Gallery · Spatial history
Many Centres, One World
Students find 24 ports, mines and capitals on a world map, from Zheng He's fleet at Liujiagang to the silver mountain at Potosí, then trace five trade connections. The rounds start in East Asia, not Lisbon, and the game ends by asking why the usual 'Age of Discovery' story starts in Europe.
Before you teach with it: when the automated check was run on 2026-10-13, this file passed every automated check. That is a statement about the file — self-contained, free of the faults a machine can spot, with a sources screen in place. Whether the history is right and the lesson works is yours to judge. Read Sources & evidence below, then re-check the file yourself.
The game runs here walled off from this website, and it cannot keep saved progress between visits. This page does not switch off the internet, though. To see the game as a classroom with no wifi would, download it and open it with the wifi off.
Teacher guide — Many Centres, One World
A map quiz of the great voyages, c. 1400–1600, for an undergraduate world-history survey.
What the game argues
The age of the great voyages had many centres. Ming China, the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asian ports, the Swahili coast, the Ottomans, the Atlantic powers and the states of the Americas were all part of it. Goods such as pepper, nutmeg, silk, porcelain and silver tied them together.
The game makes this argument by its choices. It starts in East Asia, not in Lisbon. It gives each region about five places. It ends by asking students why the usual "Age of Discovery" story starts in Europe. Students should notice these choices, and the debrief asks them to.
What students do
Each question names an event or a trade ("In 1567 the Ming made this Fujian harbour the legal port for overseas trade. Where?"). Four lettered pins appear on a world map. Students pick one by clicking the pin or the button below the map. Then they read what happened there, how sure historians are (attested, interpretation, or contested), and which sources say so.
There are five rounds and 29 questions:
- East Asia (5)
- The Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia (8)
- The Mediterranean, the Atlantic and Africa (6)
- The Americas (5)
- Connections (5): where did silver, silk, pepper and nutmeg mostly go?
A button switches the map between an Atlantic-centred and a Pacific-centred view. The last screen shows every place on one map, a score by region, a closing question, and the debrief questions.
The question about Elmina Castle is not scored. It became a centre of the Atlantic slave trade, and finding a place of enslavement should not earn a point.
Running one session (about 25 minutes)
- Briefing, 3 minutes. "This is a quiz, but it is also an argument. Watch which places it picks and in what order."
- Play, about 15 minutes. Students play alone on their own laptops. There is no time limit. Nobody has timed a real play-through yet, so time it yourself once.
- Debrief, 7–10 minutes. Use the questions below. Ask students to switch the map view before question 2.
Debrief questions
These are on the game's last screen too.
- This quiz chose the places, the rounds and the order. Which centre did it treat as most important? What does putting the Atlantic round third, not first, argue?
- Switch the map between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Which view made Europe look central? Which made the Pacific look like a highway instead of an edge?
- The quiz asks you to find places, not people. Whose experience of these voyages is missing from a map of ports and routes?
- Pick one place marked "contested" in the Sources screen. What would change in the story if the other reading were right?
- The game gives a point for the right pin. What does that reward, and what kind of historical thinking does it not reward?
The closing screen also asks each student to write one sentence: why might the story so often be told from Europe? You can collect these sentences, or ask students to screenshot the final screen. The game sends nothing anywhere.
Before class
- Check the answers. The agent found the sources itself, and no historian has checked them yet. Read the History Bible, especially the eight items that rest on Wikipedia alone, and change anything you disagree with.
- Open the file once on the classroom setup, and through your LMS if students will get it there.
- Time one play-through.
If something goes wrong
- The page looks broken or blank: make sure the file was saved as
.html, then open it again in Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari. - A student wants to start again: the Start over button at the top clears their answers.
- A student refreshed the page: the game remembers where they were in that browser.
- Saving does not work (for example in a private window): the game still plays; it just cannot continue after a refresh.
Changing the game
All the text is in one block near the top of game.html, marked GAME CONTENT. You can edit it in any plain-text editor (TextEdit in plain-text mode, Notepad, VS Code). Each place has a question, an explanation, a map position, how sure it is, and source numbers. To remove a question, delete its { ... } block and the comma after it. Save and reopen the file to check. If you change a fact, change the History Bible too.
What was tested
An agent played the whole game in a browser, offline and by keyboard only, on a wide screen and a phone-sized screen, and in dark mode. No person has played it yet. Timing, your classroom setup and the accuracy of the answers are untested. See test-ledger.md.
For students: how this game was made
This game was built with an AI agent (Claude). The agent found the sources and wrote the questions from them. Every answer lists its sources on the Sources & assumptions screen, and nothing in the game is invented.
Licence
The instructor owns this game. The sources it cites keep their own terms. The world outline is from Natural Earth, which is public domain.
History Bible — Many Centres, One World
A map quiz of the great voyages, c. 1400–1600, for an undergraduate world-history survey.
What the game argues
The age of the great voyages had many centres, not one. Ming China, the ports of the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia, the Swahili coast, the Ottomans, the Atlantic powers and the states of the Americas were all part of it, and goods such as pepper, cloves, nutmeg, silk, porcelain and silver tied them together. The game makes this argument through its choice of places, the order of the rounds (East Asia first, the Atlantic third), and a closing question that asks why the usual story starts in Europe.
How this was made
- Instructor's material: none. The instructor asked the agent to find the sources.
- Research: an AI agent (Claude) searched for and read every source below on 13 October 2026, and wrote each question and explanation from them. It did not use its own memory for facts. Each item lists the sources it rests on.
