Car games or road-trip games are games played to pass the time on long car journeys, often started by parents to amuse restless children. They comprise mostly of conversation games when including the driver, and also hand games when excluding the driver. 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).
A travel game is a "game designed to be easily transportable and playable in a variety of settings." It is a broader term as many car games can also be played in other vehicles like trains, boats, and planes. Travel games may also include components such as cards, travel-sized board games, or electronics. In 1960, Milton Bradley's pocket-sized "The Checkered Game of Life" is considered the U.S.'s first travel game, designed for soldiers of the American Civil War.
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.
The "animal game" is a variation in which the objective is to spy only animals and make their sound.
My Cows
The My Cows car game can be played with any combination of rules, from complicated to simple, but at the game's core, players score points when they see a herd of cows and say "My Cows". Point modifiers can be added or subtracted from a player depending on other landmarks. For example a player may see a house of worship and say "My Church" to send your cows to be married, doubling your points or when passing a cemetery say "Your Cemetery" to eliminate an opponents cows/points. The game typically ends when you reach your destination.
Versions of this game may have regional, or even localized, variations to the name, including, "Cows, Silos, and Cemeteries" or simply "Cows on My Side".
Sign cricket
thumb|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.
Other games
- "Banned words".