1 Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection
2 =========================================
4 This is a collection of small one-player puzzle games.
6 This manual is copyright 2004-2014 Simon Tatham. All rights reserved. You
7 may distribute this documentation under the MIT licence. See appendix A for
8 the licence text in full.
10 Chapter 1: Introduction
11 -----------------------
13 I wrote this collection because I thought there should be more small
14 desktop toys available: little games you can pop up in a window and
15 play for two or three minutes while you take a break from whatever
16 else you were doing. And I was also annoyed that every time I found
17 a good game on (say) Unix, it wasn't available the next time I was
18 sitting at a Windows machine, or vice versa; so I arranged that
19 everything in my personal puzzle collection will happily run on
20 both, and have more recently done a port to Mac OS X as well. When I
21 find (or perhaps invent) further puzzle games that I like, they'll
22 be added to this collection and will immediately be available on
23 both platforms. And if anyone feels like writing any other front
24 ends - PocketPC, Mac OS pre-10, or whatever it might be - then all
25 the games in this framework will immediately become available on
26 another platform as well.
28 The actual games in this collection were mostly not my invention;
29 they are re-implementations of existing game concepts within my
30 portable puzzle framework. I do not claim credit, in general, for
31 inventing the rules of any of these puzzles. (I don't even claim
32 authorship of all the code; some of the puzzles have been submitted
35 This collection is distributed under the MIT licence (see appendix
36 A). This means that you can do pretty much anything you like with
37 the game binaries or the code, except pretending you wrote them
38 yourself, or suing me if anything goes wrong.
40 The most recent versions, and source code, can be found at
41 https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/.
43 Please report bugs to anakin@pobox.com. You might find it helpful to
44 read this article before reporting a bug:
46 https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html
48 Patches are welcome. Especially if they provide a new front end (to
49 make all these games run on another platform), or a new game.
51 Chapter 2: Common features
52 --------------------------
54 This chapter describes features that are common to all the games.
58 These actions are all available from the `Game' menu and via
59 keyboard shortcuts, in addition to any game-specific actions.
61 (On Mac OS X, to conform with local user interface standards, these
62 actions are situated on the `File' and `Edit' menus instead.)
64 _New game_ (`N', Ctrl+`N')
66 Starts a new game, with a random initial state.
70 Resets the current game to its initial state. (This can be
75 Loads a saved game from a file on disk.
79 Saves the current state of your game to a file on disk.
81 The Load and Save operations preserve your entire game history
82 (so you can save, reload, and still Undo and Redo things you had
87 Where supported (currently only on Windows), brings up a dialog
88 allowing you to print an arbitrary number of puzzles randomly
89 generated from the current parameters, optionally including
90 the current puzzle. (Only for puzzles which make sense to
91 print, of course - it's hard to think of a sensible printable
92 representation of Fifteen!)
94 _Undo_ (`U', Ctrl+`Z', Ctrl+`_')
96 Undoes a single move. (You can undo moves back to the start of
99 _Redo_ (`R', Ctrl+`R')
101 Redoes a previously undone move.
105 Copies the current state of your game to the clipboard in text
106 format, so that you can paste it into (say) an e-mail client or
107 a web message board if you're discussing the game with someone
108 else. (Not all games support this feature.)
112 Transforms the puzzle instantly into its solved state. For some
113 games (Cube) this feature is not supported at all because it is
114 of no particular use. For other games (such as Pattern), the
115 solved state can be used to give you information, if you can't
116 see how a solution can exist at all or you want to know where
117 you made a mistake. For still other games (such as Sixteen),
118 automatic solution tells you nothing about how to _get_ to
119 the solution, but it does provide a useful way to get there
120 quickly so that you can experiment with set-piece moves and
123 Some games (such as Solo) are capable of solving a game ID you
124 have typed in from elsewhere. Other games (such as Rectangles)
125 cannot solve a game ID they didn't invent themself, but when
126 they did invent the game ID they know what the solution is
127 already. Still other games (Pattern) can solve _some_ external
128 game IDs, but only if they aren't too difficult.
130 The `Solve' command adds the solved state to the end of the undo
131 chain for the puzzle. In other words, if you want to go back to
132 solving it yourself after seeing the answer, you can just press
135 _Quit_ (`Q', Ctrl+`Q')
137 Closes the application entirely.
139 2.2 Specifying games with the game ID
141 There are two ways to save a game specification out of a puzzle and
142 recreate it later, or recreate it in somebody else's copy of the
145 The `Specific' and `Random Seed' options from the `Game' menu (or
146 the `File' menu, on Mac OS X) each show a piece of text (a `game
147 ID') which is sufficient to reconstruct precisely the same game at a
150 You can enter either of these pieces of text back into the program
151 (via the same `Specific' or `Random Seed' menu options) at a later
152 point, and it will recreate the same game. You can also use either
153 one as a command line argument (on Windows or Unix); see section 2.4
156 The difference between the two forms is that a descriptive game ID
157 is a literal _description_ of the initial state of the game, whereas
158 a random seed is just a piece of arbitrary text which was provided
159 as input to the random number generator used to create the puzzle.
162 - Descriptive game IDs tend to be longer in many puzzles
163 (although some, such as Cube (chapter 4), only need very short
164 descriptions). So a random seed is often a _quicker_ way to
165 note down the puzzle you're currently playing, or to tell it to
166 somebody else so they can play the same one as you.
168 - Any text at all is a valid random seed. The automatically
169 generated ones are fifteen-digit numbers, but anything will do;
170 you can type in your full name, or a word you just made up, and
171 a valid puzzle will be generated from it. This provides a way
172 for two or more people to race to complete the same puzzle:
173 you think of a random seed, then everybody types it in at the
174 same time, and nobody has an advantage due to having seen the
175 generated puzzle before anybody else.
177 - It is often possible to convert puzzles from other sources (such
178 as `nonograms' or `sudoku' from newspapers) into descriptive
179 game IDs suitable for use with these programs.
181 - Random seeds are not guaranteed to produce the same result
182 if you use them with a different _version_ of the puzzle
183 program. This is because the generation algorithm might have
184 been improved or modified in later versions of the code, and
185 will therefore produce a different result when given the same
186 sequence of random numbers. Use a descriptive game ID if you
187 aren't sure that it will be used on the same version of the
190 (Use the `About' menu option to find out the version number of
191 the program. Programs with the same version number running on
192 different platforms should still be random-seed compatible.)
194 A descriptive game ID starts with a piece of text which encodes the
195 _parameters_ of the current game (such as grid size). Then there is
196 a colon, and after that is the description of the game's initial
197 state. A random seed starts with a similar string of parameters, but
198 then it contains a hash sign followed by arbitrary data.
200 If you enter a descriptive game ID, the program will not be able
201 to show you the random seed which generated it, since it wasn't
202 generated _from_ a random seed. If you _enter_ a random seed,
203 however, the program will be able to show you the descriptive game
204 ID derived from that random seed.
206 Note that the game parameter strings are not always identical
207 between the two forms. For some games, there will be parameter
208 data provided with the random seed which is not included in the
209 descriptive game ID. This is because that parameter information is
210 only relevant when _generating_ puzzle grids, and is not important
211 when playing them. Thus, for example, the difficulty level in Solo
212 (chapter 11) is not mentioned in the descriptive game ID.
