How to Create Your Own Computer Board Game

Design the board: On a piece of construction paper draw a rectangle at least 11 inches long by two inches wide. Subdivide the rectangle until you have 15 equal-sized rectangles. The rectangle can also be drawn on a chalkboard for classroom use. For that environment, ensure that each subdivided rectangle is visible from the room's farthest seat.

Label the squares from left to right as follows:

| H | S | H | S | H | S | H | H/S | S | H | S | H | S | H | S |

The H's represent computer hardware questions and the S's computer software questions.

Check your labeling by verifying these points:
- the letters alternate (with the exception of the center square)
- the leftmost square's letter is different than the rightmost square's letter

Shade the squares with any colors you wish. All the squares labeled "H" get one color, and all the squares labeled "S" get a different color. Choose a third distinctive color for just the center square.

If you want, decorate your board with a computer theme. Draw pictures of computer mice and keyboards on the squares, for example.

Write several questions for the two categories, computer hardware and software. Be creative, and look to several resources to make questions. An excellent source of trivia questions is computerhope.com. Enter "quiz" in the site's search engine and follow the links to the quizzes.

Make one stack of cards with computer hardware questions and a separate stack of computer software questions. Write five hardware-related questions on an index card. Write "Hardware" (or just "H") in one corner of the card. On the back of the card, write the answers to the questions. Make the Software category cards in the same way, but label them Software or just S on the question side.

From another board game, borrow a single die and two pieces representing players. For example, borrow the white and black kings from a chess game. Place the players at the center square of the playing board. If playing on a chalkboard, use magnetic pieces or simply mark the square where each player rests. Flip a coin to determine which player goes first.

Roll the die, if you won the coin toss. Choose a direction to move in. Your immediate goal is to answer a question in either the left-most or right-most square of the game board. These squares are the sub-goals. If you land on a regular square, the square's label, H(ardware), or S(oftware) determines which type of question you must answer. If you answer correctly, roll again, always trying to land on a sub-goal. If you land on a sub-goal and answer its question correctly, collect one token, then aim for the other sub-goal.

If the die roll lands you on a sub-goal square and you answer the question correctly, collect a sub-goal, represented by any token you choose. A penny is a possible token.

If the die lands you on a regular square (i.e. not the left or rightmost squares), answer the square's question correctly to keep your turn and roll again.

Continue game play until one of the players collects both sub-goals. Once you collect both sub-goals, you must use your turns to move toward the center square, labeled H/S. Once at the center, roll the die to determine the question category: an even number selects a computer software question, and an odd selects a computer hardware question. Answer the question to win the game.