Micaceler Pocket Mancala for the Pocket PC

Pocket Mancala for the Pocket PC, Pocket PC 2002 and Pocket PC 2003

Download PMSetup.exe version 1.0 (126 Kb, 50 Kb installed)
Click this download link and run PMSetup.exe to download and install Pocket Mancala on your desktop and Pocket PC. You must have ActiveSync installed on your desktop PC. A shortcut to Pocket Mancala will be installed in the Games program group on your Pocket PC. Version History

Register
Click the Register link to register your copy of Pocket Mancala.

How to Play
Overview | General Rules | Kalah | Oware | Congklak | Tips

Frequently Asked Questions

Overview

Mancala is a strategy game that originated in Africa thousands of years ago, played by moving stones around a number of pits. The objective of the game is to capture more stones than your opponent. Pocket Mancala is a one or two player game that provides three Mancala variations, Kalah, Oware and Congklak, and many others in between.

Features

One or two player
Three major variations and many others in between
Four difficulty levels
Options and game state persisted, even on reset
Simple, streamlined UI with single tap play
Built-in tutorial
Integrated help
Undo last turn

General Rules

Each player has a set of pits on their side of the board which contain some stones.
Each player also has a large store pit which starts empty. Stones captured during the game are placed in this store.
On your turn, choose any pit on your side of the board to play stones from.
Remove all the stones from that pit, and starting from the next pit, place the stones one in each pit in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction.
See specific rules below for each variation.

Kalah Rules

The Kalah board has 6 pits and each pit starts with 4 stones. Each player's store is on their right.
Stones are played in an anti-clockwise direction. The circuit includes your pits, your store and your opponent's pits, but your opponent's store is skipped.
If the last stone falls in your own store, you play another turn.
If the last stone falls in an empty pit on your side of the board, you capture that stone and all the stones directly opposite that pit, and place them into your store.
The game ends when either player captures more than half of all the stones.
The game also ends if a player whose turn it is has no stones to play. All remaining stones are captured by the opponent.
You cannot starve your opponent. If your opponent has no stones to play, and you have a turn that gives your opponent something to play, then you must play such a turn.

Oware Rules

The Oware board has 6 pits and each pit starts with 4 stones. Each player's store is on their right.
Stones are played in an anti-clockwise direction. The circuit includes your pits and your opponent's pits, but both stores are skipped.
The pit that the turn was started from, the one from which all stones were removed and played, is also skipped.
If the last stone falls in a pit on your opponent's side of the board that now has two or three stones, you capture all of them and place them into your store.
You also capture all stones in previous consecutive opponent pits that have two or three stones.
The game ends when either player captures more than half of all the stones.
The game also ends if a player whose turn it is has no stones to play. All remaining stones are captured by the opponent.
You cannot starve your opponent. If your opponent has no stones to play, and you have a turn that gives your opponent something to play, then you must play such a turn.

Congklak Rules

The Congklak board has 7 pits and each pit starts with 7 stones. Each player's store is on their left.
Stones are played in a clockwise direction. The circuit includes your pits, your store and your opponent's pits, but your opponent's store is skipped.
If the last stone falls in your own store, you play another turn.
If the last stone falls in any other non-empty pit, you play another turn from that pit.
If the last stone falls in an empty pit on your side of the board, you capture that stone and all the stones directly opposite that pit.
Your turn ends when the last stone falls in an empty pit that is not your own store.
When all the stones are in the stores, each player places 7 stones each, from their own store, into their own pits, starting from the pit closest to their store.
Extra stones are left in the stores, and play continues.
The player with less stones in their store will not be able to fill one or more pits. These pits remain out-of-play for this round of play.
The game ends when one player does not have enough stones to fill at least 4 pits for the next round (less than 28 stones).

Tips

Count backward from an opponent's pit to see if you can play a turn to capture stones in that pit.
In "two-three" capture games (Oware and variations), avoid having pits with one or two stones in them.
In "across empty pit" capture games (Kalah, Congklak and variations), avoid accumulating stones in pits opposite empty opponent pits.
Create and play Mancala variations of your own by changing individual settings in the Rule Options dialog.
When the stone counts are not displayed, tap the plus symbol in an overfull pit to see an exact count of the stones in that pit.

Version History

Version 1.0 Jan 29, 2002
First release

Frequently Asked Questions

What platforms are supported?
Pocket Mancala will run on any Pocket PC 2000, 2002 or 2003.

Can I install Pocket Mancala manually?
PMSetup should automatically install Pocket Mancala to your Pocket PC, but if you want to install manually, copy the appropriate CAB file (PMARM.CAB, PMMIPS.CAB or PMSH3.CAB) to your Pocket PC \Windows\Start menu and run it. To find out which CAB file is right for your Pocket PC, tap Start, Settings, System, About and look at the Processor field.