OSLO, July 29 (Xinhua) -- A Norwegian video game developer has created a video game based on a type of Viking chess of some 1,600 years old, newspaper Aftenposten reported Monday.
Old Northern European board game "Hnefatafl" inspired Kenneth Engelsen to create the video game that can be played on Windows PC, Mac and Linux from September.
While archaeologists believe that the old game dates back to year 400, its origins are officially unknown and the game was mentioned in different laws and old poems, the report said.
"I have worked in my 'own little box' with this for so long. It is really great to see the game taking form," said Engelsen.
The old game that reminds of today's chess was reconstructed in 1700s by scientists.
"The reconstruction was based on objects that were found in Viking graves and things that were mentioned in sagas and city laws," Engelsen said.
"We do not know whether the rules are exactly the way they were in the Viking time, but this is closest we manage to approach them. We follow the 'Copenhagen rules' that were used in, among others, world championship in Hnefatafl," he said.
According to Guro Koksvik Lund, Senior Executive Officer at Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, Hnefatafl was very popular during the Viking time, but goes back to the Iron Age, before year 400.
So far several game pieces, dating back to 12th, 13th and 14th century, have been found in Bergen in western Norway, the report said.
