Senet is an ancient Egyptian game, known nowadays through two main sources – pictures of people playing the game, and actual boards and pieces found in various places. So far as we can tell, it was a popular game, at least for those individuals who had the wealth and time to enjoy leisure pursuits. Some pictures in tombs show the deceased person playing against gods, but we do not know if this was intended to represent some kind of test of worthiness beyond the grave, or simply an optimistic view of the pleasures of the afterlife.
No formal record of the rules has survived from antiquity, and different people have reconstructed the game in several different ways. We also have no idea if the rules remained the same throughout the long span of Egyptian culture. The rules used for this version of the game are simply one guess among many – they are similar to others you will find in museums, game shops or on the internet, but differ in minor details.
“House rules” are explained in the help area of the game. It may help to think of it as similar to backgammon, since the objective is to move your pieces around the board to the home area and escape before your opponent does this. However, unlike backgammon, both players move in the same direction.
Your AI opponent is called `Sabiya`, which means `child of metal` – I hope you find Sabiya`s various strategies and choices something of a challenge.
From version 5 onwards a new online 'leaderboard' feature provides some friendly competition between players.
This is a free (ad-supported) version - a paid-for version with some additional features and no adverts is also available.