UrGAME
New for June 2024
The Royal Game of Ur
This Psion Organiser II LZ/LZ64 game is based on the board game held by the British Museum. In this computer version you play against the Organiser .
The Royal Game of Ur is a two-player strategy race board game that was first played in ancient Mesopotamia during the early third millennium BC. One board, held by the British Museum, is dated to c. 2600 – c. 2400 BC, making it one of the oldest game boards in the world.
The Game of Ur received its name because it was first rediscovered by the English archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley during his excavations of the Royal Cemetery at Ur between 1922 and 1934. A partial description in cuneiform of the rules of the Game of Ur as played in the second century BC has been preserved on a Babylonian clay tablet written by the scribe Itti-Marduk-balāṭu. Based on this tablet and the shape of the gameboard, British Museum curator Irving Finkel reconstructed the basic rules of how the game might have been played. The object of the game is to run the course of the board and bear all one's pieces off before one's opponent. The game combines elements of both strategy and luck.
If you have never played the game before then you could watch two short YouTube videos
History
Rules and Game Play
UrGameTips_A5.pdfpop out the Instructions and Tips
The Board Game
For those Organiser II Forum members interested in the actual board game there is a Adult and Child DIY home project that can be made available by contacting Martin via the Organiser II Forum. This DIY kit contains one 200mm wooden playing board as pictured. Fourteen 20mm player tokens. and 15mm oak cubes to be made into binary dice..
.The board is cut from a recycled oak off cut and is supplied straight off the machine - unsanded and unfinished. The player pieces and the dice are supplied varnish sealed but unfinished and need sanding to remove the arrises (sharp edges) ready for your chosen finish. The intention is for an adult and child to complete the making of the game pieces by sandpapering and applying your chosen finish (stain, varnish or wax - not supplied) to the board. Then to create 'binary' dice by colouring or marking three sides of each dice.