Recent Changes

These are the most recent reconstructions added or edited:

(March 13) Reconstruction of Re-encounter -- Very unusual, in neither having the same start table nor being mirrored. Explicitly a Roman game.
(March 13) Reconstruction of The Quest -- One of the only games that does not involve blotting.
(March 13) Reconstruction of Common Puff -- One of several games that start out by randomly entering your men.
(March 13) Reconstruction of Six, Two and Ace -- A fairly messy game of players tripping over each other
(March 13) Reconstruction of All Tables -- The closest Alfonso game to modern Backgammon, probably a direct ancestor

These are the most recent 100 links added or edited:

(April 21) Magnus' reconstruction and implementation of Metromachy (Reconstruction, Computer Play, Transcription, Translation) -- Pulling together Justin's transcription and Steffan's translation, Magnus tied it all together, reconstructed the rules, and built an online implementation. (more)
(November 7) Strawberry's reconstruction of Karnöffel (Reconstruction, History) -- A dash of history, and a couple of reconstructions. (more)
(November 6) Strawberry's reconstruction of Thirty-One (Reconstruction, Bibliography) -- Reconstruction of Thirty-One, with sources pushing the game all the way back into the 15th century. (more)
(September 17) So You Have This Backgammon Board (Reconstruction) -- A brief PDF introduction to several period Tables variations. (more)
(September 17) So You Have This Chess Set (Reconstruction) -- A quick PDF introduction to several period Chess variations. (more)
(August 24) Gambling Games (Reconstruction, Equipment) -- Baron Aurddeilen-ap-Robet provides a likely reconstruction based on other games of this period. (more)
(March 13) From Ur to Aseb: The Evolution of the Game of Twenty Squares (History, Equipment, Rules) -- A look into the Royal Game of Ur and the Egyptian game Aseb, and the historical relationships between them. (more)
(March 13) Queen’s Guard gifts – Portable Ancient Board Games (Equipment) -- A blog post about creating a set of game boards. (more)
(June 4) Parlett on Maw (History, Reconstruction) -- (more)
(February 5) A History of Chess, by HJR Murray (History, Rules) -- The definitive work on Chess history and variants. A century old, but still the gold standard. (more)
(October 14) Aritmomachia Blog () -- Short-lived but interesting blog about Rhythmomachy. (more)
(April 9) Academie Universelle des Jeux (1718) (Facsimile) -- An out-of-period but still very interesting edition of one of the earliest serious encyclopedias of games. (French) (more)
(March 20) New York Magazine, 20 Dec 71 (History) -- In "Best Bits" on page 89, has a small segment specifically calling out Tablero as a modern invention. (more)
(March 20) New York Magazine, 9 Oct 72 (History) -- Has a small ad for Tablero de Jesus for sale, on page 89. (more)
(January 25) Facsimile images of Jacobus de Cessolis' MS (Facsimile) -- A Latin text that uses Chess as a metaphor for the various roles of human life. Later translated into English and published by Caxton: Chess -- Caxton's "The Game and Playe of the Chesse" (more)
(August 29) Rithmomachia Canada (Links, Vendor, Overview) -- An organization that promotes Rhythmomachy
Twitter feed
Store (more)
(August 29) Rithmomachia, the Great Medieval Number Game (History, Rules) -- Article published April 1911 in The American Mathematical Monthly. (8 pages) (more)
(August 29) Benedetto's *Trattato Delle Proportioni Et Proportionalita* (Facsimile) -- A 16th century MS describing the Rithmimachia Pytagorae -- Rhythmomachy. (more)
(August 29) Fox and Geese - How to Play and History of the Game (History, Rules, Video) -- (YouTube video, 15 minutes) (more)
(August 29) Hazard - History of the Game and How to Play (History, Rules, Video) -- (YouTube video, 17 minutes) (more)
(July 3) Hnefatafl Online (Computer Play, Rules) -- Exactly what it sounds like: a page that lets you play Tafl either against the computer or against a human opponent. (more)
(July 3) Tafl Shops (Vendor) -- A listing of shops that sell Tafl-related stuff. (more)
(July 3) Abbas Agraphicus (History, Reconstruction) -- The Hnefatafl-focused blog of Alessandro Arzani (more)
(July 3) The Battle of Numbers (Reconstruction) -- An overview of Rhythmomachy, focused on the mathematical aspects, published by the American Mathematical Society. (more)
