Wari

Introduction

An ancient game of capturing your opponent’s seeds or shells in hollows in the ground.

Details

This is a RISC OS desktop version of an ancient game of capturing your opponent’s seeds or shells in hollows in the ground. The object of the game is to collect more captured seeds than your opponent. It is almost always played with two players. This version provides robotic opponents if necessary.

It has been played for 3,500 years, longer than any other game known to civilised man. It was first played by the Pharoahs and now over 200 different versions are known to exist. Wari is a West African variant and is one of the commonest played.

In the two player game, there are two rows of six holes or hollows, each having an additional, larger hole at the right of each row. Each player controls the shells in his row and the larger holes or storehouses at each end are used for captured shells. Before play starts the board is dressed by distributing four shells into each of the (smaller) holes.

A player’s turn is taken by selecting a hole from which to play. The shells in this hole are removed and sowed one at a time into succeeding holes in a counter-clockwise fashion. The player captures shells if his last shell is sown into one of his opponent’s holes, making the number of shells in this hole two or three. The player removes these shells to his storehouse and play passes to his opponent.

RISC OS Compatibility

RISC OS 2 RISC OS 3.1x RISC OS 3.5 RISC OS 3.6 RISC OS 3.7x RISC OS 4.0x Select 1i9 (4.29) Select 2i3 (4.33) Select 3i3 (4.37) Select 3i4/Adjust 1i2 (4.39) RISC OS 5.0x     Help on versions

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