It is possible to list the heritage of Hellas for a long time, but if we talk about cultural influence, the indisputable fact is that the myths and traditions of the ancient Greeks are widely reflected, both in classical works of art and in popular culture: films, books and games.
Myths about the gods, titans and heroes of ancient Hellas are a litmus test for developers who do not even need to brainstorm to come up with nightmarish creatures or charismatic characters.
A selection of the best games about Ancient Greece on PC and consoles
compiled in accordance with the personal gaming preferences of the author of the publication
Zeus: Master of Olympus + Poseidon (Acropolis)
An unforgettable classic of city-building simulators, released already in 2000, is still warmly remembered by fans of the genre and is part of the City Building Series. The player is invited to become the ruler of the ancient policy and, simultaneously solving the pressing problems of the townspeople, lead it to prosperity.
A year later, the addition of Poseidon: Master of Atlantis or, in other words, Zeus Official Expansion: Poseidon, was released, in which the mythical Atlantis became the main "violin". The basics of the gameplay remained intact, but several types of buildings were added and a couple of gods (Hera + Atlas) with heroes (Atalanta and Bellerophon) were added.
Apotheon
According to the plot of the game, the Olympic gods were angry with the human race and sent various disasters, such as: darkness, crop failure and death of animals. Nikandreos, with the help of the goddess Hera, challenges the gods.
The Alientrap studio turned out with a unique graphic design, stylized as an ancient Greek painting.
Age of Mythology + Age of Mythology: The Titans
Unlike other games in the Age of Empires series, the plot of this part is based on the myths of Hellas, ancient Egypt and Scandinavia. In multiplayer and skirmish, you can choose any of the three races, in the story campaign, they will also give command to everyone, but the plot is based on Greek mythology.
In the Age of Mythology: The Titans add-on, the developers added a new race - the Atlanteans, as well as new technologies and units for other factions.
Total War: ROME II—Wrath of Sparta
A large-scale addition for one of them focuses on one of the most important periods in the history of Ancient Greece - the so-called Peloponnesian War, which involved the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta and the Delian League led by Athens.
Not everyone was enthusiastic about the Fury of Sparta, but, in my opinion, the main claims come from ignorance of the historical realities of that era. At the same time, there are a lot of rave reviews from players who are fond of that period of history.
Titan Quest + Immortal Throne + Ragnarök
Chaos reigned on the earth, deprived of the patronage of the gods - three brothers-titans decided to usurp power and sent their various disasters and monsters to the people. But, as always in a moment of despair, a hero appears who is able to challenge the ancient evil.
At one time, Titan Quest became a "breath of fresh air" for fans of the genre, after an avalanche of incomprehensible . Modern players can revisit the hack and slash classics with the Titan Quest Anniversary Edition remastered for modern platforms.
God of War (game series)
The characters of the heroes, gods and antagonists of the series are certainly (IMHO!), based on ancient mythology. Of course, it was not without gag (for which we love works of art), but, in addition to the gameplay itself, the games of the series are a visual guide to the myths of Ancient Greece.
Each can safely be awarded the title of the best game about Ancient Greece. Even having moved to the North, Kratos remained "in the know", not to mention the games that preceded the "restart" of the franchise, the best of which, in my opinion, I consider God of War III.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
In infancy, Alexios and Kassandra were thrown off a cliff by order of a Spartan oracle and left to die by their own father. By the will of fate, the brother and sister survived and the fate of the peoples now depends on their decisions. For the first time, players are given the opportunity to choose the main character, which, however, does not affect the development of the plot.
And there is also an incredibly huge and diverse open game world, one of the largest not only in the series, but also in the industry. Which in fact gives players an incredible opportunity to personally go on an excursion to Hellas, meet real historical characters on their way and see architectural monuments, so to speak, in their original state.
Games that show the story in the most authentic way, but that focus primarily on fun gameplay and combat.
Video games constantly feature mystical artifacts from ancient civilizations, Nazis riding dinosaurs, and even Gandhi starting a nuclear war. Historical accuracy has never been a priority, and those games that try to live up to the story still make a number of pretty serious assumptions to make the story and the gameplay itself as diverse as possible. And they can be divided into two groups: games that use certain historical events (or cultural stereotypes) to start the plot, and games whose developers really study historical facts in order to recreate them as accurately as possible in the virtual world.
A variable like "historicity" is very difficult to evaluate in games - and yes, it's a real word. Usually games that are okay with recreating the story are pretty boring, so this list includes games where the emphasis is on interesting gameplay. I tried to include in this selection games that most accurately and reliably reflect those periods of history that are often distorted or shown incorrectly in pseudo-historical games.
So here are the most historically accurate PC games, listed chronologically (based on their setting).
Attila took the slightly outdated Total War formula and diluted it with a living world, where we saw all the cultural, political and economic difficulties that Rome faced in its decline. Instead of showing us a stereotypical horde of evil barbarians who appeared out of nowhere, the game shows us the reason for the appearance of these invaders - climate change led to the fact that in the northern regions it became increasingly difficult to feed the population, and in parallel with this, the Huns migrated to the territory of Eastern Europe .
In addition, it was the first, which showed that not every society has permanent cities, and demonstrated their complex relationships, which were built as opposed to open war.
The plot of any of the parts of Assassin's Creed is poorly correlated with real ones historical events(nevertheless, it touches them from time to time - take at least the siege of Masyaf from the first part of the series). However, it is these games that allow us to walk around Renaissance Florence or medieval Jerusalem. Crowds of local residents, architectural features, a lot of small details - all this is recreated as close as possible to the era shown.
Personally, I like Constantinople from Revelations, which was captured by the Ottoman Empire - perhaps one of the most interesting cities in history is shown in one of the most interesting periods.
With expansions featuring satanic cults and sudden Aztec invasions, CK2 is increasingly out of touch with real history. But initially the game did a pretty good job of recreating politics. Western Europe between the 11th and 15th centuries AD. In our time, we are used to the concept of the state, but if we lived, say, in any of the French regions in 1150, then we would swear allegiance to a specific person, and not to a flag or constitution. And it is between such feudal lords that the main interactions and conflicts unfold in CK2.
