Chess, Go and checkers have no dice and no hidden cards. Both players see everything, so every win comes down to planning and pattern recognition.
Insert Coin10 Stages1 Player
Bing Classic Games QuizTake the Ultimate Gaming Challenge
From a 4,500-year-old board dug up in Mesopotamia to the puzzles that came free with early Windows PCs, this classic games quiz takes you through ten stages of gaming history. Answer fast, build combos, and every stage unlocks a short fact file so you learn something whether you win or not.
Ready, Player One?
10 stages. 20 seconds per stage. Answer quickly for a speed bonus and chain correct answers for a combo multiplier.
Hi-Score 000000
Answer choices are shuffled every time you play.Final Score
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Stage Clear
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How This Classic Games Quiz Works
Think of this page as the instruction booklet that used to come folded inside a game box. The rules are simple: each of the ten stages gives you one question and four answers, labeled A to D like the buttons on an arcade control panel. You have 20 seconds per stage before the fuel bar runs dry.
Accuracy matters most, but speed and consistency earn extra points. Here is exactly how the scoreboard counts:
| Action | What happens | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Correct answer | Base score for every right answer | +100 |
| Speed bonus | 5 points for every second left on the timer | up to +100 |
| 2nd correct in a row | Your stage points are doubled | ×2 |
| 3rd+ correct in a row | Your stage points are tripled | ×3 |
| Wrong answer or time up | No points, and your combo resets | 0 |
After each answer, a Fact File appears with the story behind the question. At the end you'll get a rank, a full answer review, and the option to save your initials to a local high-score table that lives only in your own browser. Nothing is sent to us.
Good to know: This is an independent, educational quiz. It isn't an official Microsoft Bing quiz and doesn't award Microsoft Rewards points. It's simply a fun way to test what you know about the games people have loved for generations.
What Makes a Game "Classic"?
There's no official committee that stamps a game "classic," but the games that earn the label tend to pass the same four tests. Every question in this quiz was chosen because its subject passes at least three of them.
- It outlives its own era. Chess has been played in some form for roughly 1,500 years. Tetris is now over 40 years old and still gets new versions.
- The rules are short, but mastery is long. You can learn Go or Minesweeper in a few minutes, then spend years getting genuinely good at them.
- It crosses borders and generations. Grandparents and grandkids can sit down to checkers or Solitaire without anyone needing a tutorial.
- It changed what came after it. Pong helped turn video games into an industry, and Microsoft Solitaire showed how huge the audience for simple "casual" games really was.
5,000 Years of Play: A Quick Timeline
Many of the answers in the quiz sit somewhere on this line. Skim it before you play and you'll have a real advantage.
- c. 3000 BCE
Senet boards appear in ancient Egypt, among the earliest board games we know of.
- c. 2600–2400 BCE
Craftspeople in the Sumerian city of Ur make the beautifully inlaid boards now called the Royal Game of Ur. One of them is on display at the British Museum.
- c. 6th century CE
Chaturanga, the ancestor of modern chess, is played in India before spreading through Persia and into Europe.
- 1904
Lizzie Magie patents The Landlord's Game, which later evolved into Monopoly.
- 1931–1948
Architect Alfred Butts develops a word game called Criss Cross; James Brunot redesigns it and renames it Scrabble in 1948.
- 1935
Parker Brothers publishes Monopoly, which became a hit during the Great Depression.
- 1972
Atari's Pong lands in bars and arcades, and coin-operated video games take off.
- 1980
Namco releases Pac-Man in Japan, a maze game designed to appeal well beyond the shooting games of the day.
- 1984
Alexey Pajitnov creates Tetris in Moscow on an Electronika 60 computer.
- 1990
Microsoft Solitaire ships with Windows 3.0 and quietly teaches millions of people to use a mouse.
- 1992
Minesweeper becomes a standard part of Windows with Windows 3.1.
- 2015
Pong, Pac-Man and Tetris are among the first games inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame.
The Four Families of Classic Games
Classic games come in many shapes, but most belong to one of four big families. Knowing which family a question comes from is often the fastest way to rule out wrong answers.