214 These additional parameters are also not set permanently if you type
215 in a game ID. For example, suppose you have Solo set to `Advanced'
216 difficulty level, and then a friend wants your help with a `Trivial'
217 puzzle; so the friend reads out a random seed specifying `Trivial'
218 difficulty, and you type it in. The program will generate you the
219 same `Trivial' grid which your friend was having trouble with, but
220 once you have finished playing it, when you ask for a new game it
221 will automatically go back to the `Advanced' difficulty which it was
226 The `Type' menu, if present, may contain a list of preset game
227 settings. Selecting one of these will start a new random game with
228 the parameters specified.
230 The `Type' menu may also contain a `Custom' option which allows you
231 to fine-tune game parameters. The parameters available are specific
232 to each game and are described in the following sections.
234 2.4 Specifying game parameters on the command line
236 (This section does not apply to the Mac OS X version.)
238 The games in this collection deliberately do not ever save
239 information on to the computer they run on: they have no high score
240 tables and no saved preferences. (This is because I expect at least
241 some people to play them at work, and those people will probably
242 appreciate leaving as little evidence as possible!)
244 However, if you do want to arrange for one of these games to default
245 to a particular set of parameters, you can specify them on the
248 The easiest way to do this is to set up the parameters you want
249 using the `Type' menu (see section 2.3), and then to select `Random
250 Seed' from the `Game' or `File' menu (see section 2.2). The text
251 in the `Game ID' box will be composed of two parts, separated by a
252 hash. The first of these parts represents the game parameters (the
253 size of the playing area, for example, and anything else you set
254 using the `Type' menu).
256 If you run the game with just that parameter text on the command
257 line, it will start up with the settings you specified.
259 For example: if you run Cube (see chapter 4), select `Octahedron'
260 from the `Type' menu, and then go to the game ID selection, you
261 will see a string of the form `o2x2#338686542711620'. Take only the
262 part before the hash (`o2x2'), and start Cube with that text on the
263 command line: `PREFIX-cube o2x2'.
265 If you copy the _entire_ game ID on to the command line, the game
266 will start up in the specific game that was described. This is
267 occasionally a more convenient way to start a particular game ID
268 than by pasting it into the game ID selection box.
270 (You could also retrieve the encoded game parameters using the
271 `Specific' menu option instead of `Random Seed', but if you do then
272 some options, such as the difficulty level in Solo, will be missing.
273 See section 2.2 for more details on this.)
275 2.5 Unix command-line options
277 (This section only applies to the Unix port.)
279 In addition to being able to specify game parameters on the command
280 line (see section 2.4), there are various other options:
286 These options respectively determine whether the command-line
287 argument is treated as specifying game parameters or a save
288 file to load. Only one should be specified. If neither of these
289 options is specified, a guess is made based on the format of the
294 If this option is specified, instead of a puzzle being
295 displayed, a number of descriptive game IDs will be invented and
296 printed on standard output. This is useful for gaining access
297 to the game generation algorithms without necessarily using the
300 If game parameters are specified on the command-line, they will
301 be used to generate the game IDs; otherwise a default set of
302 parameters will be used.
304 The most common use of this option is in conjunction with `--
305 print', in which case its behaviour is slightly different; see
310 If this option is specified, instead of a puzzle being
311 displayed, a printed representation of one or more unsolved
312 puzzles is sent to standard output, in PostScript format.
314 On each page of puzzles, there will be _w_ across and _h_ down.
315 If there are more puzzles than _w_x_h_, more than one page will
318 If `--generate' has also been specified, the invented game
319 IDs will be used to generate the printed output. Otherwise,
320 a list of game IDs is expected on standard input (which can
321 be descriptive or random seeds; see section 2.2), in the same
322 format produced by `--generate'.
326 PREFIX-net --generate 12 --print 2x3 7x7w | lpr
328 will generate two pages of printed Net puzzles (each of which
329 will have a 7x7 wrapping grid), and pipe the output to the `lpr'
330 command, which on many systems will send them to an actual
333 There are various other options which affect printing; see
336 --save _file-prefix_ [ --save-suffix _file-suffix_ ]
338 If this option is specified, instead of a puzzle being
339 displayed, saved-game files for one or more unsolved puzzles are
340 written to files constructed from the supplied prefix and/or
343 If `--generate' has also been specified, the invented game
344 IDs will be used to generate the printed output. Otherwise,
345 a list of game IDs is expected on standard input (which can
346 be descriptive or random seeds; see section 2.2), in the same
347 format produced by `--generate'.
351 PREFIX-net --generate 12 --save game --save-suffix .sav
353 will generate twelve Net saved-game files with the names
354 game0.sav to game11.sav.
358 Prints version information about the game, and then quits.
360 The following options are only meaningful if `--print' is also
365 The set of pages filled with unsolved puzzles will be followed
366 by the solutions to those puzzles.
370 Adjusts how big each puzzle is when printed. Larger numbers make
371 puzzles bigger; the default is 1.0.
375 Puzzles will be printed in colour, rather than in black and
376 white (if supported by the puzzle).
381 (_Note:_ the Windows version of this game is called NETGAME.EXE to
382 avoid clashing with Windows's own NET.EXE.)
384 I originally saw this in the form of a Flash game called
385 FreeNet [1], written by Pavils Jurjans; there are several other
386 implementations under the name NetWalk. The computer prepares a
387 network by connecting up the centres of squares in a grid, and then
388 shuffles the network by rotating every tile randomly. Your job is
389 to rotate it all back into place. The successful solution will be
390 an entirely connected network, with no closed loops. As a visual
391 aid, all tiles which are connected to the one in the middle are
394 [1] http://www.jurjans.lv/stuff/net/FreeNet.htm
398 This game can be played with either the keyboard or the mouse. The
401 _Select tile_: mouse pointer, arrow keys
403 _Rotate tile anticlockwise_: left mouse button, `A' key
405 _Rotate tile clockwise_: right mouse button, `D' key
407 _Rotate tile by 180 degrees_: `F' key
409 _Lock (or unlock) tile_: middle mouse button, shift-click, `S' key
411 You can lock a tile once you're sure of its orientation. You
412 can also unlock it again, but while it's locked you can't
413 accidentally turn it.
415 The following controls are not necessary to complete the game, but
418 _Shift grid_: Shift + arrow keys
420 On grids that wrap, you can move the origin of the grid, so
421 that tiles that were on opposite sides of the grid can be seen
424 _Move centre_: Ctrl + arrow keys
426 You can change which tile is used as the source of highlighting.
427 (It doesn't ultimately matter which tile this is, as every tile
428 will be connected to every other tile in a correct solution,
429 but it may be helpful in the intermediate stages of solving the
432 _Jumble tiles_: `J' key
434 This key turns all tiles that are not locked to random
437 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
441 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
446 Size of grid in tiles.
450 If checked, flow can pass from the left edge to the right edge,
451 and from top to bottom, and vice versa.
