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This article is about games shown in episodes of Lost. For other uses, see: Game (disambiguation)

Several games are featured in the storyline of Lost.

Occurrences

Game	Pic	Notes
Axis and Allies wikipedia or Risk wikipedia		Locke was seen playing a board game, during lunchbreak, with one of his colleagues. The game appeared to consist of a Risk board and generic plastic army men, but is probably meant to strongly resemble Axis and Allies. ("Walkabout") A similar game was played by Locke, Sawyer, and Hurley at the Barracks. This was the 2005 "library" edition of the game with triangular blocks rather than figurines of soldiers. ("The Shape of Things to Come")
Backgammon wikipedia		In the novel Endangered Species, Locke finds the backgammon set with Faith. Locke claimed Backgammon is a better game than Checkers. ("Pilot, Part 2") Locke explained the rules of Backgammon to Walt, mentioning that "There are two players. One side is light, and one side is dark." ("Pilot, Part 2") Walt was seen beating Hurley, even though Hurley claimed he was once ranked 17th in a tournament. Hurley lost $83,000 through his Backgammon games with Walt, who doesn't know that Hurley is good for the money. ("All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues") Kate was playing it by herself. ("Left Behind") Locke and Sawyer played it while Locke asked if the group still had confidence in him. ("Eggtown") Even as a child, Locke liked Backgammon. ("Cabin Fever")
Baseball main article wikipedia		Christian Shephard's catchphrase was about the Boston Red Sox never winning the World Series. ("Outlaws") Ben shows the Red Sox winning the World Series on the Hydra television to Jack. ("The Glass Ballerina") Jack asks Frank Lapidus if the Red Sox won the World Series. Frank says he doesn't want to talk about it because he bleeds "Yankee blue". ("The Economist") One of Richard Alpert's objects that he uses to administer a test to John Locke is a baseball glove. ("Cabin Fever")
Chess main article wikipedia		Henrik and Mathias are seen playing chess in the listening station ("Live Together, Die Alone") Locke finds a computer that allows him to play chess against an automated opponent in the Flame Station. Mikhail claims the computer cannot be beat, but Locke manages to unlock the Flame video by winning a game. ("Enter 77") The board setup is taken from an actual game, a 1985 world championship match between Karpov and Kasparov that became known as the "Brisbane Bombshell" People in the background of Sayid's Paris cafe are playing chess. (Image) ("Enter 77") Pryce is playing chess with Luke when Ben orders him to go get the Losties ("Greatest Hits") Mikhail is playing chess with Richard Alpert. ("Through the Looking Glass") Each player in chess starts with 16 pieces. A chess board is 8 squares by 8 squares, half light, half dark. "MacCutcheon" is a name of a prominent brand of Scotch in Lost; it is also a variation of the French Defence opening in chess [1][2] [3] [4] [5]. Chess is the central theme of "King of the Castle". Ben and Jack are playing, and Ben is victorious after playing a "castle". In "The Beginning of the End", Matthew Abaddon sits in front of a chess board. While in the mental institution, Hurley plays a chess game against "Mr. Eko." ("There's No Place Like Home, Parts 2 & 3") In Lost: Via Domus, Elliot finds a chessboard amongst the wreckage.
Connect Four wikipedia		Connect Four was the game played by Leonard Simms at Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute. It appears he was playing both colors, while chanting the Numbers over and over again. ("Numbers") Hurley was playing Connect Four at Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute in "The Beginning of the End". When a player places 4 pieces in a straight line vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, he wins the game. Connect Four has 42 possible positions to put pieces in.
Crossword puzzles main article wikipedia		Shannon worked on a crossword puzzle on the beach. ("Walkabout") Shannon worked on a crossword puzzle in the airport. ("Exodus, Part 1") Locke worked on a crossword puzzle in the Swan. ("Collision") Jack had a crossword puzzle in his car. ("A Tale of Two Cities")
Football wikipedia		Jack played American football with Tom during his time with the Others. ("Par Avion")
Golf wikipedia		Hurley set up a golf course. ("Solitary") Desmond borrows a golf club from Paulo, and offered some advice. Paulo enquired if Desmond played golf, to which Desmond responded 'I'm Scottish.' (the St. Andrews golf course in Scotland is considered the spiritual home of golf). ("Every Man for Himself") Jin had a psychological breakdown on the golfcourse, after which the Losties decided to quit golf for a while. ("Jin Has a Temper-Tantrum on the Golf Course") Sayid meets and kills Mr. Avellino while playing golf on a private course in the Seychelles. ("The Economist")
Horseshoes wikipedia		Hurley defeats Sawyer at a game of horseshoes at the barracks due to his superior luck. ("The Other Woman")
I Never main article wikipedia		Kate and Sawyer played I never. ("Outlaws")
Mouse Trap wikipedia		Locke demonstrated the game Mouse Trap to a child before catching a glimpse of his mother. ("Deus Ex Machina") A Mouse Trap game (box upside down) was seen in front of the window Kate was staring at in the barracks rec room. ("Left Behind")
Ping-Pong wikipedia		A ping-pong table was shown in the Swan station. ("The Long Con") A ping-pong table was mentioned in a notebook read by Kate. ("Live Together, Die Alone") Sawyer challenged Hurley to a match to win his stash back. Hurley wins the game. ("Enter 77") A match between Sawyer and Hurley is interrupted by Nikki. ("Exposé") Sawyer plays Jack after his return from the Others' camp, joking that they have to do so every 108 minutes or the island will explode. ("Catch-22")
Poker wikipedia		Boone was wearing a shirt with four aces on it. ("Homecoming") Sawyer, Hurley, Kate and Jack all engaged in a game of Texas Hold 'Em in which Jack won the medical supplies back from Sawyer. They used the DHARMA Initiative playing cards from the Swan station. ("Lockdown")
Football (Assoc. Soccer) wikipedia		Sayid and Essam played football in the park. ("The Greater Good") Young Eko and Yemi are seen playing football before the militia crime lords came to the village. ("The 23rd Psalm") Desmond watches a football game in a pub twice (with fictional team 'Graybridge' playing), predicting the outcome both nights & getting it right once. Actually the images belong to a game between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid from Spain's La Liga. ("Flashes Before Your Eyes") Ruth tells Desmond, "We dated for six years, and the closest you ever came to a religious experience was Celtic winning the cup." ("Catch-22")

