on the back of the boards. The dice were made from 16mm blank white cubes with paper faces added to them.
I added a hanger hook and attached feet to the back of the game boards so the games could be hung from a wall in plain sight, like a family coat-of-arms, rather than gather dust in a closet like other games. My mother-in-law was kind enough to lend me her sewing skills and produce the game bags.
March 5, 2010
I was ready to introduce the game to the public, so I organized the first ever Cock & Bull game event for this date. It was basically a group of my co-workers who had expressed an interest in learning how to play. I brought two game boards, #0004 and #0005 into the packed and extremely loud "Small Bar" in San Diego, a little before 7 pm on a Friday night not quite knowing what to expect.
I explained the basics of the game to my friends who then proceeded to play, and before I knew it, my friends were teaching several patrons how to play. If anyone watched our table long enough, they were invited over to give the game a try. Some new enthusiasts stayed for an extended period of time and played several matches. I stayed until they booted us out at 2 o'clock in the morning.
May 30, 2010
On this date I went to Hamilton's Tavern in San Diego with my friend, Chris. He introduced me to Scot the owner, who also owns Small Bar, and we sat down to play a couple of games with him. Chris had taught Scot how to play a week earlier, and Scot was more enthusiastic about the game than anyone. Scot then offered to buy 10 games to put in his pubs right on the spot. He insisted I put the rules on the back of the boards so they would not get lost. These games are numbered #0026 - #0035. This turned out to be the big confidence booster that I needed.
In 2010, I produced 53 games, #0013 - #0065. The game boards were randomly made on either poplar, pinewood, or fiber board, as I was still experimenting with materials. I further experimented with making my own dice, and enlisted the help of my brother-in-law with a CNC router on the blank white cubes. The dice definitely came out cool looking, but were way too much work in the long run with all the hand coloring and sanding. I think only about 26 games ended up with these dice.
March 10, 2011
Producing the dice was one of the toughest obstacles to overcome, so I finally caved in and enlisted the help of a US dice manufacturer to get some decent dice made and they arrived on this date. The dice came out beautiful and really make the games. I produced only 35 games, #0066 - #0100 in 2011. Games made in 2011 have a slightly different mantle that includes the numbers 12 and 24, which divide the holes into six sets of six holes, much easier for counting. Games #0086 - #0100 have the rules added to the backs of the game boards.
Finally, 2012
I have a good feeling about this year. I am going to focus on making as many games as I can before the year (or the world, ha) ends. I am still a one man operation so it will definitely be a limited number. By popular demand, I am now putting the game rules on the backs of all the game boards, and changing the cocks to red on the dice making the rolls a bit easier to determine.
I am making Pub Club a regular monthly thing in San Diego, the internet alone can only do so much, it's the live demonstrations that really get people excited. I will also be doing demos of Cock & Bull at the Gamex trade show in Los Angeles, Memorial Weekend, May 25-28. This will be my first appearance at any trade show, and should be a lot of fun.
Cheers! ~F. M. S.
Please send questions or comments to: cockandbullgame@gmail.com
Created By F. M. Smith | Copyright MMXVI | All Rights Reserved