453 _Barrier probability_
455 A number between 0.0 and 1.0 controlling whether an immovable
456 barrier is placed between two tiles to prevent flow between
457 them (a higher number gives more barriers). Since barriers
458 are immovable, they act as constraints on the solution (i.e.,
461 The grid generation in Net has been carefully arranged so that
462 the barriers are independent of the rest of the grid. This
463 means that if you note down the random seed used to generate
464 the current puzzle (see section 2.2), change the _Barrier
465 probability_ parameter, and then re-enter the same random seed,
466 you should see exactly the same starting grid, with the only
467 change being the number of barriers. So if you're stuck on a
468 particular grid and need a hint, you could start up another
469 instance of Net, set up the same parameters but a higher barrier
470 probability, and enter the game seed from the original Net
473 _Ensure unique solution_
475 Normally, Net will make sure that the puzzles it presents have
476 only one solution. Puzzles with ambiguous sections can be more
477 difficult and more subtle, so if you like you can turn off this
478 feature and risk having ambiguous puzzles. (Also, finding _all_
479 the possible solutions can be an additional challenge for an
485 This is another one I originally saw as a web game. This one was a
486 Java game [2], by Paul Scott. You have a grid of 16 squares, six of
487 which are blue; on one square rests a cube. Your move is to use the
488 arrow keys to roll the cube through 90 degrees so that it moves to
489 an adjacent square. If you roll the cube on to a blue square, the
490 blue square is picked up on one face of the cube; if you roll a blue
491 face of the cube on to a non-blue square, the blueness is put down
492 again. (In general, whenever you roll the cube, the two faces that
493 come into contact swap colours.) Your job is to get all six blue
494 squares on to the six faces of the cube at the same time. Count your
495 moves and try to do it in as few as possible.
497 Unlike the original Java game, my version has an additional feature:
498 once you've mastered the game with a cube rolling on a square grid,
499 you can change to a triangular grid and roll any of a tetrahedron,
500 an octahedron or an icosahedron.
502 [2] http://www3.sympatico.ca/paulscott/cube/cube.htm
506 This game can be played with either the keyboard or the mouse.
508 Left-clicking anywhere on the window will move the cube (or other
509 solid) towards the mouse pointer.
511 The arrow keys can also used to roll the cube on its square grid in
512 the four cardinal directions. On the triangular grids, the mapping
513 of arrow keys to directions is more approximate. Vertical movement
514 is disallowed where it doesn't make sense. The four keys surrounding
515 the arrow keys on the numeric keypad (`7', `9', `1', `3') can be
516 used for diagonal movement.
518 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
522 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
527 Selects the solid to roll (and hence the shape of the grid):
528 tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, or icosahedron.
530 _Width / top_, _Height / bottom_
532 On a square grid, horizontal and vertical dimensions. On a
533 triangular grid, the number of triangles on the top and bottom
539 The old ones are the best: this is the good old `15-puzzle' with
540 sliding tiles. You have a 4x4 square grid; 15 squares contain
541 numbered tiles, and the sixteenth is empty. Your move is to choose a
542 tile next to the empty space, and slide it into the space. The aim
543 is to end up with the tiles in numerical order, with the space in
544 the bottom right (so that the top row reads 1,2,3,4 and the bottom
545 row reads 13,14,15,_space_).
549 This game can be controlled with the mouse or the keyboard.
551 A left-click with the mouse in the row or column containing the
552 empty space will move as many tiles as necessary to move the space
553 to the mouse pointer.
555 The arrow keys will move a tile adjacent to the space in the
556 direction indicated (moving the space in the _opposite_ direction).
558 Pressing `h' will make a suggested move. Pressing `h' enough times
559 will solve the game, but it may scramble your progress while doing
562 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
564 5.2 Fifteen parameters
566 The only options available from the `Custom...' option on the `Type'
567 menu are _Width_ and _Height_, which are self-explanatory. (Once
568 you've changed these, it's not a `15-puzzle' any more, of course!)
573 Another sliding tile puzzle, visually similar to Fifteen (see
574 chapter 5) but with a different type of move. This time, there is no
575 hole: all 16 squares on the grid contain numbered squares. Your move
576 is to shift an entire row left or right, or shift an entire column
577 up or down; every time you do that, the tile you shift off the grid
578 re-appears at the other end of the same row, in the space you just
579 vacated. To win, arrange the tiles into numerical order (1,2,3,4 on
580 the top row, 13,14,15,16 on the bottom). When you've done that, try
581 playing on different sizes of grid.
583 I _might_ have invented this game myself, though only by accident
584 if so (and I'm sure other people have independently invented it). I
585 thought I was imitating a screensaver I'd seen, but I have a feeling
586 that the screensaver might actually have been a Fifteen-type puzzle
587 rather than this slightly different kind. So this might be the one
588 thing in my puzzle collection which represents creativity on my part
589 rather than just engineering.
593 Left-clicking on an arrow will move the appropriate row or column in
594 the direction indicated. Right-clicking will move it in the opposite
597 Alternatively, use the cursor keys to move the position indicator
598 around the edge of the grid, and use the return key to move the
599 row/column in the direction indicated.
601 You can also move the tiles directly. Move the cursor onto a tile,
602 hold Control and press an arrow key to move the tile under the
603 cursor and move the cursor along with the tile. Or, hold Shift to
604 move only the tile. Pressing Enter simulates holding down Control
605 (press Enter again to release), while pressing Space simulates
608 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
610 6.2 Sixteen parameters
612 The parameters available from the `Custom...' option on the `Type'
615 - _Width_ and _Height_, which are self-explanatory.
617 - You can ask for a limited shuffling operation to be performed on
618 the grid. By default, Sixteen will shuffle the grid in such a
619 way that any arrangement is about as probable as any other. You
620 can override this by requesting a precise number of shuffling
621 moves to be performed. Typically your aim is then to determine
622 the precise set of shuffling moves and invert them exactly,
623 so that you answer (say) a four-move shuffle with a four-move
624 solution. Note that the more moves you ask for, the more likely
625 it is that solutions shorter than the target length will turn
631 Twiddle is a tile-rearrangement puzzle, visually similar to Sixteen
632 (see chapter 6): you are given a grid of square tiles, each
633 containing a number, and your aim is to arrange the numbers into
636 In basic Twiddle, your move is to rotate a square group of four
637 tiles about their common centre. (Orientation is not significant
638 in the basic puzzle, although you can select it.) On more advanced
639 settings, you can rotate a larger square group of tiles.
641 I first saw this type of puzzle in the GameCube game `Metroid
642 Prime 2'. In the Main Gyro Chamber in that game, there is a puzzle
643 you solve to unlock a door, which is a special case of Twiddle. I
644 developed this game as a generalisation of that puzzle.
648 To play Twiddle, click the mouse in the centre of the square group
649 you wish to rotate. In the basic mode, you rotate a 2x2 square,
650 which means you have to click at a corner point where four tiles
653 In more advanced modes you might be rotating 3x3 or even more at a
654 time; if the size of the square is odd then you simply click in the
655 centre tile of the square you want to rotate.
657 Clicking with the left mouse button rotates the group anticlockwise.
658 Clicking with the right button rotates it clockwise.
660 You can also move an outline square around the grid with the cursor
661 keys; the square is the size above (2x2 by default, or larger).
662 Pressing the return key or space bar will rotate the current square
663 anticlockwise or clockwise respectively.
