The History of Four in a Row
A simple gravity-powered idea that turned into one of the best-selling games of the 20th century.
A Travel Game Turned Toy
Games built around lining up four pieces in a row have circulated in various forms for generations - simple pin-and-hole or pencil-and-paper variants were reportedly played long before any plastic version existed, though the exact lineage is hard to pin down.
The now-familiar vertical grid version was patented in the United States in 1974 by Howard Wexler and Ned Strongin, and released by the toy company Milton Bradley - the design that turned the idea into a global bestseller.
A Milton Bradley Classic
Connect Four quickly became one of the best-selling games of the 1970s and has stayed in continuous production ever since, sold worldwide under various names (Vier Gewinnt in German-speaking countries, Puissance 4 in French).
Its simple physical design - a vertical grid, two colors of discs, gravity doing the sorting - made it cheap to manufacture and something anyone could learn in seconds, a big part of why it has stayed a family and travel game staple for decades.
A Fully Solved Game
In 1988, two researchers working independently - James D. Allen and Victor Allis - proved that Connect Four is a first-player win with perfect play: the first player wins by starting in the exact center column, and can force a win against any defense.
That puts Connect Four alongside checkers and Nine Men's Morris as a classic game whose outcome is now known with mathematical certainty - though, as with those, knowing the theoretical result takes nothing away from the skill a real game between two humans still requires.