1 \title Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection
3 \cfg{winhelp-filename}{puzzles.hlp}
4 \cfg{winhelp-contents-titlepage}{Contents}
6 \cfg{text-filename}{puzzles.txt}
8 \cfg{html-contents-filename}{index.html}
9 \cfg{html-template-filename}{%k.html}
10 \cfg{html-index-filename}{docindex.html}
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16 \cfg{info-filename}{puzzles.info}
18 \cfg{ps-filename}{puzzles.ps}
19 \cfg{pdf-filename}{puzzles.pdf}
21 This is a collection of small one-player puzzle games.
23 \copyright This manual is copyright 2004 Simon Tatham. All rights
24 reserved. You may distribute this documentation under the MIT licence.
25 See \k{licence} for the licence text in full.
27 \cfg{html-local-head}{<meta name="AppleTitle" content="Puzzles Help">}
31 \C{intro} Introduction
33 I wrote this collection because I thought there should be more small
34 desktop toys available: little games you can pop up in a window and
35 play for two or three minutes while you take a break from whatever
36 else you were doing. And I was also annoyed that every time I found
37 a good game on (say) \i{Unix}, it wasn't available the next time I
38 was sitting at a \i{Windows} machine, or vice versa; so I arranged
39 that everything in my personal puzzle collection will happily run on
40 both, and have more recently done a port to Mac OS X as well. When I
41 find (or perhaps invent) further puzzle games that I like, they'll
42 be added to this collection and will immediately be available on
43 both platforms. And if anyone feels like writing any other front
44 ends - PocketPC, Mac OS pre-10, or whatever it might be - then all
45 the games in this framework will immediately become available on
46 another platform as well.
48 The actual games in this collection were mostly not my invention; I
49 saw them elsewhere, and rewrote them in a form that was more
50 convenient for me. I do not claim credit, in general, for inventing
51 the rules of any of these puzzles; all I claim is authorship of the
52 code (or at least those parts of the code that weren't contributed
55 This collection is distributed under the \i{MIT licence} (see
56 \k{licence}). This means that you can do pretty much anything you like
57 with the game binaries or the code, except pretending you wrote them
58 yourself, or suing me if anything goes wrong.
60 The most recent versions, and \i{source code}, can be found at
61 \I{website}\W{http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/}\cw{http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/}.
63 Please report \I{feedback}\i{bugs} to
64 \W{mailto:anakin@pobox.com}\cw{anakin@pobox.com}.
65 You might find it helpful to read this article before reporting a bug:
67 \W{http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html}\cw{http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html}
69 \ii{Patches} are welcome. Especially if they provide a new front end
70 (to make all these games run on another platform), or a new game.
73 \C{common} \ii{Common features}
75 This chapter describes features that are common to all the games.
77 \H{common-actions} \I{controls}Common actions
79 These actions are all available from the \I{Game menu}\q{Game} menu
80 and via \I{keys}keyboard shortcuts, in addition to any game-specific
83 \dt \ii\e{New game} (\q{N}, Ctrl+\q{N})
85 \dd Starts a new game, with a random initial state.
87 \dt \ii\e{Restart game} (\q{R})
89 \dd Resets the current game to its initial state. Undo is lost.
91 \dt \ii\e{Undo} (\q{U}, Ctrl+\q{Z}, Ctrl+\q{_})
93 \dd Undoes a single move. (You can undo moves back to the start of the
96 \dt \ii\e{Redo} (Ctrl+\q{R})
98 \dd Redoes a previous undone move.
100 \dt \I{exit}\ii\e{Quit} (\q{Q}, Ctrl+\q{Q})
102 \dd Closes the application entirely.
104 \H{common-id} Recreating games with the \ii{game ID}
106 The \q{\i{Specific...}} option from the \I{Game menu}\q{Game} menu
107 lets you see a short string (the \q{game ID}) that captures the
108 initial state of the current game.
110 The precise \I{ID format}format of the ID is specific to each game.
111 It consists of two parts delimited by a colon (e.g., \c{c4x4:4F01,0});
112 the first part encodes \i\e{parameters} (such as grid size), while the
113 second part encodes a \i\e{seed}, which determines the \i{initial
114 state} of the game within those parameters.
116 You can specify a new ID (or just a seed) here. Pressing \q{OK} starts
117 a new game with the specified ID (whether you changed it or not).
