Puzzles Game

[Gervie]

Game: Setris 4

Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, March 2002


Object: Avoid overflow of the container. (2 variants)

First click the container. A tile will appear which you have to place into the container.
Click the target square to place the tile. The sweet spot is always the lowest square of the most left file.

When you have surrounded one of the sixteen fixed grid points, the surrounding tiles will disappear. The counter at the top left will keep track of the number of these events.

If the container overflows, you lose. There is no win in this game.

In variant 2 the 1x4 tetromino is not used; hence this variant is easier.


Background design: Fractal Te0101r2 by Karl Scherer.

More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my homepage http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.

Download Setris 4 Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: Sheepdog

Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, June 2001


Object: Guide all sheep into the fenced area. (Five randomized variants)

Click anywhere on the board to allow Zillions to randomize the setup. Several Sheep and one Sheepdog will appear. You are the Sheepdog.

You win if you manage to drive all sheep into the fenced area.

Variants: The sheep are gradually more stubborn.
Could it be that they suffer from Mad Sheep Desease or it is the global warming that fried their brains?


Here in New Zealand where I live, training a sheepdog is an old and still important art. Every year national competitions are held with challenges silimar to the one this game illustrates. The dogs are controlled by whistling only. And it is not the largest dogs who are the best...

Images and sound taken from the 'Imagine It!' clickart collection.


More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.

Download Sheepdog Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: Sisyphus

Invented by Hiroyuki Imabayashi, 1982,
implemented by Fergus Duniho, December 2000.

Sisyphus is a Sokoban clone. The object is to move stones around a maze until they are all where they should be. The challenge is to not make a wrong move and make your task impossible. If you organize your task appropriately, you can accomplish it. But if you slip up, it will become impossible to push every stone where it goes.

The name comes from the myth of Sisyphus, a king in Greek mythology who was condemned in Tartarus to roll a stone up a hill again and again. Each time he got it to the top of the hill, it would roll down, and he would have to walk back down and push it up again. In this game, Sisyphus has moved on to push stones around Sokoban style mazes. When he finishes one maze, he has another to do.

Sokoban was invented in 1982 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi, the president of THINKING RABBIT Inc. JAPAN.

Sisyphus comes with 25 original mazes, a solution for each maze, a variety of background images, a level editor ZRF (sisyphus-edit.zrf), a wall-pattern generating ZRF (sisyphus-auto.zrf), and a program (sokovert.exe) for converting between file formats. This will turn the ZSG files from the level editor into ZRF code for playing the level, and it will turn ZSG files from sisyphus-auto.zrf into ZSG files that can be fed into the level editor. It will also convert between other Sokoban maze formats, including the Bulldozer format and the popular XSokoban format. So you can use the level editor to create mazes for other Sokoban programs or use sokovert to adapt mazes in other formats for Sisyphus. Most of my mazes were created with the Bulldozer level editor, and the later ones were created with the Sisyphus level editor. The very latest were based on patterns of walls randomly generated by sisyphus-auto.zrf. All mazes were converted to ZRF format with the aid of sokovert. The maze shown below was hand-designed with the level editor.

Please note: Sisyphus prefers Zillions of Games version 1.2.3 (or higher)!

Download Sisyphus Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: SlideFour

Invented and implemented by S.Heuser, September 2003.

SlideFour is an extension of the sliding puzzle SlideThree which was developed and programmed for Zillions of Games by W. D. Troyka.

The numbers 1 to 16 are arranged in reverse order in a square pattern on a 5x5 board. Only a group of four pieces in a row or column can slide. One, two, or three pieces by themselves cannot slide. The object is to rearrange the numbers into numerical order occupying the starting sixteen spaces.

The quickest solution discovered so far is 92 moves. But there should be even shorter solutions.


SlideFour was written for my Diploma Thesis on "Randomized Evaluation Functions in Single Agent Search". You can request a PDF version of the thesis by writing an e-mail to me.

Download SlideFour Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: SlideThree

Created by W. D. Troyka, © 2001


SlideThree is a new approach to the standard sliding puzzle that comes with Zillions. The numbers 1 through 9 are arranged in reverse order in a square pattern on a 4x4 board. Only a group of three pieces in a row can slide. One or two pieces by themselves cannot slide. The object is to rearrange the numbers into numerical order occupying the starting nine spaces.

This is a challenging puzzle. The quickest solution discovered so far is 26 moves. Can you do better?

UPDATE: Ingo Althofer discovered a solution to this puzzle in 24 moves, which is included in a new Solutions folder along with the original solution in 26 moves. Susanne Heuser has demonstrated that 24 moves is the optimal length of a solution to this puzzle. You can access the 24-move solution using the "Show Solutions" option under the Help menu.


You should extract the game from the downloaded zip file preserving path names.

