For jeopardy (a.k.a. press/push your luck) dice games, the dominant type of decision is whether or not to jeopardize previous gains by rolling for potential greater gains. Most jeopardy dice games can be further subdivided into two categories: jeopardy race games and jeopardy approach games. In jeopardy race games, the object is to be the first to meet or exceed a goal score (e.g. Pass the Pigs, Cosmic Wimpout, Can't Stop). Most all commercial jeopardy dice games are jeopardy race games. In jeopardy approach games, the object is most closely approach a goal score without exceeding it (e.g. Twenty-One, Macao).

An applet featuring the jeopardy dice game Pig with an optimal computer opponent can be found at http://cs.gettysburg.edu/projects/pig/

Reiner Knizia describes a separate class of "progression [dice] games that give you the opportunity to improve your results successively." (p. 103, "Dice Games Properly Explained"). Indeed, such games (e.g. Poker Dice) allow one to jeopardize one's results, but Knizia distinguishes progression dice games from jeopardy dice games in that jeopardy dice games allow the possibility of each player immediately losing all results in an individual progression. "You still focus on progressing and maximising your results. But now the stakes are rising. If things go wrong, you lose it all." (p. 127)

If you know of jeopardy dice games not listed below, please add it and e-mail me at the address given at http://cs.gettysburg.edu/~tneller/

Other jeopardy race games:

Pig family:
commercial "Pig" (~1950?, ???)
See also variant list at http://cs.gettysburg.edu/projects/pig/piglinks.html

Ten Thousand Family:
Ten Thousand (a.k.a. Dix Mille, Teutonic Poker, and Berliner Macke; source: Reiner Knizia "Dice Games Properly Explained")
Zilch (1980, Twinson), High Rollers (1992, El Rancho Escondido Ents.), Keepers (Avid Press), Gold Train (1995, Strunk) (Source: http://members.aol.com/dicetalk/rules/10000.txt )
Zonk (folk game based on Zilch) (Source: Wikipedia)

Other jeopardy approach games:

Macao, Twenty-One (a.k.a. Vingt-et-Un, Pontoon, Blackjack), Sixteen (a.k.a. Golden Sixteen), Octo, Poker Hunt (source: Reiner Knizia "Dice Games Properly Explained")
Thirty-Six (source: John Scarne, "Scarne on Dice" )
Altars (source: http://members.aol.com/dicetalk/rules/altars.txt )