118 Pressing \q{Cancel} returns to the current game.
120 You can also use the game ID (or just the encoded parameters) as a
121 \i{command line} argument; see \k{common-cmdline} for more detail.
123 Game IDs are portable across platforms; you can use a game ID
124 generated by the Windows version of a game on the Unix version, etc.
126 \H{common-type} The \q{Type} menu
128 The \I{Type menu}\q{Type} menu, if present, may contain a list of
129 \i{preset} game settings. Selecting one of these will start a new
130 random game with the parameters specified.
132 The \q{Type} menu may also contain a \q{\i{Custom...}} option which
133 allows you to fine-tune game \i{parameters}. The parameters available
134 are specific to each game and are described in the following sections.
136 \H{common-cmdline} Specifying game parameters on the \i{command line}
138 (This section does not apply to the Mac OS X version.)
140 The games in this collection deliberately do not ever save
141 information on to the computer they run on: they have no high score
142 tables and no saved preferences. (This is because I expect at least
143 some people to play them at work, and those people will probably
144 appreciate leaving as little evidence as possible!)
146 However, if you do want to arrange for one of these games to default
147 to a particular set of parameters, you can specify them on the
150 The easiest way to do this is to set up the parameters you want
151 using the \q{Type} menu (see \k{common-type}), and then to select
152 \q{Specific} from the \q{Game} menu (see \k{common-id}). The text in
153 the \q{Game ID} box will be composed of two parts, separated by a
154 colon. The first of these parts represents the game parameters (the
155 size of the playing area, for example, and anything else you set
156 using the \q{Type} menu).
158 If you run the game with just that parameter text on the command
159 line, it will start up with the settings you specified.
161 For example: if you run Cube (see \k{cube}), select \q{Octahedron}
162 from the \q{Type} menu, and then go to the game ID selection, you
163 will see a string of the form \cq{o2x2:911A81,10}. Take only the
164 part before the colon (\cq{o2x2}), and start Cube with that text on
165 the command line: \cq{cube o2x2}.
167 If you copy the \e{entire} game ID on to the command line, the game
168 will start up in the specific game that was described. This is
169 occasionally a more convenient way to start a particular game ID
170 than by pasting it into the game ID selection box.
174 \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.net}
176 (\e{Note:} the \i{Windows} version of this game is called
177 \i\cw{NETGAME.EXE} to avoid clashing with Windows's own \cw{NET.EXE}.)
179 I originally saw this in the form of a Flash game called \i{FreeNet}
180 \k{FreeNet}, written by Pavils Jurjans. The computer prepares a
181 network by connecting up the centres of squares in a grid, and then
182 shuffles the network by rotating every tile randomly. Your job is to
183 rotate it all back into place. The successful solution will be an
184 entirely connected network, with no closed loops. \#{Is it also true
185 that a correct solution will not contain any cycles?} As a visual aid,
186 all tiles which are connected to the one in the middle are
189 \B{FreeNet} \W{http://www.jurjans.lv/stuff/net/FreeNet.htm}\cw{http://www.jurjans.lv/stuff/net/FreeNet.htm}
191 \H{net-controls} \i{Net controls}
193 \IM{Net controls} controls, for Net
194 \IM{Net controls} keys, for Net
195 \IM{Net controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Net
197 This game can be played with either the keyboard or the mouse. The
200 \dt \e{Select tile}: mouse pointer, arrow keys
202 \dt \e{Rotate tile anticlockwise}: left mouse button, \q{A} key
204 \dt \e{Rotate tile clockwise}: right mouse button, \q{D} key
206 \dt \e{Lock (or unlock) tile}: middle mouse button, shift-click, \q{S} key
208 \dd You can lock a tile once you're sure of its orientation. You can
209 also unlock it again, but while it's locked you can't accidentally
212 \dt \e{Jumble tiles}: \q{J} key
214 \dd This key turns all tiles that are not locked to random
217 (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
219 \H{net-params} \I{parameters, for Net}Net parameters
221 These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
224 \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
226 \dd Size of grid in tiles.
228 \dt \e{Walls wrap around}
230 \dd If checked, flow can pass from the left edge to the right edge,
231 and from top to bottom, and vice versa.