(March 24) On the Explanation of Chess and Backgammon (History, Transcription, Translation, Facsimile) -- A medieval Persian source, describing how Chess came to Persia and how "backgammon" (games within the Tables) was invented. (more)
(March 20) Bassetta, A Renaissance Italian Card Game (Reconstruction) -- (more)
(September 17) Biography of a Board Game: Game of the Goose (History) -- A very good, short (~9 minute) capsule history of the game, in podcast form. (more)
(September 4) Pagat's page on Minchiate / Germini (Rules) -- This is an attested-to-period Tarot variation played with an overlarge deck (40 trumps), with a somewhat complex scoring system. (more)
(August 8) Justin's implementation of Ruff and Trump (Computer Play) -- Also works for Ruff and Honors. (more)
(August 8) Justin's implementation of Piquet for playingcards.io (Computer Play) -- (more)
(August 8) Justin's implementation of Laugh and Lie Down for playingcards.io (Computer Play) -- Includes setups for 4 - 8 players. (more)
(May 22) Making Seven-Sided Dice (Equipment) -- A description of how to make a well-constructed pentagonal-prism die, for use with Astrological Tables or Decimal Chess. (The article says that it also applies to Game of the Four Seasons, but that doesn't appear to be correct based on the Musser-Golladay translation.) (more)
(April 29) Heather Hall Card Gallery (Vendor) -- From the front page: "Madame Heather Hall's historic playing cards are recreations of packs from 1650 and before, carefully researched and executed. Each pack design has been created by hand, not computer rendered, and thus has the unique imprint of the artist. Yet each pack is an authentic representation of the original. These cards are appropriate for any historic or modern game, and are the perfect addition to a period gaming box or collection." I have several of her decks, and use them frequently. (more)
(January 26) Lady Gwir ferch John on Noddy (Reconstruction) -- (more)
(November 3) Vat.lat.5854 (Facsimile) -- An apparently-anonymous (?), but large and interesting manuscript, full of what appear to be chess problems. The hand isn't the easiest to read, but appears to be Latin, and there is a lot of it. (more)
(August 17) Debora Marzec's reproduction game sets (Equipment) -- (Facebook) Photos of many games, generally made along period models. Quite useful for visualizing what the sets looked like -- they're nice stuff. See also Album 2. (more)
(July 31) Tractatus de scacchis, de tabulis et de merellis (Facsimile) -- Online facsimile of an early 15th century book on Chess, Tables and Merels, containing bazillions of puzzles. Extremely neat! (more)
(June 22) Images of many board games (heavy on Goose) (Equipment, Facsimile) -- A substantial number of game boards, many (but not all) period and many (but not all) of them Goose variations (more)
(May 17) A bit on the history of Courier Chess from The Chess Collector (History, Equipment) -- (more)
(May 16) YouTube video teaching Gluckhaus (Reconstruction, Video) -- (more)
(May 16) YouTube video teaching Hnefatafl (Reconstruction, Video) -- Slightly clumsy presentation style, but useful for folks who learn best from a live presentation. (more)
(May 16) YouTube video teaching Duodecima Scripta (Reconstruction, Video) -- (more)
(May 16) YouTube video teaching Jactus (Reconstruction, Video) -- (more)
(May 16) YouTube video teaching Latrunculi (Reconstruction, Video) -- (more)
(May 16) YouTube video teaching Nine Men's Morris (Reconstruction, Video) -- (more)
(May 16) YouTube video teaching Ludus Latrunculorum (Reconstruction, Video) -- (more)
(May 16) YouTube video teaching Three Men's Morris (Reconstruction, Video) -- (more)
(September 11) Liar's Dice in Folklore in History (History, Rules) -- A good article tracing what we do and don't know about Liar's Dice, and evaluating what is actually plausible in the historical claims. (more)
(August 24) Fithcheall and Gwyddbwyll: Hnefatafl or Not? (History, Rules) -- An interesting little article, summarizing the open question of whether these games were actually in the Tafl family (as is often assumed). (more)
(July 10) Hnefatafl - Archaeological Finds (Archaeology) -- A nice page that summarizes all of the physical artifacts that have been found to date for the Tafl family. (more)