- Spot check: a second pass by the same agent re-read five facts in the saved source pages (Iwami 1526, Pizarro's 180 men, da Gama leaving Lisbon on 8 July 1497, the Casa de Contratación in Seville in 1503, the giraffe from Malindi). All five matched.
- Not done: no historian has checked the items against the sources. See the test ledger.
Weak points to know about
- Britannica and UNESCO block automatic downloads, so their pages were read through saved copies in the Internet Archive. Many Britannica pages could not be read at all.
- These items rest on Wikipedia alone: C02, C11, C12, C13, C15, C20, X02, X04. Each Wikipedia link is one fixed version of the article.
- The Ming History (明史) biography of Zheng He was read in the Kanripo digital edition (Siku Quanshu, Wenyuange). That edition numbers it juan 491; standard printed editions call it juan 304.
- Places are shown at their modern locations on today's coastlines (Natural Earth, public domain, 1:50m land outlines, version 5.1.2).
Claim types
- Attested: the event, place and date are stated in a primary source or agreed in standard reference works.
- Interpretation: historians broadly agree, but the claim is a judgement drawn from evidence.
- Contested: historians disagree; the explanation says how.
Nothing in the game is invented: no characters, documents or events are made up. The modelling choices (which places, which rounds, one main destination per trade connection, the wrong answers being other places from the quiz) are listed on the game's Sources & assumptions screen.
Safeguards
- Elmina Castle (C18) became a centre of the Atlantic slave trade. The question is not scored and shows no "right" or "wrong" mark: finding a place of enslavement should not earn a point.
- Potosí (C23) names the mita forced-labour draft in its explanation.
- Tenochtitlan (C21) names the Tlaxcalan allies and smallpox, so the fall is not told as a story of a few Spaniards alone.
- No percentage of world silver is given anywhere, because the sources disagree (60% or 80% for Potosí; one third for Japan).
Claims ledger
Each row is one question in the game. The explanation column is exactly what students read.
| ID | Place | Year | Type | What students read | Sources | Notes and disagreements |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C01 | Liujiagang (today Liuhe town, Taicang, near Shanghai) | 1405 | Attested | Zheng He's first fleet, with about 27,800 men, sailed from here to Fujian and on to Champa. Over seven voyages (1405–1433) Ming fleets reached Southeast Asia, India, the Persian Gulf and East Africa. | 明史 (Mingshi), 宦官傳 Biography of Zheng He 鄭和傳 (standard juan 304; Kanripo KR2a0038, Siku Wenyuange edition, file juan 491, folio 3a), read via ming-shi MCP; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Zheng He' (Wayback Machine copy of 25 Dec 2025); Wikipedia, 'Ming treasure voyages'; Wikipedia, 'Liuhe, Taicang' | Ship numbers and sizes are disputed: the Mingshi says 62 great ships of 44 x 18 zhang (Britannica follows '62 ships'); Columbia's Asia for Educators says 317 ships incl. 'perhaps as many as sixty' treasure ships. Modern scholars doubt the 44-zhang size. The game claims only 'about 27,800 men', which Mingshi and Britannica agree on. The fleet was built and assembled at Nanjing; Liujiagang was the sea-going staging port. Note: the ming-shi tool labels the juan '491' (its file number in the Siku edition); in standard editions the Zheng He biography is Mingshi juan 304. |
| C02 | Yuegang (Moon Harbour), today Haicheng town, Longhai, Zhangzhou, Fujian | 1567 | Interpretation | Once a smugglers' harbour, Yuegang became the one port where Chinese merchants could legally sail abroad. Its traders sailed to Manila, where they sold silk and porcelain for American silver. | Wikipedia, 'Yuegang'; Wikipedia, 'Haijin'; Wikipedia, 'Manila galleon'; Wikipedia, 'Longhai, Zhangzhou' | Only Wikipedia sources were opened for this item (no Britannica or UNESCO page). Japan was still excluded from the licensed trade after 1567 (Haijin article). '1567' is the usual date; the reform took effect step by step. |
| C03 | Macau (Macao) | 1557 | Interpretation | The Ming let the Portuguese keep a trading post here for a yearly rent in silver. It became a hub linking China, Japan, Southeast Asia and Europe, and stayed under Portuguese rule until 1999. | UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Historic Centre of Macao' (no. 1110) (Wayback copy of 13 Jan 2026); Wikipedia, 'Portuguese Macau'; Wikipedia, 'Macau' | Dates differ by source: 1553/1554 for first arrangements, 1557 for permanent settlement. UNESCO says only 'mid-16th century'. Whether it was a formal 'lease' is debated; the explanation says 'yearly rent', which the Wikipedia article supports. |
| C04 | Iwami Ginzan silver mine (Ōda, Shimane, Japan) | 1526 | Interpretation | Using a refining method that came from China through Korea, Iwami produced high-quality silver. In the 16th and early 17th centuries its silver drove trade between Japan, China, and European merchants. | UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine and its Cultural Landscape' (no. 1246) (Wayback copy of 20 Dec 2025); Wikipedia, 'Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine' | Wikipedia says Japan produced 'one third of the world's production' at its peak; this is a rough estimate and is not used in the game text. The 1526 date comes from Wikipedia, not the UNESCO page. |
