Senet

#1

Post by tosh » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 12:54 PM UTC

Senet
en.wikipedia.org

Re: Senet

#2

Post by amitport » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 2:24 PM UTC

I once won an AI tournament for senet :) so for me this post relates to AI... But still... it's a mystery how this gets to the top of HN

Re: Senet

#3

Post by OJFord » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 2:26 PM UTC

amitport wrote: post #2

I once won an AI tournament for senet :) so for me this post relates to AI... But still... it's a mystery how this gets to the top of HN

> it's a mystery how this gets to the top of HN

Because people (such as me!) found it interesting and up-voted it.

Per the guidelines:

> What to Submit

> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Senet

#4

Post by zests » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 2:27 PM UTC

I love ancient board games. It's amazing to think about chess and how rules have been changed slightly over time for 1000 years. The game has since been stable for about 500. The computer era is revolutionizing the game again and maybe will usher in new popular variants (Fischer random, no castle chess) as our understanding of the game evolves.

Re: Senet

#5

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 2:29 PM UTC

Looks a bit like Mancala. I don't know much about Senet, but we played Mancala all the time, when I was a kid (in Africa).

Re: Senet

#6

Post by amitport » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 2:33 PM UTC

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #5

Looks a bit like Mancala. I don't know much about Senet, but we played Mancala all the time, when I was a kid (in Africa).

Well it's more like backgammon

Re: Senet

#7

Post by myWindoonn » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 2:43 PM UTC

Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Game_of_Ur for which we have guessed at the probable rules and can play it today.

Re: Senet

#8

Post by acheron » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 2:46 PM UTC

myWindoonn wrote: post #7

Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Game_of_Ur for which we have guessed at the probable rules and can play it today.

There’s a great video on YouTube of Irving Finkel (quite an interesting guy) playing the Royal Game of Ur. https://youtu.be/WZskjLq040I

Re: Senet

#9

Post by iamjake648 » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 2:48 PM UTC

I can't remember the exact book, but contained in a book about Ancient Egypt, there was the rules, paper pieces and a sample board for this game - we used to play it all the time as kids.

My grandpa helped us make a wooden set of pieces and a board before he passed, it was a a great little intro to woodworking project.

Re: Senet

#10

Post by AvocadoCake » Mon, Jul 19, 2021, 2:51 PM UTC

I found the game strangely addictive: http://www.playonlinedicegames.com/senet