Senet

Senet
General
Author(s)	pedrocrespo
Type	Board game
Version	0.05
Licence	Freeware
Links
Download
Downloadable via the Homebrew Browser
Peripherals

Senet, a board game from predynastic and ancient Egypt, is the oldest board game whose ancient existence has been confirmed, dating to circa 3500 BC. Soon you'll be able to play it in your Wii, and then you'll understand why Tutankhamen has two senet gameboards inside his tomb.

Rules (based on Spanish Wikipedia's)

The objective in Senet is to remove your pieces from the board before your adversary does the same, following a few rules, advancing your own pieces and catching or blocking your adversary's ones.

It is a game for two opponents and consists of a board of three parallel rows of ten squares each and ten small pieces. Normally the pieces of both players were very different, being those of one of conical form and those of the other of carved cylindrical form.

The order of the squares is from the 1 to the 10 of left to right in the first row, from the 11 to the 20 of right to left in the second row and, from the 21 to the 30 of left to right in the third row, so at the start of the game, the first row must be full by the gamers' pieces, arranged alternatively (ABABABABAB). Several special squares exist that are the 15, 26, 27, 28 and 29 (these special squares can contain hieroglyphic drawings or symbols).

If a player falls in square 27 he must begin from square 15 as it happens in some squares of the 'Game of the Oca', but if square 15 were engaged, the piece that fell into square 27 must move to the nearest free square to square 1. Squares 26, 28, and 29 are squares where the pieces are protected.

Moving the piece out of the board (to a supposed square 31) is counted as a move.

Dices are not used to determine the advances of cards, but four small sticks with two white faces and the other two painted black: according to the faces that fall above watching, the moved one is decided; if a white falls above watching, a place moves, if two fall, move two, etc. If all falls mouth down, move six. It does not exist the 5 as a result of these small sticks. The faces counted are that are upwards.

Every time a player obtains like result 1, 3 or 6, he continues having game turn and, after moving the piece wanted or been able to move, he has another turn thus and until he scores 2 or 4.

When two pieces of the same player are in two consecutive squares any, they are protected mutually and they cannot be captured by the adversary; when they are three cards of the same player, instead of two, they form a barrier that the opponent cannot jump, but the barrier owner can jump.

The capture of a opposite piece consists of interchanging the position of this one by the one of the piece that captures, and only can be done when it is not protected and when the captured piece is in the last square of capturer piece movement.

When it is not possible to be advanced forwards (protected barrier or pieces) but moving backwards is possible, it is obligatory to do it backwards.

Initial game stat. There can be seen how pieces are set to start the game, and the special squares filled: in green the protection squares, and in blue, the square that makes you move to the red one if you fall into it.

Gameplay direction. In this draw you can see what is the direction pieces must be moved while playing, except if they can move thus way, having to move backwards if possible.

Pieces protecting themselves. If it is the conic pieces turn and these score 2 or 3, they won't be able to move forwards, because the cilindric pieces are one next to the other one and this way, protected from being captured. So, the conic piece would have to move backwards because it can do it; in that case, scoring 2 it would capture the cilindric piece two squares behind it, but this movement wouldn't be positive to this player, because he would have now three opponent's pieces ahead. The same piece could to jump the opponent's pieces with a 4 or a 6, because there's no barrier. Of course, if he scores 1 he can move to the following square, because it's empty.

Barrier of pieces. If it is the conic pieces player turn, it wouldn't be able to move forwards excepting if he scores 1, because of the barrier the three cilindric pieces are integrating, avoiding the opponent jump over them but letting the owner jump them. In this case, the conic piece would have to move backwards, but it only could do it by scoring 4 or 6, because the cilindric rear pieces are protecting themselves. If backward moving were not possible and this player hadn't any other piece on the board, he would have to pass the turn.

Controls

Menu

The menu is controlled using Wiimote 1

	Action
	Move pointer
	Select item
	Move through menu. In the tutorial, continue reading.

Game

The game is controlled using Wiimote number 1 and 2

	Action
	Move pointer
	Roll the dice
	Select piece to move
	Quit game / return to menu
+	If a player couldn't move, he can pass the turn by holding PLUS, while the adversary presses MINUS.

Screenshots

Main Menu

Tut-ankh-orial

Ingame

Development stat

v0.05b (10-07-09)

Passing turn function has been fixed because it wasn't working properly. Please, let me know any bug you'd find. Suggestions are welcome too.

v0.05 (09-07-09)

It includes all the rules shown above but two:

• jumping multiple barriers isn't allowed.
• if advancing forward is not possible, move backwards if it is.

A basic howtoplay tutorial (tut-ankh-orial) has been included too, but it's just this same page for now. --Pedrocrespo 23:09, 9 July 2009 (UTC)