665 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
667 7.2 Twiddle parameters
669 Twiddle provides several configuration options via the `Custom'
670 option on the `Type' menu:
672 - You can configure the width and height of the puzzle grid.
674 - You can configure the size of square block that rotates at a
677 - You can ask for every square in the grid to be distinguishable
678 (the default), or you can ask for a simplified puzzle in which
679 there are groups of identical numbers. In the simplified puzzle
680 your aim is just to arrange all the 1s into the first row, all
681 the 2s into the second row, and so on.
683 - You can configure whether the orientation of tiles matters. If
684 you ask for an orientable puzzle, each tile will have a triangle
685 drawn in it. All the triangles must be pointing upwards to
688 - You can ask for a limited shuffling operation to be performed
689 on the grid. By default, Twiddle will shuffle the grid so much
690 that any arrangement is about as probable as any other. You can
691 override this by requesting a precise number of shuffling moves
692 to be performed. Typically your aim is then to determine the
693 precise set of shuffling moves and invert them exactly, so that
694 you answer (say) a four-move shuffle with a four-move solution.
695 Note that the more moves you ask for, the more likely it is that
696 solutions shorter than the target length will turn out to be
699 Chapter 8: Rectangles
700 ---------------------
702 You have a grid of squares, with numbers written in some (but
703 not all) of the squares. Your task is to subdivide the grid into
704 rectangles of various sizes, such that (a) every rectangle contains
705 exactly one numbered square, and (b) the area of each rectangle is
706 equal to the number written in its numbered square.
708 Credit for this game goes to the Japanese puzzle magazine Nikoli
709 [3]; I've also seen a Palm implementation at Puzzle Palace [4].
710 Unlike Puzzle Palace's implementation, my version automatically
711 generates random grids of any size you like. The quality of puzzle
712 design is therefore not quite as good as hand-crafted puzzles would
713 be, but on the plus side you get an inexhaustible supply of puzzles
714 tailored to your own specification.
716 [3] http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/shikaku.html (beware of
720 https://web.archive.org/web/20041024001459/http://www.puzzle.gr.jp/puzzle/sikaku/palm/index.html.en
722 8.1 Rectangles controls
724 This game is played with the mouse or cursor keys.
726 Left-click any edge to toggle it on or off, or left-click and
727 drag to draw an entire rectangle (or line) on the grid in one go
728 (removing any existing edges within that rectangle). Right-clicking
729 and dragging will allow you to erase the contents of a rectangle
730 without affecting its edges.
732 Alternatively, use the cursor keys to move the position indicator
733 around the board. Pressing the return key then allows you to use the
734 cursor keys to drag a rectangle out from that position, and pressing
735 the return key again completes the rectangle. Using the space bar
736 instead of the return key allows you to erase the contents of a
737 rectangle without affecting its edges, as above. Pressing escape
740 When a rectangle of the correct size is completed, it will be
743 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
745 8.2 Rectangles parameters
747 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
752 Size of grid, in squares.
756 This is a mechanism for changing the type of grids generated by
757 the program. Some people prefer a grid containing a few large
758 rectangles to one containing many small ones. So you can ask
759 Rectangles to essentially generate a _smaller_ grid than the
760 size you specified, and then to expand it by adding rows and
763 The default expansion factor of zero means that Rectangles will
764 simply generate a grid of the size you ask for, and do nothing
765 further. If you set an expansion factor of (say) 0.5, it means
766 that each dimension of the grid will be expanded to half again
767 as big after generation. In other words, the initial grid will
768 be 2/3 the size in each dimension, and will be expanded to its
769 full size without adding any more rectangles.
771 Setting an expansion factor of around 0.5 tends to make the
772 game more difficult, and also (in my experience) rewards a
773 less deductive and more intuitive playing style. If you set it
774 _too_ high, though, the game simply cannot generate more than a
775 few rectangles to cover the entire grid, and the game becomes
778 _Ensure unique solution_
780 Normally, Rectangles will make sure that the puzzles it presents
781 have only one solution. Puzzles with ambiguous sections can be
782 more difficult and more subtle, so if you like you can turn off
783 this feature and risk having ambiguous puzzles. Also, finding
784 _all_ the possible solutions can be an additional challenge for
785 an advanced player. Turning off this option can also speed up
791 This game combines the grid generation of Net (see chapter 3) with
792 the movement of Sixteen (see chapter 6): you have a Net grid, but
793 instead of rotating tiles back into place you have to slide them
794 into place by moving a whole row at a time.
796 As in Sixteen, control is with the mouse or cursor keys. See section
799 The available game parameters have similar meanings to those in Net
800 (see section 3.2) and Sixteen (see section 6.2).
802 Netslide was contributed to this collection by Richard Boulton.
807 You have a grid of squares, which must all be filled in either black
808 or white. Beside each row of the grid are listed the lengths of the
809 runs of black squares on that row; above each column are listed the
810 lengths of the runs of black squares in that column. Your aim is to
811 fill in the entire grid black or white.
813 I first saw this puzzle form around 1995, under the name
814 `nonograms'. I've seen it in various places since then, under
817 Normally, puzzles of this type turn out to be a meaningful picture
818 of something once you've solved them. However, since this version
819 generates the puzzles automatically, they will just look like random
820 groupings of squares. (One user has suggested that this is actually
821 a _good_ thing, since it prevents you from guessing the colour of
822 squares based on the picture, and forces you to use logic instead.)
823 The advantage, though, is that you never run out of them.
825 10.1 Pattern controls
827 This game is played with the mouse.
829 Left-click in a square to colour it black. Right-click to colour it
830 white. If you make a mistake, you can middle-click, or hold down
831 Shift while clicking with any button, to colour the square in the
832 default grey (meaning `undecided') again.
834 You can click and drag with the left or right mouse button to colour
835 a vertical or horizontal line of squares black or white at a time
836 (respectively). If you click and drag with the middle button, or
837 with Shift held down, you can colour a whole rectangle of squares
840 You can also move around the grid with the cursor keys. Pressing the
841 return key will cycle the current cell through empty, then black,
842 then white, then empty, and the space bar does the same cycle in
845 Moving the cursor while holding Control will colour the moved-over
846 squares black. Holding Shift will colour the moved-over squares
847 white, and holding both will colour them grey.
849 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
851 10.2 Pattern parameters
853 The only options available from the `Custom...' option on the `Type'
854 menu are _Width_ and _Height_, which are self-explanatory.
859 You have a square grid, which is divided into as many equally sized
860 sub-blocks as the grid has rows. Each square must be filled in with
861 a digit from 1 to the size of the grid, in such a way that
863 - every row contains only one occurrence of each digit
865 - every column contains only one occurrence of each digit
867 - every block contains only one occurrence of each digit.
869 - (optionally, by default off) each of the square's two main
870 diagonals contains only one occurrence of each digit.
872 You are given some of the numbers as clues; your aim is to place the
873 rest of the numbers correctly.
875 Under the default settings, the sub-blocks are square or
876 rectangular. The default puzzle size is 3x3 (a 9x9 actual grid,
877 divided into nine 3x3 blocks). You can also select sizes with
878 rectangular blocks instead of square ones, such as 2x3 (a 6x6 grid
879 divided into six 3x2 blocks). Alternatively, you can select `jigsaw'
880 mode, in which the sub-blocks are arbitrary shapes which differ
881 between individual puzzles.
