Dice game

Different cubes had different values ​​and names, for example:

• simpleton - the cheapest white opaque ubiquitous cube;
• water, milk, sour cream - similar to a TV, but more matte (cloudy) and less transparent;
• albatross (aka cockerel) - a white cube, slightly larger than a simpleton with several (1 - 3) thin strips;
• cushion (2/3), sausage (1/3) - chopped off or defective simpleton, there were narrow and wider from 1/3 to 2/3 of the usual simplet;
• blizzard, snow-white - opaque white, fine-grained in composition, with shine. Later appeared greenish and bluish varieties;
• tile - a fragile, slightly larger cube, on one side covered with enamel of different colors, one of the cheapest because of brittleness (there are also dwarf species);
• pentagonal - a pentagonal cube in composition like marble (white, blue, green, spotted) (there are also dwarf species thereof); At one time, craftsmen turned from this cube either one sleeper, or 3 millionths, or two marbles;
• matrasik - looks like a simpleton, only blue, green and white, 2 times thicker and roughened on both sides;
• a suitcase - an opaque white cube with clear edges and a perfectly flat surface;
• TV - a translucent cube with an opaque rim, which cast into the lumen with sunset colors;
• six-cornered - white, green and blue;
• "Northern Lights" - a white cube interspersed with shiny metallic chips;
• Marble - white, plain (gray), spotted, poppy (white in small black dots), blue.
• aspic (white and regular, red, shown in the first picture on the right);
• millionaire, he is a king, (a cube that was worth a million simpletons in value) - white, gray, spotted, pink, blue, green, yellow (as well as their dwarf species);
• rocker - in the form of a half cylinder;
• gnome - three times smaller than a standard cube, it is a peephole (white, green, blue, blue);
• The Golden Hoof;
• silverfish;
• a cross - the size of a millionaire, gray, with an extruded cross on one side.
• fly agaric - black, white, blue, red, brown, pink and other colors. It was considered a very expensive cube (shown in the first figure). There were also “dwarf" fly agarics the same colors, but the cube was smaller, they were "more expensive" than standard ones;
• bezel - ash, gold, white - one of the most expensive, there were also dwarf (reduced) species;
• sleepers - ordinary (gray) and spotty, yellow, and also white in brown speck;
• chocolate - the size of a cross and a millionaire, brown;
• Lenin is the most valuable cube, according to the stories it displayed the profile of Lenin;
• sugar - a white porous cube;
• Kiselek - lilac pink;
• mustard - mustard color;
• grass is green;
• stargazer - blue (royal stargazer - translucent);
• inkwell - a dark purple opaque cube the size of a simpleton;
• golden antelope - a white cube, very similar to a simpleton, but with golden stains, and quite expensive;
• a coffin - a cube in width and length, like two millionaires of white color, but with edges slanted on both sides, like a coffin;
• elephant - (blue and yellow) in thickness as a double simpleton with white small blotches;
• Tent - gray volumetric six-sided cube, reminiscent of a reduced tent;
• other.

There was a certain exchange rate of cubes, for example: 1 marble was equated to 3 simpletons and so on.

The basic classification was built by analogy with the biological

1. Pillow-shaped : the vast majority of samples. A characteristic sign is the presence of pinches along the edges.
   1. Solid : most pillow-shaped of varying prevalence. Inside, it was possible to distinguish two main, not too clearly distinguishable sections.
      1. Convex: simpleton and its transparent analogues.
      2. Flat-faced: milk, and its transparent, as well as colored analogues.
      3. Large-pore: sugar and colored analogues.
      4. Fine-porous (blizzard and colored analogues.
2. Prismatic : specimens with clearly defined faces made of ceramic material.
   1. Rectangular base : as a rule, they had a square base, sometimes a complex irregular polygon with angles of 45 and 90.
      1. Large size class: marbles.
      2. Middle size class: sleepers, millionaires, five-angle.
      3. Small size class: small millionaires.
   2. Trinity base (the base has angles of 30 and 60.
      1. Six angles
      2. Tents
3. Unilateral (ceramic base with cladding.
   1. Tiles
      1. Large size class
      2. Medium size class
   2. Stripes
      1. Black and White: Antelopes, TV.
      2. White side
         1. Large size class: fly agaric.
         2. Medium size class: small fly agaric, deer.
         3. Wrong: jellied meat.

