It is reminiscent of the simple two-person game Hangman, whose object is to guess a word chosen by another player by revealing specific letters.

Probe extends the number of players to a maximum of four and introduces additional game elements that increase the levels of both skill and chance.

[2] The original game set includes four plastic display racks and four decks of 96 cards.

Another option is to designate one player to keep track of the "no" answers that occur during play, so that turns aren't wasted on redundant inquiries, and there are no disputes at the end.

If two people play the game and each uses two display racks, then a player can turn up a requested letter in either word.

Ted Leavitt, a sometime salesman, ship's purser, actor, World War II Marine veteran, and theatrical producer, became frustrated with some of the limitations he saw in Scrabble and devised Probe specifically to get around them.

To bring his finished creation to the attention of Parker Brothers, he enlisted the services of his uncle, the notable French conductor Pierre Monteux.

A vice president of Parker Brothers was an aficionado of classical music; Leavitt enticed him that summer to Maine, where his uncle was conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, by offering him a chance to meet Monteux.