Traditional Games

All the old favorites are stored in a tattered box that hardly ever sees the light of day anymore. I bet there are a lot of traditionalists out on the Web, though.

History of Games

• Hnefatafl: The Viking Game - a history and explanation of the game with variants
• Medieval & Renaissance Games - particularly card games
• Roman Board Games - a wonderful resource for games to play at toga parties
• Games of the Vikings and Anglo Saxons - board, dice, word, and agility games

• Ancient Games

  This series of articles by Catherine Soubeyrand describes some of the earliest board games ever played.

  • Introduction
  1. Senet - an Egyption funerary game
  2. Dogs and Jackals - the ancient Egyptian precursor to Snakes and Ladders
  3. The Royal Game of Ur - a Babylonian game of fate and fortune

Agility Games

• Bowling Games
  • Bocce on the Net - not just tossing balls in the park
  • Petanque USA Homepage - the French version of not just tossing balls in the park
• The Crokinole Board - the native American game of nail cracking
• Darts - everything you ever wanted to know about throwing sharp objects in a crowded pub
• Scully - the skinny on this kids' sidewalk game

General Board and Table Games

• Backgammon - thought of as a sleazy game in the Middle Ages, backgammon always makes a comeback
• Bao - an East-African Mancala game
  • as played in Zanzibar - detailed rules, tactics, bibliography, and sample games
  • as played in Malawi - detailed rules
  • for beginners - rules summary and call for variations
• Chess - for the serious strategy gamer
  • Archives
  • Library
  • Variants - best Chess page yet
• Dice - rollin' dem bones
  • A General Discussion - of these useful game tools by Joe Celko
  • Ship, Captain, and Crew - a bar dice game with a nautical theme
• Domino Games - a continuing series of articles on bone games
• Go - the ancient game of real estate
  • Ken's Go Page
  • Martin Müller's Go Page
  • British Go Association
• Hnefatafl: The Viking Game - a history and explanation of the game with variants
• Nine Men's Morris - John Taylor is answered by nine men (none drive a Morris)
• Othello - another take on real estate, US Savings and Loan style
• The Renju International Federation - your ones stop source for all your renju needs
• Shogi - Pieter Stouten's compilation of many Shogi resources found on the Web
• Toblaro
  • the basic game - a traditional gambling game
  • Tablero da Gucci - Katrina Wolffe brings us the drinking variation

Card Games

• Bridge - pointers to many other pages and a bridge server for online play
• The Card Games site - a general, and extensive, archive
• Koon Kan - a melding card game
• Nurds - a speedy game that works with a crowd
• Okey - a Turkish card game
• Print-Your-Own Pai Gow Cards - complete files and instructions
• Poker - Peter picks a peck of poker permutations

Dice Games

• Bunko - a traditional dice game popular with church groups
• 10,000 - a traditional French game that migrated to America

The Game Cabinet - editor@gamecabinet.com - Ken Tidwell