Minor occurrences

• Basketball

• The inmates at Santa Rosa played basketball. ("Dave")
• Kevin Callis wore a NBA Miami Heat logo T-shirt. ("I Do")
• The neighbors across the street of the Reyes in Hurley's childhood scene were playing basketball. ("Tricia Tanaka Is Dead")
• Jack and Hurley play a game of HORSE, a variant of basketball, at Santa Rosa. ("The Beginning of the End")

• Pool

• Sawyer met Kilo at a pool hall. ("Confidence Man")
• Ana Lucia tracked down Jason McCormack in a bar containing a pool table. ("Collision")
• Kate was held prisoner by the Others at the Barracks in a rec room containing a pool table, foosball table, and two pinball machines ("The Man from Tallahassee")

• Foosball

• A foosball table was visible (Image) in the toy store breakroom as Frainey visits Locke ("Deus Ex Machina"), as well as the room in the Barracks where Kate is held prisoner by the Others ("The Man from Tallahassee") which also contains a pool table and pinball machines.
• A foosball table was in the rec room where Kate was held prisoner by the Others at the Barracks ("The Man from Tallahassee")

• Darts

• A dartboard is also in the Barrack's rec room when Benjamin and Sayid are being held by Locke.("The Economist") It's pattern is in Black and White.
• There is a dartboard and darts in the Swan station which become magnetically attracted towards the electro magnetic force behind the wall of the station at the end of Series 2.