A powerful kingdom can fall apart under a weak ruler, just as an initially weak state can become great under a wise king. The hierarchical system of feudalism shown in the game is disputed by many historians, but thanks to great additions like the Conclave, the game manages to show the connection between nobility and power, which was of great importance at that time.
I was very impressed that the developers of Expeditions: Viking were clearly inspired not by stereotypes, but by real historical facts. For me personally, the Viking Age represents the greatest interest, which is why I become especially picky when evaluating games on this topic. In the same game, we see everything that a real Viking ruler would do.
Here we have to settle the blood feud of several clans. At the same time, it is necessary to show oneself as a strong and fair ruler, because people will not follow just one big name. The game even reflects the effect of the infamous attacks on Scandinavia, after which the region managed to recover, build infrastructure and eventually create three influential European kingdoms.
Banished is a fairly simple game. Some would even say that it is too simple, but the mechanics that come to the fore here are directly related to all the things that, for example, British settlers in the Virginia colony in the 17th century would encounter. Your main goal is to make sure that people live in warmth, while remaining full and healthy. You need to use the available resources and trade to support the growing population. A harsh winter or the spread of a disease can wipe out your entire colony - and that's exactly what happens sometimes, as it does with most real European settlements in the New World.
In the game Pirates! there are enough pirate stereotypes, but its creators quite plausibly reflect all the realities that ship captains faced in the heyday of piracy. Your team is a bunch of criminals gathered from all over the Caribbean, and they will work for you exactly until they find a more profitable occupation. Separately, it is worth mentioning the political games between Spain, England, France and Holland, since you will always work for at least one of these parties. And, of course, there are excellent naval battles in the game, taking into account the direction of the wind, as well as the size of the ships and their guns, which allows you to understand what it was like for real naval officers of those times.
Vicktoria 2 is perhaps the most difficult and serious game on the list with a fairly high barrier to entry, but it deserves attention if only because it highlights aspects of the story that are usually ignored in other games. The level of education of the population is important here. The more educated it is, the more productive it becomes ... and the faster it can lead to the emergence of phenomena such as communism, demands for the abolition of slavery, the introduction of voting and labor rights.
That is, to standard modern conditions. It also focuses on industrialization, war speculation, and the pros and cons of free markets versus a single economic system. If you are willing to spend a few days learning, then the game is definitely worth your time.
Old but good game. Various variations of the project have been published since 1971 (also a kind of historical project), and all of them were noted for their educational value. This is a well-deserved achievement. If modern man tried to imagine all the difficulties that American pioneers faced when traveling from the town of Independence to the Willamette Valley in the middle of the 19th century, it would not even have occurred to him to count the number of spare wagon trailers that needed to be taken on the road.
But in The Oregon Trail, even such trifles are taken into account. It is highly likely that after this game you will begin to seriously fear dysentery, and this is in our age of advanced medicine - the conditions of that time are so well conveyed.
I understand that this was supposed to be some kind of deep and thoughtful war game that takes into account the weight and height of every real soldier who took part in the battles, but Ultimate General strikes the perfect balance between attention to history and interesting gameplay. The recently released campaign mode even tells us how the generals of the time had to enlist the support of the government in order to receive the necessary support and have a say in important decisions.
This should impress all history buffs: every map from Steel Division is modeled after real aerial photographs taken during the Normandy invasion, right down to the location of villages and even hedgerows. It also presents realistic shot distances and damage inflicted by military equipment and weapons. The same applies to the speed and maneuverability of vehicles shown in the game. Heavier vehicles appear in battle later, and this is due to the fact that it takes more time to get to the desired point.
However, the most notable thing about the game is that it emphasizes the importance of reconnaissance of the battlefield and develops the idea that battles are won not by those who have more military power, but by those who have the right intelligence.
Series "IL-2 Sturmovik" - The most reliable military flight simulator
I think many fans of flight simulators remember the first time they tried to roll over in the IL-2 and, seeing how the screen darkened, decided that something was wrong with the monitor. The fact is that the game shows not only the most authentic controls, but also the most realistic gravitational effects that pilots experience at high speeds. You can faint both from a lack of blood in the head, and from its overabundance. The pluses of the game include the fact that the IL-2 attack aircraft itself was recreated in great detail, and the battles unfold according to the most plausible scenarios.
Battlefield 1, move over. Verdun meticulously recreates the military operations that took place on the Western Front, and at the same time remains an excellent multiplayer shooter. All inaccuracies of the game are forgivable, since they are more related to the scale of events, and not to their details. For it would be impossible to wait the right amount players on the same server in order to believably recreate the biggest battles of the First World War - and this expectation would definitely not please everyone who decided to devote a couple of hours to the game before going to bed. But the game pleases with such details as the uniform of the soldiers, in which everything - from the material to the buttons - was copied from historical photographs.
The careful modeling of orbital mechanics, motion and aerodynamics used in the Kerbal Space Program makes it a true textbook on space programs. Developers from the Squad studio understand this themselves, and therefore are working on the Making History add-on. But if you don't want to wait, there are a number of fan-made extensions at your service. Several dozen mods, the most striking of which is the Historical Missions Pack, will allow you to participate in the launch of the first German V2 rockets, as well as in the development of the modern SpaceX program.
This has almost nothing to do with real history, only my own guesses based on observation of modern society. I've always been impressed with how thoughtfully the authors of Deus Ex show us the possible future of humanity. Interfaces for the interaction of the brain with computers, high-tech prostheses and artificial intelligence are becoming the cornerstone, while interplanetary flights and lightsabers still remain only in fantasies. If I were a gambler, I would bet a large amount on the fact that in the future we are waiting for the world of Adam Jensen, and not Captain Picard.
The man loves to play. Excitement, excitement, intensity of passions, vexation of spirit, thirst for victory, desire to defeat an opponent - all these are integral features of human psychology and part of our life. The game for us is not only an opportunity to cheer up, tickle your nerves and replenish your pocket, but also in some way a model of the world around us, as well as an important way of communication.
