The name Go refers to one of two games. The first is the traditional Chinese game of Wei-ch’i, a very technical game based on intricate captures that carried over into Japan. The second is Go-Moku, a casual and simple game that started in Japan, and has made its way across to the western world.
From ancient Chinese writings, it appears that the game of Wei-ch’i dates back to at least 625 BC. However, books written about the subject were initially made around the Tang dynasty, which lasted from 618-906 A.D. Finally, the game eventually made it to Japan by around 500 A.D., which was during the reign of Empress Suiko, and was routinely played by the Japanese royal courts throughout the ages. Wei-ch’i, renamed Go in Japan, became a very important game in Japan amongst the samurai during the thirteenth century. In fact, the game was so popular, that boards and their pieces were considered important military apparatuses during the warring period of the time. During the peaceful time afterwards, tournaments were held, and eventually an academy for the game was instituted by the sixteenth century. In a way, it could be said that Wei-Ch’i is the chess of China and Japan. This is because in both instances, people were taught the ends of out of the game, and both were considered an important component in being a member of high society.
The objective of Wei-ch’i is to control as much space as possible, using the playing pieces to box in an opponent’s available moves. In order to do this, two players take turns placing their pieces on the board on an empty point in the field, unless the placement leads to an opponent capturing the piece. Pieces are captured when they are surrounded on all sides by their opponent’s pieces, and are then removed from the board. Another important component of the game is kos, or points of the board where there can be a perpetual capture. If a ko is present, players are not allowed to recapture that point until a turn cycle after the initial capture. This is to prevent a cycle of perpetual capture, which would lead to a tie game, and the game itself is brought to a draw if three kos are present on the board at all times.
The other game entitled Go is a much less demanding game, played generally play women and children of Japan, along with visitors from the west. In this case, Go is a truncated form of Go-Moku. Not too much is known about this specific game’s history, however, it is played on the same board as Wei-ch’i. In Go-Moku, players take turns placing pieces similar to Wei-ch’i, however the goal is much different. In Go-Moku, players need to make a line of five, either diagonally, horizontally, or vertically. However, players are not allowed to construct an open string of three stones, but forks featuring three to four pieces are allowed. This variation of Go eventually made its way to Europe in 1885, starting with England as Spoil Five. An Americanized version of this game was created in 1977, with Pente. Pente adds very little to the game outside the ability to capture pairs of an opponent’s pieces, which can be used as a method of winning if players capture five pairs of their opponent’s pieces.
As you can see, Go is a game that has quite a varying history and play style, depending on the version picked. It’s definitely interesting to see, since you can either have a deep and involving game with a lot of strategy but hard to get into, or one with less intricacies and is simple enough to pick up and play.
Sources
Bell, Robert Charles. Board and Table Games From Many Civilizations. Dover
Publications Inc. New York, New York. 1979.
http://books.google.com/books?id=5viitl9PvBoC
Depaulis, Thierry & co. ed., Board Game Studies: International Journal of
Board Games. Lieden University, 1999.
http://ludicum.org/publicacoes/bgsj/2.pdf#page=114
Monday, September 27, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Pinball: A Rich, Yet Troubled History
Pinball is game with a game with a very interesting background history, and has straddled the line between amusement and gambling.
Pinball initially debuted around 1929 in Youngstown, Ohio, as a mechanical version of the French game bagatelle. Bagatelle could be considered the ancestor of pinball, as it features similar mechanics and a similar apparatus. In it, players take turns launching balls from the bottom right of the device, which then makes its way towards one of the holes to the left of the column it is launched from. Once the ball is initially launched, the rest of the play is up to the ball itself and how it reacts to a board. This is not to say this is a game entirely based on luck, as the launch itself can be very important in bagatelle, since it can change the nature of play quite differently. Player interaction with the field is discouraged, if a ball does not immediately fall into a hole to end play, an opponent may challenge if the player has move the board in some way. This factor of bagatelle remains in modern day pinball in the form of the tilt function. Tilt is a feature completely suspends play if the machine is moved around too much during the game itself. Bagatelle can be played quite a number of ways in a different number of European cultures.
After its initial unveiling, the next important event to happen to pinball was the first production of the game in Chicago. This happened in 1931, and is considered a landmark since every modern pinball game is now produced within Chicago. Pinball machines were eventually made to run on electricity and use a variety of flashing lights by around 1933. A year later, some pinball machines were made with the ability to reward high scores with cash. However, most of these models were frowned up in cities due to the monetary reward which turned the game into a form of gambling. Eventually, this was replaced by 1937 when the ability to reward additional games for excellence in play. This has been carried over in two ways with modern pinball: the first of these is a high score replay, which awards another game with a high enough score; the second is a match replay, which is a luck-based sequence at the very end in which a reel tries to match with the last two digits of your score, which is always a multiple of ten.
