The 'Ancient Shareware Stories'


Tezcatlipoca says "You'd better read these stories of else!" ;-)

(Actually this is an image of a Totonac pottery figure of Mictlantecuhtli (The Aztec Lord of Death) 'dolled up' a little to make it even more sinister. The original is found in the Museo de Antropologia de la Universidad Veracruzana in Veracruz and dates from between 600 - 900 A.D. Tezcatlipoca means 'Smoking Mirror' or 'The Mirror that Smokes', but he was known by many names: 'Night Wind', 'Warrior of Darkness', 'The Sorcerer', 'The Keeper of Men', 'He by Whom We Live', 'The Lord of the Close and Near', and tellingly, 'The Enemy on Both Sides'. He was both capricious and all powerful and the Aztec kings acted in surrogate for him.)

 

 

Wrapped around each of my ancient shareware games is a story -- a fictional one for sure, but in spite of this, each story is historically accurate and consistent. I guess you could say that each one 'could've happened!' In any case, they are interesting to read and it has been pointed out to me that since the stories are 'hidden' in the help files for the games, not every one notices them. Well here they are. I hope you enjoy them. You can jump to each from the links below.

  Ancient Egyptian Senet
  Ancient Egyptian '20-Squares'
  Ancient Egyptian 'Hounds & Jackals'
  Ancient Aztec Patolli
  Ancient Sumerian 'The Royal Game of Ur'
  Ancient Viking Halatafl
  Ancient Anasazi Tasholiiwe
  Ancient Shap Luk Kon Tseung Kwan (Sixteen Pursue the General)
  Ancient Egyptian Mehen -- The Forbidden Game of the Serpent.
  Ancient Mayan Bul
  Ancient Moorish Quirkat

 


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