Senet Deluxe 4+
game of the pharaohs
RoGame Software
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- $2.99
Screenshots
Description
the Ancient Game of Life and Afterlife
Senet Deluxe - The Ancient Game of Life and Afterlife
Senet is an ancient Egyptian race game and the predecessor of our modern Backgammon. The oldest known form of the game is shown in a painting from the tomb of Hesy (circa 2686-2613 BCE). 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.
The main adversaries in Senet are the Spools and the Pyramids. These pawns follow a path from their start positions to the House of Horus in an inverted 'S'. The player moving all of his pawns off the board first wins. Fields on the Senet board are called houses. Some of these have special significance and are adorned with icons like the Ankh symbol. Instead of dice flattened sticks are used. Each stick has a bright side and a dark side. Every bright side is a point. If only dark sides are showing the player is awarded 5 points. When a 1, 4, or 5 is thrown the player gets another turn.
When moving into a field occupied by an opponent, the pieces switch places. If, however, the opponent's pawn is part of a row of two or more, it cannot be beaten. It is possible to 'jump' over an opponent if it isn't part of a row of 3 pieces or more. 3 pieces are considered a block and are an important strategic tool.
Through symbology Senet hints at the afterlife as seen from an Egyptian point of view. If one's piece is beaten on one of the last three fields or the jump over the House of Water is not successful one moves back to the house of Rebirth. In such the game alludes to reincarnation and the journey of the dead.
Senet Deluxe is a truly unique strategy game. It features great animation, a soundtrack, an intelligent adversary, enforceable backwards moves, highlighting for acceptable moves, game statistics and online help. Be prepared to spend many hours with the most popular game of the antiquity.
For more screenshots and several videos of the application in action, please visit the website indicated below.
What’s New
Version 2.2.2
This version includes several minor updates, improved animation and some fixes for iOS 15.
Ratings and Reviews
Programmed to cheat
I kept a log and over 90% of the time the computer get extra rolls to my single rolls. Also for some reason 100% of new games the 1st roll is a 3. Clearly not random
Developer Response ,
Thanks so much for your review. That is frustrating of course, but we are unable to reproduce either behavior described at this time. Please consider sharing those logs.
Generally very good, but a few negatives
I played the earlier version of this in PalmOS many years ago, and then the earlier version of it for iOS, and now the newest update.
What I like about it most is that this the ONLY version of electronic Senet that doesn’t automatically alternate players after each throw, but gives additional throws on 1, 4, 5 as is correct. Nice!
What I *don’t* like is that for some inexplicable reason, pieces move on the second row of squares from left to right (!), instead of from right to left preserving the S-shaped path of piece movement as is traditional. Why??? What is the logic in that? (That’s why the one reviewer thought his piece moved ahead ten spaces, because pieces on the second row now start at the left side).
And smaller issues—
—> pieces should be safe from attack on the last three squares
—> pieces should be safe from attack on the square 25 (nefer).
—> pieces which fall into the water square should emerge in square 15, the one marked with an ankh.
—> the constant “jiggle” of the throw sticks is visually REALLY annoying.
It’s still a good game, but it used to be much better; I hope that one day it can be as good as it once was, especially with the correct movement path.
Fun
Really fun to think about what the consciousness was in ancient Egypt by playing this game. The thematics of it also really added a lot.
I am giving this 5 stars, even though there seems to be a bug with the stats page. After winning, the stats showed 100% loss, along with other issues on the stats page.
Functionally, worked great
App Privacy
The developer, RoGame Software, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
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Information
- Seller
- Arthur Roolfs
- Size
- 42.6 MB
- Category
- Games
- Compatibility
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- iPhone
- Requires iOS 12.0 or later.
- iPad
- Requires iPadOS 12.0 or later.
- iPod touch
- Requires iOS 12.0 or later.
- Apple Vision
- Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- Languages
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English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian Bokmål, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Copyright
- © 2021 RoGame Software
- Price
- $2.99
Supports
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Family Sharing
Up to six family members can use this app with Family Sharing enabled.