When today it comes to board games, the average person first of all remembers dominoes and cards (less often - chess and checkers). It seems that these games fell from the sky in ancient times, and before them, mankind did not play anything. Of course it isn't. The evolution of board games has been long and difficult, people have gone through trial and error, creating various gaming systems. Some of them existed for thousands of years and then were lost in the darkness of centuries. Archaeologists find a lot of evidence, descriptions, even details of board games of ancient times. Their history is full of secrets, mysteries, strange coincidences and amazing discoveries.
The first "board game" appeared when there were no tables as such: it was a lot hidden in a fist, or a flat stone with a marked side. Most of the legends and myths attribute the invention of gambling to gods and heroes, but, probably, everything happened more prosaically: shamans scattered the bones of sacrificial animals, twigs and pebbles, by which they read the present and predicted the future. Who first thought of picking up pebbles and pouring them into the holes, history is silent, but it happened somewhere in East Africa, in the cradle of civilization.
MANCALA
The oldest board game is mancala. Strictly speaking, there is no game with that name: mancala (a corruption of the Arabic naqala, moving) is a large family of pebble-swapping games. Its history, according to the strictest assumptions, has five thousand years, and many scientists give it all seven. Stones with rows of holes cut out were found in the ancient city of Aleppo in Syria, in the temples of Memphis, Thebes and Luxor in Egypt, and along caravan routes in the Kalahari desert (hence the other name for the game - kalah). Even in the Cheops pyramid they found such a “board” with a playing field. These games have spread widely and have survived to this day. Since ancient times, mancala has been popular with nomadic peoples: you don’t need to carry a board and figures with you - just dig a dozen holes in the ground, take a handful of coffee beans, and you can play. Today, almost all the peoples of Africa and Asia have similar games. In West Africa, these are oua and ovari, among the Kazakhs and Kirghiz - togyz kumalak, and among the Indians - pallantuji and olinda keliya. The rarest game of this family is the three-row gabata from Ethiopia and Somalia, and the most difficult are the four-row bao and omweso from central Africa. In Germany, the children's version of the game is sold under the name Apfelklau ("Steal the apple"), in the USSR it was called kalah. There are many names, the number of rows, holes and stones varies, but the basic principles are similar: you need to take a hole that gives you the right to take stones from your opponent, and as a result, accumulate more stones.
Gambling players of antiquity could arrange entertainment for themselves on the very first stone they met ...
In addition to the purely entertaining moment, such games contain the "genetic" memory of mankind about the transition from hunting and gathering to farming. Moving in a circle symbolizes the cyclical nature of the year and the change of seasons, laying out pebbles - simultaneously sowing grain and harvesting, and empty holes - hunger and crop failure. Ancient fortune-telling rituals and the very first counting boards “hide” here.
... and modern lovers are completely content with sand
Mancala fascinates and gives the inexperienced observer the impression of pure shamanism. It is interesting for both beginners and masters. The rules can be learned in five minutes, but the game itself is far from being as simple as it might seem: it has a special, subtle tactic based on accurate counting. The opponent should not "starve", and if he loses all the seeds, you need to give him your own in order to continue the game. A good mancalist cannot be greedy and selfish at all, because in this game the rules “Who wants to receive must learn to give” and “Whoever sows better, will gather more” apply. Everything is decided by the nuances, each move completely changes the situation on the board, the number of combinations is huge, and analyzing them is an exciting thing. In particular, for this reason, today teachers and educators recommend mancala to develop children's attention, counting skills and fine motor skills. Many firms produce this game (there are even options for four players), but everyone is overshadowed by the famous carvers of the Republic of Ghana, who make amazingly beautiful play sets.
This game is surrounded by many myths. The Maasai believe that the mancala was invented by Sindillo, the first man. In Ghana, the game of owari was part of combat training - before the campaign, the soldiers played it, testing their reaction. And if the king died, the council organized a tournament, and the winner became the successor. The same game is mentioned in the Malian epic "Sundyata" of the Mandingo people. And modern Malian students play owari after school.
Bao (top), kalah (middle) and owari (bottom) are games of the same family, where the gameplay consists of “shifting pebbles”
Burkina Faso hosts regular tournaments between cities. Tanzania's professional players study bao tactics and strategy as seriously as chess players, and no European has yet beaten even the worst of them. The Yoruba tribe has two varieties of this game: one (abapa or ayoayo) is played by men, the other (nam-nam or just ayo) is played by women and children.
The name owari is associated with the name of Kataki Opoku Ware I, the king of Ashanti (an ancient state on the territory of modern Ghana), who used to settle family quarrels with the help of the game: after the game, the spouses began to understand each other much better, and the word “warri” in Ghana still now called a married man. However, in neighboring Togo there is a proverb warning for ardent gamers: “Owari - main reason divorces." And the king of Ghana, Shunba Balongobo, loved this game so much that he bequeathed to sculpt himself in the form of a statue with an owari board on his knees and another one on his head as symbols of power and intelligence.
The game was also used in funeral rituals: people entertained the spirit of the deceased until the body was buried. There were usually two boards in the village square - a straight one and a curved one, and the villagers chose the one that the deceased did not like so that his spirit would not want to join them. For the same reason, it was considered dangerous to continue the game after sunset, and the boards were put outside the threshold at night so that the spirits could also play.
Surprisingly, in this ancient game there is no element of luck, everything depends on attention and intelligence. As far as games are concerned, humanity will not soon return to this approach.
GAME FROM THE CITY OF UR
With the emergence of the first large cities that became centers ancient civilization, the first "real" board games with the movement of chips around the board appear. Several claim to be the oldest; they all belong to the racing family and are played with dice.
The first - "Chess of Babylon", an ancient Sumerian game, was discovered in 1927 by the British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley during excavations ancient city-states of Ur in Mesopotamia, on the territory of modern Iraq. There are 20 squares on the game board. They are grouped into two blocks - large and small - connected by a bridge. Seven chips and bones in the form of tetrahedrons are attached to the board. This royal set is exceptionally beautiful, richly inlaid with plates of mother-of-pearl, red limestone and lapis lazuli, and the complex marking of the fields clearly carries not only an ornamental, but also a semantic load. On all the boards from the tombs there are eight squares marked with rosettes - such eight-petal flowers were depicted at the entrance to the Ishtar Gate. The pattern of other squares on different boards varied or was absent. History has not preserved the name and rules of this game, so now it is called the “Royal Game from the City of Ur” or simply ur. There are supposed reconstructions of the rules based on records from later clay tablets, but it is not certain that they refer to this particular board.
