Dominoes

Dominoes (or \"dominos\") generally refers to the individual or collective gaming pieces making up a domino set (sometimes called a deck or pack) or to the games played with these pieces. more...

Home
Action Figures
Beanies
Construction Toys & Kits
Diecast & Vehicles
Toys & Games
Creative Toys/ Activities
Educational Toys
Electronic Pets
Fast Food/ Cereal/ Sweets...
Games
Air Hockey
Board/ Traditional Games
Articulate
Avalon Hill
Backgammon
Balderdash
Battleships
Bingo
Blockbusters
Boggle
Buccaneer
Buckaroo
Carcassonne
Chess
Children's
Chinese Checkers
Cluedo/ Clue
Cranium
Dingbats
Diplomacy
Dominoes
Draughts/ Checkers
Escape From Colditz
Film/ TV
Game of Life
Go
Horror/ Monster
Hotel
Jenga
Kerplunk
Ludo
Mah Jong
Mastermind
Monopoly
Mousetrap
Operation
Othello
Other Board/ Traditional...
Pictionary
Quiz Games
Risk
Risqué
Rummikub
Scrabble
Snakes & Ladders
Solitaire
Space/ Sci-Fi
Sports
Stratego
Strategy
Totopoly
Trivial Pursuit
Twister
Vintage Games (Pre-1980)
Vintage Games 1950s
Vintage Games 1960s
Vintage Games 1970s
Vintage Games Pre-1950
War
Who Wants to Be a...
Card Games
Bridge
Cribbage
Other Card Games
Playing Cards
Poker
Rummy
Top Trumps
Crazy Bones
Dice/ Dice-Based Games
Drinking/ After Dinner Games
Electronic Games
Executive Toys/ Gadgets
Game Pieces/ Parts
Jokes & Pranks
Mighty Beanz
Murder Mystery
Other Games
Pocket Money Toys/ Games
Pogs
Travel Games
Jigsaws & Puzzles
Other Toys & Games
Outdoor Toys & Activities
Pre-School/ Young Children
Radio-Controlled Toys
Scalextric & Slot Car
Soft Toys/ Stuffed Animals
Steam
Toy Soldiers
Toys Model Kits
TV & Film Character Toys
Vintage/ Classic Toys
Wargames & Role-Playing

(In the area of mathematical tilings and polyominoes the word domino often refers to any rectangle formed from joining two squares edge to edge.) Standard domino sets consist of 28 pieces called bones, cards, tiles, stones, spinners or dominoes. Each bone is a rectangular tile with a line dividing its face into two square ends. Each end is marked with a number of black spots (also called pips) or is blank. The spots are generally arranged as they are on six-sided dice, but because there are also blank ends having no spots there are normally seven possible faces. Standard domino sets have ends ranging from zero spots to six spots (double six set), but specialized sets might range from zero to nine (double nine set), zero to twelve (double twelve set), zero to fifteen (double fifteen set), or zero to eighteen (double eighteen set). The back side of a domino is generally plain, or is decorated in the same manner on every piece. Dominoes have been made of bone, ivory, plastic, metal and wood, and occasionally are made of card stock like that for playing cards. Dominoes are rather generic gaming devices. Many different games can be played with a set of dominoes.

History

While most modern domino pieces are rectangular and made of ceramic or heavy plastic, they were historically carved from ivory or animal bone with small, round pips of inset ebony. The game's name comes from the pieces' resemblance to Venetian Carnival masks known as domini, which were white with black spots. These masks were so named, in turn, because they resembled French priests' winter hoods, being black on the outside and white on the inside. The name ultimately derives from the Latin dominus, meaning \"lord\" or \"master.\"

The oldest domino sets have been dated from around 1120. Modern dominoes, as most of the Western world knows them, however, appear to be a Chinese invention. They were apparently derived from cubic dice, which had been introduced into China from India some time in the distant past. Each domino originally represented one of the 21 results of throwing two dice. One half of each domino is set with the pips from one die and the other half contains the pips from the second die. Chinese sets also introduce duplicates of some throws and divide the dominoes into two classes: military and civil. Chinese dominoes are also longer than typical European dominoes. Over time Chinese dominoes also evolved into the tile set used to play Mah Jong, a game which swept across the United States in the early to mid 1920s.

Read more at Wikipedia.org