One interesting attempt to meld gambling and pinball was the “one-ball machine”, designed to be as profitable as a slot machine while still being promoted as a pinball game. Initially conceived after World War II, the game would only give the player one ball, and would either dispense coins similar to a slot machine, or used a feature similar to the older gambling pinball machine models. The one-ball model is considered to be a console class machine, and is never referred to as pinball, outside of special circumstance. Part of this is due to its high price point of 700 dollars compared to the traditional pinball machines being sold for 225 around the same time. This model was also quickly recognized for the scheme that it was and got banned in most states shortly after it was sold to the public. This model along with slot machines eventually caused those in the pinball industry to separate themselves from the gambling side of the coin-machine industry.
As seen, pinball is a game that has had a bit of a hard time, due to some producers trying to use it as a pure gambling device, along certain features which can be perceived as gambling. It also has a rich heritage with its ancestor bagatelle. These are definitely things to mull over the next time you just happen to put a quarter in for a quick game of pinball.
Sources
Anonymous. “Slot Machines and Pinball Games.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science. Vol. 269. p 62-70. Sage Publications, Inc. May, 1950.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1027818
Pardon, George Frederick. The Handbook of Billiars with the History of the Side-Stroke The Rules of
the Games, and A Chapter on Bagatelle. George Routledge and Sons. 1865.
http://books.google.com/books?id=00UVAAAAYAAJ
Pinball initially debuted around 1929 in Youngstown, Ohio, as a mechanical version of the French game bagatelle. Bagatelle could be considered the ancestor of pinball, as it features similar mechanics and a similar apparatus. In it, players take turns launching balls from the bottom right of the device, which then makes its way towards one of the holes to the left of the column it is launched from. Once the ball is initially launched, the rest of the play is up to the ball itself and how it reacts to a board. This is not to say this is a game entirely based on luck, as the launch itself can be very important in bagatelle, since it can change the nature of play quite differently. Player interaction with the field is discouraged, if a ball does not immediately fall into a hole to end play, an opponent may challenge if the player has move the board in some way. This factor of bagatelle remains in modern day pinball in the form of the tilt function. Tilt is a feature completely suspends play if the machine is moved around too much during the game itself. Bagatelle can be played quite a number of ways in a different number of European cultures.
After its initial unveiling, the next important event to happen to pinball was the first production of the game in Chicago. This happened in 1931, and is considered a landmark since every modern pinball game is now produced within Chicago. Pinball machines were eventually made to run on electricity and use a variety of flashing lights by around 1933. A year later, some pinball machines were made with the ability to reward high scores with cash. However, most of these models were frowned up in cities due to the monetary reward which turned the game into a form of gambling. Eventually, this was replaced by 1937 when the ability to reward additional games for excellence in play. This has been carried over in two ways with modern pinball: the first of these is a high score replay, which awards another game with a high enough score; the second is a match replay, which is a luck-based sequence at the very end in which a reel tries to match with the last two digits of your score, which is always a multiple of ten.
One interesting attempt to meld gambling and pinball was the “one-ball machine”, designed to be as profitable as a slot machine while still being promoted as a pinball game. Initially conceived after World War II, the game would only give the player one ball, and would either dispense coins similar to a slot machine, or used a feature similar to the older gambling pinball machine models. The one-ball model is considered to be a console class machine, and is never referred to as pinball, outside of special circumstance. Part of this is due to its high price point of 700 dollars compared to the traditional pinball machines being sold for 225 around the same time. This model was also quickly recognized for the scheme that it was and got banned in most states shortly after it was sold to the public. This model along with slot machines eventually caused those in the pinball industry to separate themselves from the gambling side of the coin-machine industry.
As seen, pinball is a game that has had a bit of a hard time, due to some producers trying to use it as a pure gambling device, along certain features which can be perceived as gambling. It also has a rich heritage with its ancestor bagatelle. These are definitely things to mull over the next time you just happen to put a quarter in for a quick game of pinball.
Sources
Anonymous. “Slot Machines and Pinball Games.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science. Vol. 269. p 62-70. Sage Publications, Inc. May, 1950.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1027818
Pardon, George Frederick. The Handbook of Billiars with the History of the Side-Stroke The Rules of
the Games, and A Chapter on Bagatelle. George Routledge and Sons. 1865.
http://books.google.com/books?id=00UVAAAAYAAJ
Friday, September 17, 2010
Parcheesi: The Royal Game Of India
Parcheesi is a game that seems simple at first, but has quite a few intricate nuances that promotes smart play while using what is at the player’s disposal. It also has two very interesting histories surrounding it: the history of the game’s predecessor and the history of its commercial success in the United States.