| C05 | Nagasaki | 1571 | Interpretation | The Portuguese carried Chinese silk here and took Japanese silver back to China. The lord, Ōmura Sumitada, became a Christian and in 1580 leased the town to the Jesuits. | Wikipedia, 'Nanban trade'; Wikipedia, 'Nagasaki'; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Nagasaki' (Wayback copy of 7 Jan 2026) | Britannica (archived copy) confirms Portuguese arrival and the later expulsion, but the 1571 date is from Wikipedia only. |
| C06 | Calicut (Kozhikode), Kerala, India | 1498 | Attested | Calicut was a busy market where merchants from many lands met. Zheng He's fleets stopped here several times. When da Gama arrived in May 1498, he was a newcomer to an old trading world. | 明史 (Mingshi), 宦官傳 Biography of Zheng He 鄭和傳 (standard juan 304; Kanripo KR2a0038, Siku Wenyuange edition, file juan 491, folio 3a), read via ming-shi MCP; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Zheng He' (Wayback Machine copy of 25 Dec 2025); Wikipedia, 'Kozhikode'; Wikipedia, 'Ming treasure voyages' | Da Gama actually landed a little north of the town (Kappad); the map click is the city. Zheng He's place of death (at sea or in Calicut, 1433) is uncertain; not used in the game text. |
| C07 | Hormuz (island at the mouth of the Persian Gulf) | 1414 / 1515 | Interpretation | Hormuz was a rich trading kingdom where goods from India, Persia and Arabia met. Ming fleets came in the 1410s and again in 1433. The Portuguese seized it in 1515 and made ships buy passes. | 明史 (Mingshi), 宦官傳 Biography of Zheng He 鄭和傳 (standard juan 304; Kanripo KR2a0038, Siku Wenyuange edition, file juan 491, folio 3a), read via ming-shi MCP; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Zheng He' (Wayback Machine copy of 25 Dec 2025); Wikipedia, 'Kingdom of Hormuz'; Wikipedia, 'Ming treasure voyages' | The year field gives two dates. The 'buy passes' point is from Wikipedia only. |
| C08 | Malacca (Melaka), Malaysia | 1411 / 1511 | Interpretation | The Malacca Sultanate grew rich on traffic through the strait. Zheng He visited often, and its ruler went to the Ming court in 1411. The Portuguese captured the city in 1511. | 明史 (Mingshi), 宦官傳 Biography of Zheng He 鄭和傳 (standard juan 304; Kanripo KR2a0038, Siku Wenyuange edition, file juan 491, folio 3a), read via ming-shi MCP; Wikipedia, 'Malacca Sultanate'; Wikipedia, 'Portuguese Malacca'; UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca' (no. 1223) (Wayback copy of 31 Dec 2025) | Wikipedia's number of Zheng He visits ('six') is not used. |
| C09 | Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania | 13th–16th c. (Portuguese 1505) | Attested | Kilwa grew rich from Indian Ocean trade with Arabia, India and China. Its Great Mosque was decorated with Chinese porcelain. In 1505 a Portuguese fleet attacked and built a fort here, and the city declined. | UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Ruins of Songo Mnara' (no. 144) (Wayback copy of 21 Dec 2025); Wikipedia, 'Kilwa Sultanate'; Wikipedia, 'Kilwa Kisiwani' | UNESCO dates Kilwa's peak to the 13th–14th centuries; by 1500 it was past its height. The 1505 attack is from Wikipedia only. |
| C10 | Malindi, Kenya | 1410s / 1498 | Contested | In the 1410s Zheng He's fleet reached Malindi, and its ruler sent a giraffe to China. In 1498 da Gama hired a pilot here, probably a Gujarati, who guided him across the ocean to India. | Wikipedia, 'Malindi'; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Zheng He' (Wayback Machine copy of 25 Dec 2025); Wikipedia, 'Ahmad ibn Majid'; Wikipedia, 'Vasco da Gama' | Contested points: (1) Britannica confirms the fleet reached Kenya's coast but does not name Malindi; the 1414 date and the giraffe come from Wikipedia only, and scholars differ on which voyage and which year. The game says 'in the 1410s'. (2) The old story that the pilot was the famous Arab navigator Ibn Majid is now rejected; the game says 'probably a Gujarati'. Teachers may want to soften the giraffe line if they want only Britannica/UNESCO-level support. |
| C11 | Banda Islands, Maluku, Indonesia | 1512 | Interpretation | Bandanese traders sold nutmeg across a wide Asian network and carried cargo to Malacca. The first Portuguese reached Banda in early 1512, guided there by Malay pilots. | Wikipedia, 'Banda Islands' | Only one source (Wikipedia) opened for this item. The Britannica page could not be fetched (rate-limited). |
| C12 | Ternate, North Maluku, Indonesia | 1512 | Interpretation | Cloves made the sultans of Ternate among the richest rulers in the region. In 1512 the sultan welcomed shipwrecked Portuguese, hoping for a strong ally against his rival, Tidore. | Wikipedia, 'Ternate'; Wikipedia, 'Banda Islands' | Wikipedia only. 'Against his rival, Tidore' is a light paraphrase of the article's account of Ternate–Tidore rivalry. |
| C13 | Manila, Philippines | 1571 | Interpretation | Legazpi built Spanish Manila on the ruins of an older settlement after defeating its ruler, Rajah Sulayman. Chinese merchants from Fujian came to sell silk and porcelain for silver from the Americas. | Wikipedia, 'Manila'; Wikipedia, 'Manila galleon' | The galleon route itself began in 1565, before Manila became the Spanish capital (see C24). |
| C14 | Istanbul (Constantinople) | 1453 / 1513 | Attested | Ottoman forces took Constantinople on 29 May 1453. The Ottomans watched the new voyages closely: Piri Reis's 1513 world map, showing the Atlantic coasts, is kept in the Topkapı Palace here. | Wikipedia, 'Fall of Constantinople'; UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Historic Areas of Istanbul' (no. 356) (Wayback copy of 28 Dec 2025); Wikipedia, 'Piri Reis map' | 'Watched the new voyages closely' is an interpretation drawn from the existence of the 1513 map; keep it light. Avoid repeating fringe claims about the Piri Reis map (the Wikipedia article rejects them). |
