Wari is a "sowing game" known by names such as Oware and Ouri, and a variant of game known in the West as Mancala or Kalah. Played throughout Africa, Asia and the Caribbean for at least 1000 years, it is less known in the rest of the world than other great games of pure skill such as Chess, Checkers and Go. The board consists of a row of six pits for each player, and usually includes a larger pit called a "store" for each player to place their captured seeds. Gameplay is simple, with each player taking turns removing all of the seeds from one of his pits and distributing one seed at a time, counter-clockwise around the board, except for the pit that he drew from. If this causes two or three stones to be left in any of his opponent's pits, he captures them. Unlike Mancala, he does not sow seeds into his store, which eliminates strategic attempts to have one's turn end in his store to get an extra turn, and it prolongs the game because seeds are only removed from play when captured. The game is incredibly easy to learn, but can be played at a master level. Wari can be played by two humans, one player against the computer, or by two computers to watch and learn. Features very nice music. There are four difficulty levels in this game, with only the first three playable in the shareware version. The full version is now freeware, but it can't be distributed without permission, so you'll need to go to ImagiSOFT's website to download it.
Added by DOSGuy
Screenshots
640×350×16c
Downloads
| Wari: The Ancient Game of Africa v1.4 Shareware (364,722 bytes) | 1995-04-01 | DOS | Play online  |
| Wari: The Ancient Game of Africa v1.2 Shareware (368,860 bytes) | 1994-05-01 | DOS |
Availability
ImagiSOFT has generously released this game as freeware, which can only be downloaded from their website.