(June 26) The Playe of Chess (Facsimile) -- Relatively high-resolution images at Digital Bodleian, from Caxton's English translation of De ludo scachorum. One of the first books published in English! Not actually very useful from a rules POV, though: this is mostly moral philosophy, using Chess and its pieces as a metaphor. (more)
(May 18) 7 period board games, printed on fabric (Vendor, Equipment) -- A wonderfully useful little Spoonflower store that does print-on-demand of several common games that you can then sew into pillows or bags. (more)
(May 18) Historical playing cards (Facsimile) -- A collection of images of historical playing cards. Many of these are from uncut sheets of woodblock printed cards. (more)
(February 14) Chess Problems in the NYPL (Facsimile) -- Half a dozen scanned pages from the New York Public Library's collection, showing chess problems, apparently from 14th c. Italy. (more)
(July 24) Courier Online Chess at Jocly (Computer Play) -- An HTML5 implementation of the game. Play online against other players, or against the computer. (more)
(May 25) New Thoughts on Dominoes (History) -- A brief page citing some evidence that dominoes may have been known in England as early as the time of Henry VIII. (But see notes below.) (more)
(May 10) Irving Finkel's detailed reconstruction of the game (History, Reconstruction, Translation) -- A more-than-typically detailed writeup of the game, the available source material, and how to interpret it. (more)
(May 9) Laser-cutting a Rhythmomachy Board (Equipment) -- Pictures of a board made with modern laser-cutting tech, with links to the necessary files so that you can make one yourself if you have the right equipment. (more)
(April 3) Fidchell in Dreoilin's Weblog (Reconstruction, History) -- A discussion of the game of Fidchell, plus a lot of cultural background. (more)
(March 10) Deciphering the World's Oldest Rule Book (History, Video) -- A YouTube video (about 7 minutes) by the curator at the British Museum who managed to put the board and the cuneiform rules together. (more)
(February 20) Met Lecture 1 on the History of Chess (Video, History) -- A YouTube video lecture on Chess (more)
(August 29) A Pictorial History of the Game of Go (Archaeology) -- A lovely page, mostly composed of archaeological findings relating to Go -- pieces, boards, and images. (more)
(August 8) Caxton's "The Game and Playe of the Chesse" (Transcription) -- This is a lovely transcription of an important and not-easy-to-read book on Chess. (more)
(July 25) MS page showing Nine Men's Morris (Facsimile) -- The illustration is in the lower border, and is a bit small, but it is unambiguously showing two people playing Merels. (more)
(April 6) The Game Cultures Society (Organizations) -- From their webpage: "The Game Cultures Society is a consortium of North American and European scholars pursuing the study and appreciation of games, play, and ludic activities as significant aspects of cultures from antiquity to the digital age." (more)
(February 8) Ancient Limerick hurling ball has its guts checked (Equipment) -- A news article describing a ca. 800 year old hurling ball, its history and construction. Not detailed, but interesting. (more)
(January 24) The Full History of Board Games (History, Overview) -- A long blog post that skims over the surface of the topic. Slightly breathless and necessarily very light on detail, but mostly accurate and hits at least many of the high points. Well-suited counter to any misimpressions that board games are a modern phenomenon, and gives a good sense of the scope. (more)
(January 17) Taxonomic map of Playing Cards (Equipment, History) -- A lovely map showing the evolution of the suits, by Lady Heather Hall. (more)
(December 2) Tim Millar on Hnefetafl Tactics and Strategy (Strategy and Tactics) -- An impressively detailed site dedicated on playing the game well. (more)
(November 18) Gluckhaus at The Reverend's Musings (Reconstruction, History, Equipment) -- A good quick description of the game, with a little history and illustrations of several boards. (more)
(October 1) Cats at Cards (Overview, Reconstruction) -- A site focused on teaching the rules for a wide variety of card games. Mostly post-period, but includes good descriptions of several period games. (more)
(October 1) How to Play Whist (Reconstruction) -- Includes a number of variations from various times. (more)
(October 1) How to Play Ruff and Honours (Reconstruction) -- Described on their Whist page, as a variant. (more)
