Popular board game in Palestine gets e-makeover
A group of Palestinian programmers transform their childhood game from board to screen to save it from disappearing.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A group of Palestinian programmers have transformed Brwanjeya, which has long been one of the most popular board games in Palestine, into an e-game for today’s screen-friendly generation.
Brwanjeya, known as Nine Men's Morris worldwide, is a two-person game played by both adults and children. Its board has three interlocking squares connected by four lines. Each player has nine pieces to move. Players who place three of their pieces on contiguous points in a straight line, vertically or horizontally, have formed a mill and get to permanently remove one opponent's piece from the board.
Salim al-Madhoun, the head of Pixel Group, the team that developed the electronic version of the game, told Al-Monitor, “As a group of Palestinian programmers, we wanted to keep the game alive because it is part of our Palestinian heritage."
The game is widely played in Palestine and the Middle East, but the roots of the game are in dispute. Some historians say it dates back to ancient Egypt, whereas others link it to ancient Rome.