233 \dt \e{Barrier probability}
235 \dd A number between 0.0 and 1.0 controlling whether an immovable
236 barrier is placed between two tiles to prevent flow between them (a
237 higher number gives more barriers). Since barriers are immovable, they
238 act as constraints on the solution (i.e., hints).
242 The grid generation in Net has been carefully arranged so that the
243 barriers are independent of the rest of the grid. This means that if
244 you change the \e{Barrier probability} parameter, and then re-enter
245 the same game ID you were playing before (see \k{common-id}), you
246 should see exactly the same starting grid, with the only change
247 being the number of barriers. So if you're stuck on a particular
248 grid and need a hint, you could start up another instance of Net,
249 set up the same parameters but a higher barrier probability, and
250 enter the game seed from the original Net window.
256 \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.cube}
258 This is another one I originally saw as a web game. This one was a
259 Java game \k{cube-java-game}, by Paul Scott. You have a grid of 16
260 squares, six of which are blue; on one square rests a cube. Your move
261 is to use the arrow keys to roll the cube through 90 degrees so that
262 it moves to an adjacent square. If you roll the cube on to a blue
263 square, the blue square is picked up on one face of the cube; if you
264 roll a blue face of the cube on to a non-blue square, the blueness is
265 put down again. (In general, whenever you roll the cube, the two faces
266 that come into contact swap colours.) Your job is to get all six blue
267 squares on to the six faces of the cube at the same time. Count your
268 moves and try to do it in as few as possible.
270 Unlike the original Java game, my version has an additional feature:
271 once you've mastered the game with a cube rolling on a square grid,
272 you can change to a triangular grid and roll any of a tetrahedron, an
273 octahedron or an icosahedron.
275 \B{cube-java-game} \W{http://www3.sympatico.ca/paulscott/cube/cube.htm}\cw{http://www3.sympatico.ca/paulscott/cube/cube.htm}
277 \H{cube-controls} \i{Cube controls}
279 \IM{Cube controls} controls, for Cube
280 \IM{Cube controls} keys, for Cube
281 \IM{Cube controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Cube
283 This game is played with the keyboard. The arrow keys are used to roll the
284 cube (or other solid).
286 On the triangular grids, the mapping of arrow keys to directions is
287 more approximate. Vertical movement is disallowed where it doesn't
288 make sense. The four keys surrounding the arrow keys on the numeric
289 keypad (\q{7}, \q{9}, \q{1}, \q{3}) can be used for diagonal movement.
291 (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
293 \H{cube-params} \I{parameters, for Cube}Cube parameters
295 These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
298 \dt \e{Type of solid}
300 \dd Selects the solid to roll (and hence the shape of the grid):
301 tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, or icosahedron.
303 \dt \e{Width / top}, \e{Height / bottom}
305 \dd On a square grid, horizontal and vertical dimensions. On a
306 triangular grid, the number of triangles on the top and bottom rows
310 \C{fifteen} \i{Fifteen}
312 \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.fifteen}
314 The old ones are the best: this is the good old \q{\i{15-puzzle}} with
315 sliding tiles. You have a 4x4 square grid; 15 squares contain numbered
316 tiles, and the sixteenth is empty. Your move is to choose a tile next
317 to the empty space, and slide it into the space. The aim is to end up
318 with the tiles in numerical order, with the space in the bottom right
319 (so that the top row reads 1,2,3,4 and the bottom row reads
322 \H{fifteen-controls} \i{Fifteen controls}
324 \IM{Fifteen controls} controls, for Fifteen
325 \IM{Fifteen controls} keys, for Fifteen
326 \IM{Fifteen controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Fifteen
328 This game can be controlled with the mouse or the keyboard.
330 A left-click with the mouse in the row or column containing the empty
331 space will move as many tiles as necessary to move the space to the
334 The arrow keys will move a tile adjacent to the space in the direction
335 indicated (moving the space in the \e{opposite} direction).
337 (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
339 \H{fifteen-params} \I{parameters, for Fifteen}Fifteen parameters
341 The only options available from the \q{Custom...} option on the \q{Type}
342 menu are \e{Width} and \e{Height}, which are self-explanatory. (Once
343 you've changed these, it's not a \q{15-puzzle} any more, of course!)
