Phil King, a true Old-school Gamer (O.G.) emails: The Game, as I understand it, began in 1987 in Mirlo. Back then it was called the Bay Area Race Fantastique (B.A.R.F), and it grew throughout the years. I first played The Game as a freshman in 1988, in B.A.R.F. II. By then it was already spreading campus wide, and it has always been very underground. Later games not run by the original B.A.R.F. crew lost that name and simply became The Game.
The Game is also spreading. There has already been one attempt at commercializing The Game (Phil King). There was recently an event put together by some Stanford Alums in the Seattle Area played mostly by Microsoft employees, and last fall, a Stanford Alum and long-time Game player put together an event at Princeton.
There is usually only one Game a year (Spring Quarter) although in a few rare years there have been two in one quarter. An average of 15-20 teams play in a Game.