• Sawyer calls the Island "Monkey Island," a possible reference to LucasArts' series of computer adventure games. ("Pilot, Part 1")
• Walt was frequently seen playing fetch with Vincent.
• A Brisbane Broncos rugby league team poster is seen in Claire and Thomas' apartment. ("Raised by Another")
• Boone is seen wearing an old jersey of the Italian national football team. ("Hearts and Minds")
• Ice hockey can be seen played as Hurley quickly surfs between television channels during a flashback. ("Numbers")
• Sayid's acquaintances, Yusef and Haddad, were playing Half-Life, in Sayid's flashback. ("The Greater Good")
• Sanjay is apparently playing a video game when Kate arrives at the front desk of the motel. ("Born to Run")
• Walt played with a Game Boy Advance SP. ("Exodus, Part 1")
• Locke compared the removal of the dynamite to the game Operation. ("Exodus, Part 2")
• Old Scooter Man wore a gambling themed baseball cap. ("Exodus, Part 2")
• A dart board was shown in the Swan station.
• Sawyer compared the Swan computer to the video game Donkey Kong. ("The Long Con")
• While residing at Santa Rosa, Libby is seen seated at a table with a Mancala set in front of her. ("Dave")
• Sawyer boxed in prison. ("Every Man for Himself")
• Desmond is accidentally struck by a cricket bat. ("Flashes Before Your Eyes")
• Two pinball machines can be seen in the Barracks recreation room.
• Some residents of the Barracks were playing volleyball at the time of the Purge. ("The Man Behind the Curtain")
• Keamy is seen on the freighter skeet shooting. ("Meet Kevin Johnson")

Recurring themes

Games as a metaphor

• Operation: Locke told Jack "I'm removing the driest pieces to minimize our risk transporting it. You ever play Operation?"

  Metaphor: The removal of the dynamite was compared to the tenseness of the game of Operation.

• Mouse Trap: Locke said "One by one, you build the trap - shoe, bucket, tub - piece by piece it all comes together. And then you wait 'til your opponent lands here on the old cheese wheel. And then if you set it up just right, you spring the trap."

• Metaphor: Locke's description of Mouse Trap mirrored the con Locke's father orchestrated to steal Locke's kidney.

• Poker: In "Lockdown", Jack pretended to have a great poker hand, but Sawyer didn't believe him. In the same episode, Ben told Locke that he typed in the Numbers into the Swan Computer.

• Metaphor: Jack's bluffing in Poker was mirrored in his successful ploy to outwit Sawyer, and in Ben's ploy to lie to Locke

• Baseball: Christian Shephard told Sawyer "You are suffering. But, don't beat yourself up about it. It's fate. Some people are just supposed to suffer. That's why the Red Sox will never win the damn series."

  Metaphor: The futility of Sawyer trying to end his own suffering was compared with the futility of the Red Sox trying to win a World Series. (see also: Irony)

The Numbers

The games have references to the Numbers:

• The objective of Connect Four is to get 4 discs in a row on a plane of 42 holes.
• Backgammon consists of two sets of 15 checkers. There are 4 sets of six playable spaces. A die has six numbers on it, the same amount of Numbers there are. The doubling cube has the numbers 4, 8, 16 and 32 on it (which is 23 backwards). The most number of spaces (without being taken out of play) a piece can move if the player is not yet able to take their pieces off the board (which requires all the player's pieces to be in the last six spaces on their side is 23.
• Each player in chess starts with 16 pieces on an 8 by 8 grid.

Black and white

Several games are depicted or described as black and white:

• Locke specifically describes the pieces on a Backgammon board as "One side is light, and one side is dark". The playable spaces on the board also alternate with one being light and one being dark. The dice are white and the dots on them are black.
• The pieces on a chess board are black and white.
• The crossword puzzles are depicted as a grid of black and white squares.

Producers' commentary

• In an interview[6] with Entertainment Weekly, writer/executive producer Damon Lindelof defended writing decisions for the show using a game-based analogy:

See also

• Counter-Strike: Source map
• The Lost Experience
• Myst
• Outside references to Lost - by the games: PvP Online's Lost Role Playing Game, Ctrl+Alt+Del's parody of Command & Conquer 3, The Impossible Quiz web game, the game "Desert Island" in The Office, Half-Life 2