It was the era of the first great kingdoms and conquests, which could not but affect the game. The recesses symbolized the river, and the game - a military campaign across this river and returning home with booty. Chips were introduced onto the board, moved across the bridge to a small block, described a loop and returned, and along the way they chopped opponent's chips. The Ur game was also a divinatory practice (whether the campaign was successful or not) and part of the warrior initiation ritual - after all, backgammon-type games develop thinking and reaction, teach you to make quick decisions in a rapidly changing environment and act almost intuitively.
SENET
Another contender for the championship is the Egyptian game of senet.
In ancient Egypt, senet was the most popular and important game. Senet has been known as a secular entertainment since the 5th dynasty (about 3500 BC), and in more later times he became associated with a journey to the other world (the word "senet" means "passing"). Senet is mentioned in the 17th chapter of the Book of the Dead and other religious texts of the New Kingdom. The Egyptians believed that after death the soul goes on a journey through the world of the dead, during which the earthly affairs of a person are evaluated. If they are recognized as pure, the soul will merge with the sun god Ra, and the deceased will become immortal. This story was often portrayed by artists. On a fresco from the tomb of Nefertari, the queen plays with the invisible forces of the other world. The various stages of the game reflect the journey of the soul, and victory symbolizes its unity with God.
To understand the essence of such an act, one must see the world through the eyes of the ancient Egyptians. For them, death was not the end of life - it was part of life, the same period as childhood, adolescence, maturity. It is difficult for people of the 21st century to realize that for the Egyptian, the game was not just played under the auspices of the gods, no, the ancient man played directly with the gods. He knew that he would face a magical test in the afterlife, but it was not at all necessary to wait for death: by throwing sticks and moving chips, a person already ensured the safe passage of the labyrinths and traps of the afterlife, and because of the element of chance inherent in the game, it was believed that the lucky the player is under the protection of the gods.
The first finds of senet play sets are among the sensational discoveries of the early 20th century. Then, among other things, archaeologists discovered mysterious, cosmetic-like palettes and boxes made of stone, wood and ceramics. In the era of the New Kingdom, these sets took the canonical form of an elongated oblong box, and chips from turrets and cakes became cones and coils. The pharaohs Amenhotep III and Ramesses III were passionate lovers of the senet; several sets of amazingly preserved pieces were also found in the tomb of the young Tutankhamun. One of them, black and gold, on a stand with legs in the form of lion's paws, is an unsurpassed example of late Egyptian art. Senet was widespread in Egypt for three thousand years from the time of the Old Kingdom (2600 BC) to the end of the Roman period (350 AD) and sunk into oblivion with the decline of the entire ancient Egyptian civilization. Some of its elements were inherited by the Arabic game of tab, which is played by the Bedouins in Sudan.
The Egyptians did not write down the rules of the games, except that in the papyrus of Ramses III there is a spell for passing the senet (that's when the first cheat codes appeared!). Probably, this knowledge was considered something elementary. The manner of the Egyptian drawing is such that the images, for all their accuracy, do not allow drawing conclusions about the moves of the pieces, but their number and initial arrangement are clearly visible. There are several reconstructions of the proposed variants of the rules.
Senet is played on a 3x10 field. Each player has 5 chips (7 in ancient sets); they are placed on the first 10 cells in the top row, alternating coils and cones. In Egyptian, the chips were called Ibau - "dancers". It's unusual. Most tactical board games operate with military concepts, and only among the Egyptians was the dance based on the passage: the cut chip was not removed from the board, but changed places with the one that chopped. Four flat sticks with a mark on one side served as dice - they were tossed and counted how many fell clean side up. The sticks were called "fingers" and even drew lines on them that looked like skin folds. The maximum number of points dropped under this system was five. Senet rules are reduced to the passage of chips along the route in the form of a reverse "s" and removing them from the board. Five fields at the end of the last row are marked with hieroglyphs, these are “houses”, each of them has special laws.
There is a legend about the origin of the senet. When the sun god Ra learned that the sky goddess Nut cohabited at night with the earth god Geb, he became angry and cursed: from now on, Nut could not give birth to children on any of the 360 days of the year. Nut asked the god of wisdom, Thoth, for help. It was impossible to cancel the curse of Ra, and He decided to get new days. He dropped in on a visit to Luna and invited her to play senet. 1/72 of the "light" of each of the 360 days of the lunar year was at stake, and Thoth won five days. These five new days Thoth placed at the end of the year. The power of Ra did not extend to them, and Nut could now give birth to one child on each of the five New Year's Eve days. On the first day, she gave birth to Osiris, on the second, Horus of Bekhdet, on the third, Seth, on the fourth, Isis, and on the fifth, Nebetkhet. This is how the younger gods of the Great Nine appeared, in the solar year there were 365 days, and in the lunar year - only 355, people received new game and five extra days on the calendar.
Today, the senet is popular as an educational game for children, an office accessory and an original gift, and after the TV series Lost, the general public learned about it (in the 6th season it serves as a plot-forming element, dictating the rules of behavior for the heroes).
Senet is beautiful. It is not as dynamic as backgammon, but more original. The main techniques in this game are cutting and locking, as well as the specific properties of "houses". As a result, slow at the beginning, by the middle of the game, the senet turns into a reckless "meat grinder", a frenzied dance with the exchange of partners, and in the final - into a race to the bottom. Much depends on luck: when one of its elements (bones) is multiplied by another (“houses”), then even a completely hopeless position can turn into an unexpected victory.
