The Ancient Game of Life and Afterlife

Senet is an ancient Egyptian race game and the predecessor of our modern Backgammon. Many pictures of the game and artifacts have been discovered and are displayed in Museums around the world. The commonness of these finds indicates that the game was very popular in its time. Instead of dice knuckle bones and later flattened sticks were used and the game board itself often resembled a small chest on wooden legs with drawers for the game pieces and a small flat surface for throwing the sticks. Complete rules for Senet have to date not been found, but several educated guesses have been made - notably the Kendall and the Bell variants.

Through symbology Senet also hints at the afterlife as seen from an Egyptian point of view. Squares 16, 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30 are commonly called the Houses of Rebirth, Happiness, Water, Three Truths, Re Atoun, and Horus. When the jump over the House of Water is not successfully made the players pawn is repositioned at the House of Rebirth. The same holds true when the player's piece is beaten on one of the last three fields. In such the game alludes to reincarnation and the journey of the dead. This is the first Palm implementation of Senet.

Senet Deluxe features an intelligent adversary, animated movement of game pieces, highlighting for acceptable moves, game statistics and extensive online help. It also has specifically been enhanced for Palm OS 5 capable devices.

The online help will enable you to learn quickly how to play Senet, but more detailed instructions are included in PDF format. While the game looks deceptively easy, there are many strategic decisions to make. Go back to the roots and play Backgammon the way it was done for thousands of years!