| C15 | Alexandria, Egypt | 15th century | Interpretation | Spices came by ship to Aden, up the Red Sea, and down the Nile to Alexandria. Venetian and other European merchants kept warehouses and consuls here. The Ottomans took Egypt in 1517. | Wikipedia, 'Alexandria'; Wikipedia, 'Spice trade'; Wikipedia, 'Piri Reis map' | The Alexandria article describes the route over the late medieval period in general, not only the 15th century; the game's 'before 1498' is a fair but broad framing. |
| C16 | Lisbon (Belém), Portugal | 1497 | Attested | Most Portuguese voyages set out from here. The spice trade brought great wealth, and around 1514 the Tower of Belém was built at the harbour entrance, partly to remember da Gama's expedition. | Wikipedia, 'Vasco da Gama'; Wikipedia, 'Lisbon'; UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of Belém in Lisbon' (no. 263) (Wayback copy of 13 Jan 2026) | |
| C17 | Cape of Good Hope, South Africa | 1488 | Attested | Bartolomeu Dias's expedition rounded Africa's southern tip in 1488, showing a sea route from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. Despite its fame, this cape is not Africa's southernmost point: Cape Agulhas is. | Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Bartolomeu Dias' (Wayback copy of 13 Jan 2026); Wikipedia, 'Bartolomeu Dias'; Wikipedia, 'Cape of Good Hope' | Wikipedia's 'Cape of Good Hope' article says Dias reached the cape on 12 March 1488, while its 'Bartolomeu Dias' article says he first saw it on the way home in May 1488. The game uses only '1488'. 'The first European' matters: the game must not suggest no one else had been there. |
| C18 | Elmina Castle (São Jorge da Mina), Ghana | 1482 | Attested | African merchants already ran a busy gold trade here. The castle later became a major centre of the Atlantic slave trade: enslaved Africans were held here before being shipped to the Americas. | UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions' (no. 34) (Wayback copy of 5 Jan 2026); Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Elmina' (Wayback copy of 8 Nov 2025); Wikipedia, 'Elmina Castle' | Handle soberly: no points bonus, sound effect or 'win' animation on this item. Wikipedia notes that at first the Portuguese at Elmina did not capture people themselves but bought captives elsewhere; the large-scale slave trade through the castle came later (especially 17th century). The explanation says 'later' to keep this accurate. |
| C19 | Seville, Spain | 1503 | Attested | The Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) controlled Spain's Atlantic trade from here. Silver from mines such as Potosí flowed into Seville, and it became one of the largest cities in Western Europe. | Wikipedia, 'Casa de Contratación'; Wikipedia, 'Seville'; UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'City of Potosí' (no. 420) (Wayback copy of 22 Dec 2025) | |
| C20 | Guanahani (traditionally San Salvador Island, Bahamas) | 1492 | Contested | Columbus named the island San Salvador; it was already home to Lucayan people. Which island it was is still debated. The usual choice is today's San Salvador Island, but scholars have proposed others. | Wikipedia, 'Guanahani'; Wikipedia, 'San Salvador Island' | The landfall island is contested. Use a wide click radius. Britannica pages on Columbus could not be fetched (rate-limited). |
| C21 | Tenochtitlan (today central Mexico City) | 1521 | Interpretation | Tenochtitlan was the Mexica capital, with a huge market. In 1521 it fell to Spanish forces and thousands of Indigenous allies, mostly Tlaxcalans, after smallpox had killed many people. Mexico City was built on its ruins. | UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimilco' (no. 412) (Wayback copy of 19 Dec 2025); Wikipedia, 'Tenochtitlan'; Wikipedia, 'Fall of Tenochtitlan' | 'Largest city in the Americas' is Wikipedia's wording ('largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas at its peak'); population estimates vary widely and are not used. |
| C22 | Cajamarca, Peru | 1532 | Attested | Atahuallpa had just won an Inca civil war. Francisco Pizarro's small force of about 180 men ambushed him here. He paid a huge ransom in gold and silver but was executed in 1533. | Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Atahuallpa' (Wayback copy of 13 Jan 2026); Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Cajamarca' (Wayback copy of 28 Jan 2026); Wikipedia, 'Atahualpa' | Execution date differs: Britannica 29 August 1533, Wikipedia 26 July 1533. The game says only '1533'. |
| C23 | Potosí (Cerro Rico), Bolivia | 1545 | Interpretation | Potosí became one of the world's biggest silver producers. Indigenous men were forced to work in its mines under the mita labour draft. Its silver went to Spain and, across the Pacific, to Asia. | Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Potosí' (Wayback copy of 14 Dec 2025); UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'City of Potosí' (no. 420) (Wayback copy of 22 Dec 2025); Wikipedia, 'Potosí'; Wikipedia, 'Manila galleon' | Wikipedia gives conflicting shares of world silver (60% in 'Potosí', 80% in 'Cerro Rico'); the game gives no percentage. UNESCO's Dutch summary says silver found 'between 1542 and 1545'. Wikipedia notes that mita workers were only part of the workforce (a 1603 report: about 1 in 10); the game says 'forced', which is true for mita workers. |
| C24 | Acapulco, Mexico | 1565 | Attested | Each year galleons brought Chinese silk and porcelain, Asian spices and other goods here, and went back to Manila loaded mostly with American silver. The route ran until 1815. | Wikipedia, 'Manila galleon'; World History Encyclopedia, Mark Cartwright, 'Manila Galleon' (29 Oct 2021); Wikipedia, 'Acapulco' | The archived Britannica 'Acapulco' page had no readable body text and was not used. |