For a long time it was thought that senet originated from the Sumerian game of ur, but today many tend to think that these games have different roots. The Ur game is shorter, the starting tracks are separated, the pieces enter the board gradually and describe a loop, and the rosettes are at an equal distance from each other. The board for the senet is one long path, curved for convenience, the pieces stand on the board before the game begins, and the "houses" are grouped on the "finish line". Perhaps the ancestor of senet is the game mehen: the field for it also represents one track - the image of a snake coiled into a spiral (the hieroglyph "mhn", in fact, means "coil", "spiral").
MECHEN
This third game, also “serpentine”, like senet, is a very old game - it was played only in the era of the Egyptian Old Kingdom. Its roots are lost in the darkness of pre-dynastic times. The first round limestone boards with spiral markings were found in the tombs of the III dynasty (2868-2613 BC), and one of the best sets was found in the tomb of Pharaoh Khesu; it included six more lion chips and marble balls. On most boards the snake coils counterclockwise, on some it coils clockwise, but the head is always in the center. There are fields with 40 cells, others reach 70, 80 and more cells - 127 and even 400. In essence, it does not matter for the gameplay how many cells are on the snake's body - their number was determined by some other, non-game considerations. Scientists are inclined to believe that mehen symbolized various aspects in the life of the Egyptians - the solar and lunar calendars, a system for calculating auspicious days etc. In general, many ancient games were a cross between divination, astrological forecasting, religious ritual and the actual game in its modern sense.
The mechen rules are lost. The most successful and consistent is the reconstruction of the historian and famous researcher of games Timothy Kendall, but it is also quite confusing. It is safe to say that mehen is the only known multiplayer ancient Egyptian board game: up to six players could play it at the same time. The board was accompanied by a set of six lion figures and a set of traveler chips. The number of moves was determined by three sticks, and the entry and exit of the chip from the board was regulated by a complex system of accumulation of dropped units. The chips moved from the tail of the snake to the head and back. The player who reached the finish line received a lion chip - she could eat "travelers". The winner was the player whose lion chip ate the most ordinary chips.
The Egyptians recognized the role of the mehen no less sacred than that of the senet. Mekhen is a goddess protector in the form of a snake, guarding the boat of Ra during her voyage through the night. In the images of the solar boat, Mekhen wraps around the throne of Ra, protecting it from another deity - the evil serpent Apep. Apop is the embodiment of chaos, he seeks to break the cosmic order, while Mekhen keeps and protects him. Mekhen is the female hypostasis of the god Set (the Egyptians often combined their gods and goddesses), and Set is a controversial character: he is the killer of Osiris, but at the same time the protector of Ra (Aten). Often he was depicted as a man with a snake's head, standing on the bow of the boat of Ra with a spear, or as a snake with two heads, ready to repel a threat from any direction.
The game symbolized the approach of the soul in the underworld to the god Ra, approved by his bodyguard. She is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts and the Sarcophagus Texts, in chapter 172 of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and was definitely part of the initiation rites. It is possible that mehen was also a fortune-telling practice, and the balls were not so much moved as rolled, because there are no fields on the early boards: the ancients believed that making notches on the divine back meant trying to “kill” the snake, which was regarded as an unkind act. The game completely disappeared in Egypt around 2300 BC, during the early period of the Middle Kingdom, but around the same time, mehen begins to be found in Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus and Crete, as well as in the deserts surrounding Egypt and Nubia. Surprisingly, in some way, mechen has survived to our times in the form of the Moorish game of sik and the Sudanese hyena.
THYAU (ASEB)
And the Sumerian game of ur, in a slightly modified form, nevertheless penetrated into Egypt! Around the time of the 17th dynasty (circa 1783-1552 BC), boards for senet with short margins of 20 squares on the back began to appear in Egypt. In the writings of authoritative game researchers Bell and Murray, this game is called thiau, but David Parlett (game expert, consultant for the Encyclopedia Britannica, creator of the game Hare and Turtle) believes that it was called asab, and this word is clearly not Egyptian. This was the Second Intermediate Period, the collapse of the Middle Kingdom, the era of slave revolts, schism and anarchy. The nomadic tribes of the Hyksos invaded from the Middle East, and they probably brought the game of ur with them: the characteristic images of their chariots are found on the game sets of those years. At the same time, the game has changed quite a lot and simplified. Tyau (among the ancient Egyptians it was just an emotional exclamation like “Hold!”, “Caught!”, “Bingo!” and the like) was popular during the New Kingdom, boards for it were found all over Egypt, in Sudan, on Crete, and recently (quite surprisingly) found in the Jewish enclave of the city of Cochin in India. It is also often called a senet, causing confusion (in the video game Tomb Rider there is a quest where Lara Croft needs to win "in a senet"; well, it's actually thiau).
Thiau is really similar to the Sumerian ur: they have 20 cells, separate starting paths, a narrow "bridge", a similar arrangement of marked squares, a multiple of four, and the boards are empty at the beginning of the game. There are five chips in the chiau, they enter the field from the side paths, the total distance for them is only the middle row of 12 cells. Chips cut each other, and cut down are introduced into the game again. If the piece stops on a marked square, the player gets an extra roll.
By this time, the Egyptians began to suspect that sticks were far from best generator random numbers. It is easy to calculate that most often with a 5xD2 system, a deuce falls out (6 out of 16 throws), followed by a one and a three (4 out of 16), and 4 and 0 (that is, 5) gives 1 roll out of 16. A new generation of dice has appeared: two "grandmothers" modeled on the ungulate cow joints. They already have 4 significant sides (although two of them are the same), which in total gives 4 combinations. They were soon replaced by a single square stick like a thick match with numbers on the long sides. It is worth noting that the three "pyramids" of the Sumerian game give the same result.
Both ur and thiau are fraught with a lot of mysteries. They are too beautiful, harmonious and conceptually complete - this is clearly the result of long trial and error. The Sumerians fought a lot, and, perhaps, the game came to the city of Ur already in finished form as a trophy. During the excavations of Shahri Sukhta ("Burned City") in Iraq, about fifty boards were found, and they vary quite a lot. And in 2001, in Iran, in the valley of the Khalil River near the city of Jiroft, they found the ruins of an ancient city-state of the end of the 3rd millennium BC, belonging to a forgotten people whose cultural and ethnic identity has not yet been established. There is a version that the culture of Jiroft could be the kingdom of Aratta mentioned in the Sumerian texts, which competed with Uruk. The inhabitants of these cities were skilled farmers and artisans, but archaeologists did not find any weapons, so it was a peaceful civilization.
