Touring (card game)

Touring
	1926 Parker Bros; improved edition
Manufacturer(s)	Parker Bros
Designer(s)	Wallie Dorr Co
Publisher(s)	Winning Moves, Parker Bros
Publication date	1906
Years active	1906–1976
Genre(s)	Take That
Language(s)	English
Players	2, 3, 4 and 6
Skill(s) required	Medium
Media type	Cards

Touring is a specialty card game originally designed by William Janson Roche[1] and patented by the Wallie Dorr Company and produced in 1906. It was acquired by Parker Brothers in 1925.[1][2]

It is widely believed the popular French card game Mille Bornes was derived from Touring. After several revisions, Touring was discontinued shortly after Parker Brothers picked up the American license of Mille Bornes.[1][2] However, the game of Touring was reissued by Winning Moves in 2014.

Updates to editions

The original Wallie Dorr edition was a small red box with 100 cards. They updated the game to a side-by-side wider box which Parker Bros used for their first edition of the game after they purchased it.

Periodically the Parker Bros. Co. adjusted the card art and subsequently, the images became more modern, and increased the mileage cards. Until the final edition, game play remained unchanged, just the denominations of miles increased as the trip length and comfort of automobile travel increased. The final edition reversed the trend, using artwork closer to the original Model-T-era cars and adjusting the card totals with an addition of two new delays.

Original rules

1906 tableau

This shows the winning tableau for card game "Touring", as well as its other cards and the box it came in. 1947–1957 edition.

The players run a race of 50 or 100 miles, as agreed before the game starts. A player cannot play the mileage cards (1, 3, 5, 10 Miles) unless they have a Go card in front of them. If both players are in City Limits (played by either), they can't play the 10 Mile card ("Speed Limit 5 Miles per Hour"); they can remove this card's effect by playing the Country! card (which affects both players). They lose 1 or 2 hours if an opponent plays a Collision ("Delay! 1 Hour"), Out of Gasoline ("Delay! 1 Hour"), or Puncture ("Delay! 2 Hours") card and must discard an "hour's" worth of cards for each hour (5 miles in the city, 10 miles in the country). To resume driving, they must also play a "Remedy" card (Hauled In for a collision and Gasoline for Out of Gasoline, nothing for Puncture) and a Go card. To win, the player must exactly match the total mileage (50 or 100 miles, as agreed).[3]

Play variant

In each copy of the directions were an option to play progressive touring, in which multiple tables of 4 would play simultaneously.

Cards of select editions

Type of card	Year of issue	Count	Denomination	Change from previous
Mileage	1906	20	1 Mile	n/a
Mileage	1906	10	3 Miles	n/a
Mileage	1906	10	5 Miles	n/a
Mileage	1906	12	10 Miles	n/a
Delay	1906	3	Collision	n/a
Delay	1906	3	Out of gasoline	n/a
Delay	1906	2	Puncture	n/a
Remedy	1906	8	Hauled in	n/a
Remedy	1906	8	Gasoline	n/a
Movement	1906	15	Go	n/a
Movement	1906	4	City Limits	n/a
Movement	1906	5	Country	n/a
Mileage	1937	19	1 Mile	1c fewer
Mileage	1937	10	3 Miles	n/c
Mileage	1937	10	15 Miles	10 mi more than 1906
Mileage	1937	12	30 Miles	20 mi more than 1906
Delay	1937	3	Collision	n/c
Delay	1937	3	Out of gas	n/c
Delay	1937	2	Puncture	n/c
Remedy	1937	8	Hauled in	n/c
Remedy	1937	8	Gasoline	n/c
Movement	1937	15	Go	n/c
Movement	1937	4	City limits	n/c
Movement	1937	5	Country	n/c
Mileage	1957	19	5 Mile	4 mi more than 1937
Mileage	1957	10	15 Miles	12 mi more than 1937
Mileage	1957	10	25 Miles	10 mi more than 1937
Mileage	1957	12	45 Miles	15 mi more than 1937
Delay	1957	3	Collision	n/c
Delay	1957	3	Out of gasoline	n/c
Delay	1957	2	Puncture	n/c
Remedy	1957	8	Hauled in	n/c
Remedy	1957	8	Gasoline	n/c
Movement	1957	15	Go	n/c
Movement	1957	4	City limits	n/c
Movement	1957	5	Country	n/c
Mileage	1965	19	25 miles	24 mi more than 1937
Mileage	1965	10	35 miles	32 mi more than 1937
Mileage	1965	10	50 miles	35 mi more than 1937
Mileage	1965	12	75 miles	45 mi more than 1937
Delay	1965	3	Missed curve	replaced Collision
Delay	1965	3	Stopped to refuel	replaced Out of gas
Delay	1965	2	Broken spring	replaced Puncture
Delay	1965	2	Brake adjustment	New
Delay	1965	2	Burning oil	New
Remedy	1965	7	Wrecker	1¢ less, replaced Hauled in
Remedy	1965	7	Gasoline	1¢ less than 1937
Movement	1965	13	Go	2¢ less than 1937
Movement	1965	3	Populated area	1 less than 1937, replaced City limits
Movement	1965	6	Freeway	1 more than 1937, replaced Country

1906 Mileage Cards
One mile:20

Three miles:10

Five miles:10

Ten miles:12
1906 Delay Cards
Collision:3

Out of gasoline:3

Puncture:2
1906 Remedy Cards
Hauled in:8

Gasoline:8
1906 Movement Cards
Go:15

City limits:4

Country:5
1906 card total:100

1937 Mileage Cards
One mile:19

Three miles:10

Fifteen miles:10

Thirty miles:12
1937 Delay Cards
Collision:3

Out of gasoline:3

Puncture:2
1937 Remedy Cards
Hauled in:8

Gasoline:8
1937 Movement Cards
Go:15

City limits:4

Country:5
1937 card total:99

1965 Mileage Cards
Twenty-five miles:19

Thirty-five miles:10

Fifty miles:10

Seventy-five miles:12
1965 Delay Cards
Missed The Curve:3

Stop To Refuel:3

Broken Spring:2

Brake Adjustment:2

Burning Oil Stop for ring job:2
1965 Remedy Cards
Wrecker:7

Gasoline:7
1965 Movement Cards
Go:13

Populated Area:3

Freeway:6
1965 card total:99

Popular culture

The members of They Might Be Giants can be seen playing Touring in the video for their song "Ana Ng".

Notes

Heli, Rick. "History of the "Take That!" Card Game". A Spotlight on Games. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
Augustyn, Frederick J. (2004). Dictionary of Toys and Games in American Popular Culture. Haworth Reference Press. p. 69. ISBN 0-7890-1504-8. Mille Bornes: Brought to the United States by Parker Brothers in 1962, ... Parker Brothers had a popular antecedent to this game called Touring
"US Patent 836537 A". Google Patents. Retrieved 6 March 2016.