Is there a shove ha'penny game for PC?

Yes, and it plays very much like the old pub board. Shove Ha'penny in Games by Zaweba has you shove brass ha'pennies up a wooden board to land cleanly between the brass lines, filling all nine beds three times each in as few turns as you can. The app is free, works offline and has no adverts.

It's one of the traditional games in the collection that keeps its traditional name, and it is a lovely, quiet test of touch.

What counts as a mark

Each turn you shove five coins up the board. When the turn ends, every coin lying cleanly inside a bed, not touching either brass line, chalks a mark against that bed. A coin sitting on a line scores nothing. The goal is three marks in each of the nine beds.

Once a bed has its three marks it is full, and a coin landing in a full bed is wasted. So as the game goes on, the target shrinks: you need to land in the beds you still need, and avoid the ones you've finished.

Lining up and shoving

With the mouse, move left or right to line up, press and pull back towards you, then let go to shove. The further you pull, the harder the shove. With the keyboard, Left and Right line up, and you hold Space for power and let go.

The board is not perfectly even. It runs a little faster or slower from shot to shot, so the same pull doesn't always give the same distance. Treat each shove as information about how the board is running right now, and adjust the next one.

Using the coins already on the board

Coins can knock others on or off. A coin lying short of a bed can be nudged into it by the next shove, which is often easier than landing a fresh coin cleanly. But a careless shove can also knock a well-placed coin onto a line or out of its bed. So look at where your coins sit before each shove, and decide whether to play past them, onto them, or around them.

Late in a game, when only a bed or two still needs marks, those knocks become the main tool. A gentle shove that pushes a resting coin the last inch is often the cleanest way to finish.

Playing it well

Light touches win. A coin that slides too far is wasted, just like one that stops short. Most players do better aiming for the near beds with soft shoves early, while the board is clear, then working up to the far ones. And fewer turns is the goal, so don't waste coins in beds you've already filled.

Your best result is kept on the game's tile along with how often you've played, in a scores file on your own PC.

Finding the board in Games by Zaweba

Shove Ha'penny is on the Skill & sport shelf. Press Ctrl+F and type shove to go straight to it. The title card explains the rules and controls, F1 explains them again, Esc pauses and F11 gives the board the whole screen. Everything is drawn and every clink of brass synthesised in code, so there are no downloads and nothing goes online.

If you like it, Curling Stones on the same shelf is the same idea on ice: line, weight and a surface that won't quite behave.