346 \C{sixteen} \i{Sixteen}
348 \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.sixteen}
350 Another sliding tile puzzle, visually similar to Fifteen (see
351 \k{fifteen}) but with a different type of move. This time, there is no
352 hole: all 16 squares on the grid contain numbered squares. Your move
353 is to shift an entire row left or right, or shift an entire column up
354 or down; every time you do that, the tile you shift off the grid
355 re-appears at the other end of the same row, in the space you just
356 vacated. To win, arrange the tiles into numerical order (1,2,3,4 on
357 the top row, 13,14,15,16 on the bottom). When you've done that, try
358 playing on different sizes of grid.
360 I \e{might} have invented this game myself, though only by accident if
361 so (and I'm sure other people have independently invented it). I
362 thought I was imitating a screensaver I'd seen, but I have a feeling
363 that the screensaver might actually have been a Fifteen-type puzzle
364 rather than this slightly different kind. So this might be the one
365 thing in my puzzle collection which represents creativity on my part
366 rather than just engineering.
368 \H{sixteen-controls} \I{controls, for Sixteen}Sixteen controls
370 This game is played with the mouse. Left-clicking on an arrow will
371 move the appropriate row or column in the direction indicated.
372 Right-clicking will move it in the opposite direction.
374 (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
376 \H{sixteen-params} \I{parameters, for Sixteen}Sixteen parameters
378 The only parameters available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
379 \q{Type} menu are \e{Width} and \e{Height}, which are
383 \C{rectangles} \i{Rectangles}
385 \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.rectangles}
387 You have a grid of squares, with numbers written in some (but not all)
388 of the squares. Your task is to subdivide the grid into rectangles of
389 various sizes, such that (a) every rectangle contains exactly one
390 numbered square, and (b) the area of each rectangle is equal to the
391 number written in its numbered square.
393 Credit for this game goes to the Japanese puzzle magazine \i{Nikoli}
394 \k{nikoli}; I've also seen a Palm implementation at \i{Puzzle Palace}
395 \k{puzzle-palace}. Unlike Puzzle Palace's implementation, my version
396 automatically generates random grids of any size you like. The quality
397 of puzzle design is therefore not quite as good as hand-crafted
398 puzzles would be (in particular, a unique solution cannot be
399 guaranteed), but on the plus side you get an inexhaustible supply of
400 puzzles tailored to your own specification.
402 \B{nikoli} \W{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/puzzles/7/index_text-e.htm}\cw{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/puzzles/7/index_text-e.htm}
404 \B{puzzle-palace} \W{http://www.puzzle.gr.jp/puzzle/sikaku/palm/index.html.en}\cw{http://www.puzzle.gr.jp/puzzle/sikaku/palm/index.html.en}
406 \H{rectangles-controls} \I{controls, for Rectangles}Rectangles controls
408 This game is played with the mouse.
410 Left-click any edge to toggle it on or off, or click and drag to draw
411 an entire rectangle (or line) on the grid in one go (removing any
412 existing edges within that rectangle).
414 When a rectangle of the correct size is completed, it will be shaded.
416 (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
418 \H{rectangles-params} \I{parameters, for Rectangles}Rectangles parameters
420 The \q{Custom...} option on the \q{Type} menu offers you \e{Width}
421 and \e{Height} parameters, which are self-explanatory.
423 \q{Expansion factor} is a mechanism for changing the type of grids
424 generated by the program. Some people prefer a grid containing a few
425 large rectangles to one containing many small ones. So you can ask
426 Rectangles to essentially generate a \e{smaller} grid than the size
427 you specified, and then to expand it by adding rows and columns.
429 The default expansion factor of zero means that Rectangles will
430 simply generate a grid of the size you ask for, and do nothing
431 further. If you set an expansion factor of (say) 0.5, it means that
432 each dimension of the grid will be expanded to half again as big
433 after generation. In other words, the initial grid will be 2/3 the
434 size in each dimension, and will be expanded to its full size
435 without adding any more rectangles.
437 Setting an expansion factor of around 0.5 tends to make the game
438 more difficult, and also (in my experience) rewards a less deductive
439 and more intuitive playing style. If you set it \e{too} high,
440 though, the game simply cannot generate more than a few rectangles
441 to cover the entire grid, and the game becomes trivial.
