Mancala for Windows 95 & NT

Mancala is very old game of skill, originating in Africa. The game has spread far beyond that continent and is played all over the world today. Several histories of the game are available on-line:

• Bobbie Jo Webb has a nice page that covers the game's history and includes a mathematical analysis.
• There's plenty more out there; do an AltaVista search to find even more pages.

One of the greatest things about Mancala is that there are almost limitless ways that the game can be played. This version includes a few variations on the basic game, with more planned for the future. The computer plays a very good game on the "expert" setting, but if you find it too easy to beat, change the number of stones used or change the rules of the game.

Before you play, it's a good idea to learn the rules and variations of the game.

Then, download mancala.zip (1.85 MB). If you have already installed Mancala, you don't need all of the VB support DLLs. Grab the 0.4 update (16 KB).

This is the obligatory screenshot. Yes, it is very ugly, however it plays a mean game -- looks aren't everything, you know.

Send any comments/praise/suggestions to steve (at) moonglade.com. It'd be great to hear that people are playing the game, and I'm always open to ideas for making it better.

For those that are interested, the source is now available. An older version of this page said I'd release it after the game filled out a bit more, but it's been years now since I looked at the source code, so I won't kid myself any more.

mancala-src.zip (23 KB)

I've released Mancala under the GNU General Public License. If you feel like tackling any of the items on the to-do list (or something not on it), send me a copy and I'll either link to it from here or possibly release a new version including your changes.

To do: (in no particular order)

• Improve the game's appearance, including some snazzy animation when moving stones.
• Add more rule variations!
• Add some randomness in the event of two or more equally good moves so the computer doesn't play the same moves over and over again.
• Provide feedback when the computer is thinking.

Changes from version 0.3 to 0.4:

• Switched the "expert" mode look-ahead to the same as it was in 0.2. In the "classic" version of the game, it is fairly easy to beat the computer every time if you learn the right strategy, and no amount of look-ahead can fix this. This speeds up the game immensely while not taking anything away from the strength of the computer.
• Added a new variation to the gathering style of play. This one only counts captured stones in each mancala at the end of the game, ignoring stones still in play.

Changes from version 0.2 to 0.3:

• The computer spends a little more time thinking about its move on "expert" mode.
• Tweaked the end-game detection code to avoid redundant calculations.
• Fixed a bug where the game won't end early if one player has a majority of the stones and the winner is determined by number of stones captured.