Why five stones?

Toss-and-catch games are among the oldest games people play. You only need a few small things to throw and a floor to sit on. In Singapore, the one most people remember is five stones, played with little triangular cloth bags.

We kept the real game and its real rounds. You toss one stone, scoop the others off a woven mat, and catch the falling stone before it lands. The twist is the timing. A gold ring shows when you can catch, and it gets smaller as you climb the stages.

A bit of real five stones history

In Malaysia the game is called batu seremban. Singapore’s National Library Board lists other names from around the world, such as jackstones and knucklebones. The oldest versions used the ankle bones of sheep and goats, and the game is pictured on jars from ancient Greece. In Japan a close cousin, otedama, is played with small bags of beans.

In Singapore it was a kampong game. Children first played with real stones of about the same size. Later came small triangular bags, often sewn at home from scraps of cloth and filled with sand, rice or dried beans. Shops sold them too. The National Archives of Singapore keeps a 1950s photo of a girl playing.

As Singapore became more urban, fewer children played it. It has been revived several times since. In 1979 the National Museum held an exhibition of traditional games, and five stones was one of them.

The rules change from school to school, and between Singapore and Malaysia. The core stays the same. Toss one stone, pick up others from the floor with the same hand, and catch the stone before it lands. If you miss the catch, or touch a stone you were not picking up, your turn ends. On your next turn you start again from the step where you went wrong. Finish the whole sequence and you score a point.

The eight rounds

This game follows the eight steps in the National Library Board’s description of five stones. Malaysian competition rules use a different list, with rounds called buah satu, buah dua and so on.

• Ones: four tosses, one stone each time.
• Twos: two tosses, two stones each time.
• Threes: one stone, then the other three.
• Fours: sweep up all four in one toss.
• Down and up: put four stones down while your stone is in the air, then sweep them up on the next toss.
• Exchange: swap the spare stone in your hand for one on the floor, one at a time.
• Two hands: toss two stones, scoop one, and catch one in each hand, until one hand holds three and the other two. The full step goes on for a few more tosses. Here the round ends there.
• Your pick: a friend picks the stone you must toss, and you sweep up the other four.

How to play

• Tap to toss the stone. Tap again to scoop. Tap a third time when it falls into the gold ring.
• Your hand has to be back before the stone comes down, so scoop early.
• Tap on the mat to choose which stones to scoop. Tap anywhere else to take the ones nearest your hand. On a keyboard, Space, Enter or the up arrow works as a tap.
• A tap before the stone reaches the ring closes your hand too soon. Wait for the ring to light up.
• If the stone lands, you play that round again. Nothing else is lost.
• Stages 1 to 9 teach the rounds one or a few at a time. Stage 10 is the full set of eight. Stages 11 and 12 toss faster with a smaller ring.
• Stars per stage: ★★★ for no drops, ★★ for one drop (two on Stage 11, up to seven on Stage 12), ★ for finishing.
• With 2 players, take turns on one device. When your stone lands, pass it over. Next turn you carry on from the round you dropped in. First to finish all eight rounds wins. In Your pick, the other player taps the stone you must toss.
• Earn 3 stickers in this game for your QuickBOP sticker book.

Tips

Scoop straight away. Tap as soon as the stone leaves your hand. The earlier you scoop, the calmer the catch.

Near stones are quick. Your hand takes longer to reach stones at the far edge of the mat. On the fast stages, take the near ones when you have a choice.

Put them down close. In Down and up, tap near the middle of the mat. Where you put the four stones is where you have to sweep them from.

Left, then right. In Two hands, the low stone drops into your left hand first. Catch it, then wait for the high one.

Your turn

The mat is out and the stones are on it. Start with Ones and work your way up to the full set.