The game of Parcheesi has its roots from Chaupur, a game played amongst the nobles of the Mogulian dynasty in sixteenth century India. A unique departure from the modern day counter part is that the game could have a life-size quality to it, with the servants of the noble being the board pieces. The game boards were exquisitely made out of cloth, and had to be quite large, since they were made to be laid out on the noble’s courtyards.
The board shape was similar to modern day Parcheesi, with four eight-by-three grid placed around the cardinal directions of a center square. However, there was a unique difference, as safe locations for pieces are spaced in fairly different locations between the versions, with chaupur placing their safe zone twenty-five spaces within each other. Another important difference is where the pieces start at the beginning of the game. In Parcheesi, pieces have a home base in the four empty corners of the board, and make their first move four spaces up from the bottom in the right column of their home “arm”. Meanwhile in its predecessor, pieces started from the square in the center and moved down the center column of their home “arm”, and move around the board counter clock-wise around the edges of the arms. Since players must finish by leading all their pieces to the center square of the board through the center column of their starting branch, pieces had to be differentiated between those leaving the home square and those returning to the home square. A final interesting note is how the game of chaupur was played with teams of two, instead of a four-man free for all, and the teams won or lost together, which adds a very interesting component of strategy to the game, since turns could be voluntarily forfeited.
While it has an interesting history in India as chaupur, Parcheesi also has plenty of intriguing phenomena around its rise in the states. It was one of three games, along with Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble, which allowed Selchow & Righter to become a financial powerhouse within the world of games merchandizing in the late 1800’s. Another interesting fact about Parcheesi is that it is one of the first games that received a patent in the United States, which occurred in 1874. The game itself sold 33,382 units in 1885, and was a consistent source of revenue for the company throughout the rest of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century.
Of course, due to the success of Parcheesi at the time, there were also similar games made by their competitors. One of the most notable ones is the Parker Brother game Sorry!, originally produced in England, and is still readily available today. The most notable difference between Parcheesi and Sorry! is the lack of dice in Sorry!, which opts to use card draws for movement instead. There’s less strategy involved in Sorry!, since tactics such as locking off portions of the board from an opposing player by placing two of their pieces side by side on the same square are unable to be performed in Sorry!.
Ultimately, Parcheesi proves to be a game with a series of fascinating histories behind its financial success and its root game.
Sometimes it must be asked just how much skill goes into a successful completion of a game, which is something that will be explored next time with the history of pinball machines.
Sources
Depaulis, Thierry & co. ed., Board Game Studies: International Journal of Board Games. Lieden
University, 1999. http://ludicum.org/publicacoes/bgsj/2.pdf#page=114
Petrik, Paula. “The House That Parcheesi Built: Selchow & Righter Company”. The Business
History Review, Vol. 60, No. 3 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 410-43. The President and Fellows of
Harvard CollegeStable, 1986. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3115884
Wilkins, Sally. Sports and Games Throughout History: Sports and Games of Medieval Cultures. Greenwood Press, 2002.
The game of Parcheesi has its roots from Chaupur, a game played amongst the nobles of the Mogulian dynasty in sixteenth century India. A unique departure from the modern day counter part is that the game could have a life-size quality to it, with the servants of the noble being the board pieces. The game boards were exquisitely made out of cloth, and had to be quite large, since they were made to be laid out on the noble’s courtyards.
The board shape was similar to modern day Parcheesi, with four eight-by-three grid placed around the cardinal directions of a center square. However, there was a unique difference, as safe locations for pieces are spaced in fairly different locations between the versions, with chaupur placing their safe zone twenty-five spaces within each other. Another important difference is where the pieces start at the beginning of the game. In Parcheesi, pieces have a home base in the four empty corners of the board, and make their first move four spaces up from the bottom in the right column of their home “arm”. Meanwhile in its predecessor, pieces started from the square in the center and moved down the center column of their home “arm”, and move around the board counter clock-wise around the edges of the arms. Since players must finish by leading all their pieces to the center square of the board through the center column of their starting branch, pieces had to be differentiated between those leaving the home square and those returning to the home square. A final interesting note is how the game of chaupur was played with teams of two, instead of a four-man free for all, and the teams won or lost together, which adds a very interesting component of strategy to the game, since turns could be voluntarily forfeited.
