[1] A contemporary patent filed by Howard P. Wilde, Sr. two months earlier, in February 1959, describes a game board "which may be played, with high interest, vexation and aggravation by two, three or four persons" but does not provide specific gameplay instructions for the cross-shaped track and central space.

[3] The 1959 Wilde patent, in turn, cites an earlier patent filed in 1921 by Isidor Paris for a child's racing game, also featuring a cross-shaped track and describing how players move their markers along the track by taking turns rolling a six-sided die.

Its distinctive features are that the track accommodates from four to six players, unlike other Pachisi-like games which only allow four; that it is normally drilled to accept colored glass marbles as playing pieces; and that it incorporates "shortcuts".

[citation needed] The original edition of the game, as described by First in the 1965 patent, accommodated two to four players, using a four-armed track.

Older versions of the game usually feature a board which is perfectly symmetrical and identical in shape and size from all angles.

[10] The exact location of the starting point may vary according to the version, but it is usually placed so that each player's marble must traverse the entire length of the track, i.e., the player is allowed to enter the home area only from the space immediately anti-clockwise of the starting point.

A player who is able to land a marble in this location by exact count has the possibility of taking a route even faster to home.

[10] For the six-armed board introduced with the deluxe party version, the center hole is known as the "super shortcut" and follows the same rules as the four-armed board, with an exact roll required to enter and a roll of 1 required to exit to one of the six closest corners.