Car game

This article is about games played by car passengers. For video games about driving, see Racing video game. For the activity in which two cars drive directly towards one another until one changes course, see Chicken (game).

Car games are games played to pass the time on long car journeys, often started by parents to amuse restless children. They generally require little or no equipment or playing space. Some such games are designed specifically to be played while traveling (e.g. the license plate game, the Alphabet Game, or "car tag" games like Punch Buggy), while others are games that can be played in a variety of settings including car journeys (e.g. twenty questions).

Alphabet Game

In the alphabet game, each player has to find the letters of the alphabet among signs and other pieces of text in the environment around them, working through the alphabet in order from A to Z. Players may take turns, each turn lasting five miles of driving distance, or may play cooperatively with each other.

Car tag

Main article: Car-spotting game

In the game of Punch Buggy, players try to spot Volkswagen Beetles

A common car game is car tag. Car tag is when people look out for particular models of car on the road. The game ends when the travellers reach their destination, and the person who spotted the most wins. Cars in a dealership lot are usually not counted.

House rules may make certain car models trigger other effects beyond or instead of awarding points, most famously in the game variant known as "Punch Buggy" where spotting a Volkswagen Beetle allows the spotter to punch another passenger.

I Spy

Main article: I spy

I Spy is a common car game, one person calling out "I spy with my little eye something beginning with..." then naming a letter, and others attempting to guess the object that was spied.

Players may agree that any chosen object should remain visible during the journey, rather than something that will be passed and not seen again during the journey. Players may also agree to decide if the objects will be all outside or all inside the vehicle.

The Parson's Cat

Main article: The Minister's Cat

The Parson's Cat, also called The Minister's Cat, is a Victorian parlour game in which players describe a cat using each letter of the alphabet. In differing variations, players may each describe the cat using a different letter (i.e., "amiable", "beautiful", "curious"), or may all describe the cat using the same letter until they cannot think of more, at which point they move on to the next letter ("amiable", "alluring", ... "antiquated", "beautiful"). In other variations, players may be required to recite all previous descriptions of the cat before adding the next adjective.

Sign cricket

Main article: Sign cricket

The Black Horse pub sign scores 4 points

Sign cricket is a British game where players earn points according to the numbers of legs belonging to the people or animals in the pub's name. For example, a "Horse and Groom" pub would score 6 points: 4 for the four-legged horse, plus 2 for the two-legged groom.

See also

• I packed my bag
• Twenty Questions