Board games are older than writing. Long before anyone had a screen to stare at, people were scratching grids into stone, carving game boards into temple floors, and arguing over whose turn it was in languages that no longer exist.

The remarkable thing is that most of these games are still playable today — and several have free browser versions you can open right now. Here are five of the best.

1. Terni Lapilli — Ancient Rome, ~100 BC

The Roman game that inspired tic tac toe. Archaeologists have found the characteristic 3×3 grid scratched into surfaces all over the Roman Empire — on pavements, on walls, and on the steps of the Colosseum itself. Soldiers played it. Children played it. It was essentially the fidget spinner of the ancient world.

Unlike modern tic tac toe, each player only has three pieces and must slide them around the board rather than placing new ones. The goal is the same — get three in a row — but the sliding mechanic changes everything. The board never fills up, and the game can shift dramatically in just a few moves.

Why it's worth playing: It looks like tic tac toe but plays completely differently. Most people are surprised by how much more interesting the sliding mechanic makes it.

Play it free: Play Terni Lapilli

2. Senet — Ancient Egypt, ~3500 BC

Senet is one of the oldest known board games in existence, played in ancient Egypt for over 3,000 years. Game boards have been found in tombs dating to 3500 BC, and the game is depicted in ancient Egyptian paintings and carvings. Tutankhamun was buried with four Senet boards.

It is played on a grid of 30 squares with throwing sticks used as dice. The goal is to move all your pieces off the board before your opponent does. Some squares have special meanings — good fortune or disaster — tied to Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife. The Egyptians believed the game had spiritual significance, with the outcome reflecting the player's fate in the afterlife.

Why it's worth playing: It is genuinely one of the most historically significant objects in human culture, and it still holds up as a game.

Play it free: Play Senet on Ancient Games — historically accurate rules, plays directly in your browser.

3. Nine Men's Morris — Ancient Rome/Medieval Europe, ~1400 BC

Nine Men's Morris is an ancient board game well over 3,000 years old. Evidence of the board has been found carved into ancient Egyptian temples, Roman military camps, and medieval European cathedrals. It was one of the most popular games in medieval England, mentioned in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Each player has nine pieces and takes turns placing them on the board, trying to form "mills" — three pieces in a row. Forming a mill lets you remove one of your opponent's pieces. Once all pieces are placed, players slide them around the board. The player who reduces their opponent to two pieces wins.

Why it's worth playing: It has real strategic depth — more than tic tac toe or checkers — but the rules are simple enough to learn in two minutes.

Play it free: Play Nine Men's Morris — plays against the computer or a friend, no sign-up needed.

4. Go — Ancient China, ~2500 BC

Go is possibly the deepest strategy game ever invented. It has been played in China for at least 2,500 years and spread to Japan and Korea, where it became a cultural institution. For centuries it was considered one of the four essential arts of the Chinese scholar, alongside calligraphy, painting, and music.

The rules are deceptively simple: two players take turns placing stones on a 19×19 grid, trying to surround more territory than their opponent. But the number of possible Go games vastly exceeds the number of atoms in the observable universe, which is why it took until 2016 for a computer to beat a top human player — decades after computers conquered chess.

Why it's worth playing: If you want to understand what genuine strategic depth feels like, Go is the benchmark everything else is measured against.

Play it free: Play Go on COSUMI — play in your browser on boards from 5×5 to 19×19. Start with 5×5 — it is plenty challenging enough.

5. Mancala — Ancient Africa/Middle East, ~700 AD (boards possibly older)

Mancala is a family of games rather than a single game — there are hundreds of regional variations played across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The oldest known Mancala boards were carved into the roofs of ancient Egyptian temples, though historians debate whether these were actually used for Mancala or for counting. What is certain is that the game has been played continuously in Africa for well over a thousand years.

The basic concept: two players take turns picking up stones from holes in a board and distributing them around the board one by one. The player who captures the most stones wins. It sounds simple but the game rewards forward planning and is deeply embedded in the cultures where it has been played for generations.

Why it's worth playing: It is completely unlike any Western board game in feel and rhythm. Playing it for the first time is a genuinely different experience.

Play it free: Play Mancala on Solitaire Paradise — clean, no-fuss browser version, works on mobile and desktop.

The oldest games are often the best

There is a reason these games have survived for thousands of years while countless others have been forgotten. They are easy to learn, hard to master, and playable with nothing more than a handful of pebbles and a surface to scratch a grid into.

The next time someone tells you board games are a modern invention, point them at the steps of the Colosseum.

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