While it has an interesting history in India as chaupur, Parcheesi also has plenty of intriguing phenomena around its rise in the states. It was one of three games, along with Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble, which allowed Selchow & Righter to become a financial powerhouse within the world of games merchandizing in the late 1800’s. Another interesting fact about Parcheesi is that it is one of the first games that received a patent in the United States, which occurred in 1874. The game itself sold 33,382 units in 1885, and was a consistent source of revenue for the company throughout the rest of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century.
Of course, due to the success of Parcheesi at the time, there were also similar games made by their competitors. One of the most notable ones is the Parker Brother game Sorry!, originally produced in England, and is still readily available today. The most notable difference between Parcheesi and Sorry! is the lack of dice in Sorry!, which opts to use card draws for movement instead. There’s less strategy involved in Sorry!, since tactics such as locking off portions of the board from an opposing player by placing two of their pieces side by side on the same square are unable to be performed in Sorry!.
Ultimately, Parcheesi proves to be a game with a series of fascinating histories behind its financial success and its root game.
Sometimes it must be asked just how much skill goes into a successful completion of a game, which is something that will be explored next time with the history of pinball machines.
Sources
Depaulis, Thierry & co. ed., Board Game Studies: International Journal of Board Games. Lieden
University, 1999. http://ludicum.org/publicacoes/bgsj/2.pdf#page=114
Petrik, Paula. “The House That Parcheesi Built: Selchow & Righter Company”. The Business
History Review, Vol. 60, No. 3 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 410-43. The President and Fellows of
Harvard CollegeStable, 1986. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3115884
Wilkins, Sally. Sports and Games Throughout History: Sports and Games of Medieval Cultures. Greenwood Press, 2002.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Chess: A Game of Kings; For Kings and Their Kin
The classic game of chess is one that has tested players’ strategic planning over a lengthy period of time for years and throughout various cultures. There are some variations of the game, such as the Japanese shougi or the Chinese shang chi, but the European version is the most predominate version of the game, and the one played in the states.
While chess today is generally played for recreational purposes with some players evolving their game into a professional level; during the European medieval era, the game was considered one of the activities that defined nobility and royalty, along side activities like hunting, riding, and the arts. In fact, it was defined to such an extent that the elite class were expected to be skilled in the art of chess, and were considered important enough to be a part of a noble’s upbringing to be a part of their education. Some of the courts even made particularly detailed manuscripts over the game, such as Libros de ajedrez from the Castile of Alfonso the Tenth.
Chess has also been used in a variety of stories as a story telling mechanic, or occasionally as a metaphor. The Islamic have a story, where a man’s beloved, Dilaram, is played as an ante during a game of chess. In it, Dilaram strongly suggests her lover to use a play which sacrifices his rooks to protect his king, which eventually allows him to win the game. The importance of this story is two fold: one is that this story lead to the creation of a specific Islamic chess strategy named the “Dilaram Strategy”; the second is that it Dilaram, the female who’s fate is determined by the outcome of the match, who creates the strategy and how it is named after her, and not the one who was actually playing.
A couple of interesting cultural differences between chess are the shapes of the pieces. For example, the Russian version of the game have their pawns in the shape like matryoshka dolls, and their rooks have a cone top, instead of the usual jagged tops in traditional versions. The Latin American version differentiates the two sides beyond colors, making one side the conquistadoras, while the other side’s pieces are based on indigenous tribes of Central America, and have llamas to represent the knight piece.
Chess is a game that is rich with historical and cultural significances. It is also a game that challenges the minds of those who play it, and has been used as a powerful literary device in many occasions. It is amazing that a game like this has endured throughout the ages, and has much to teach for those who start digging beneath the surface.
Sources:
“Chess and Courtly Culture in Medieval Castile: The Libro de ajedrez of Alfonso X, el
Sabio”. Constable, Olivia Remie. Speculum. Vol. 82 Iss. 2 pp 301-347.
“Chess Sets” Elliot Averdon Virtual Museum of Games. University of Waterloo. Aug 30 2010.
http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/chess/index.html
While chess today is generally played for recreational purposes with some players evolving their game into a professional level; during the European medieval era, the game was considered one of the activities that defined nobility and royalty, along side activities like hunting, riding, and the arts. In fact, it was defined to such an extent that the elite class were expected to be skilled in the art of chess, and were considered important enough to be a part of a noble’s upbringing to be a part of their education. Some of the courts even made particularly detailed manuscripts over the game, such as Libros de ajedrez from the Castile of Alfonso the Tenth.
