The Most Difficult Board Game
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People have been playing games in some form since the earliest civilizations first arose over 5,000 years ago. Nearly all of the games on this list were played by the first civilizations such as the Ancient Sumerians (from Mesopotamia) and Ancient Egyptians. Although the exact rules of these ancient games have been lost, historians have been able to piece together and reconstruct gameplay so people can play them today.
Dominoes is definitely one of the most famous board game in the world. There are dozens of rules out there, but three modes are getting most of the attention: - Draw dominoes: simple, relaxing, play your tiles on either side of the board. You only need to match the tile you have with one of the 2 ends already on the board. Block dominoes: basically the same as Draw Dominoes. All Top Ten Lists Games Hardest Two-Player Turn-Based Strategy Board Games to Master. 5 minutes to learn but a lifetime to master. It might not be as well known in the western world as the other games on this list but it is far and above in its own realm of complexity and depth. Most people think Chess is the king of.
8. Chess
Although most people probably that Chess is an ancient game, compared to all the other board games on this list, it is relatively young. While the exact origins of Chess are unknown, most historians agree that the game originated in India during the Gupta Empire around the 6th century AD – some historians believe it originated in China.
The early form of the game from India was called chaturanga, which featured “four divisions of the military”: infantry, cavalry, elephantry, and chariotry – these game pieces eventually evolved into the modern-day pawn, knight, bishop, and rook, respectively. Like many early games, the rules of Chess evolved as it spread throughout the world, and the modern rules of the game were formed around the 15th century in Europe.
7. Nine Men’s Morris
The game of Nine Men’s Morris is so old that no one knows for sure when and where exactly the game originated. One of the earliest known boards for the game was found “cut onto the roofing slabs of the temple at Kurna in Egypt” dating to around 1400 BCE. However, there is some disagreement over the age of the temple’s slabs.
The game was popular in Ancient Rome as there are many boards carved into Roman buildings, but boards are hard to date due to the buildings’ exposure. Nine Men’s Morris spread across Europe and was a popular game among priests and monks. Nine Men’s Morris is still widely played today and its rules have not changed much since they were first recorded.
6. Go
Go, known as Weiqi in its country of origin China, is one of the oldest board games in the world that is still largely popular today. Although the games exact origins are unknown, Go is believed to have originated in China sometime around 3,000 – 4,000 years ago. In place of an exact history, according to legend, Go was created by the ancient Chinese Emperor Yao (2356–2255 BCE) to enlighten his son, Danzhu and teach him discipline, concentration, and balance.
The popularity of Go grew throughout other East Asian countries, especially Japan (which is where the name Go comes from), where the most significant advances in the game’s play were made during the 1670s.
5. Royal Game of Ur
The Royal Game of Ur, which was played in Ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) is one of civilization’s earliest board games. Two gameboards were found by British archaeologist Sir Charles Leonard Woolley in 1920 while he was excavating the Royal Tombs of Ur – the boards were dated to around 2600 BCE. Other similar boards of 20 squares have been found at other ancient sites in Egypt, such as Tutankhamen’s tomb, and India.
Historians were able to reconstruct the games rules based on a partial cuneiform tablet from Babylon dating from 177 – 176 BCE. With these rules, modern versions of the game have been released and the game can even be played online at the British Museum’s Mesopotamia website.
4. Mehen
Mehen is another board game from Ancient Egypt and it is believed to be the earliest example of a multi-player board game. Evidence of the game dates back to the Predynastic Period through the end of the Old Kingdom – a Mehen gameboard was found in King Peribsen’s tomb, dating back to 2770 – 2650 BCE.
The game is named for Mehen, a snake-god, and the gameboard is shaped like a coiled snake. The pieces come in two types: small spheres similar to marbles and ivory pieces in the shapes of lions and lionesses. Mehen’s exact rules and gameplay are unkown, but historians believe that up to six people were able to play the game.
3. Backgammon
Backgammon is another ancient game that is even older than Chess. In 2004, archaeologists discovered a gameboard in the ancient city of Shahr-e Sukhteh in Iran resembling the game of Backgammon. The board was dated to around 3000 BCE and is believed to be the oldest Backgammon board ever found. It is made of ebony and features sixty markers made of turquoise and agate, as well as a pair of dice.
The game’s rules changed as it was played in different countries and the oldest game with rules almost identical to modern Backgammon was called “tabula” from the Byzantine Empire in Greece dating back to around 480 AD.
2. Checkers
Checkers also called Draughts is one of the oldest board games in the world that is still played today. The origins of the game can be traced back to the ancient city of Ur in southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), dating back to about 3000 BCE. A game board resembling Checkers with slight variations was carbon dated to this time period.
Over the years, the game evolved as it was introduced to other countries and today, the most popular forms of Checkers are English draughts/American checkers and Russian draughts. The game has remained popular all around the world and the first World Championship in International draughts began in 1885 and took place in France.
1. Senet
Senet is most likely the oldest known board game in the world. It was played in Ancient Egypt and game boards have been found in Predynastic and First Dynasty burials dating as far back as 3500 BCE. Senet boards were rectangular slabs made of wood, limestone, or faience (ceramic earthenware made from ground quartz and coated with a brightly colored glaze and featured carved squares and symbols.