883 Another available mode is `killer'. In this mode, clues are not
884 given in the form of filled-in squares; instead, the grid is divided
885 into `cages' by coloured lines, and for each cage the game tells
886 you what the sum of all the digits in that cage should be. Also,
887 no digit may appear more than once within a cage, even if the cage
888 crosses the boundaries of existing regions.
890 If you select a puzzle size which requires more than 9 digits, the
891 additional digits will be letters of the alphabet. For example, if
892 you select 3x4 then the digits which go in your grid will be 1 to 9,
893 plus `a', `b' and `c'. This cannot be selected for killer puzzles.
895 I first saw this puzzle in Nikoli [5], although it's also been
896 popularised by various newspapers under the name `Sudoku' or `Su
897 Doku'. Howard Garns is considered the inventor of the modern form of
898 the puzzle, and it was first published in _Dell Pencil Puzzles and
899 Word Games_. A more elaborate treatment of the history of the puzzle
900 can be found on Wikipedia [6].
902 [5] http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/sudoku.html (beware of Flash)
904 [6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku
908 To play Solo, simply click the mouse in any empty square and then
909 type a digit or letter on the keyboard to fill that square. If you
910 make a mistake, click the mouse in the incorrect square and press
911 Space to clear it again (or use the Undo feature).
913 If you _right_-click in a square and then type a number, that
914 number will be entered in the square as a `pencil mark'. You can
915 have pencil marks for multiple numbers in the same square. Squares
916 containing filled-in numbers cannot also contain pencil marks.
918 The game pays no attention to pencil marks, so exactly what you
919 use them for is up to you: you can use them as reminders that a
920 particular square needs to be re-examined once you know more about
921 a particular number, or you can use them as lists of the possible
922 numbers in a given square, or anything else you feel like.
924 To erase a single pencil mark, right-click in the square and type
925 the same number again.
927 All pencil marks in a square are erased when you left-click and type
928 a number, or when you left-click and press space. Right-clicking and
929 pressing space will also erase pencil marks.
931 Alternatively, use the cursor keys to move the mark around the grid.
932 Pressing the return key toggles the mark (from a normal mark to a
933 pencil mark), and typing a number in is entered in the square in the
934 appropriate way; typing in a 0 or using the space bar will clear a
937 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
941 Solo allows you to configure two separate dimensions of the puzzle
942 grid on the `Type' menu: the number of columns, and the number of
943 rows, into which the main grid is divided. (The size of a block is
944 the inverse of this: for example, if you select 2 columns and 3
945 rows, each actual block will have 3 columns and 2 rows.)
947 If you tick the `X' checkbox, Solo will apply the optional extra
948 constraint that the two main diagonals of the grid also contain
949 one of every digit. (This is sometimes known as `Sudoku-X' in
950 newspapers.) In this mode, the squares on the two main diagonals
951 will be shaded slightly so that you know it's enabled.
953 If you tick the `Jigsaw' checkbox, Solo will generate randomly
954 shaped sub-blocks. In this mode, the actual grid size will be taken
955 to be the product of the numbers entered in the `Columns' and `Rows'
956 boxes. There is no reason why you have to enter a number greater
957 than 1 in both boxes; Jigsaw mode has no constraint on the grid
958 size, and it can even be a prime number if you feel like it.
960 If you tick the `Killer' checkbox, Solo will generate a set of
961 of cages, which are randomly shaped and drawn in an outline of a
962 different colour. Each of these regions contains a smaller clue
963 which shows the digit sum of all the squares in this region.
965 You can also configure the type of symmetry shown in the generated
966 puzzles. More symmetry makes the puzzles look prettier but may also
967 make them easier, since the symmetry constraints can force more
968 clues than necessary to be present. Completely asymmetric puzzles
969 have the freedom to contain as few clues as possible.
971 Finally, you can configure the difficulty of the generated puzzles.
972 Difficulty levels are judged by the complexity of the techniques
973 of deduction required to solve the puzzle: each level requires a
974 mode of reasoning which was not necessary in the previous one. In
975 particular, on difficulty levels `Trivial' and `Basic' there will be
976 a square you can fill in with a single number at all times, whereas
977 at `Intermediate' level and beyond you will have to make partial
978 deductions about the _set_ of squares a number could be in (or the
979 set of numbers that could be in a square). At `Unreasonable' level,
980 even this is not enough, and you will eventually have to make a
981 guess, and then backtrack if it turns out to be wrong.
983 Generating difficult puzzles is itself difficult: if you select one
984 of the higher difficulty levels, Solo may have to make many attempts
985 at generating a puzzle before it finds one hard enough for you. Be
986 prepared to wait, especially if you have also configured a large
992 You have a grid of covered squares, some of which contain mines, but
993 you don't know which. Your job is to uncover every square which does
994 _not_ contain a mine. If you uncover a square containing a mine, you
995 lose. If you uncover a square which does not contain a mine, you
996 are told how many mines are contained within the eight surrounding
999 This game needs no introduction; popularised by Windows, it is
1000 perhaps the single best known desktop puzzle game in existence.
1002 This version of it has an unusual property. By default, it will
1003 generate its mine positions in such a way as to ensure that you
1004 never need to _guess_ where a mine is: you will always be able
1005 to deduce it somehow. So you will never, as can happen in other
1006 versions, get to the last four squares and discover that there are
1007 two mines left but you have no way of knowing for sure where they
1012 This game is played with the mouse.
1014 If you left-click in a covered square, it will be uncovered.
1016 If you right-click in a covered square, it will place a flag which
1017 indicates that the square is believed to be a mine. Left-clicking in
1018 a marked square will not uncover it, for safety. You can right-click
1019 again to remove a mark placed in error.
1021 If you left-click in an _uncovered_ square, it will `clear around'
1022 the square. This means: if the square has exactly as many flags
1023 surrounding it as it should have mines, then all the covered squares
1024 next to it which are _not_ flagged will be uncovered. So once you
1025 think you know the location of all the mines around a square, you
1026 can use this function as a shortcut to avoid having to click on each
1027 of the remaining squares one by one.
1029 If you uncover a square which has _no_ mines in the surrounding
1030 eight squares, then it is obviously safe to uncover those squares in
1031 turn, and so on if any of them also has no surrounding mines. This
1032 will be done for you automatically; so sometimes when you uncover a
1033 square, a whole new area will open up to be explored.
1035 You can also use the cursor keys to move around the minefield.
1036 Pressing the return key in a covered square uncovers it, and in
1037 an uncovered square will clear around it (so it acts as the left
1038 button), pressing the space bar in a covered square will place a
1039 flag (similarly, it acts as the right button).
1041 All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.
1043 Even Undo is available, although you might consider it cheating to
1044 use it. If you step on a mine, the program will only reveal the mine
1045 in question (unlike most other implementations, which reveal all of
1046 them). You can then Undo your fatal move and continue playing if you
1047 like. The program will track the number of times you died (and Undo
1048 will not reduce that counter), so when you get to the end of the
1049 game you know whether or not you did it without making any errors.
