Don't Wake Daddy

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Don't Wake Daddy
Players2–4
Age rangeEarly childhood

Don't Wake Daddy (known as SSHH! Don't Wake Dad! in the UK) is a children's board game originally released by Parker Brothers (later Milton Bradley, currently Hasbro) in North America, and Tomy in Europe (currently released by Drumond Park in the United Kingdom). It is intended for two to four players.

Players take the role of children sneaking to the refrigerator late at night, trying not to wake their sleeping father (who lies in the middle of the board on a large bed). The youngest player goes first, and play continues counter-clockwise around the board. Movement is determined by using a spinner; after spinning, each player moves his/her piece to the first corresponding color. If a player gets the purple star, he/she moves to the space right in front of the leader unless he/she is already the leader; in which case he/she must spin again. If the color of a noise space matches the color of an assigned card that a player holds, he/she is safe; otherwise, he/she makes one of several noises (such as rollerblades, a baseball, a noisy clown on TV, a barking dog, a tricycle, a broken vase, a cuckoo clock, a screaming parrot, a falling picture frame, a toy piano, a bowl of fruit being knocked over, a cat whose tail has been stepped on, a falling dish with a slice of cake on it, a loud radio, falling pots and pans, and a crying baby). Then the player who made that noise must press the button on the alarm clock next to the father a certain number of times; if the father stays asleep, his/her piece can stay where it landed until the next turn. After enough pushes, the clock will go off and the father will suddenly jerk upright from his bed (as if just having awakened from a nightmare), at which point the player claims the corresponding color card from a player that has it, then returns to the starting point. The first player to make it to the finish line is declared the winner of the midnight snack.

Parker Brothers introduced the game at the 1992 American International Toy Fair.[1] It was picked as the sixth best toy of the year (third-best among girls[2]) in the Duracell Kids' Choice National Toy Survey,[3] and was one of the best-selling games of the 1992 Christmas season.[4][5] Parker Brothers spokeswoman Ronni Heyman described the game as "a real sleeper".[6] The game's success was cited as a contributing factor in Hasbro's 46% increase in net income after the fourth quarter of 1992.[7] Parker Brothers later released a smaller travel version of the game.[8]

The game served as the inspiration for a series of 1990s works by German artist Martin Kippenberger. Kippenberger used the symbols for the different "noises" in the game to plan a cycle of wood-carvings and oil paintings.[9] A children's book based on the game, Don't Wake Daddy: Late-Night Snack, was published by Scholastic Corporation in 2001.[10]

Notes[]

  1. ^ "Stuff kids buy". Newsday. February 28, 1992. 109.
  2. ^ Sally Deneen. "I want that!" Sun-Sentinel. November 26, 1992. 1E.
  3. ^ Dorsey Conners. "Modern kids redefine toys". Chicago Sun-Times. December 6, 1992. 2.
  4. ^ "Which Christmas toys sizzle?" San Antonio Express News. December 2, 1992. 8D.
  5. ^ Alice Kahn. "Shopping goes into high gear; the toys kids want". San Francisco Chronicle. November 27, 1992. B3.
  6. ^ Michael Preckler. "The big business of fun and games". The Dallas Morning News. February 16, 1993. 1C.
  7. ^ "Business Brief: Christmas Sales Boost Hasbro's Net Income 46% for 4th Quarter". The Wall Street Journal. February 9, 1993. B4.
  8. ^ "Check in - new car games for kids". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. June 30, 1996. H.
  9. ^ Roberto Ohrt. Introduction to Kippenberger. Taschen, 2007. 28.
  10. ^ Jackie Glassman. Don't Wake Daddy: Late-Night Snack. Scholastic, 2001.

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