Many people know that Trivial Pursuit, the hit game of the ‘80s, had Peel connections through its creators. Scott Abbott owns the North Bay Battalion, which spent 1998 to 2013 playing in Brampton, and the late Chris Haney founded Caledon’s Devil’s Pulpit golf course.

But in the trivia game boom, Bramalea’s Waddington Games was home to three of the most successful competitors.

“Isaac Asimov presents Super Quiz” featured 5,400 questions, spread over six categories: science, geography, sports, words, movies and history. When Super Quiz was developed, the 1982 game Trivial Pursuit wasn’t considered successful.

Super Quiz was created by Ken Fisher, an East York Collegiate teacher, and edited by scientist-author Isaac Asimov. Approximately 50,000 copies were sold by May 1983, and a year later it had reached the half-million mark.

Spurred on by the success of that title, the company also published Teacher’s Quiz, created by Joe Pugliese, the vice-principal of Mississauga’s St. Catherine of Siena Separate School. Released in October 1983, it sold 150,000 copies within the first six months.

Also popular was Tour de Force, developed by historian Pierre Berton and broadcaster Charles Templeton.

Waddington was located on West Drive at Clark Boulevard. Pictured is Darlene Rondeau, the company’s publicist.

The Bramalea company was founded as House of Games and later purchased by British firm John Waddington PLC. Waddington’s House of Games later became known as Waddington Sanders Ltd., until it was purchased by North York’s Canada Games in 1989. Canada Games is best known for Balderdash and POGS.

This image is from The Brampton Guardian fonds at the Region of Peel Archives. Part of the larger Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives, the archives is always free to use. If you’d like to look through the hundreds of thousands of photos taken by the Guardian between 1966 and 1996, contact pamaarchives@peelregion.ca and schedule a time.

For more from the archives, visit the website.