1051 (If you really want to know the full layout of the grid, which other
1052 implementations will show you after you die, you can always use the
1055 12.2 Mines parameters
1057 The options available from the `Custom...' option on the `Type' menu
1062 Size of grid in squares.
1066 Number of mines in the grid. You can enter this as an absolute
1067 mine count, or alternatively you can put a % sign on the end
1068 in which case the game will arrange for that proportion of the
1069 squares in the grid to be mines.
1071 Beware of setting the mine count too high. At very high
1072 densities, the program may spend forever searching for a
1077 When this option is enabled (as it is by default), Mines will
1078 ensure that the entire grid can be fully deduced starting
1079 from the initial open space. If you prefer the riskier grids
1080 generated by other implementations, you can switch off this
1083 Chapter 13: Same Game
1084 ---------------------
1086 You have a grid of coloured squares, which you have to clear by
1087 highlighting contiguous regions of more than one coloured square;
1088 the larger the region you highlight, the more points you get (and
1089 the faster you clear the arena).
1091 If you clear the grid you win. If you end up with nothing but single
1092 squares (i.e., there are no more clickable regions left) you lose.
1094 Removing a region causes the rest of the grid to shuffle up: blocks
1095 that are suspended will fall down (first), and then empty columns
1096 are filled from the right.
1098 Same Game was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
1100 13.1 Same Game controls
1102 This game can be played with either the keyboard or the mouse.
1104 If you left-click an unselected region, it becomes selected
1105 (possibly clearing the current selection).
1107 If you left-click the selected region, it will be removed (and the
1108 rest of the grid shuffled immediately).
1110 If you right-click the selected region, it will be unselected.
1112 The cursor keys move a cursor around the grid. Pressing the Space or
1113 Enter keys while the cursor is in an unselected region selects it;
1114 pressing Space or Enter again removes it as above.
1116 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
1118 13.2 Same Game parameters
1120 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
1125 Size of grid in squares.
1129 Number of different colours used to fill the grid; the more
1130 colours, the fewer large regions of colour and thus the more
1131 difficult it is to successfully clear the grid.
1135 Controls the precise mechanism used for scoring. With the
1136 default system, `(n-2)^2', only regions of three squares or more
1137 will score any points at all. With the alternative `(n-1)^2'
1138 system, regions of two squares score a point each, and larger
1139 regions score relatively more points.
1143 If this option is ticked (the default state), generated grids
1144 will be guaranteed to have at least one solution.
1146 If you turn it off, the game generator will not try to guarantee
1147 soluble grids; it will, however, still ensure that there are at
1148 least 2 squares of each colour on the grid at the start (since a
1149 grid with exactly one square of a given colour is _definitely_
1150 insoluble). Grids generated with this option disabled may
1151 contain more large areas of contiguous colour, leading to
1152 opportunities for higher scores; they can also take less time to
1158 You have a grid of squares, some light and some dark. Your aim is to
1159 light all the squares up at the same time. You can choose any square
1160 and flip its state from light to dark or dark to light, but when you
1161 do so, other squares around it change state as well.
1163 Each square contains a small diagram showing which other squares
1164 change when you flip it.
1168 This game can be played with either the keyboard or the mouse.
1170 Left-click in a square to flip it and its associated squares, or use
1171 the cursor keys to choose a square and the space bar or Enter key to
1174 If you use the `Solve' function on this game, it will mark some of
1175 the squares in red. If you click once in every square with a red
1176 mark, the game should be solved. (If you click in a square _without_
1177 a red mark, a red mark will appear in it to indicate that you will
1178 need to reverse that operation to reach the solution.)
1180 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
1182 14.2 Flip parameters
1184 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
1189 Size of grid in squares.
1193 This control determines the shape of the region which is flipped
1194 by clicking in any given square. The default setting, `Crosses',
1195 causes every square to flip itself and its four immediate
1196 neighbours (or three or two if it's at an edge or corner). The
1197 other setting, `Random', causes a random shape to be chosen for
1198 every square, so the game is different every time.
1203 You have a set of coloured pegs, and have to reproduce a
1204 predetermined sequence of them (chosen by the computer) within a
1205 certain number of guesses.
1207 Each guess gets marked with the number of correctly-coloured pegs
1208 in the correct places (in black), and also the number of correctly-
1209 coloured pegs in the wrong places (in white).
1211 This game is also known (and marketed, by Hasbro, mainly) as a board
1212 game `Mastermind', with 6 colours, 4 pegs per row, and 10 guesses.
1213 However, this version allows custom settings of number of colours
1214 (up to 10), number of pegs per row, and number of guesses.
1216 Guess was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
1220 This game can be played with either the keyboard or the mouse.
1222 With the mouse, drag a coloured peg from the tray on the left-hand
1223 side to its required position in the current guess; pegs may also
1224 be dragged from current and past guesses to copy them elsewhere. To
1225 remove a peg, drag it off its current position to somewhere invalid.
1227 Right-clicking in the current guess adds a `hold' marker; pegs that
1228 have hold markers will be automatically added to the next guess
1231 Alternatively, with the keyboard, the up and down cursor keys can
1232 be used to select a peg colour, the left and right keys to select a
1233 peg position, and the space bar or Enter key to place a peg of the
1234 selected colour in the chosen position. `D' or Backspace removes a
1235 peg, and Space adds a hold marker.
1237 Pressing `h' or `?' will fill the current guess with a suggested
1238 guess. Using this is not recommended for 10 or more pegs as it is
1241 When the guess is complete, the smaller feedback pegs will be
1242 highlighted; clicking on these (or moving the peg cursor to them
1243 with the arrow keys and pressing the space bar or Enter key) will
1244 mark the current guess, copy any held pegs to the next guess, and
1245 move the `current guess' marker.
1247 If you correctly position all the pegs the solution will be
1248 displayed below; if you run out of guesses (or select `Solve...')
1249 the solution will also be revealed.
1251 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
1253 15.2 Guess parameters
1255 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
1256 `Type' menu. The default game matches the parameters for the board
1261 Number of colours the solution is chosen from; from 2 to 10
1266 Number of pegs per guess (more is harder).
1270 Number of guesses you have to find the solution in (fewer is
1275 Allows blank pegs to be given as part of a guess (makes it
1276 easier, because you know that those will never be counted as
1277 part of the solution). This is turned off by default.
1279 Note that this doesn't allow blank pegs in the solution; if you
1280 really wanted that, use one extra colour.
1284 Allows the solution (and the guesses) to contain colours more
1285 than once; this increases the search space (making things
1286 harder), and is turned on by default.
1291 A number of pegs are placed in holes on a board. You can remove a
1292 peg by jumping an adjacent peg over it (horizontally or vertically)
1293 to a vacant hole on the other side. Your aim is to remove all but
1294 one of the pegs initially present.
1296 This game, best known as `Peg Solitaire', is possibly one of the
1297 oldest puzzle games still commonly known.
1301 To move a peg, drag it with the mouse from its current position to
1302 its final position. If the final position is exactly two holes away
1303 from the initial position, is currently unoccupied by a peg, and
1304 there is a peg in the intervening square, the move will be permitted
1305 and the intervening peg will be removed.
1307 Vacant spaces which you can move a peg into are marked with holes. A
1308 space with no peg and no hole is not available for moving at all: it
1309 is an obstacle which you must work around.
