The popularity of video games might seem like a modern phenomenon. However, humans have enjoyed gaming since our very first civilizations took form—and archeologists have the proof. Around the world, these social scientists have uncovered proof of highly intriguing games.
These include board games, dice games, and even card games that stretch back millennia. While it might seem like we’ve come a long way from these early pastimes, the truth is that even modern titles closely resemble the games ancient humans preferred. Let’s dive in and start exploring some of the world’s oldest games and what they teach us about various cultures.
The Most Famous Game: Ganjifa to Modern Poker
First, let’s start off with one of the most well-known card games in the world: poker. This game remains a global staple, with players training online around the world with the hopes of qualifying for a major in-person event, like a WSOP or EPT tournament. In fact, the game can be learned from just about any location in the world thanks to handy guides, FAQ pages, podcasts, courses, and more.
But this game has an incredibly complex history. While there’s still plenty of research to be done, some believe that this game stretches back to the ancient Indian card game of Ganjifa. Ganjifa is a card game that grew in popularity during the 1500s. From there, the game went to Persia and evolved into As-Nas, a card game that closely resembles modern poker—bluffing included.
From there, the game might have immigrated west on the Silk Road, then developed into Germany’s pochen and France’s poque—both of which may have kept moving west and evolved. Eventually, they might have contributed to the rise of poker, which was first recorded in New Orleans in the early 1800s.
The Global Favorite: Mancala
Mancala is likely the oldest continually played game in the world. Though evidence varies, and the rules of mancala tend to change according to different regions, the game’s first genesis came around 3000 BC. And it’s not just one region where mancala rows have been discovered.
This game could have been played in Africa, the Middle East, and as far east as Southern Asia. Similar to games like Go (which developed in China around 1000 BC), the game requires players to strategically surround and ‘capture’ other seeds. However, unlike in Go, the goal is to move quickly and decisively.
The Oldest Known Games: Ancient Mesopotamia vs. Egypt
The oldest game in the world is mancala, which is an umbrella term for popular variations like Oware. However, around the same time that Mancala holes and rows started popping up, official games like Ancient Mesopotamia’s Royal Game of Ur and Ancient Egypt’s Senet were being established.
But these games served very different purposes when they popped up around 3100 BC (Senet) and around 2500 BC (Royal Game of Ur). Senet conceptualized the Egyptian netherworld, which meant that players were focused on spiritual topics and growth while playing.
The Royal Game of Ur, considered the earliest ancestor to modern backgammon, requires players to race to the opposite end of the board. This game was so popular that it has been found in neighboring areas like Cyprus, Crete, and even Egypt. Rather than focus on spiritual topics, the Royal Game of Ur was likely played for fun.
The Least-Known Game: Patolli
So far, we’ve touched on some of the most ubiquitous gaming titles in the world—but what about the Americas? Patolli was a widely played game throughout Mesoamerica. Archaeologists aren’t positive about the game’s rulebook, but they do know that the game had quite a few high stakes involved and was widely adored.
One Dominican friar who recorded his experience with the game in the 1500s wrote that commoners and royals alike would play. In fact, the famous ruler Emperor Montezuma allegedly loved to play Patolli. Unfortunately, the arrival of the Spanish meant that the game was banned, and its equipment and even rules were lost to time.
Mancala (Arabic: منقلة manqalah) is a family of two-player turn-based strategy board games played with small stones, beans, or seeds and rows of holes or pits in the earth, a board or other playing surface. The objective is usually to capture all or some set of the opponent's pieces.
, which is an umbrella term for popular variations like Oware. However, around the same time that Mancala holes and rows started popping up, official games like Ancient Mesopotamia's Royal Game of Ur
Royal Game of Ur
The Royal Game of Ur is a two-player strategy race board game of the tables family that was first played in ancient Mesopotamia during the early third millennium BC.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Royal_Game_of_Ur
Senet or senat (Ancient Egyptian: 𓊃𓈖𓏏𓏠, romanized: znt, lit. 'passing'; cf. Coptic ⲥⲓⲛⲉ /sinə/, 'passing, afternoon') is a board game from ancient Egypt that consists of ten or more pawns on a 30-square playing board. The earliest representation of senet is dated to c.
Some historians believe that mancala is the oldest game in the world based on the archaeological evidence found in Jordan that dates around 6000 BC. The game might have been played by ancient Nabataeans and could have been an ancient version of the modern mancala game.
Like chess, the ancient version of Mancala has spawned into many variants across time and geography. Mancala-type games have been known by hundreds of different names throughout Africa, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and even the New World. Is it still played today? Yes.
The Mesoamerican ballgame (Nahuatl languages: ōllamalīztli, Nahuatl pronunciation: [oːlːamaˈlistɬi], Mayan languages: pitz) was a sport with ritual associations played since at least 1650 BC by the pre-Columbian people of Ancient Mesoamerica.
The Royal Game of Ur is the oldest playable boardgame in the world, originating around 4,600 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia. The game's rules were written on a cuneiform tablet by a Babylonian astronomer in 177 BC.
Jesuit missionaries from France saw hundreds of native men playing a ball game with sticks that they thought resembled a bishop's crosier, so they called the game “lacrosse.” That makes lacrosse the oldest sport in America, and in the 21st century is has become the fastest growing.
The game was originally created in 1860 by Milton Bradley as The Checkered Game of Life, and was the first game created by Bradley, a successful lithographer. The game sold 45,000 copies by the end of its first year. Like many 19th-century games, such as The Mansion of Happiness by S. B.
Tetris. The best-selling video game of all time goes to the timeless classic known as Tetris. IGN says 520 million copies of Tetris have been sold, citing data from The Tetris Company.
Wrestling, mankind's oldest and most basic form of recreational combat, traces its origins back to the dawn of civilization. Carvings and drawings estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000 years old, found in caves in southern Europe, illustrate wrestlers in hold and leverage positions.
What's the Overall Longest Game? According to HLTB, the crown for longest overall video game belongs to Melvor Idle, a Runescape-inspired idle/incremental game with an estimated playtime of 3,126 hours.
In the Persian Gulf, we discovered the oldest game in the world: “The royal game of Ur”. The Assyrians invented this game more than 5000 years ago. It was a board game, with a board representing a course and pieces that players were moving. This game is preserved in a museum in London.
The ancient Olympic Games began in the year 776 BC, when Koroibos, a cook from the nearby city of Elis, won the stadion race, a foot race 600 feet long. The stadion track at Olympia is shown here.
In some parts of Mexico, indigenous people still play a more modern version of the game, called ulama. This means that people have played the Mesoamerican ballgame for over 3,400 years – longer than any other sport in history. The Mesoamerican ballgame was also the first sport in history ever to use a rubber ball.
Spacewar! is credited as the first widely available and influential computer game. As early as 1950, computer scientists were using electronic machines to construct relatively simple game systems, such as Bertie the Brain in 1950 to play tic tac toe, or Nimrod in 1951 for playing Nim.
The earliest known publicly demonstrated electronic game was created in 1950. Bertie the Brain was an arcade game of tic-tac-toe, built by Josef Kates for the 1950 Canadian National Exhibition.
When was the first video game made? October 18, 1958. William Higinbotham's "Tennis for Two" was introduced at Brookhaven National Laboratory's annual visitors days.
But Go dates farther back than checkers and even chess, first invented in China over 3,000 years ago, where it remains widely popular. It's believed to be one of the oldest board games in the world.
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Introduction: My name is Maia Crooks Jr, I am a homely, joyous, shiny, successful, hilarious, thoughtful, joyous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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