Battleship is a game played by two people. Although popularized in North America as a commercial board game (first published by the Milton Bradley Company in 1931), it is known throughout the world as a pencil-and-paper contest that predates the First World War. It is thought to have been invented by prisoners, who could yell out the coordinates to their fellow inmates in neighboring cells. In basic Battleship, players arrange their ships on hidden grids and then attempt to “sink” each other’s vessels by firing “shots” that name specific cells in the matrix. Hits and misses are recorded, and the first player to sink all of his opponent’s ships wins.