| X01 | Silver: Potosí → Acapulco → Manila → China | after 1571 | Contested | Spanish galleons carried American silver from Acapulco to Manila. There Fujian merchants took it home to China, where silver was used as money and was worth more than in Europe or the Americas. | Wikipedia, 'Manila galleon'; World History Encyclopedia, Mark Cartwright, 'Manila Galleon' (29 Oct 2021); Wikipedia, 'Yuegang'; UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'City of Potosí' (no. 420) (Wayback copy of 22 Dec 2025) | How much of the world's silver reached China is debated; estimates vary a lot. The game says 'much of it', not 'most'. A large share of Potosí silver also went across the Atlantic to Seville (C19). |
| X02 | Silk and porcelain: Yuegang → Manila (→ Acapulco) | after 1571 | Interpretation | Fujian junks sailed to Manila and sold silk, porcelain and other goods to the Spanish, who shipped them on to Mexico on the galleons. | Wikipedia, 'Manila galleon'; Wikipedia, 'Yuegang' | Wikipedia only. |
| X03 | Silver for silk: Japan (Iwami, via Nagasaki) → Macau/China | after 1557 | Interpretation | Because Ming law still banned trade with Japan, Portuguese carracks based at Macau carried Chinese silk to Japan and Japanese silver back to China. | Wikipedia, 'Nanban trade'; Wikipedia, 'Haijin'; UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine and its Cultural Landscape' (no. 1246) (Wayback copy of 20 Dec 2025) | Wokou (Chinese and Japanese) and Ryukyuan traders also carried this silver; the Portuguese were not the only carriers, so the prompt says 'often'. |
| X04 | Pepper: Calicut → Red Sea → Alexandria → Venice | 15th century | Interpretation | Pepper from Malabar went by sea to Aden and the Red Sea, overland to the Nile, and down to Alexandria, where Venetian merchants bought it. Da Gama's voyage opened a second, all-sea route around Africa. | Wikipedia, 'Kozhikode'; Wikipedia, 'Alexandria'; Wikipedia, 'Republic of Venice'; Wikipedia, 'Vasco da Gama' | Other routes also existed (Persian Gulf to Syria; Beirut). 'Mainly' is a simplification. |
| X05 | Nutmeg and cloves: Banda → Malacca | c. 1500 | Interpretation | Bandanese and Javanese traders carried nutmeg, mace and cloves to Malacca, where merchants from India, China and the Middle East bought them. | Wikipedia, 'Banda Islands'; Wikipedia, 'Malacca Sultanate'; UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca' (no. 1223) (Wayback copy of 31 Dec 2025) | 'Merchants from India, China and the Middle East' is a general description of Malacca's market; the sources describe it as a hub of Asian trade. |
Sources
Date accessed for every source: 2026-10-13.
How the sources were read
- Britannica and UNESCO block automatic downloads (a Cloudflare check). So I read their pages through saved copies in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. The URL given is the exact saved copy I read. The date of each saved copy is in the title.
- Many Britannica pages could not be read at all (the Wayback Machine refused too many requests, or the page did not exist). For those places I used Wikipedia. Each Wikipedia link is a fixed revision ("oldid"), so the text will not change.
- The Chinese text of the Mingshi was read with the ming-shi tool. The tool labels the juan "491", which is its file number in the Siku Quanshu (Wenyuange) edition. In ordinary printed editions the Zheng He biography is in juan 304 (Biographies of Eunuchs 1).
- Coordinates come from the Wikipedia article for each place (or Chinese Wikipedia for Liujiagang and Haicheng). They mark the modern site. Use a generous click radius, especially for Guanahani.
Primary source (Chinese)
- 明史 (Mingshi), 宦官傳 Biography of Zheng He 鄭和傳 (standard juan 304; Kanripo KR2a0038, Siku Wenyuange edition, file juan 491, folio 3a), read via ming-shi MCP. Publisher: Kanripo digital text, via the ming-shi MCP tool. URL: kanripo:KR2a0038.491.0014 (no web URL; Kanripo text KR2a0038, git eccd6fe9). Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C01, C06, C07, C08.
UNESCO
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Historic Centre of Macao' (no. 1110) (Wayback copy of 13 Jan 2026). Publisher: UNESCO World Heritage Centre (read through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20260113091435/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1110. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C03.
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine and its Cultural Landscape' (no. 1246) (Wayback copy of 20 Dec 2025). Publisher: UNESCO World Heritage Centre (read through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20251220044048/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1246/. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C04, X03.
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca' (no. 1223) (Wayback copy of 31 Dec 2025). Publisher: UNESCO World Heritage Centre (read through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20251231193358/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1223/. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C08, X05.
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Ruins of Songo Mnara' (no. 144) (Wayback copy of 21 Dec 2025). Publisher: UNESCO World Heritage Centre (read through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20251221211123/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/144. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C09.
