Pegity

Lore & Background

Peg'ity is played on a pegboard, usually 16 holes by 16 holes, with four sets of colored pegs. To begin play, the first player places one of their colored pegs in any hole. Play passes to each player in turn, one peg being placed per turn. Each player attempts to place five of their pegs in a straight line in adjacent holes either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. At the same time, players try to prevent others from achieving the same threshold by placing one of their own pegs at one end of an opponent's line of pegs while it still has only three pegs or fewer. Then if the player with three in a row places a fourth, any player can completely block five in a row by placing their peg at the other end of the four.

Reader's Guide

Pegity holds significance as a predecessor to the widely known game Connect 4, illustrating the evolution of abstract strategy games. Published by Parker Brothers from 1925 through the 1960s, it was marketed under the original title Peg'ity. The game has been studied in academic contexts, such as in Dennis H. Holding's paper 'Adversary Problem Solving by Humans,' which examines memory encoding and strategy development in adversarial board games. Martin Gardner also discussed the mathematics and strategies of Gomoku in the August 1971 edition of Scientific American, noting that it was sold in the U.S. by Parker Brothers under the name Pegity. Copies of Peg'ity are held in several museum collections, including the Canadian Museum of History, The Strong National Museum of Play, the V&A Museum of Childhood, and the National Trust at Calke Abbey Museum. The game also includes patterns for creating designs on the board as an alternative for young children.

Did You Know?

• Pegity was originally titled Peg'ity.
• The game is a predecessor of Connect 4.
• Copies are held in the collections of the Canadian Museum of History, The Strong National Museum of Play, the V&A Museum of Childhood, and the National Trust at Calke Abbey Museum.
• Martin Gardner examined the mathematics of Gomoku in the August 1971 edition of Scientific American, noting it was sold in the U.S. by Parker Brothers under the name Pegity.