Updated 01/18/03
added 24- and 26-move solutions

Download SlideThree Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: Sliding Blocks

Invented by Ed Pegg Jr.
implemented by Robert A. Kraus, January 2003.

This is a standard sliding block puzzle. Each piece is a different color. The pieces move orthogonally only, on the empty tan board, while the dark brown area is impassable. The puzzle is on the left half of the screen, while the right half shows the goal position. You move the pieces by clicking on any part (square cell) of the piece (left board only) and dragging it one cell in any unblocked orthogonal direction. Now the entire piece will move. You win when your puzzle position matches the goal position at the right.

Updated 02/08/03
16 new puzzles added

Download Sliding Blocks Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: Sliding Puzzle

Implemented by Uwe Wiedemann, June 2001


This zrf is a collection of 5 traditional sliding puzzles:

Airman Puzzle
This puzzle remembers to the flight of Lindberg in 1927 over the Atlantic Ocean. The red 2 x 2 block is a air machine, which is to navigate from the upper left corner (New York) over the ocean to the lower right corner (Paris).
This puzzle was created in the 1920ies years in the USA.

Dad's Puzzle
This puzzle is said to express the problems of the head of the family in arranging the pieces of furniture. The 2 x 2 block is a grand piano which is to put from the upper left to the lower left corner. It is a nice exercise to bring the grand piano at first to the lower right corner.
Probably is Dad's puzzle a product of the 19th century.

L' Ane rouge (The red dunkey)
The aim is to bring the red dunkey (the 2 x 2 block) into the middle of the lower side. The shortest solution has 81 moves.
This puzzle is probably known in France since the 19th century. Frequently there was a picture of a dunkey on the red piece. D. Fremelin has shown with a computer that you can reach 65880 positions from the starting position of the red dunkey puzzle.

Century Puzzle
Slide the red square to the lower middle.
The Century Puzzle was created by J. H. Conway from Cambridge. He was interested to find the most difficult puzzle on a 4 x 5 board. D. Fremelin has shown with a computer that you can reach 109260 positions from the starting position of the Century Puzzle.

Washington Puzzle
The red square symbolizes the first american president Washington. He goes to all corners as symbol of key stones of his career. The objective of the puzzle is to slide the red square to the four corners.

Download Sliding Puzzle Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: SoliHex

Implemented by K. Franklin, October 2002.

A 37-hole six-sided Hex Board conversion of Solitours.zrf v1.0.

Description:
Marbles capture by jumping over each other.
In these variants, consecutive Marbles may be captured in one jump.
Legal Moves are based on the Chess Piece named in the variant title.

Object:
Leave one marble remaining.
Under Standard Setups, leave the last marble in the centre square.
Random & Player-placed variants allow setting the initial vacant hole anywhere on the board.
Try to leave the last marble at that position (implemented win-condition not exact).

Updated 06/28/03
added 'Think n Jump' variant

Download SoliHex Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: SoliTours

Implemented by K. Franklin, August 2002.


A combination of Knight's Tour & Peg Solitaire.

Description:
Marbles capture by jumping over each other. In these variants, consecutive Marbles may be captured in one jump. Legal Moves are based on the Chess Piece named in the variant title.

Object:
Leave one marble remaining.
Under Standard Setups, leave the last marble in the centre square.
Random & Player-placed variants allow setting the initial vacant hole anywhere on the board. Try to leave the last marble at that position (implemented win-condition not exact).

Download SoliTours Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: Spaghetti

Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, January 2001.


Object: Remove all Spaghetti sticks. (4 variants)

Always click the LOWEST stick to pull it out from underneath! If you pick any other stick, you lose.


Background design: Fractal Mo99121k by Morgan Owens and Karl Scherer.


For more freeware as well as real puzzles and games see my home page http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.

Download Spaghetti Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: Spaghetti II

Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, January 2001.


Object: Remove all Spaghetti noodles. (13 variants)

While the game Spaghetti used uncooked noodles, in Spaghetti2 we are given cooked noodles. As everyone knows, these are more difficulty to handle.

First click the board to let Zillions prepare the random setup.

Always click one of the LOWEST noodles to pull it out from underneath! If you pick any other noodle, you lose.

Recommended: Switch MOVE ANIMATION OFF.


Background design: Fractal Mo99121k by Morgan Owens and Karl Scherer.


For more freeware as well as real puzzles and games see my home page http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.

Download Spaghetti II Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: Squabble Solo

Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, August 2002


Object: Form words and collect points. (Solitaire game, 2 variants)

Click the board. Zillions will fill the board with 100 letters, randomly placed.

You can swap letters by clicking the from- and to- positions. The letter(s) just moved will turn red. You also can click a letter twice. This will mark a letter red. Marked letters cannot be clicked anymore.