Monopoly and backgammon mix decisions with dice rolls. Luck shapes each turn, but good players still win more often by managing risk.
Solitaire, mahjong and Scrabble are about drawing from a shared pool and making the best of what you're dealt, one tile or card at a time.
Pong, Pac-Man, Tetris and Minesweeper turned simple rules into fast feedback loops on a screen, and they defined the first decades of video games.
Why Classic Games Still Matter
It's easy to think of old games as nostalgia, but they keep earning their place for practical reasons. They're cheap or free, they work on almost any device or kitchen table, and they give people of very different ages something to do together.
They also teach without feeling like lessons. A round of Monopoly is a crash course in budgeting and probability. Scrabble rewards vocabulary and a feel for which letters are common. Minesweeper is basically applied logic: every number is a clue, and careful reasoning beats guessing.
You'll often hear bold claims that classic games make you smarter. The honest picture is more modest: research on "brain training" benefits is mixed, and skills learned in one game don't always carry over to everyday life. What's clear is simpler. Classic games are an enjoyable way to practice focus, patience and fair play, and that's reason enough to keep them on the shelf.
Museum pick: The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, collects and studies games of all kinds. Its entry on Microsoft Solitaire is a great short read on how a centuries-old card game became one of the most widely played computer games ever.
Tips to Beat the High Score
Protect the combo. A third correct answer in a row triples your points, which is worth far more than any speed bonus. If you're unsure, take an extra few seconds rather than guessing.
Use the dates as clues. A question set in 1972 is almost certainly about arcades; one set in 1990 or 1992 likely points to early Windows.
Eliminate first, then choose. At least one option in most stages is clearly from the wrong era or the wrong family of games. Cross it off mentally and your odds jump.
Read the fact files. Each one is written to help you on a replay, and some contain details that link to other stages.
Replay for mastery. Answer choices are shuffled every run, so you can't rely on remembering "it was B." You have to actually know it.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Bing Classic Games Quiz?
It's a free, 10-question classic games quiz inspired by the quick-fire style of Bing's daily quizzes. It covers ancient board games, chess and Go, family favorites like Monopoly and Scrabble, arcade legends like Pong, Pac-Man and Tetris, and the games that came with early Windows PCs.
How many questions are there, and is it timed?
There are 10 stages with one question each. You get 20 seconds per question, and answering quickly earns a speed bonus of up to 100 points.
Does this quiz earn Microsoft Rewards points?
No. This is an independent educational quiz and isn't affiliated with Microsoft. Microsoft Rewards points are only awarded through Microsoft's own activities on Bing while you're signed in to your Microsoft account.
What counts as a classic game?
Generally, a game that has stayed popular across generations, has simple rules but deep strategy, is played around the world, and influenced the games that came after it. Chess, Go, Monopoly, Scrabble, Pong, Pac-Man, Tetris and Solitaire all fit.
What is the oldest board game ever found?
Senet from ancient Egypt and the Royal Game of Ur from Mesopotamia are among the oldest known board games, both dating back roughly 4,500 to 5,000 years. Archaeologists keep finding older game boards, so the record is never fully settled.
Can I retake the quiz?
Yes, as often as you like. The answer choices are shuffled on every play, and your best scores are saved to a top-5 table in your own browser.
Sources & Further Reading
Every answer in this quiz was checked against the sources below. If you spot an error, please let us know through our contact page and we'll correct it promptly.
- The Royal Game of Ur game-board – British Museum collection record
- Monopoly – Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Playing Monopoly (and its discontents) on its 80th anniversary – Smithsonian National Museum of American History
- Scrabble – Encyclopaedia Britannica
- History of Tetris – The Tetris Company
- Microsoft Solitaire – The Strong National Museum of Play
- World Video Game Hall of Fame – The Strong National Museum of Play
This quiz is an independent educational resource and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Microsoft, Bing, or any game publisher mentioned. All game names and trademarks belong to their respective owners and are used here for identification and educational purposes only.
