Zodi is one of the oldest known board games played in its original form. It is a two-player (NORTH and SOUTH) zero-sum game with perfect information. It consists of a carved wooden board with seeds or stones, but is often improvised using hollows scooped into the earth with pebbles or rings in the sand. The game was definitely being played in Egypt before 1400BC. The game evolved in Egypt from boards and counters which were used for accounting and stock taking; evidence for such record keeping boards having been found in even more ancient Sumeria as well as Ancient Egypt. Zodi is mainly played in the western regions of Africa, such as Nigeria and much of the Caribbean. Some versions of Zodi is one of the games on the Olympic List. Unlike many other computer games which merely let you try your chance, the Zodi game really challenges your intelligence. You have to think in order to win because the computer also thinks hard to beat you. Zodi's simple rules and challenging strategy have made it one of the world's most popular games.
The rules of Zodi:
Zodi is played on a wooden board containing two rows of six pits. Each player controls the row on his side of the board. South's pits (from left to right, as seen by south) are named A through F, while north's pits (from left to right, as seen by north) are named a through f. At the right-hand side of each row, an auxiliary pit is used to contain a player's captured stones. At the start of the game, each pit (except the auxiliary pits) contains four stones, for a total of 48 stones on the board, as shown in figure. 1 below:
Figure 1: The start position.
At each move, a player selects a non-empty pit X from his row. Starting with X's neighbor, he then sows all stones from X, one at a time, counter-clockwise over the board (omitting the two auxiliary pits). If X contains sufficient stones to go around the board (12 stones or more), pit X is skipped and sowing continues. Thus, after the move, X will always be empty. Finally, captured stones, if any, are removed and stored in the auxiliary pit. Stones are captured if the last stone sown lands in an enemy pit which after landing contains 2 or 3 stones. If such a capture is made, and the preceding pit contains 2 or 3 stones and the pit is an enemy pit, those stones are also captured. This procedure is successively repeated for the pits preceding and ends as soon as a pit is encountered containing a number of stones other than 2 or 3, or the end of the opposing row is reached.
A move is described by the name of the pit, followed by the number of stones sown in parentheses. The number of stones captured, if any, is indicated by the amount following the parenthses (). In figure 2 below an example position is shown with south to move. Legal moves for south are: B(1) 0, C(4) 2, D(19) 7, E(4) 0 and F(2) 4.
Figure 2: A position with legal moves B(1) 0, C(4) 2, D(19) 7, E(4) 0 and F(2) 4.
If, for example, south moves pit C, the position will be figure 3 after the move. Because there were 4 stones in pit C before the move and 2 stones were captured after the move, the move is described as C(4) 2.
Figure 3: The position after south moves pit C from figure 2.
For another example, if south chooses pit F instead of pit C to move, the position will be figure 4 after the move. Because there were 2 stones in pit F before the move and 4 stones were captured after the move, the move is described as F(2) 4.
Figure 4: The position after south moves pit F from figure 2.
The goal of Zodi is to capture more stones than the opponent. The game ends as soon as one of the players has collected 25 or more stones. Another condition exists which terminates the game: if a player is unable to move (i.e. all his pits are empty), the remaining stones are captured by his opponent. In both cases, after the end of the game, the winner is the player who captured the most stones. If both players capture 24 stones, the game is drawn.
How to play the game with the computer
Once you understand the rules of Zodi, you can start playing with the computer. It's very easy to play. The computer is designated as the NORTH player and you are designated as the SOUTH player. At the start of the game, you will be presented with the game board shown in figure 1. If you want the computer to move first, click the "Go" button. If you want to move first, click the letter designating the name of the pit you want to move. After each move, the result of the move will be reported on the screen. Each time after you make a move, please click the "Go" button to let the computer make her move before you move again. The computer will also need some time to think of the best move she can choose in order to beat you. In order to refresh your memory, the game board before the last move was made is displayed below the current game board. The game ends when one player wins. Click the "Start a New Game" button to start a new game. If you click this button during the middle of a game, your current game will be terminated and a new game will begin.
How to play the game with a human player
You can also play the game against a human player, with the help of the computer. It would be more interesting if you actually have the board and the stones. You can easily make such a board by drawing circles on a big piece of paper. You can let the human opponent be the SOUTH player and you be the NORTH player. After the human opponent makes his move, you can enter your opponent's move into the computer. Then you can make your move based on what the computer does. More than likely, you are going to beat your human opponent because the computer helps you choose good moves, unless your opponent is really smart.
How to purchase Zodi and its conditions
Click the button "Buy Now" to purchase the Zodi game play time. Buy one and get one free! The amount you pay depends on the number of games you purchase. Each game costs only one dollar. For every game you purchase, we give you one free game. Therefore, even if each game costs one dollar, you get two games. PayPal is the standard payment menthod. The access code will be emailed to your PayPal email account immediately after you make a payment so that you can sign in to play the game. You can use other payment methods such as checks if you wish. Click the "Play Zodi" link on the home page "https://www.abalau.com" to sign in. Each time you sign in, the game is considered to have started and the number of available games to you is decreased by one even if you don't play the game. The web page will tell you how many more games you have left (excluding the current one). Each time you click the "Start a New Game" button, the current game is terminated and a new game is started. Consequently, the number of games available to you will be decreased by one. Your access code will be invalid after you have used up all the number of games you purchased. At that time, you need to purchase more games if you want to play more. For every game you win, we'll refund you $1. The total amount we refund you cannot exceed the total amount you paid during each purchase. You need to email us the screenshot of the last game board which shows you won each time you beat the computer. You must claim your refund within 30 days after making your purchase to qualify for the refund.
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The Zodi Game