Giroft game boards are about five thousand years old, but nevertheless they are versions of a much older game.
Products of Jiroft masters have a peculiar "intercultural" style. Among them are flat figurines made of terracotta and chlorite with characteristic markings. These playing boards in the form of eagles and scorpions are dated by scientists to 2600 BC. Some palettes have a straight “tail”, others have a bent one, on the most ancient boards there are not even 20, but only 16 fields and there is no marking. They played, most likely, with beads. Is this where the evolution of this game took place? Unfortunately, these excavations were uncontrolled for a long time, museums were flooded with fakes, and the mysteries of Jiroft are still waiting for their researchers.
Surely the ancient Egyptians more than once had the idea to combine the advantages of several games. The confirmation is the “Double thiau” on the “augmented” board. Only three boards of this type have been found, and all three are different. It looks very much like the first board is just a thiau with a turn loop; on the board of the second type, the players started the game from different ends and moved towards each other, and the third option is designed for four players. Surely these games were made on the orders of desperate gamers and turned out to be too cumbersome, and therefore did not receive distribution.
SHEN ("DOGS AND JACKALS")
The last game is not as ancient as senet and mekhen, had no sacred meaning, but it is definitely the most beautiful and certainly the most recognizable of all the games that appeared in ancient Egypt. Its name has been lost. Sir William Flinders Petrie, who discovered the first such board, classified it as "The 58 Hole Game". It is called "Dogs and Jackals" because of the characteristic shape of the chips, shen - according to the hieroglyph written near the finish line, as well as the "Shield" and "Palm" games, because a palm tree was drawn on a board resembling a shield. The game appeared during the IX Dynasty (2135-1986 BC) and by the XII Dynasty it became so popular that the Egyptians began to take it with them to the “afterlife”. Many chips and fragments of boards were found during excavations in Egypt, Syria, the city of Ur, in the ruins of the ancient city of Gezer in modern Israel, in Susa in Iran and in adjacent territories.
There are two tracks on the board and many fields. A board of 58 cells would have turned out to be huge, and the ancient players found an ingenious solution in their simplicity: to make holes instead of cells and play with thin sticks. The shape of the field was different. Sumerian boards resemble the sole of a shoe, Coptic boards resemble a ledged “brick”, Egyptian boards resemble a shield, and Hebrew boards resemble a violin. Perhaps, the Egyptians did not decorate any game with such love as shen. The Theban set from the tomb of Princess Renhisenkheb (Middle Kingdom, 1810-1700 BC) is simply mesmerizing. In terms of design complexity, graceful lines and subtlety of finish, it is similar to musical instrument. Ancient masters cut and bent wood and bone for a long time, achieving such elegant forms. Chips are also very fine workmanship: these characteristic heads of lop-eared Egyptian hounds and the "heraldic" sharp muzzles of jackals with huge upright ears have become a model for copying today. It was this find that served as a model for the props of the 1956 Oscar-winning film The 10 Commandments, where Pharaoh Sethi and Princess Nefertari play such a game.
One can only guess by what rules the ancient Egyptians played it, but there are marks, lines and even inscriptions on the field that guide the movement of chips. The races went around the "oasis" with a palm tree, and the first player whose chip reached the finish line (they drew a snake's eye or the hieroglyph "shen" - "vicious circle" or "eternity") captured the source of water. The curvature of the penalty and bonus tracks was designed to depict snakes and lizards.
The dog and the jackal meant a lot in the culture and religion of ancient Egypt, personifying the border between two worlds. A dog is a friend, watchman, animal of the day, its barking is a signal system for communicating with people. The jackal is its complete opposite: a trickster, a thief, lives in the desert, hunts at night, and his high and loud howl resembles the cry of a child. The dog is simple-minded, the jackal is a cunning and pretender. The dog is promiscuous, jackals form a pair for life. However, they interbreed beautifully. Anubis, the Egyptian patron god of the dead, was depicted as a man with the head of a jackal, and his wife, Input, the goddess of the Duat (place of residence of the dead), was depicted as a woman with a dog's head. Their daughter, Kebhet, was the goddess of clear cool water, she was depicted as a golden snake or a woman with a snake's head (hence the snakes on the playing field).
Anubis was the son of Osiris and his sister Nebethet; the story of his birth, loss, being in a basket in the reeds and adoption by the goddess Isis deserves a separate story (later it will serve as an occasion for the adoption of another, very famous Egyptian baby). Anubis has always been considered a noble god, because death in Egypt was also considered an exalted phenomenon. Before the appearance of the cult of Osiris, he was the main deity of the West, the guide of souls through the Kingdom of the Dead. Anubis weighed the heart of the deceased on the Scales of Truth, and then laid hands on the mummy, turning the deceased pharaoh into “ah” (“enlightened”), and he came to life. It was a god-on-the-edge, a boglovka, at the same time the guardian of the graves and the patron of thieves and merchants. It was impossible to laugh at him, but it was quite possible to play a joke - he would appreciate it. The Greeks identified him with Hermes. When the Ptolemies ruled Egypt, they calmly combined their Hermes with the Egyptian Anubis and got ... Hermanubis.
If senet was the game of Thoth, the god of wisdom, and mehen was the game of Seth, then "Dogs and Jackals" was the domain of the Egyptian trickster, the dog-headed god, one in two forms. It was the easiest, funniest and harmless game of Ancient Egypt: the paths of the players do not intersect, and the pieces cut each other in an unusual and funny way - as soon as the player reaches the oasis, the last piece of his opponent is removed from the board. The one who brings the most chips to the finish line wins. For some reason, it seems that this game was not serious - the players fooled around, made jokes and called names "lazy dogs" and "cunning jackals". Who arrived? Who was cut down? This is just Input and Anubis having fun: they are one, but we are rewarded with cool water from their beloved daughter Kebhet.