The objective of this game is to build words, horizontally or vertically. Any other letters can be positioned before or after the word. Swaps may destroy some or all previous words.

To score, a word must have at least three letters. A word is only allowed to be scored if it has been created by the previous swap or if one of its letters has just been double clicked. Note that a double-click can give you two words, one down and one across. A swap can give you up to four words. The value of a Blank may change at every turn.

Now score by clicking each letter in the word(s) you made. Your final score will be calculated automatically. (For your own information: when you move the cursor over a letter, its value will appear in the Status bar.)
The validity of the words are not checked by the program; you are the judge.

The game ends when there are no more moves anymore or no more words can be built (this program does not declare a win).

Variant 2 has been designed with another objective in mind:
Following the rules above you try to turn red all letters. In each turn either a new word (at least 3 letters long) must be built or a letter in a yet unused word that is already on the board must be clicked. (Ignore the OK-button in this variant.)
There is no scoring. You win when all letters are red.

Letter values and distribution:
A-1-9 B-3-2 C-3-2 D-2-4 E-1-12 F-4-2 G-2-3 H-4-2 I-1-9 J-8-1 K-5-1 L-1-4 M-3-2 N-1-6 O-1-8 P-3-2 Q-10-1 R-1-6 S-1-4 T-1-6 U-1-4 V-4-2 W-4-2 X-8-1 Y-4-2 Z-10-1 Joker-0-2


I encourage Scrabble players to try this version at home with real Scrabble letters. (Here the frozen letters my be turned sideways or upside down.) This game is very different from Scrabble and a totally new wordgame in itself. Luck comes in only at the board setup.


More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my homepage http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.

Updated 10/04/03
all letters now have values

Download Squabble Solo Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: Square The Square

Invented (in 1994) and implemented by Karl Scherer, March 2001.


Object: Fill the board with smaller square tiles. (30 variants)

You place a square tile by clicking the top left and the bottom right corner position of the square where the tile should be placed. First click for the top left corner, then for the bottom right corner. The largest available tile is a square of size 16x16. If you want to place a 1x1 square, click the same position twice.

You may delete an existing square tile by clicking its top left corner and then its bottom right corner.

You win if you can completely tile the board with smaller squares. There is an additional restriction, however:

Variant 1: No four squares are allowed to squares meet at any point. This is an easy problem with many solutions, and it creates very nice colourful images.
What is the minimum number of tiles necessary to fill the big square?
Variants 2,...,30: (More difficult!) No two tiles may have a full side in common.

The idea for these puzzles is taken from my books 'NUTTS And Other Crackers' and 'New Mosaics' (see my home pages).
The special property of the tilings in variants 2,...,30 of no two tiles having a side in common is called 'nowhere neat'.
The beautiful solutons of 'Square The Square' are attached to this game as zsg files, but can also be viewed online.

More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my home page http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.
Updated 08/09/03
added solutions; made solutions available via Help/Show Solution

Download Square The Square Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: Square The Square II

Invented (in 1994) and implemented by Karl Scherer, March 2001.


Object: Create big squares or rectangles filled with smaller square tiles. (1 variant)

You place a square tile by clicking the top left and the bottom right corner position of the square where the tile should be placed. First click for the top left corner, then for the bottom right corner.
The largest available tile is a square of size 19x19.
If you want to place a 1x1 square, click the same position twice.

You may delete an existing square tile by clicking its top left corner and then its bottom right corner.

The goal is to completely tile a large square or rectangular area with smaller squares.
There is an additional restriction, however: No two tiles may have a full side in common.

In addition to all problems of the original game 'Square The Square', here you can try bigger squares and rectangles.
Try to fill the squares with sidelengths 11, 16, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38,...

Once you have solved these, try the following rectangles :
11x15, 12x18, 12x33, 13x46, 16x18, 16x29, 16x32, 17x30, 18x25, 19x27, 19x28, 19x46, 20x27, 20x37, 20x40, 20x42, 20x43, 20x45, 20x49, 21x30, 21x38, 22x27, 22x29, 25x27, 26x36, 29x33, 32x33, 33x34, 36x48.

There is no win-message in this game (except when you fill the board).


Note: Zillions Version 2.0 is recommended (but not necessary) for this game. Otherwise very large squares cannot be drawn.


The idea for these puzzles is taken from my books 'NUTTS And Other Crackers' and 'New Mosaics' (see my home pages). The special property of the tilings of no two tiles having a side in common is called 'nowhere neat'. The beautiful solutions of type 'Square The Square' and 'Square The Rectangle' can be viewed online at: http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz/prosqtsq.html and http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz/prosqtre.html.

More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my home page http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.

