User:Rindis/Sandbox

A page for me to hammer out some thoughts, ideas, and articles that are taking me a while to write. I'm proud to say I've stolen this idea from other users.

(Board game) History

Senet is among the oldest known board games.

The origins of board games are lost in prehistory, as several possible game boards predate actual written descriptions, and the rules to these games are not known. Senet, or at least an earlier game greatly resembling it, appears in Predynastic and First Dynasty burials of Egypt, c. 3500 BC and 3100 BC respectively. It is also pictured in a fresco found in Merknera's tomb (3300-2700 BC). Mehen is also known of from Ancient Egyptian burials of around the same time period, but it disappears after 2300 BC. In China, another game whose rules are unknown today is liubo, whose earliest surviving artifacts date to about 1500 BC, and is considered to have influenced the latter game xiangqi.

Boards and dice for a game that would be an ancestor of backgammon have been found in the "Burnt City" (Shahr-e Sukhte) of southeastern Iran date back to about 3000 BC. Various games of the tables type are known to have been played in the Roman empire and the later Byzantine empire. Today, backgammon, or games very much like it, can be found as native parts of cultures throughout Europe and Asia.

The earliest finds for mancala-family (or sowing) games date to about the 6th or 7th century BC, with Aksumite steles and pottery fragments found in modern-day Ethiopia. It has been suggested that, due the the primary activity of the game, it may date all the way back to the dawn of civilization, but there is no evidence to support this. Its history outside of Africa is also obscure, and has never seemed to gain widespread play in the West. A version was reported as "an old German game" in 1908 (das Bohnenspiel). In the United States a version was printed as Oh-Wah-Ree by 3M in 1962.

Alquerque emerged no later than the 10th Century, but possible versions of it show up as early as 600 BC in Egypt. It spread through the Middle East and North Africa with the Arabs (if no earlier) before evolving into its modern variants Fanorona in Madagascar, and the draughts or checkers family in western Europe.

The origins of Nine Men's Morris are uncertain, with claims dating back to about 1400 BC. However, this interpretation is disputed, and the best that can be said is that it was likely well-known to the Romans.

Go is first mentioned in writing in the 6th century BC in China, with the first physical evidence dating to around the 2nd century BC. From there it spread to the rest of East Asia, reaching Korea sometime from the 5th to 7th centuries, and it probably reached Japan around the same time, and popular in the imperial court in the 8th century.

Chaturanga is known to have originated around the 7th century in India. From there, it spread both east and west, and is considered to be related to the modern games of chess, shogi, makruk, xiangqi, and janggi. The modern form of (western) chess dates to about the 15th century, and it became a sport with the first international chess tournament in 1851.

Timeline

See also: Category:Years in games and Timeline of chess

• c. 500 BC - The earliest reference to Chaturaji or Pachisi written in the Mahabharata.
• 116-27 BC - Marcus Terentius Varro's Lingua Latina X (II, par. 20) contains earliest known reference to latrunculi (often confused with ludus duodecim scriptorum, Ovid's game mentioned below).
• 220-265 - Nard enters China under the name t'shu-p'u (Source: Hun Tsun Sii).
• c. 400 onwards - Tafl games played in Northern Europe.

Board games first became widely popular among the general population early in the 20th century when the rise of the middle class with disposable income and leisure time made them a receptive audience to such games. This popularity expanded after the Second World War, a period from which many classic board games date.

Many board games are now available as computer games, including the option to have the computer act as an opponent; and many acclaimed computer games such as Civilization were originally based upon board games. The rise of computers has also led to a relative decline in the most complicated board games, as computers require less space, and the games don't have to be set up and cleared away. With the Internet, many board games can now be played online against a computer or other players. Some web sites allow play in real time and immediately show the opponent's moves, while most use e-mail to notify the players after each move (see the links at the end of this article).

Some board games make use of additional components, aside from the board and playing pieces. Some games use CDs, video cassettes and more recently DVDs to provide an accompaniment to the game. A genre of DVD games makes use of the interactive features of DVDs, often to provide a "quizmaster" for trivia games.

The modern board game industry is rife with corporate mergers and acquisitions, with large companies such as Hasbro owning many subsidiaries and selling products under a variety of brand names. It is difficult to successfully market a new board game to the mass market. Retailers tend to be conservative about stocking games of untested popularity, and most large board game companies have established criteria that a game must meet in order to be produced. If, for instance, Monopoly were introduced as a new game today, it might not meet the criteria for production.