ThinkFun
Encyclopedia
ThinkFun, formerly known as Binary Arts, was founded in 1985 by Bill Ritchie and Andrea Barthello. The two started the company from the basement of their home in Virginia, with a product base that initially consisted of four games invented by a family friend William Keister (Spin-out, The Cat, The Horse and Hexadecimal Puzzle). The husband and wife team used these products as a launching pad for their company, and within six months they were able to move the company headquarters out of their basement and into a more workable space and were able to begin to expand their product line.
. Rush Hour, invented by Nob Yoshigahara
, was a traffic-jam themed board game with 40 puzzles ranging in difficulty from beginner to expert. From that time, the company has continued to grow and now does business in more than 50 countries and all fifty states in the US. Thinkfun has relied on a network of the world’s premier inventors, including Yoshigahara and Scott Kim
, among others, to continue to develop their product line.
ThinkFun recently released versions of its Rush Hour game as mobile apps, now available for the iPhone, iPod touch, and Android.
Recently ThinkFun has focused much of their attention on early learning products geared towards the education of younger children with games such as Zingo, What’s Gnu, and Clever Castle. S'Match!, ThinkFun's newest product, continues this focus on younger children.
ThinkFun's commitment to developing innovative products that truly stretch the brain has led to more formal work into problem solving instruction and brain training. ThinkFun has recently partnered with the Bunge Cognitive Control and Development Lab at UC Berkeley, who have used brain imaging to measure the effects of game play on reasoning ability. In an initial study, Dr. Silvia Bunge and her team of researchers found that elementary students who played games including ThinkFun's Rush Hour and Chocolate Fix for a total of 20 hours over an 8 week period demonstrated an average increase of 13 points on a measure of performance IQ. Energized by these initial findings, ThinkFun and the Bunge Lab are framing out a large-scale study that will use fMRI technology to measure the effects of game play on the brain.
For more on the work ThinkFun is doing in the world of education and to explore connections between game play and learning, visit SmartPlay blog
Growth and Expansion
In 1990 the retail market transformed and the number of malls began to sky rocket. Retail-lifestyle stores, looking for specialty products, began to discover ThinkFun’s games and the company began to grow exponentially. From 1992 to 1994 ThinkFun was listed on Inc 500s fastest growing companies list (#299 in 1992, #261 in 1993 and #396 in 1994). In 1996, ThinkFun released its most successful game to date: Rush HourRush Hour (board game)
Rush Hour is a sliding block puzzle invented by Nob Yoshigahara in the late 1970s and first sold in the United States in 1996. It is manufactured by ThinkFun ....
. Rush Hour, invented by Nob Yoshigahara
Nob Yoshigahara
Nobuyuki Yoshigahara was perhaps Japan's most celebrated inventor, collector, solver, and communicator of puzzles....
, was a traffic-jam themed board game with 40 puzzles ranging in difficulty from beginner to expert. From that time, the company has continued to grow and now does business in more than 50 countries and all fifty states in the US. Thinkfun has relied on a network of the world’s premier inventors, including Yoshigahara and Scott Kim
Scott Kim
Scott Kim is an American puzzle and computer game designer, artist, and author. He started writing an occasional "Boggler" column for Discover magazine in 1990, and became an exclusive columnist in 1999, and created hundreds of other puzzles for magazines such as Scientific American and Games, as...
, among others, to continue to develop their product line.
ThinkFun recently released versions of its Rush Hour game as mobile apps, now available for the iPhone, iPod touch, and Android.
Recently ThinkFun has focused much of their attention on early learning products geared towards the education of younger children with games such as Zingo, What’s Gnu, and Clever Castle. S'Match!, ThinkFun's newest product, continues this focus on younger children.
ThinkFun's commitment to developing innovative products that truly stretch the brain has led to more formal work into problem solving instruction and brain training. ThinkFun has recently partnered with the Bunge Cognitive Control and Development Lab at UC Berkeley, who have used brain imaging to measure the effects of game play on reasoning ability. In an initial study, Dr. Silvia Bunge and her team of researchers found that elementary students who played games including ThinkFun's Rush Hour and Chocolate Fix for a total of 20 hours over an 8 week period demonstrated an average increase of 13 points on a measure of performance IQ. Energized by these initial findings, ThinkFun and the Bunge Lab are framing out a large-scale study that will use fMRI technology to measure the effects of game play on the brain.
For more on the work ThinkFun is doing in the world of education and to explore connections between game play and learning, visit SmartPlay blog
Core Products
- Rush HourRush Hour (board game)Rush Hour is a sliding block puzzle invented by Nob Yoshigahara in the late 1970s and first sold in the United States in 1996. It is manufactured by ThinkFun ....
- Zingo!Zingo!Zingo! is a game inspired by Bingo released by ThinkFun in 2002. Players try to fill their Zingo! cards with matching tiles from the Zingo! "Zinger". In the game, the dealer slides the Zinger to reveal two tiles at a time. When a player sees a tile that matches a picture on his/her board, he/she...
- S’Match
- Chocolate Fix
- 36 Cube36 cubeThe 36 Cube is a three-dimensional sudoku puzzle created by ThinkFun. The puzzle consists of a gray base that resembles a city skyline, plus 36 colored towers. The towers come in six different colors and six different heights...
- Clever Castle
- HoppersHoppersHoppers is a classic Peg solitaire game released by ThinkFun in 1999. Players set up the board according to the pictures on each challenge card, then "leap frog" all the green frogs until only the red frog remains....