Well, with age, the game is not so simple. There are almost 60 holes on the board, and this number was of great importance in Egyptian astronomy: it correlates with both the Sun and the Moon, as well as with Sirius, and therefore with the change of seasons and the floods of the Nile. The ancient Egyptians considered the number 60 to be sacred and the god Anubis was named after him (Anu). Such an intriguing coincidence may shed light on the origin of this game, which turned out to be not so banal. Who knows, perhaps one day shen will appear before us the most ancient of all games, going back to the first astronomical calendars.
And the young states of Greece and Rome were already preparing to enter the stage, which added new milestones to the development of board games.
But more on that in another article.
The evolution of the games of the ancient world spans millennia. Egyptians and Romans played chess and dominoes during military campaigns under the pharaohs and kings. The cradle of the first games, archaeologists call the north of Africa, where the ancient civilizations of the world originated.
Board games of the ancient world
Historians call the first board game of antiquity casting of lots . The pebble was held in the palm of the hand and then thrown onto any surface or board. The winner got honors or booty. The value of the "transaction" was determined social status and the level of well-being of the players. It is believed that the game originated from a custom adopted in early paganism by shamans. They threw animal bones and twigs for good weather or predicted the future.
Another board game of antiquity mancala originated, presumably, 5000 years ago. Some scientists are inclined to believe that the age of this hobby is more than 8000 years. The stones mined for the game were found in the temples of Thebes and Memphis in Egypt. Similar artifacts have been found in settlements in the Kalahani Desert. A board with mancala stones was in the pyramid of Cheops at the opening of an ancient monument. Today, the tradition of the game is preserved among the nomadic peoples of Africa and Asia. For the competition, it is enough to have a handful of coffee beans. 12 holes break out in the sand and you can start the game. The name of the game is different among the peoples: in western Africa it is ovari (oua), among the Kirghiz - kumalak, among Indian tribes - olinda keliya. They play mancala in Somalia.
In the ancient world, people used to play any stone on the road. The drawings indicated by them reflect the evolution of mankind - the transition from gathering and hunting to agriculture. The numbers 4 and 12, chosen for most of the games, symbolized the seasons and months. Full holes meant prosperity and harvest, empty holes meant hunger. This is how the first counting boards were born.
There is a legend that the game was invented by the first person on earth named Sindillo. This story is surrounded by many that arose on the banks of the ancient settlement of Ghana. It was used as combat training - before going into battle, the reaction of the soldiers was checked. Today, owari is popular in Mali. The rules are designed for competition in intelligence and skill. The chance of winning through luck is zero.
The first board games with chips originated in the city of Ur. Known in antiquity was the game " Chess". The Sumerian game - a board with chips was found during excavations of the Urna state in the territory of Mesopomatia (Iraq) in 1927. There were 20 bridged squares grouped on the board. Chips were attached. The specimen found by archaeologists belonged to royal family. The set is inlaid with mother-of-pearl and lapis lazuli. The field depicts the Ishtar Gate.
Games about the ancient world
The emergence of games was associated with religious ideas. In ancient Egypt, winning meant patronage and Seneta. The ancient Romans were considered the most ardent lovers of games. Their desire for victory turned into bloody spectacles on the stage of the Colosseum in the center of Rome and numerous amphitheaters scattered throughout the territory of all the provinces of the mighty empire. The game of Ur had a divinatory character. From it, the wars learned whether the campaign would be successful.
Egyptian Senet deserved an important place in the life of the dynasty of the pharaohs. The appearance of the game is associated with the V period, which began about 3500 years ago. Later, this hobby acquired a religious significance and became associated with the path to the other world of Osiris. "Senet" meant from the ancient Egyptian language "passage". Senet is mentioned in "" and other texts of ritual significance of the New Kingdom era. The game is depicted on the walls of the tomb of Queen Nefertiti in the Valley of the Dead.
Thanks to archaeological finds, it became known that the pharaohs Ramses III and Amenhotep III were passionate players. A set for playing Senet was also in. The game has been spread in the territory of Ancient Egypt since the period of the Old Kingdom (about 2600 BC). The last mention of the hobby was found dating back to 350 AD. - the time of the occupation of Egypt by the Roman Empire. The rules of the game of Senet were written in the papyrus of Ramses III, along with spells to successfully pass obstacles in the other world.
Download games: ancient world
Today you can find yourself in the ancient world by becoming a member of the following games.
TOP 10 computer games about ancient civilizations
Technologies do not stand still, and what used to seem like a myth and history can now become a reality ... virtual, but still. Playing games related to ancient eras and mythology, you can touch the history, feel like a participant in ancient events, or just play as your favorite characters.
1. Riddle of the Sphinx: Egyptian Adventure
Release year: 2000
Genre: Quest
Developer: Omni Creative Group
Publisher: Akella / DreamCatcher
For many years, the archaeologist Gil Joffers went in search of a secret room,
hidden in the thickness of the ancient statue of the Sphinx. However, the results of the search exceeded
all his expectations - entering the room, Jill discovered an ancient sealed manuscript.
Having deciphered the ancient writings, the scientist understands that by breaking the seal, he woke up an ancient curse.
Jill carefully hides the deciphered scroll and urgently sends for you - his best friend.
Arriving in Egypt at the foot of the great pyramids, you realize that you are too late: Sir Jill has disappeared without a trace...
2. Caesar 4
Release year: 2006
Genre: Strategy
Developer: Tilted Mill Entertainment
Publisher: Vivendi Games
"Caesar IV" takes you back to the time of the great Caesar. Become the governor of one of the provinces of the great Roman Empire, create a miracle with the village entrusted to you and turn it into a huge metropolis with all the benefits of ancient civilization. Remember that you are the sole ruler, weighed down by the burden of responsibility for your subjects. You are obliged to provide the townspeople with everything necessary, they must be safe, full and clean.