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Historic Areas of Istanbul' (no. 356) (Wayback copy of 28 Dec 2025). Publisher: UNESCO World Heritage Centre (read through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20251228090323/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/356. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C14.
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of Belém in Lisbon' (no. 263) (Wayback copy of 13 Jan 2026). Publisher: UNESCO World Heritage Centre (read through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20260113153302/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/263/. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C16.
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions' (no. 34) (Wayback copy of 5 Jan 2026). Publisher: UNESCO World Heritage Centre (read through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20260105050533/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/34/. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C18.
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'City of Potosí' (no. 420) (Wayback copy of 22 Dec 2025). Publisher: UNESCO World Heritage Centre (read through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20251222122022/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/420/. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C19, C23, X01.
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimilco' (no. 412) (Wayback copy of 19 Dec 2025). Publisher: UNESCO World Heritage Centre (read through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20251219074837/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/412. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C21.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Zheng He' (Wayback Machine copy of 25 Dec 2025). Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica (read through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20251225044203/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Zheng-He. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C01, C06, C07, C10.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Nagasaki' (Wayback copy of 7 Jan 2026). Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica (read through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20260107094026/https://www.britannica.com/place/Nagasaki-Japan. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C05.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Bartolomeu Dias' (Wayback copy of 13 Jan 2026). Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica (read through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20260113125310/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bartolomeu-Dias. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C17.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Elmina' (Wayback copy of 8 Nov 2025). Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica (read through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20251108122534/https://www.britannica.com/place/Elmina. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C18.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Atahuallpa' (Wayback copy of 13 Jan 2026). Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica (read through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20260113044503/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Atahuallpa. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C22.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Cajamarca' (Wayback copy of 28 Jan 2026). Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica (read through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20260128122840/https://www.britannica.com/place/Cajamarca-Peru. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C22.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Potosí' (Wayback copy of 14 Dec 2025). Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica (read through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20251214034051/https://www.britannica.com/place/Potosi-Bolivia. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C23.
Other reference pages
- World History Encyclopedia, Mark Cartwright, 'Manila Galleon' (29 Oct 2021). Publisher: World History Encyclopedia. URL: https://www.worldhistory.org/Manila_Galleon/. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C24, X01.
Wikipedia
- Wikipedia, 'Ming treasure voyages'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ming_treasure_voyages&oldid=1379724358. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C01, C06, C07.
- Wikipedia, 'Liuhe, Taicang'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Liuhe,_Taicang&oldid=1374640078. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C01.
- Wikipedia, 'Yuegang'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yuegang&oldid=1361426992. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C02, X01, X02.
- Wikipedia, 'Haijin'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Haijin&oldid=1367155904. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C02, X03.
- Wikipedia, 'Manila galleon'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manila_galleon&oldid=1377200665. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C02, C13, C23, C24, X01, X02.
- Wikipedia, 'Longhai, Zhangzhou'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Longhai,_Zhangzhou&oldid=1378737466. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C02.
- Wikipedia, 'Portuguese Macau'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portuguese_Macau&oldid=1379972966. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C03.
- Wikipedia, 'Macau'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Macau&oldid=1379508320. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C03.
- Wikipedia, 'Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Iwami_Ginzan_Silver_Mine&oldid=1366154532. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C04.
- Wikipedia, 'Nanban trade'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nanban_trade&oldid=1378852221. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C05, X03.
- Wikipedia, 'Nagasaki'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nagasaki&oldid=1375918279. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C05.
- Wikipedia, 'Kozhikode'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kozhikode&oldid=1379258872. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C06, X04.
- Wikipedia, 'Kingdom of Hormuz'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kingdom_of_Hormuz&oldid=1379864311. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C07.
- Wikipedia, 'Malacca Sultanate'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Malacca_Sultanate&oldid=1364526423. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C08, X05.
- Wikipedia, 'Portuguese Malacca'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portuguese_Malacca&oldid=1366854324. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C08.
- Wikipedia, 'Kilwa Sultanate'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kilwa_Sultanate&oldid=1376448338. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C09.
- Wikipedia, 'Kilwa Kisiwani'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kilwa_Kisiwani&oldid=1372017470. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C09.
- Wikipedia, 'Malindi'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Malindi&oldid=1378389256. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C10.
- Wikipedia, 'Ahmad ibn Majid'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ahmad_ibn_Majid&oldid=1376623749. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C10.
- Wikipedia, 'Vasco da Gama'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vasco_da_Gama&oldid=1379526737. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C10, C16, X04.
- Wikipedia, 'Banda Islands'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Banda_Islands&oldid=1374268490. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C11, C12, X05.
- Wikipedia, 'Ternate'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ternate&oldid=1377311709. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C12.
- Wikipedia, 'Manila'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manila&oldid=1377448756. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C13.
- Wikipedia, 'Fall of Constantinople'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fall_of_Constantinople&oldid=1379906759. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C14.
- Wikipedia, 'Piri Reis map'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Piri_Reis_map&oldid=1376840318. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C14, C15.
- Wikipedia, 'Alexandria'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alexandria&oldid=1380052889. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C15, X04.
- Wikipedia, 'Spice trade'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spice_trade&oldid=1379455527. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C15.
- Wikipedia, 'Lisbon'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lisbon&oldid=1380028414. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C16.
- Wikipedia, 'Bartolomeu Dias'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bartolomeu_Dias&oldid=1378023528. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C17.
