Russ Frushtick - The Book of Fun: An Illustrated History of Having a Good Time

Growing up, I loved video games. My passion led to common parental refrains: Its a waste of time, This isnt going to help you in life, and Dont you have homework to do?

And yet, somehow, I managed to make a career out of covering the video game industrymost recently as a co-founder of the gaming website Polygon. Against all odds, I turned those hours of throwing myself at Super Mario Bros. 3 into experience I could use in my day-to-day life as a reporter, editor, and critic. Sometimes, it seems, there can be a lot of value in wasting time, kicking back, and having a little fun.

Its not just video games either. Humanity has found wildly diverse ways to have a blast, from cutthroat board games to animatronic robots, from quasi-safe amusement parks to bizarre roadside attractions. There are unlikely sports (like Swedish Bunny Hopping), the world and art of cosplay, and a host of other pursuits weve dreamed up to entertain ourselves.

While we may know where these pastimes ended up, their origins may not be as well-known. Why, for example, do people in Buol, Spain, hurl tomatoes at one another every year? And who had the bright idea to make a board game about bankrupting your friends? Who were the first game streamers, and how did they inspire a fish to play Pokmon?

In this book, Ill explore the origins of fun. Some of these pastimes, games, and traditions stretch back centuries, while others are just a few years old. But all of them have one thing in common: Somewhere, at some time, there was a parent who was 100 percent convinced that they were a massive waste of time. Im here to prove otherwise.

Russ Frushtick

Excavating the Oldest Board Games

Dating back to at least 3100 BCE, Senet is one of the earliest board games known to man. Its played with two sets of pawns on a long, skinny board with three rows of boxes. Hieroglyphics from ancient Egypt portray all aspects of daily life, from prayer to war to killer bread recipes. There is even visual evidence of Egyptians love of Senet, including Queen Nefertari kicking back while playing a game.

So how do you play? Well bad news there: No ones really sure. The general consensus from board game experts is that the rules varied from place to place, but it probably bears some resemblance to Chess and Cribbage. Which means that, yes, Senet was also the first example of house rules, where whoever ran the game could dictate how it was played. So the next time Pharaoh tries to move two pawns in one turn, just take his word for it.

The Egyptians werent content with just one game to while away their time by the Nile, though. Hounds and Jackals was created around 2000 BCE. It had an intricate game board with long pegs featuring the heads of, well, hounds and jackals carved into them. Historians assume it has similarities to modern Backgammon, with players racing to a point at the end of the board. Unfortunately, the official rules must have slipped behind an ancient couch cushionthis is another game we dont know exactly how to play.

Go and Chess

Thankfully, not all ancient board game rules have been lost to the sands of time. Go was created several thousand years ago in China (legends date it to around 2300 BCE) and is still actively played in its original form today. It may seem like a form of checkers, with white and black stones, but its an enormously deep strategy game with an infinite number of variations. Its so complex that it took until the year 2015 CE for a computer AI to defeat a professional player at Go.