About This Week's Lesson:
This week we take an evolutionary look at the development of games from the most ancient of board games to card games during the Renaissance. The game industry is a process that surrounds the inception, creation, and sale of the product (games). By taking an overview of games themselves, you will learn much about games dating all the way back to B.C. ("Before Computers").
In addition to the fascinating story of the evolution of games from the ancients to the classical period, you will get to touch history. Crossing your hands will be copies of The Royal Game of Ur and Senet, the two oldest games known. You'll also get to see the design of an antique deck of cards. In this week's lab we'll examine and play not one, not two, but three great classic games: Mancala, Nine Men's Morris, and Whist.
If you want the Review Sheet with all of the lecture notes from this week's class session, it is available on the course syllabus page (click on the appropriate Lecture link). Note that each Review Sheet is password protected and that the passwords are sent to you each week via email in the class newsletter. If you're enrolled in this class and are not receiving the class newsletter, click here to send me the email address you want me to use. I will then add you to the class email list and you'll receive it regularly from then on. Each week's class newsletter includes a link to the course syllabus page plus the password you'll need to open the file.
These links feature the supplemental material that you are responsible for knowing before the first exam (that takes place at the beginning of Week 4). Be sure to click on every link in this section!
Game: The Royal Game of Ur The British Royal Museum
This is a quick, simple little race game. Go ahead, give it a try! It will only take a few minutes (although you'll have to play both sides).
Review Sheet: by Alan Emrich
The Review Sheet you were provided at the end of class this week has additional information on the subject of the history of games, with plenty of interesting factoids and tid bits included. Be sure to give this Review Sheet a thorough read; you will be responsible for knowing all of its contents for the first exam!
Web Site: by Alan Emrich
You will want to spend a little "quality time" this week to further explore this web site. In addition to the links at the top of every page with information about this class, there are links at the bottom of every page with more information for game students in general (and reprinted below). You may want to know why I'm your instructor or read some of the articles I've written.
These supplemental links are worth pursuing only if you are seriously interested in working in the game business and want to know about it in the broadest possible sense. This material will not be directly included in the exams, but if you're serious about delving deeply into the subject of game production, here's some more lessons from others who have also "been there."
Game Rules and History: Senet
This is one of the two oldest games ever discovered (the other being the Royal Game of Ur). Found in several Egyptian tombs, this simple race game was obviously popular among the nobility. This fascinating web page sums up the game's components and provides two schools of thought of how it is believed the game might have been played. To play an interactive version of Senet, click here. Or, click here to download a Windows version of the game for your computer (senet.zip - approx. 730K).
Basic Strategy: Mancala
Do all those stones and pits have you scratching your head? Some sound, basic advice that will help keep you from humiliating defeat is presented here.
Rich History: Count and Capture Games (Mancala) by the Games Museum at the University of Waterloo
This great overview (with a fantastic comparative picture at the end) also links to a scholarly treatise on the subject of the historical and cultural significance of Mancala. It's fascinating...
Advanced Strategy: Nine Men's Morris
If you're interested in this game that we played in class, here are a few words containing some very smart advice for beating your friends the next time you play.
Rules and European Scoring Method: Whist
If you're interested in this game that we played in class, here are the rules plus the more 'advanced' scoring method used in Europe.
Introduction: How to Learn Go
This web site on how to teach Go is also an excellent place to learn how to play Go.
Article: Probability for Game Designers By Tyler Sigman
Veteran designer Tyler Sigman contributes a witty, practical guide to probability for video game designers, from figuring out Crc nostril hair drop rates (!) to the hilarities of 'converse probability.'
Bibliography: Week 1
These are the games that we played and analyzed in class this week. If you want more information about them, see the links below:
Mancala
is actually a family of games (those in which stones, nuts, etc. are
moved about holes arranged in parallel rows on a board) probably originated with
seeds or beans played in holes scooped in the dirt (an extremely easy-to-make
game for farmers on a lunch break). Mancala is a wholly mathematical game and
its more complex versions have as much scope as Chess despite its rather
primitive origins. You can play an enjoyable Shockwave version of the
Mancala by clicking on its picture .
Nine
Men's Morris is the oldest game discovered that is still being widely
played around the world. The board is shown to the right and the object is to
place your tokens so that line up and you have 3-in-a-row. When you achieve
that, you can remove one of the other player's tokens. The first player to get
their opponent down to 2 tokens wins. Click on the game title or picture to play
right now (over the internet against a computer opponent).
Whist is an English trick-taking card game that is the precursor for all such games including Contact Bridge. It was the most prestigious card game in the Western world between about 1750 and 1900. It became both a lower-class game played in ale houses and an upper-class game played by America's founding fathers and Jane Austin's characters. To download a version of Whist for solitaire play on your computer, click on the game title at the start of this paragraph.
Where can you get these games?
