Patolli

Patolli is an ancient race game played on a cross-shaped board with 52 spaces. Each player races 6 pieces around the full circuit to win.

1. Bean Dice: throw 5 marked beans. Count how many land marked-side up — that's your move. All 5 blank = move 10 spaces. All 5 marked = move 5 spaces AND take another turn.
2. After rolling, click one of your highlighted pieces to move it. Only pieces with legal moves are selectable.
3. Capture: landing on an opponent's piece sends it back to start. Safe zones (green cells) protect pieces — pieces on safe spaces cannot be captured.
4. You cannot move a piece onto a space already occupied by your own piece.
5. Pieces must travel the full circuit around the cross-shaped track before exiting the board.
6. Win condition: first player to move all 6 pieces around the full track and off the board wins.
7. A virtual tribute system tracks coins awarded for captures and finishing pieces.

Patolli is one of the oldest games in the Americas, played by the Aztec (Mexica) people and their predecessors for at least 2,000 years. When Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 16th century, they documented Patolli with astonishment — noting that Aztec nobles and commoners alike played it with intense enthusiasm, wagering precious stones, blankets, and sometimes even their own freedom.

The board's cross shape carries deep cosmological significance: the four arms represent the four cardinal directions and the four seasons, aligning the game with the Aztec 52-year calendar cycle — the same number as spaces on the board. The game was also associated with Macuilxochitl, the Aztec god of games, pleasure, and excess, and was often played during religious festivals as an act of devotion.

Spanish colonizers banned Patolli as pagan gambling, and the game was nearly erased from history. Its survival today is largely due to the detailed accounts written by Spanish missionaries who documented it precisely in order to condemn it. Digital preservation efforts like this one help ensure the game reaches future generations — not as a curiosity, but as living culture.