WARI - The Ancient Game of Africa (1.36Mb)
Wari, (also known as Mancala), like chess in Europe, is Africa’s foremost strategy game. It was popular 4,000 years ago with the pharaohs of Egypt and until recently, was restricted to African royalty. This two-player strategy game is deceptively easy to learn, but may take a lifetime to master. Play another person or against one of the computer’s three skill levels.
The animated tutorial will teach you the rules and winning strategies. Enter the password, "A*****" when prompted to do so. I've removed the password which you will find by following the download link to the developers free games page. The installation does not install a shortcut, so make sure you make a pte of where you installed it so that you can then create one. :)
You can find the rules of Wari/Mancala HERE
Download
You can download Wari via Imagesofts (the developer) web site HERE, There are two more free games that can be downloaded from Imagesofts site called Chinese Checkers and Redhooks Revenge. (A game that combines the classic novel Treasure Island with the best elements of Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit. I’ve already posted Chinese Checkers and will post Redhooks Revenge over the next few days
There's a totally different version that looks more stylized but has several different difficulty settings such as Grandmaster, professional, beginner etc. You can download it HERE. Once installed you'll need to create your own shortcut. During installation it may notify you that you already have library files that correspond to the games files. Don't overwrite any of your own files.
Here's an image of how I remember the game.
We were on a cycling tour from Bordeaux to Porto in Portugal and had befriended this African guy from The Ivory Coast before we left. We'd decided to stay in Bordeaux for a few days to watch the tall ships race and had met him while waiting. On our return journey several weeks later (it took us 7 weeks to cycle to O Porto from Bordeaux and then back to Bordeaux) We were looking for a place to put up our tent but had decided to call in to see him first and he invited us to stay for as long as we wanted. We were intending to do some grape picking. I remember the first evening when he brought out this game that looked like he'd made himself. He explained that it was an old African game. It was basically a piece of an Acacia tree that he'd carved with small depressions and had used small pebbles of various colors as the seeds. For many years I'd forgotten what the name of the game was until I found my travel journal in which I'd made a note of the game. It's very simple, but, as the blurb above says takes many years to master the various strategies.
