Round the World

This is a beautiful old spin-and-move racing game from Milton Bradley that was first published in 1873, clearly to latch on to the fame of Jules Verne's novel Around the World in 80 Days, published in the same year. Unlike the voyage of Phineas Fogg, the game's track is strictly by sea.

Both the game equipment and rules are more complex than usual for a Victorian spin-and-move. The key difference is that winning does not mean who completing the 93-space spiral track the fastest, but doing so in the fewest days. In addition to spaces that move players forward and back, many of them apply time penalties. Each player has a card that tracks the number of days taken - one per pip on the five-space teetotum and one more for each penalty day. With absolutely perfect spins, it is possible to complete the journey in just 76 days, but this is highly unlikely!

Each player card has one metal arrow on dial that counts up to 50 days, and another on a smaller quarter-circle dial that tracks multiples of 50 to a pessimistic maximum of 450. On the back of each card is a "Record Tablet" with a space for the days taken for each stage from New York to: Equator, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Horn, Equator, San Francisco, Sandwich Islands, Hong Kong, Anjer, Mauritius, Cape of Good Hope, St. Helena, Equator and back to New York. The 1873 edition includes a global map showing the voyage track that is formed into a sleeve wrapped around the player cards.