3. Heroes of might and magic 3
Year of issue: 2002 - 2013
Genre: Strategy, RPG
Developer: New World Computing, WoG Team
Publisher: 3DO Company, WoG Team
Heroes of Might and Magic 3: complete collection; abbreviated as Heroes 3, Heroes 3, HoMM3) is a cult fantasy turn-based strategy game computer game, the third installment in the Heroes of Might and Magic series of games. It was developed by New World Computing and released by The 3DO Company in 1999. Heroes 3 develops the ideas laid down in the first and second parts of the series. The essence of the game has remained unchanged: the player controls the heroes leading the army of mythical creatures into battle. The game combines two components: strategic (heroes travel across the main map of the game, exploring the territory and capturing all kinds of objects) and tactical (heroes fight enemy troops on a separate map).
4. Total War: Rome 2
title Total War: Rome 2
developer The Creative Assembly
SEGA publisher
genre Strategy / 3D /
The historical strategy Total War: Rome 2 will bet on full-scale battles with terrifying scenes of violence. On the screen you can see a huge number of soldiers at any time of the battle. Detailed landscapes and other components of the environment will also be beautifully drawn. In addition to land battles, naval battles will also be available in Total War: Rome 2. Moreover, one and the other can be conducted simultaneously.
5. Prince: Legends of the Forest Country
Release date: 09/06/199901/04/2001
Genre: RPG
Developer: 1C, Snowball Studios
Publisher/Distributor: Strategy First; CIS: 1C
Prince" is a role-playing game, the plot of which is based on the plots of the Chronicle of Times universe. Everything in this game is shrouded in a mystical haze of legends and rumors. The game sticks best traditions RPG genre, the main of which is absolutely complete freedom of action of the character and interactivity game world.
The combat system of the project is based on many calculations that take into account a huge number of various parameters of the character and the current situation. In addition to a deeply thought-out combat system, the game boasts a huge variety of quests that you can solve different ways.
As the game progresses, you will not only control your character. You will be given the opportunity to become a city manager and direct the development of the settlement - build and destroy various buildings, train and fire various specialists, collect tribute from loyal subordinates and gather an army for yourself.
Another feature of the game is that each of the three characters has his own path, along which he must go through the intricate roads of the "Forest Country".
6. Aztecs. Empire battles
Release year: 1999
Developer: New Media Generation
Russian language
What can a great commander dream of? Of course, about world domination, power, money, influence ...
It's all there in the game "Aztecs. Empire Battles. Three great races (Rosses - strong in spirit and craftsmen, China - distinguished by the supernatural capabilities of their warriors and the Aztecs - keeping the secrets of many technologies) unleash a war for world domination!
7. Total War: Shogun 2
Brand: 1C-SoftKlab, Feral Interactive / Creative Assembly
Release year: 2011
Interface language: Russian
Japan. Cruel 16th century. The country is tormented by endless civil strife. Nine legendary commanders are waging an irreconcilable struggle for power, their conspiracies and conflicts are tearing the state apart. But only one will rise above all and become the new shogun - the sole ruler of the empire ... The destiny of the rest will fall from his sword. Features of the game: Nine clans - strong and weak. Lead one of the nine factions that existed in feudal Japan. Among them are the powerful warlike Oda clan and the very influential Tokugawa family. Under your strict guidance, any of the clans will be able to come to power. The power of eloquence. Daimyos and generals, just like in the Rome Total War game, will try to inspire their armies to feats of arms. The game provides more than 100,000 options for speeches, depending on the nature of the speaker, the location of the troops and the relationship with the enemy. Siege war. Japanese siege methods differ significantly from those used ...
8. Age of Mythology
Game language: Russian / English
Release year: 2003
A strategy game that takes the player to ancient times, when heroes fought mythological monsters. The game is based on the myths and legends of Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt and Scandinavian Vikings. In order to achieve the best results and defeat the enemy as soon as possible, players can choose not only the historical path of development of these three great civilizations, but also available mythical creatures, such as Minotaurs, Centaurs, Phoenixes and Valkyries.
The myths of ancient Hellas come to life on your PC in Age of Mythology: The Titans, the sequel to the stunning 3D strategy game that revolutionized the RTS genre. A new fourth race, the Atlanteans, has been added, which has a simplified economic development model and a number of other advantages, which will allow new players to quickly delve into the intricacies of the ancient military craft. New gods and 12 new divine powers, new types of troops - 15 human and 10 mythical. Titans enter the arena of hostilities - very expensive, but super-strong and huge masters of destructive elements. Beautiful animated inserts and improved graphics with colorful visual effects of new magic spells will not leave anyone indifferent. The Titans is a new era of computer mythology.
9. Hegemony. Wars of Ancient Greece
Release year: 2012
Interface language: Russian
Ancient Greece was mired in the chaos of endless civil strife. Which of the rulers is worthy to become the first among equals? Lead Macedon, Athens or Sparta in three historical campaigns, unleash a massive campaign for any of the twenty-six Greek factions in free play mode. Besiege cities, conduct reconnaissance, block supply routes, use diplomacy and economic connections - choose your style of war! This game was created in strict accordance with the historical realities of that distant but most interesting era and will be a great gift for all fans of military strategies. Game Features: Experience all the realities of a global war: reconnaissance, raids, city sieges, epic battles. Use diplomacy: make alliances, threaten to invade, undermine the economy of the enemy. Lead the armies of Macedonia, Sparta and Athens: three historical campaigns for dominion over all of Hellas.
10 Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within
Release date: 02.12.2004
Genres: Action
The Prince of Persia, in an attempt to change his fate, goes to the Island of Time, where once upon a time the Empress of Time created the Sands of Time and the Dagger of Time, from where they were later stolen by the same Indian Maharaja, whose palace the army of the prince, along with his father, attacked in the first part of the game . The Prince intends to meet with the Empress and prevent the creation of the Sands of Time, thereby completely canceling their existence in history. On the way to the island, the prince's ship is attacked by sand demons led by a certain woman, Shadi. In the battle, the prince loses his ship, his men and weapons, but makes it to the Island of Time. Chasing Shadi, he sees her leaving through a portal and follows her.
Further adventures of the Prince on the Island of Time will constantly lead him to portals in time using the same Sand of Time, and the Prince will be able to move from the flourishing past of the Island of Time (characterized by whole buildings and actively working mechanical traps) to the gloomy present (dark, full ruins, new obstacles and new traps).
