King of the Hill is a race game

Race game

Race game is a large category of board games, in which the object is to be the first to move all one's pieces to the end of a track. This is both the earliest type of board game known, with implements and representations dating back to at least the 3rd millennium BC in Egypt, Iraq, and Iran; and...

, where players try to be the first to get their marbles from the start to the top of the mountain. It was originally published by Schaper Toys

Schaper Toys

Schaper Toys, or W.H. Schaper Mfg. Co., Inc. as it was originally known, was a game and toy company founded in 1949 by William Herbert Schaper in Minneapolis, Minnesota. "Herb" Schaper published a variety of games but was best known for having created the children's game, Cootie. Through the 1970s...

 in 1960 and was recently republished with slightly different rules by Winning Moves Games USA

Winning Moves

Winning Moves Games is a maker of classic card games and board games, puzzles, action games and adult party games.-History:Winning Moves Games was founded in 1995 by four game industry professionals: Tom Kremer , Philip Orbanes , Mike...

 in 2006.

Gameplay (1960)

In the original Schaper game, players took turns moving marbles

Marbles

A marble is a small spherical toy usually made from glass, clay, steel, or agate. These balls vary in size. Most commonly, they are about ½ inch in diameter, but they may range from less than ¼ inch to over 3 inches , while some art glass marbles fordisplay purposes are over 12 inches ...

up a 3-D Mountain shaped board. Each turn, a player would use an hourglass-shaped teeter-totter device to determine the amount of spaces they could move that turn. They would then pick one of their marbles and move it along the board's path that number of spaces. If the marble ends its move on a space where another marble is, it continues along to the next open space. If the marble lands on a hole space, they drop their marble into the hole, where it comes out lower on the board. If they managed to get their marble to the top of the mountain, they would drop it into a hole in the middle. This could trigger a crown to pop up and the player would win. If not, the player would start their marble back on the track.

Gameplay (2006)

The newer version has slightly different rules and a much different look. The board now features a large crater in the center instead of a mountain and the board track winds around the crater, running along aside the crater at roughly the halfway point and end of the track. Also gone are the holes in the track. Instead, players with a marble on the track next to the crater are dropped into the crater of another player ends their turn on them. A marble dropped into the crater this way comes out of one of three "caves" on corners of the board and is then placed back on the track on one of the spaces next to the "cave." Additionally, the end game is totally different. Instead of the mechanized crown, players instead try to be the first to get both their marbles into the "Finish Zone."