Although historians aren’t quite sure how exactly the game was played, Timothy Kendall and R.C. Bell have made their own reconstructions of the game. Kendall and Bell’s rules are based on pieces of texts mentioning Senet and these rules have been adopted by modern senet players.
Rush Hour is a sliding block puzzle invented by Nob Yoshigahara in the 1970s. It was first sold in the United States in 1996. It is now being manufactured by ThinkFun (formerly Binary Arts).
ThinkFun now sells Rush Hour spin-offs Rush Hour Jr., Safari Rush Hour, Railroad Rush Hour, Rush Hour Brain Fitness and Rush Hour Shift, with puzzles by Scott Kim.
Game[edit]
The Regular Edition comes with 40 puzzles in 1 split up into 4 different difficulties, ranging from Beginner to Expert. The Deluxe Edition has a black playing board, card box in place of the board's own card tray and 60 new puzzles with an extra difficulty: the Grand Master, which is harder than Expert.[1] The Ultimate Collector's Edition also has a black playing board that can hold vehicles not in play and new way to display the current active card in a billboard like display. The Ultimate Collectors Edition also includes 155 new puzzles (with some of them being from card set 3) and a white limo. The Regular Version includes a travel bag. Extra puzzle card packs (in addition to the 40, 60 or 155 cards included with the game) are also available. Also both the Deluxe Edition and the Ultimate Collector's Edition comes with all new shiny vehicles variant with the Ultimate Collector's Edition ones being slightly altered in design. Then in 2011, the board was changed to black, like the Deluxe Edition but with a card tray and the cards was also changed to have new levels and design to match the new board color.[2]
Description[edit]
The board is a 6x6 grid with grooves in the tiles to allow cars to slide, card tray to hold the cards, current active card holder and an exit hole. The game comes with 16 vehicles (12 cars, 4 trucks), each colored differently, and 40 puzzle cards. Cars and trucks are both one square wide, but cars are two squares long and trucks are three squares long. Vehicles can only be moved along a straight line on the grid; rotation is forbidden. Puzzle cards, each with a level number that indicates the difficulty of the challenge, show the starting positions of cars and trucks. Not all cars and trucks are used in all challenges.
Objective[edit]
The goal of the game is to get only the red car out through the exit of the board by moving the other vehicles out of its way. However, the cars and trucks (set up before play, according to a puzzle card) obstruct the path which makes the puzzle even more difficult.
Expansions[edit]
Three official expansions, called 'add-on packs', were released: Card Set 2, which comes with a red sports car that takes up 2 squares; Card Set 3, which comes with a white limo that takes up 3 squares; and Card Set 4, which comes with a taxi that takes up 2 squares. Each set also come with 40 new exclusive challenges—from Intermediate to Grand Master—that make use of the new vehicles in place of (or in addition to) the red car. Additionally, all three of the expansion packs will work with all three editions of the game: Regular Edition, the Deluxe Edition, and the Ultimate Collector's Edition. Also, like the Regular Edition of the game in 2011, the cards of all three expansions were also changed to have new levels and design to match the new board color of the Regular Edition.
An iOS version of the game was released in 2010.
Computational complexity on larger boards[edit]
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When generalized so that it can be played on an arbitrarily large board, the problem of deciding if a Rush Hour problem has a solution is PSPACE-complete.[3] This is proved by reducing a graph game called nondeterministic constraint logic, which is known to be PSPACE-complete, to generalized Rush Hour positions. In 2005, Tromp and Cilibrasi [4] showed that Rush Hour is still PSPACE-complete when the cars are of size 2 only. They also conjectured that Rush Hour is still nontrivial when the cars are of size 1 only.
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Most difficult configurations[edit]
The hardest possible initial configuration has been shown to take 93 steps. A shortest solution can be seen on the right.[5]If you count the necessary moves instead of the steps, the most difficult start configuration in this sense requires 51 moves.[6]
What Is The Most Difficult Board Game In The World
See also[edit]
- Klotski (or Chinese: Huarong Dao), a similar sliding block puzzle
References[edit]
- ^'Official Rush Hour Deluxe Edition Page'. ThinkFun. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
- ^'Official Rush Hour Page Archive'. 2011-07-09. Archived from the original on 2011-07-09. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
- ^Gary Flake and Eric Baum (2002). 'Rush Hour is PSPACE-complete, or why you should generously tip parking lot attendants'. Theoretical Computer Science. 270 (1–2): 895–911. doi:10.1016/S0304-3975(01)00173-6.
- ^John Tromp; Rudy Cilibrasi (2005). 'Limits of Rush Hour Logic Complexity'. arXiv:cs/0502068.
- ^Collette, Sébastien; Raskin, Jean-françois; Servais, Frédéric (May 2006). 'On the Symbolic Computation of the Hardest Configurations of the RUSH HOUR Game'. Computers and Games: 5th International Conference, CG 2006, Turin, Italy, May 29–31, 2006. Revised Papers. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Turin, Italy. 4630: 220–233. CiteSeerX10.1.1.91.3487. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-75538-8_20. ISBN978-3-540-75537-1.
- ^Michael Fogleman (July 2018). 'Solving Rush Hour, the Puzzle'. How I created a database of all interesting Rush Hour configurations.