Updated 12/14/02
square tiles now up to 30x30; simplified heavily code

Download Square The Square II Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: Stapler

Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, January 2002


Object: Capture all pieces untl you are left with one only. (11 variants)

A Stapler moves horizontally or vertically.
Each move must be a capturing move.
A Stapler carries a number which increases by one with each capture. The number determines the exact length of the piece's move.

You win if you have captured all pieces and end up with one Stapler only.


More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.

Download Stapler Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: Stapler II

Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, March 2002


Object: Capture all pieces until you are left with one only. (14 variants)

A Stapler moves in a straight line, thereby jumping over any number of empty or non-empty positions.
Each move must be a capturing move.
A Stapler carries a number which increases by one with each capture. The number determines the exact length of the piece's move.

You win if you have captured all pieces and end up with one Stapler only.


Background design: fractal Te0110dg by Karl Scherer.

More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my homepage http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.

Download Stapler II Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: Step-Mazes

Invented by Hiroshi Yamamoto and Erich Friedman, 2000;
implemented by Bob Kraus, October 2000.


Object: Move the White Disk onto the Goal (Yin-Yang symbol) to win.

Move the disk 1 space on the first turn, 2 spaces on the second turn, 3 spaces on the third turn, then repeat the 1-2-3 cycle.
The disk must be moved in a straight line only - no turning corners or backtracking in the middle of a move. The disk may pass over the goal.

The 1-2-3-Maze was originally designed by Hiroshi Yamamoto in 2000.

Download Step-Mazes Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: Sticks

Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, May 2002


Object: Fill the board with 1xn 'Sticks'. (12 variants)

A 'Stick' is a polysquare which is one square wide and n squares long.
A Stick has to be placed horizontally or vertically. Simply click the position for the start and the end of the Stick you want to place. (Note that the 1x1 Stick is admissable; just click the same position twice).

There are a few special conditions, however:

The Stick you place must have part of a side in common with the Stick you placed in the previous move.
The Stick you place must be one unit longer or shorter than the Stick you placed last. E.g., a Stick of length 5 must be followed by a Stick of length 4 or 6.
You win if you have covered the whole board with Sticks. You lose if you run out of moves.

Variant 2,...,6 : bigger boards used.
Variant 7,...,12 : like variants 1 to 6, bit with the additional condition that the 1x1 'Stick' is not admissible.

Once you have solved any of these puzzles, try to solve the puzzle with less moves (= less Sticks). What is the minimum number of Sticks necessary for each case?

Some solutions are included.


More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my homepage http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.
Updated 08/09/03
made solutions available via Help/Show Solution

Download Sticks Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: Sticks Sequence

Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, July 2002


Object: Fill the cube with a given sequence of 'Sticks'. (3 variants)

Place a Stick (a row or file of tokens) by clicking the start and end position. To click Stick of length 1, click the same position twice.
The next Stick must be adjacent to the Stick placed previously.

The length of each Stick is given and indicated by the numbers 3-2-1-2: the first Stick has length 3, the next 2, then 1, then 2, then 3 and so on.
The sequence is different for the different variants.

Variant 2 plays sequence 4-3-2-1-2-3-4... on a 4x4x4 board.
Variant 3 plays sequence 5-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-5... on a 5x5x5 board.


Note that a similar problem can be stated for any cube size: For any given natural number n, its cube n^3 is the sum of the sequence
n, n-1, n-2,...,2,1,2,...n-1,n,n-1,...,2,1,2,...,n-1,n
of numbers. Exactly n times we have to go from n down to 1 and back up to n. (Can you prove this mathematically?)

This begs the question whether a sequence of Sticks having these lengths can fill such a cube. It is easy to prove that this is indeed the case for any cube size.
In this game 'Sticks Sequence', however, the problem is more difficult since consecutive Sticks have to be adjacent. It might be interesting to find out whether the problem has a solution for all cube sizes n > 5.

More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my homepage http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.

Download Sticks Sequence Now!

 

[Gervie]

Game: Subway

Invented and implemented by Karl Scherer, August 2001


Object: Create one continuous subway loop. (5 variants)

You are the civil engineer in a big city. Your task is to build one continuous subway loop, thereby incorporating several existing tunnel sections.

First click anywhere on the center board. Several sections of a subway system will appear, coloured red.

Try to make it one big loop by adding bends, double bends, straights and crossings. The less additional parts of subway you need to accomplish your task the better.

Click a position several times. The system will cycle you through all available shapes of track sections.
One of the choices offered will be an empty position. This way you can delete a section.
The given red sections of the subway cannot be deleted, however. But you can click a red straight section to turn it into a cross, for example.

Click on the border to check whether indeed you created a single loop. You win when all sections are part of one big loop, otherwise you lose.

The other variants have a bigger board and/or more given sections.


Background design: Fractal Mo99121j by Morgan Owens and Karl Scherer.

More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my homepage http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.

Download Subway Now!