1311 You can also use the cursor keys to move a position indicator around
1312 the board. Pressing the return key while over a peg, followed by a
1313 cursor key, will jump the peg in that direction (if that is a legal
1316 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
1318 16.2 Pegs parameters
1320 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
1325 Size of grid in holes.
1329 Controls whether you are given a board of a standard shape or
1330 a randomly generated shape. The two standard shapes currently
1331 supported are `Cross' and `Octagon' (also commonly known as the
1332 English and European traditional board layouts respectively).
1333 Selecting `Random' will give you a different board shape every
1334 time (but always one that is known to have a solution).
1336 Chapter 17: Dominosa
1337 --------------------
1339 A normal set of dominoes - that is, one instance of every
1340 (unordered) pair of numbers from 0 to 6 - has been arranged
1341 irregularly into a rectangle; then the number in each square has
1342 been written down and the dominoes themselves removed. Your task is
1343 to reconstruct the pattern by arranging the set of dominoes to match
1344 the provided array of numbers.
1346 This puzzle is widely credited to O. S. Adler, and takes part of its
1347 name from those initials.
1349 17.1 Dominosa controls
1351 Left-clicking between any two adjacent numbers places a domino
1352 covering them, or removes one if it is already present. Trying to
1353 place a domino which overlaps existing dominoes will remove the ones
1356 Right-clicking between two adjacent numbers draws a line between
1357 them, which you can use to remind yourself that you know those two
1358 numbers are _not_ covered by a single domino. Right-clicking again
1361 You can also use the cursor keys to move a cursor around the grid.
1362 When the cursor is half way between two adjacent numbers, pressing
1363 the return key will place a domino covering those numbers, or
1364 pressing the space bar will lay a line between the two squares.
1365 Repeating either action removes the domino or line.
1367 Pressing a number key will highlight all occurrences of that number.
1368 Pressing that number again will clear the highlighting. Up to two
1369 different numbers can be highlighted at any given time.
1371 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
1373 17.2 Dominosa parameters
1375 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
1378 _Maximum number on dominoes_
1380 Controls the size of the puzzle, by controlling the size of the
1381 set of dominoes used to make it. Dominoes with numbers going
1382 up to N will give rise to an (N+2) x (N+1) rectangle; so, in
1383 particular, the default value of 6 gives an 8x7 grid.
1385 _Ensure unique solution_
1387 Normally, Dominosa will make sure that the puzzles it presents
1388 have only one solution. Puzzles with ambiguous sections can be
1389 more difficult and sometimes more subtle, so if you like you
1390 can turn off this feature. Also, finding _all_ the possible
1391 solutions can be an additional challenge for an advanced player.
1392 Turning off this option can also speed up puzzle generation.
1394 Chapter 18: Untangle
1395 --------------------
1397 You are given a number of points, some of which have lines drawn
1398 between them. You can move the points about arbitrarily; your aim is
1399 to position the points so that no line crosses another.
1401 I originally saw this in the form of a Flash game called Planarity
1402 [7], written by John Tantalo.
1404 [7] http://planarity.net
1406 18.1 Untangle controls
1408 To move a point, click on it with the left mouse button and drag it
1409 into a new position.
1411 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
1413 18.2 Untangle parameters
1415 There is only one parameter available from the `Custom...' option on
1420 Controls the size of the puzzle, by specifying the number of
1421 points in the generated graph.
1423 Chapter 19: Black Box
1424 ---------------------
1426 A number of balls are hidden in a rectangular arena. You have to
1427 deduce the positions of the balls by firing lasers positioned at the
1428 edges of the arena and observing how their beams are deflected.
1430 Beams will travel straight from their origin until they hit the
1431 opposite side of the arena (at which point they emerge), unless
1432 affected by balls in one of the following ways:
1434 - A beam that hits a ball head-on is absorbed and will never re-
1435 emerge. This includes beams that meet a ball on the first rank
1438 - A beam with a ball in its front-left square and no ball ahead of
1439 it gets deflected 90 degrees to the right.
1441 - A beam with a ball in its front-right square and no ball ahead
1442 of it gets similarly deflected to the left.
1444 - A beam that would re-emerge from its entry location is
1445 considered to be `reflected'.
1447 - A beam which would get deflected before entering the arena by a
1448 ball to the front-left or front-right of its entry point is also
1449 considered to be `reflected'.
1451 Beams that are reflected appear as a `R'; beams that hit balls head-
1452 on appear as `H'. Otherwise, a number appears at the firing point
1453 and the location where the beam emerges (this number is unique to
1456 You can place guesses as to the location of the balls, based on the
1457 entry and exit patterns of the beams; once you have placed enough
1458 balls a button appears enabling you to have your guesses checked.
1460 Here is a diagram showing how the positions of balls can create each
1461 of the beam behaviours shown above:
1474 As shown, it is possible for a beam to receive multiple reflections
1475 before re-emerging (see turn 3). Similarly, a beam may be reflected
1476 (possibly more than once) before receiving a hit (the `H' on the
1477 left side of the example).
1479 Note that any layout with more than 4 balls may have a non-unique
1480 solution. The following diagram illustrates this; if you know the
1481 board contains 5 balls, it is impossible to determine where the
1482 fifth ball is (possible positions marked with an x):
1495 For this reason, when you have your guesses checked, the game
1496 will check that your solution _produces the same results_ as the
1497 computer's, rather than that your solution is identical to the
1498 computer's. So in the above example, you could put the fifth ball at
1499 _any_ of the locations marked with an x, and you would still win.
1501 Black Box was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
1503 19.1 Black Box controls
1505 To fire a laser beam, left-click in a square around the edge of
1506 the arena. The results will be displayed immediately. Clicking or
1507 holding the left button on one of these squares will highlight the
1508 current go (or a previous go) to confirm the exit point for that
1509 laser, if applicable.
1511 To guess the location of a ball, left-click within the arena and a
1512 black circle will appear marking the guess; click again to remove
1515 Locations in the arena may be locked against modification by right-
1516 clicking; whole rows and columns may be similarly locked by right-
1517 clicking in the laser square above/below that column, or to the
1518 left/right of that row.
1520 The cursor keys may also be used to move around the grid. Pressing
1521 the Enter key will fire a laser or add a new ball-location guess,
1522 and pressing Space will lock a cell, row, or column.
1524 When an appropriate number of balls have been guessed, a button will
1525 appear at the top-left corner of the grid; clicking that (with mouse
1526 or cursor) will check your guesses.
1528 If you click the `check' button and your guesses are not correct,
1529 the game will show you the minimum information necessary to
1530 demonstrate this to you, so you can try again. If your ball
1531 positions are not consistent with the beam paths you already know
1532 about, one beam path will be circled to indicate that it proves you
1533 wrong. If your positions match all the existing beam paths but are
1534 still wrong, one new beam path will be revealed (written in red)
1535 which is not consistent with your current guesses.
1537 If you decide to give up completely, you can select Solve to reveal
1538 the actual ball positions. At this point, correctly-placed balls
1539 will be displayed as filled black circles, incorrectly-placed balls
1540 as filled black circles with red crosses, and missing balls as
1541 filled red circles. In addition, a red circle marks any laser you
1542 had already fired which is not consistent with your ball layout
1543 (just as when you press the `check' button), and red text marks
1544 any laser you _could_ have fired in order to distinguish your ball
1545 layout from the correct one.