- Wikipedia, 'Cape of Good Hope'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cape_of_Good_Hope&oldid=1365176812. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C17.
- Wikipedia, 'Elmina Castle'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elmina_Castle&oldid=1365733135. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C18.
- Wikipedia, 'Casa de Contratación'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Casa_de_Contrataci%C3%B3n&oldid=1378519131. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C19.
- Wikipedia, 'Seville'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Seville&oldid=1380090690. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C19.
- Wikipedia, 'Guanahani'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Guanahani&oldid=1377048243. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C20.
- Wikipedia, 'San Salvador Island'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=San_Salvador_Island&oldid=1376767636. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C20.
- Wikipedia, 'Tenochtitlan'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tenochtitlan&oldid=1377746652. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C21.
- Wikipedia, 'Fall of Tenochtitlan'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fall_of_Tenochtitlan&oldid=1371683304. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C21.
- Wikipedia, 'Atahualpa'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Atahualpa&oldid=1375939436. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C22.
- Wikipedia, 'Potosí'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Potos%C3%AD&oldid=1379332472. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C23.
- Wikipedia, 'Acapulco'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Acapulco&oldid=1378291066. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: C24.
- Wikipedia, 'Republic of Venice'. Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation (en.wikipedia.org), fixed revision. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Republic_of_Venice&oldid=1379058527. Accessed 2026-10-13. Used for: X04.
Sources opened but not used
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Acapulco' (Wayback copy of 17 Oct 2025, https://web.archive.org/web/20251017015855/https://www.britannica.com/place/Acapulco). The saved copy had no article text.
- Columbia Asia for Educators says the Ming government ordered all ocean-going ships destroyed in 1525. I could not confirm this anywhere else, so it is not used.
- Wikipedia 'Haijin', 'Spice trade', 'Mit'a', 'Cusco', 'Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire', 'Hernán Cortés', 'Columbian exchange', 'Aden', 'Khambhat', 'Gujarat Sultanate', 'Nanban trade' and UNESCO 'City of Cuzco' (no. 273) and 'Venice and its Lagoon' (no. 394) were read for background. Some are cited above; the others gave nothing the game needs.
Sources I could not open
- Britannica pages for Vasco da Gama, Kozhikode (Calicut), Christopher Columbus, Tenochtitlan, Fall of Constantinople, Banda Islands, Macau, Kilwa, Khambhat, Manila, Hormuz, Spice trade, Aden: blocked (HTTP 429 from the Wayback Machine). Malacca, Malindi, Ternate, Piri Reis, Manila galleon: no page at the address I tried (404).
- UNESCO 'Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region' (no. 1495): not tried after the rate limit. Not needed.
- A Macmillan textbook page (McKay, A History of World Societies, 10th ed.) on the silver trade showed up in a web search, but the site did not load, so it is not used. Search-result snippets were not used as sources.
Items dropped or changed, and why
- Cambay / Gujarat: dropped to keep the list at 24. The Gujarati link survives in the Malindi item (da Gama's pilot was probably Gujarati). Wikipedia 'Khambhat' (Duarte Barbosa on Cambay cloth going to Mogadishu) would support a Cambay item if you want one later.
- Aden: not used as a map item. Wikipedia 'Aden' has the 1513 Portuguese siege and the 1538 Ottoman takeover, if needed.
- Venice: not a map item. It appears in the pepper connection (X04).
- Cuzco: not used; Cajamarca was chosen for the Inca item because the capture of Atahuallpa happened there.
- Percentages of world silver (Potosí '60%' or '80%', Japan 'one third', China 'most of the world's silver') are left out. The sources disagree or call them estimates.
- Zheng He's ship numbers and ship sizes are left out of the game text. Sources disagree (62 ships in the Mingshi and Britannica; 317 ships in Columbia's page).
Contested points flagged in claims.json
- C10 Malindi: the year of the Chinese visit and the giraffe come from Wikipedia only; the identity of da Gama's pilot (not Ibn Majid; probably Gujarati).
- C20 Guanahani: which island Columbus reached is debated.
- X01 Silver to China: how much of the world's silver ended up in China is debated.
- Smaller date differences noted: Macau 1553/1554/1557; Dias 'March' or 'May' 1488 at the Cape; Atahuallpa executed 26 July (Wikipedia) or 29 August (Britannica) 1533; Potosí silver found 1545 (UNESCO's Dutch summary says 1542–1545).
Test ledger — Many Centres, One World
File tested: game.html, 265,706 bytes, sha256 beginning 5eb6c565ab4d, built 13 October 2026. If the file has changed since, re-run the checks below.
Statuses: passed (the check was run and it passed), untested (not run — this is not a pass), failed.
Testers: Agent means an AI agent (Claude) drove a real browser with a script. Script means an automated check ran. Person means a human did it. No row in this ledger was done by a person.