(October 1) How to Play Cribbage (Reconstruction) -- Includes several more-recent variations. (more)
(October 1) How to Play Piquet (Reconstruction) -- Includes a pretty detailed description of play, as well as several more-recent variations. (more)
(September 22) Sonja Musser Golladay's Dissertation on the Alfonso MS (PDF) (Overview, Reconstruction, History, Transcription, Translation) -- A PDF copy of the full, 1400-page tome about the Alfonso. This is the single most important source when working on this MS, including a full translation, lots of notes and reconstruction details, information about the culture and context, and so on. (more)
(September 22) Sonja Musser Golladay's dissertation on the Alfonso MS (hardcopy) (Overview, History, Translation, Reconstruction) -- This link is a search into University Microfilms' dissertation service. Golladay's dissertation is the masterwork on the Alfonso MS, including a full translation, copious notes and reconstruction details, and all sorts of information about the art and culture surrounding the book. It is a must-have for anyone researching this text. (more)
(September 22) The Alfonso MS, in English (Translation) -- This large PDF (about 5MB) combines an early draft of Sonja Musser Golladay's translation of the Alfonso with some of the facsimiles from Charles Knutson, to make a solidly usable source for reconstruction. (more)
(September 16) Japanese Chess (Overview) -- A site specifically about Shogi, including rules, Tsume (puzzles), and so on. (more)
(September 16) Shogi Rules (Reconstruction) -- A nice clear description of how to play Shogi, with lots of pictures. (more)
(September 16) Shogi 2014 (Computer Play) -- An online implementation on Shogi that runs in the browser. (more)
(August 11) Islamic Backgammon (History) -- Uses period illustrations to show that something like Irish was played in the Eastern Islamic territories in period. (more)
(July 12) A lovely Goose board at the Met (Equipment) -- Photo of a 16th century Italian inlay board made from ebony and wood. (more)
(July 6) Games Galore (Overview, History) -- A very useful summary chart of which games were introduced where and when. (more)
(June 21) John Jordan's decks (Vendor) -- John is one of the regular participants on the SCA Gaming Facebook group, whose specialty is reproductions of period decks of cards. He has a number of decks available for sale at very reasonable prices. (more)
(June 18) The History of Bocce (History) -- A concise one-pager outlining some of the history we know about. (more)
(June 16) A Family Tree of Card Games (Overview, History) -- A lovely infographic, showing many different games and roughly how they are connected. (more)
(June 16) Parlett on Reversis (History, Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 16) Parlett on Piquet (History) -- Goes into quite a bit of history, since this period game has more or less survived down the centuries; does not actually give the detailed rules. (more)
(June 16) Parlett on Penneech (Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 16) Parlett on Ombre (History, Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 16) Parlett on Losing Lodam (Reconstruction, History) -- (more)
(June 16) Parlett on Loo (Reconstruction, History) -- He has several reconstructions, and is looking at a broader sweep of history; I haven't yet checked his writeup against Cotton specifically yet. (more)
(June 16) Parlett on Laugh and Lie Down (Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 16) Parlett on Karnoeffel (History, Reconstruction) -- (more)
(June 16) Parlett on the Leaf Game (History) -- A discussion of what we know about the ancient Chinese game that purportedly led to the invention of cards (more)
(June 16) David Parlett's page on Historical Card Games (Overview) -- Parlett is one of the major games researchers, with a number of books under his belt. His website is broad (and much is out of our scope), but much of this page covers period games. (more)
(June 16) Parlett on Costly Colors (Reconstruction, History) -- Goes into some detail about what little we know about the game (more)
(June 16) David Parlett on Noddy (Reconstruction, History) -- Nicely detailed description, including some history (more)
(June 4) Knattleikr, the Viking Ball Game () -- Hurstwic is a VIking recreation group (more)