During the game, the player should:

1. Put the predetermined number of cubes in a stack on the palm of your hand.
2. Using a special movement of the hand (without touching the cubes with the second hand), make the cubes “decompose” in the palm of your hand (as much as possible) evenly.
3. It is easy to toss all the cubes at once, quickly turn the hand over and catch all the cubes on the back of the palm.
4. Throw the cubes high and then catch them all one by one individually with one hand (the same one with which the cubes are thrown), so that the back of the palm is always turned up.

The game was always played by two people. Each player had to "put on the game" a cube. This was done by gripping the corresponding cube (or cubes) in a fist. Further, the players simultaneously opened their fists, showing each other each his bet. The one whose bet was “more expensive” was to play first. If the bets turned out to be the same, the first to play was the one who, at the time when the offer was made to play (even before the bets were made), was the first to pronounce the phrase “choo-match-first” (variations - “match-first- pass ”,“ chew-pass-first ”).

The number of dice tossed is usually negotiated in advance - at the moment when an offer was made to play. The game options according to the number of dice were called “double”, “triple”, “quadruple”, etc. If the number of dice tossed was more than 2, then the missing dice were “reported” voluntarily by one of the players, or by both players by agreement. If the player’s throw was successful (all the dice were caught in accordance with the rules), then the die “put” by the opponent passed into the possession of the thrower. If the thrower made a mistake at any stage, the move passed to the opponent. And so on - the players made attempts in turn until one of them succeeded in completing the throw without errors.

The number of dice in the game rarely exceeded 5-7 pieces, since virtuoso units could catch more, the limiting factor of the game was the fragility of the dice - they fought in the fist when fishing.

Errors included the following situations:

• one of the cubes rolled down from a palm;
• fell while trying to transfer all the cubes to the back of the hand;
• the player touched the die with the other hand;
• the player could not catch all the dice during the final throw;
• Caught 2 or more dice at once;
• I caught one of the cubes, palm up.

1. " Clean " and " Dirty ." At the moment when the offer of the game was made, the players always stipulated which of these two versions of the game would be played. In the “clean” version, after tossing the dice from the back of the hand, each dice was caught by moving the hand from top to bottom, the back of the palm should always be turned up. In the “Dirty” version, the same thing happened, but the last cube (and only it) simply fell into the open palm, the back of which was turned down.
2. " Golden ". A rare rule, which implies catching thrown dice starting from the top.
3. “ With layout ” and “ without layout ”. Which of these two options is being played is also always specially agreed upon at the time the proposal was made for the game. The layout option is described in the rules. When playing “with the layout”, the cubes were first laid out on the palm with a column, and then, using a special movement (as if smooth, mostly performed in the horizontal plane, juggling), were “laid out” in the palm of the hand. And after that (if at this stage there were no errors, and not a single die fell), the cubes were transferred to the back of the palm, with which the main throw was then carried out. In the “without layout” version of the game, the cubes were also laid out in the palm at first in a pile. But the “layout” was not carried out - instead, the player had to immediately throw the dice on the back of the hand, and when throwing from the palm, a special movement was carried out, which made the dice slip over each other and “decompose” (meaning - correctly positioned relative to each other) in the air, before falling onto the back of the hand.

Given the above rules and options, even before the start of the game, players had to determine the following parameters:

1. Who the first said the phrase “chu-coincides-first” (determines who makes the first throw, if the players made the same bets).
2. How many dice will be thrown (“double”, “triple”, “quadruple”, etc.)
3. Selected version of the game: "clean" or "dirty."
4. The selected version of the game: “with a layout” or “without a layout”.

The complete definition of a specific game was, for example, “ four dirty without layout ” or “ clean six with layout ”.

The origin of the game is currently unclear. However, the rules of the game, being relatively complex, were at the same time very clearly defined and did not change over a long period.

The following are similar by the rules and essence of the game:

• Galanians ^[3]
• Besh tash (Kyrgyz game) ^{[4] [5]}
• The game of cuckoo (gypsy game) ^[6]