What was tested
| # | Check | Method and environment | Result | Tester, date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gallery checker | node tools/validate.mjs game.html | passed: no blocking findings, no warnings | Script, 2026-10-13 |
| 2 | Plays offline from disk | Headless Chromium 1228 (Playwright), network switched off, file opened with a file:// address; all 29 questions answered to the final map | passed: no network requests, no console errors | Agent, 2026-10-13 |
| 3 | Keyboard only | Same browser. Tab and Enter only, from the opening screen through every round to the final map; focus position recorded after every step | passed: every control was reached; after each screen change focus moved to the new heading, and after each answer to the Next button | Agent, 2026-10-13 |
| 4 | Survives a refresh | Reloaded the page in the middle of round 1 | passed: the same question came back, with the answer and explanation kept | Agent, 2026-10-13 |
| 5 | Map switch | Switched between the Atlantic and Pacific views during a question and on the final map | passed: pins and dots moved with the map | Agent, 2026-10-13 |
| 6 | Sources & assumptions screen | Opened from the final screen, then Back to the game | passed: the screen lists 59 sources and the source numbers for each place; focus returned to the final screen | Agent, 2026-10-13 |
| 7 | Phone-sized screen | 390 × 844 pixels | passed: no sideways scrolling; pins and buttons usable. Pins can sit close together at this size | Agent, 2026-10-13 |
| 8 | Dark mode | Browser set to dark colour scheme; screenshot after one answer | passed: text and marks readable | Agent, 2026-10-13 |
| 9 | Right and wrong are not shown by colour alone | Screenshots after answers | passed: ✓ and ✗ marks and the words "right" and "your pick" appear as well as colour | Agent, 2026-10-13 |
| 10 | The Elmina question is not scored | Answered it during the full play-through | passed: it says "This is Elmina Castle…" with no right/wrong mark, and the score table says it is not counted | Agent, 2026-10-13 |
| 11 | Facts spot-checked against the saved sources | Re-read five facts in the downloaded pages: Iwami 1526, Pizarro's 180 men, da Gama leaving Lisbon on 8 July 1497, the Casa de Contratación in 1503, the giraffe from Malindi | passed: all five matched | Agent, 2026-10-13 |
What was not tested
| # | Check | Result | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | Timing | untested | Nobody has timed a real play-through. The game says "about 15 minutes" for 29 questions; the listing's 25 minutes adds a briefing and debrief. |
| 13 | Classroom computer, projector, LMS | untested | Not tried. |
| 14 | Accuracy of all 29 answers, checked by a historian | untested | The agent wrote the answers from sources it read, and spot-checked only five facts (row 11). Eight items rest on Wikipedia alone (see history-bible.md). |
| 15 | Screen reader | untested | Pins and buttons have labels, but no screen reader was tried. The map image has a text description; the final map's places are also in a numbered list. |
| 16 | Browsers other than Chromium | untested | Safari, Firefox and Edge were not tried. |
| 17 | Touch screens | untested | The phone-sized check (row 7) used a mouse, not a real touch screen. |
| 18 | A person playing it | untested | No student or instructor has played it. Whether the rules are clear within a minute is not known. |
Instructor's five-minute test
- Download
game.html, turn off the wifi, and double-click it. Answer three questions. - Press Start over, then play one question with only Tab and Enter.
- Press Sources & assumptions and read the entry for one place you know well.
- Open it once through your LMS on the classroom computer.
Checks the automated checker cannot make
The checker reads a file; it cannot play a game or stand in a classroom. These six checks need someone to actually do them. This is what the contributor reported, in their words. Where they said who did the testing, the status says so: a check run by an agent or a script is not the same as a person trying it. A check they did not report is shown as untested.
| Check | Status | What they said |
|---|---|---|
| Runs with the wifi off | Tested by an agent | An agent opened the file from disk in headless Chromium with the network switched off and played all 29 questions to the end. No network request was made and no error appeared. No person has tried it with the wifi off. |
| Playable by keyboard alone | Tested by an agent | An agent played the whole game with Tab and Enter only, from the opening screen to the final map, and checked where the focus went after every screen change. Visible focus was checked in screenshots, not by a person. No screen reader was tried. |
| Fits the stated session length | Untested | Nobody has timed a real play-through. There are 29 questions; the game says 'about 15 minutes'. The 25 minutes includes a short briefing and the debrief, and is an estimate. |
| Opened on a real classroom setup | Untested | Not opened on a classroom computer, a projector or through an LMS. |
| Sources checked against the material | Untested | An agent found and read every source and spot-checked five facts again, but no historian has checked the 29 answers against the sources. Eight items rest on Wikipedia alone; the History Bible lists them. |
| Debrief questions delivered | Tested by an agent | Five debrief questions are shown on the final screen and in the teacher guide. They ask students to criticise the game itself: its choice of places, its round order, its map centre, what a point rewards, and whose experience a map of ports leaves out. No instructor has used them yet. |
Sources and rights
Built with an AI agent (Claude) on 13 October 2026 for an instructor who asked the agent to find the sources. The agent read about 59 sources (Ming History biography of Zheng He, UNESCO World Heritage pages, Britannica, and fixed versions of Wikipedia articles) and wrote every question and explanation from them, citing each. Nothing is invented. Three items are marked contested (Malindi, Columbus's landfall, how much silver reached China). Eight items rest on Wikipedia alone. No historian has checked it yet.
No source text is reproduced beyond short facts; every explanation is written new and cites its sources. The world outline is Natural Earth (public domain). Wikipedia is cited by fixed article versions (CC BY-SA). Britannica and UNESCO pages are cited, not copied. Licence: The instructor owns the game. Cited sources keep their own terms..
Make it yours
Download the file and hand it to your own agent with something like this:
I am adapting a Playable Past game for my own course. Here is the game file and its documents. Follow https://gist.github.com/kltng/2a2b26a8817540531f3191412c308276 and keep the format rules: one self-contained HTML file, nothing fetched during play, no AI needed to run it, and an accurate Sources & assumptions screen. What I want changed: [describe your course, your students, and your sources] Update the history bible and the test ledger to match, and tell me plainly which checks you actually ran and which I still need to run myself.