Where it came from
From Pig Mania to Pass the Pigs
Follow the journey of our odd tabletop pastime, from its original name to the current classic box.
Nearly fifty years on the same two pigs, with the same scores, under two different names. Very little about this game has needed changing.
- 1977A designer called David Moffat works out that two small rubber pigs make better dice than dice do. The game appears as Pig Mania, published by Recycled Paper Products.
- The eightiesThe name changes to the one everybody knows. The pigs, the scoring and the vocabulary stay exactly where they were.
- 1992The game arrives at Winning Moves Games USA, where it has been in print ever since.
- 2017The brand is bought outright. New formats follow: giant foam pigs, sets with four pairs, a tin for a suitcase.
The pigs themselves
Solid rubber, palm-sized, with a dot inked on one flank. The design has stayed put because it works: the shape has to be lopsided enough to land six different ways and even enough that the rare landings stay rare.
The two on the box
The classic packaging names its mascots, Hugh Pigfellow and Jack Pigfellow. They have no effect on play whatsoever, which has never stopped anyone mentioning them.
Why it lasted
Explaining it takes under a minute, a game takes a quarter of an hour, and it fits in a coat pocket. Half a century of party games have been designed around those three constraints, and few of them manage all three.
The name it started under
Two names, one game
Pig Mania and the modern name are the same rules. Second-hand copies still turn up under the old name, and they play identically.
Carry on from here
- Every edition, side by sideCompare every box released over the years, laid out neatly in a side by side table.
- The game in a probability lessonSee why math teachers love borrowing two rubber pigs to demonstrate risk and chance to their students.
- Pig or Pass the PigsSort out the differences between the old folk dice game and the modern contest with rubber swine.