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The ancient Egyptian Senet board game

Posted by urikalish • 2/27/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: anciant, egypt, game, senet

Anybody here plays Senet?

I need some help with the rules of Senet (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senet) since I want to program an online version of this ancient Egyptian board game. I've found on the web a few variations of the rules by Senet historians like Timothy Kendal, R.C. Bell, and Peter A. Piccione, and need to know which version works best.

User Comments

2/27/09

melindaville

I don't know how to play it but I'm going to look into learning it. I am 1/2 Egyptian and was born in Alexandria, Egypt.

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1. 2/27/09
  
  urikalish
  
  Looking forward for your inputs...
  
  p.s. This is interesting - www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/Archives/Piccione/index.html
2. 2/27/09
  
  melindaville
  
  That was extremely interesting! I never knew!
2/27/09

legbamel

I don't really know how, either, but I read about it recently and it sounded intriguing. I'm sorry I can't help you, but if you ever figure it out, let me know and I'll give it a try.

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2/27/09

gtally

It looks like the precursor to chess. Post a broadcast to all your friends when it's ready. I'm definitely interested.

[reply]
1. 2/27/09
  
  urikalish
  
  Cool, will do.
2/27/09

aningeniousname

No one actually knows the rules. Various sets of rules have been suggested over the years and the best guesses are that its a cross between backgammon and chess and was used for heavy gambling.

This is the best I can find on it
www.gamecabinet.com/history/Senet.html

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2/27/09

timethief

Interesting Uri. Thanks for posting this.

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2/28/09

GiftShopping

Sounds really cool. I want to learn how to play Senet. Thanks for sharing this info.

[reply]
1. 2/28/09
  
  GiftShopping
  
  I just learned to play and played a game. It's fun and easy to play. Similar to backgammon, but without dice.
2/28/09

urikalish

I've also found this:
pawnderings.blogspot.com/2007/05/game-of-week-senet.html

[reply]
3/06/09

urikalish

It's now 2:30 AM over here and I'm estimating it's about 50% Done. I can now play a full Senet game between two players on different browsers. I now need to work on the user interface and graphics, add hints and error messages to the user, log all the moves, chat between players, etc.

[reply]
3/08/09

urikalish

80% done:

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