Hangman was one of the eleven Atari 2600 titles that were part of the second wave of games released in 1978. It is based on the old words guessing game played with paper and pen. The player must guess which letters compose a word. Every wrong guess adds to the diagram of a man being hung, or in the case of this game, a monkey hanging from a bar. Eleven wrong guesses ends the game. Games can be played as one or two player games, and different grade levels of words. Two players can even provide the words for one another.