Chess has also been used in a variety of stories as a story telling mechanic, or occasionally as a metaphor. The Islamic have a story, where a man’s beloved, Dilaram, is played as an ante during a game of chess. In it, Dilaram strongly suggests her lover to use a play which sacrifices his rooks to protect his king, which eventually allows him to win the game. The importance of this story is two fold: one is that this story lead to the creation of a specific Islamic chess strategy named the “Dilaram Strategy”; the second is that it Dilaram, the female who’s fate is determined by the outcome of the match, who creates the strategy and how it is named after her, and not the one who was actually playing.
A couple of interesting cultural differences between chess are the shapes of the pieces. For example, the Russian version of the game have their pawns in the shape like matryoshka dolls, and their rooks have a cone top, instead of the usual jagged tops in traditional versions. The Latin American version differentiates the two sides beyond colors, making one side the conquistadoras, while the other side’s pieces are based on indigenous tribes of Central America, and have llamas to represent the knight piece.
Chess is a game that is rich with historical and cultural significances. It is also a game that challenges the minds of those who play it, and has been used as a powerful literary device in many occasions. It is amazing that a game like this has endured throughout the ages, and has much to teach for those who start digging beneath the surface.
Sources:
“Chess and Courtly Culture in Medieval Castile: The Libro de ajedrez of Alfonso X, el
Sabio”. Constable, Olivia Remie. Speculum. Vol. 82 Iss. 2 pp 301-347.
“Chess Sets” Elliot Averdon Virtual Museum of Games. University of Waterloo. Aug 30 2010.
http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/chess/index.html
Monday, August 30, 2010
Mancala: Counting and Capturing Throughout the Ages and Cultures
Mancala is a game categorized as a “count and capture game”, where players move objects around a game board in a circuit to either earn points or capture their opponent’s pieces. The name is derived from the Arabic verb of the same name, which translates into English as “to move”. The game board itself features rows of depressions, called warri or awari, which are used to house the playing counters for the game. However, the board can vary differently due to the many, many versions of this game. These include whether or not the board has banks for scoring purposes, the number of depressions in each row, and whether the board has two or four rows.
The game of Mancala originated in Ancient Egypt and some versions of it have been fairly popular throughout the ages according to Alex de Voogt. However, much of the physical evidence of it has been lost, since wooden board would deteriorate over time and some “boards” are temporarily made in the sand. Various versions of the game has since been spread out into the world, though the most notable locales are Africa, the Middle East, and in the Caribbean . According to Voogt, many players often took their Mancala boards with them while traveling, and some even traded their boards, which could explain some of the wide-spread nature of the game. Another way versions of this game have spread across the globe is from the slave trade, which helped bring the Warri variation over into the Caribbean, the Cape Verde islands, and Brazil Caribbean , in turn, has continued to spread the game to its visitors, as the board is often sold to tourists and the board itself can be folded and carried along for easy storage.
As stated before, there are a huge number of variations of Mancala style games, which means that the boards and rules have a variety of tweaks between them. Perhaps one of the most interesting variations is the Owela version, native to Namibia , a country in South Africa
The commercial American, Kalah, was originally made in the 1950’s, and is most similar to the Caribbean version of Warri. The goal of the game is to deposit game pieces into your bank. The game can start with three, four, five, or six playing pieces in each hole, however three or four is usually the starting amount. Players take turns taking all of the playing pieces in a cubby on their side and place them one by one around the board in a counter-clockwise motion, starting from the cubby to the right of the recently emptied one. If the last piece falls in the players own bank, or kalah, the player receives another turn; meanwhile, if the last piece falls into a previously empty cubby hole, the player may take all the pieces from the cubby directly across from it. Play ends when all the small pits on one side of the board are empty, and the one with the most pieces in their kalah wins.
The whole series of Mancala style games have a fascinating history and cultural importance in many sectors of the globe. There are many, many types of these games across the world, whether it is in a casual drop-in/drop-out setting, a friendly challenge, or in a more organized group or club. These games can also have a deceptive amount of strategy, due to the easy to grasp and learn nature of some of these games. Whatever spin is put on it or what it is being called, counting games are an intriguing type of game well worth pursing if the chance to experience it ever approaches.
Sources Used:
“Mancala: Games That Count”. de Voogt, Alex. Expedition. Vol. 43, Issue 1. p38. 2001.
“Count and Capture Games (mancala)”. Elliot Averdon Virtual Museum of Games
http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/countcap/pages/index.htm
“Kalah (Mancala)”. Elliot Averdon Virtual Museum of Games University of Waterloo
Aug 30 2010.
http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/countcap/pages/kalah.html
Aug 30 2010.
http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/countcap/pages/kalah.html
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