443 \H{rectangles-cmdline} \I{command line, for Rectangles}Additional
444 command-line configuration
446 The expansion factor parameter, described in \k{rectangles-params},
447 is not mentioned by default in the game ID (see \k{common-id}). So
448 if you set your expansion factor to (say) 0.75, and then you
449 generate an 11x11 grid, then the game ID will simply say
450 \c{11x11:}\e{numbers}. This means that if you send the game ID to
451 another player and they paste it into their copy of Rectangles,
452 their game will not be automatically configured to use the same
453 expansion factor in any subsequent grids it generates. (I don't
454 think the average person examining a single grid sent to them by
455 another player would want their configuration modified to that
458 If you are specifying a game ID or game parameters on the command
459 line (see \k{common-cmdline}) and you do want to configure the
460 expansion factor, you can do it by suffixing the letter \cq{e} to
461 the parameters, followed by the expansion factor as a decimal
464 \b \cq{rect 11x11e0.75} starts Rectangles with a grid size of
465 11\u00d7{x}11 and an expansion factor of 0.75.
467 \b \cq{rect 11x11e0.75:g11c6e5e4a2_4e9c3b3d3b5g2b6c4k4g30a8n3j1g6a2}
468 starts Rectangles with a grid size of 11\u00d7{x}11, an expansion
469 factor of 0.75, \e{and} a specific game selected.
471 \C{netslide} \i{Netslide}
473 \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.netslide}
475 This game was submitted by Richard Boulton. It combines the grid
476 generation of Net (see \k{net}) with the movement of Sixteen (see
477 \k{sixteen}): you have a Net grid, but instead of rotating tiles back
478 into place you have to slide them into place by moving a whole row at
481 As in Sixteen, \I{controls, for Netslide}control is with the mouse.
482 See \k{sixteen-controls}.
484 \I{parameters, for Netslide}Game parameters are the same as for Net
485 (see \k{net-params}).
487 \C{pattern} \i{Pattern}
489 \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.pattern}
491 You have a grid of squares, which must all be filled in either black
492 or white. Beside each row of the grid are listed the lengths of the
493 runs of black squares on that row; above each column are listed the
494 lengths of the runs of black squares in that column. Your aim is to
495 fill in the entire grid black or white.
497 I first saw this puzzle form around 1995, under the name
498 \q{\i{nonograms}}. I've seen it in various places since then, under
501 Normally, puzzles of this type turn out to be a meaningful picture
502 of something once you've solved them. However, since this version
503 generates the puzzles automatically, they will just look like random
504 groupings of squares. (One user has suggested that this is actually
505 a \e{good} thing, since it prevents you from guessing the colour of
506 squares based on the picture, and forces you to use logic instead.)
507 The advantage, though, is that you never run out of them.
509 \H{pattern-controls} \I{controls, for Pattern}Pattern controls
511 This game is played with the mouse.
513 Left-click in a square to colour it black. Right-click to colour it
514 white. If you make a mistake, you can middle-click, or hold down
515 Shift while clicking with any button, to colour the square in the
516 default grey (meaning \q{undecided}) again.
518 You can click and drag with the left or right mouse button to colour
519 a vertical or horizontal line of squares black or white at a time
520 (respectively). If you click and drag with the middle button, or
521 with Shift held down, you can colour a whole rectangle of squares
524 (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
526 \H{pattern-parameters} \I{parameters, for Pattern}Pattern parameters
528 The only options available from the \q{Custom...} option on the \q{Type}
529 menu are \e{Width} and \e{Height}, which are self-explanatory.
531 \A{licence} \I{MIT licence}\ii{Licence}
533 This software is \i{copyright} 2004-2005 Simon Tatham.
535 Portions copyright Richard Boulton.
537 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
538 obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files
539 (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction,
540 including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge,
541 publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software,
542 and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so,
543 subject to the following conditions:
545 The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
546 included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
548 THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
549 EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
550 MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
551 NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS
552 BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN
553 ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN
554 CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
557 \IM{specific...} Specific..., menu option
558 \IM{custom...} Custom..., menu option
561 \IM{game ID} ID, game
562 \IM{ID format} ID format
563 \IM{ID format} format, ID
564 \IM{ID format} game ID, format
567 \IM{keys} shortcuts (keyboard)
569 \IM{initial state} initial state
570 \IM{initial state} state, initial
572 \IM{MIT licence} MIT licence
573 \IM{MIT licence} licence, MIT