Egyptian Shareware

For those of you who remain still fascinated, here are some games from ancient Egypt, developed into shareware courtesy of a gentleman known as PS Neely. Descriptions are taken from his site.

20 squares - played in Egypt more than 3000 years, here is what the developer wrote about it: "The game was played on a board of, naturally, 20 squares; the object being to get one's pieces on the board, then in a 'dog-leg' pattern around and down the central row of squares, and finally off again at the far end. The game requires strategy in the face of whimsical chance -- the 'chance' coming from 'casting sticks', used as the 'dice' in older times, or in latter times, perhaps from 'knuckle bones'. The most common playing pieces were 5 cones shaped pieces pitted against 5 reel shaped pieces (These pieces were called 'ibau' which means 'dancers' in Egyptian)."

Senet was the national game of Egypt. "Senet is a two player game but during the New Kingdom period a game in progress would often appear painted on tomb walls as a 'one' player game -- the opponent being a spirit from the afterlife. The silver engraving on the 'Splash Screen' is just such as situation. In the engraving, the nobleman Amenmose (to the right) fights against Fate, with the stakes being immortality. May your games never be so serious."

Hounds & Jackals - "The game is a race game between a team of five Jackals and a team of five Hounds (originally peg playing pieces) around a palm tree or oasis and along a peculiar shaped 'Track' (originally a series of peg holes in a playing board). The object of the game being to get your five pieces around the track and onto the 'Shen' hieroglyph -- which means 'encircling' or 'surrounding all that exists'. The game requires strategy in the face of whimsical chance, the chance coming from the throw of two knucklebones which were an ancient form of dice."

Mehen - "It was played on a spiraling track, employed stick dice of precisely the kind known from Archaic Egyptian contexts, and had two types of pieces, one representing a predatory animal. The only difference would seem to be that the ancient Egyptians allotted six counters to each player rather than only one."

Go To Page: 1 2