1547 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
1549 19.2 Black Box parameters
1551 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
1556 Size of grid in squares. There are 2 x _Width_ x _Height_ lasers
1557 per grid, two per row and two per column.
1561 Number of balls to place in the grid. This can be a single
1562 number, or a range (separated with a hyphen, like `2-6'),
1563 and determines the number of balls to place on the grid.
1564 The `reveal' button is only enabled if you have guessed an
1565 appropriate number of balls; a guess using a different number
1566 to the original solution is still acceptable, if all the beam
1567 inputs and outputs match.
1572 You have a grid of squares. Your aim is to draw a diagonal line
1573 through each square, and choose which way each line slants so that
1574 the following conditions are met:
1576 - The diagonal lines never form a loop.
1578 - Any point with a circled number has precisely that many lines
1579 meeting at it. (Thus, a 4 is the centre of a cross shape,
1580 whereas a zero is the centre of a diamond shape - or rather, a
1581 partial diamond shape, because a zero can never appear in the
1582 middle of the grid because that would immediately cause a loop.)
1584 Credit for this puzzle goes to Nikoli [8].
1586 [8] http://www.nikoli.co.jp/ja/puzzles/gokigen_naname (in Japanese)
1590 Left-clicking in a blank square will place a \ in it (a line leaning
1591 to the left, i.e. running from the top left of the square to the
1592 bottom right). Right-clicking in a blank square will place a / in it
1593 (leaning to the right, running from top right to bottom left).
1595 Continuing to click either button will cycle between the three
1596 possible square contents. Thus, if you left-click repeatedly in a
1597 blank square it will change from blank to \ to / back to blank, and
1598 if you right-click repeatedly the square will change from blank to /
1599 to \ back to blank. (Therefore, you can play the game entirely with
1600 one button if you need to.)
1602 You can also use the cursor keys to move around the grid. Pressing
1603 the return or space keys will place a \ or a /, respectively, and
1604 will then cycle them as above. You can also press / or \ to place a
1605 / or \, respectively, independent of what is already in the cursor
1606 square. Backspace removes any line from the cursor square.
1608 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
1610 20.2 Slant parameters
1612 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
1617 Size of grid in squares.
1621 Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. At Hard
1622 level, you are required to do deductions based on knowledge of
1623 _relationships_ between squares rather than always being able to
1624 deduce the exact contents of one square at a time. (For example,
1625 you might know that two squares slant in the same direction,
1626 even if you don't yet know what that direction is, and this
1627 might enable you to deduce something about still other squares.)
1628 Even at Hard level, guesswork and backtracking should never be
1631 Chapter 21: Light Up
1632 --------------------
1634 You have a grid of squares. Some are filled in black; some of the
1635 black squares are numbered. Your aim is to `light up' all the empty
1636 squares by placing light bulbs in some of them.
1638 Each light bulb illuminates the square it is on, plus all squares
1639 in line with it horizontally or vertically unless a black square is
1642 To win the game, you must satisfy the following conditions:
1644 - All non-black squares are lit.
1646 - No light is lit by another light.
1648 - All numbered black squares have exactly that number of lights
1649 adjacent to them (in the four squares above, below, and to the
1652 Non-numbered black squares may have any number of lights adjacent to
1655 Credit for this puzzle goes to Nikoli [9].
1657 Light Up was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
1659 [9] http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/akari.html (beware of Flash)
1661 21.1 Light Up controls
1663 Left-clicking in a non-black square will toggle the presence of a
1664 light in that square. Right-clicking in a non-black square toggles a
1665 mark there to aid solving; it can be used to highlight squares that
1666 cannot be lit, for example.
1668 You may not place a light in a marked square, nor place a mark in a
1671 The game will highlight obvious errors in red. Lights lit by other
1672 lights are highlighted in this way, as are numbered squares which do
1673 not (or cannot) have the right number of lights next to them.
1675 Thus, the grid is solved when all non-black squares have yellow
1676 highlights and there are no red lights.
1678 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
1680 21.2 Light Up parameters
1682 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
1687 Size of grid in squares.
1689 _%age of black squares_
1691 Rough percentage of black squares in the grid.
1693 This is a hint rather than an instruction. If the grid generator
1694 is unable to generate a puzzle to this precise specification, it
1695 will increase the proportion of black squares until it can.
1699 Allows you to specify the required symmetry of the black squares
1700 in the grid. (This does not affect the difficulty of the puzzles
1705 `Easy' means that the puzzles should be soluble without
1706 backtracking or guessing, `Hard' means that some guesses will
1707 probably be necessary.
1712 You are given a map consisting of a number of regions. Your task is
1713 to colour each region with one of four colours, in such a way that
1714 no two regions sharing a boundary have the same colour. You are
1715 provided with some regions already coloured, sufficient to make the
1716 remainder of the solution unique.
1718 Only regions which share a length of border are required to be
1719 different colours. Two regions which meet at only one _point_ (i.e.
1720 are diagonally separated) may be the same colour.
1722 I believe this puzzle is original; I've never seen an implementation
1723 of it anywhere else. The concept of a four-colouring puzzle was
1724 suggested by Owen Dunn; credit must also go to Nikoli and to Verity
1725 Allan for inspiring the train of thought that led to me realising
1726 Owen's suggestion was a viable puzzle. Thanks also to Gareth Taylor
1727 for many detailed suggestions.
1731 To colour a region, click the left mouse button on an existing
1732 region of the desired colour and drag that colour into the new
1735 (The program will always ensure the starting puzzle has at least one
1736 region of each colour, so that this is always possible!)
1738 If you need to clear a region, you can drag from an empty region, or
1739 from the puzzle boundary if there are no empty regions left.
1741 Dragging a colour using the _right_ mouse button will stipple the
1742 region in that colour, which you can use as a note to yourself that
1743 you think the region _might_ be that colour. A region can contain
1744 stipples in multiple colours at once. (This is often useful at the
1745 harder difficulty levels.)
1747 You can also use the cursor keys to move around the map: the colour
1748 of the cursor indicates the position of the colour you would drag
1749 (which is not obvious if you're on a region's boundary, since it
1750 depends on the direction from which you approached the boundary).
1751 Pressing the return key starts a drag of that colour, as above,
1752 which you control with the cursor keys; pressing the return key
1753 again finishes the drag. The space bar can be used similarly to
1754 create a stippled region. Double-pressing the return key (without
1755 moving the cursor) will clear the region, as a drag from an empty
1756 region does: this is useful with the cursor mode if you have filled
1757 the entire map in but need to correct the layout.
1759 If you press L during play, the game will toggle display of a number
1760 in each region of the map. This is useful if you want to discuss a
1761 particular puzzle instance with a friend - having an unambiguous
1762 name for each region is much easier than trying to refer to them all
1763 by names such as `the one down and right of the brown one on the top
1766 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
1770 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
1775 Size of grid in squares.
1779 Number of regions in the generated map.
1783 In `Easy' mode, there should always be at least one region whose
1784 colour can be determined trivially. In `Normal' and `Hard'
1785 modes, you will have to use increasingly complex logic to deduce
1786 the colour of some regions. However, it will always be possible
1787 without having to guess or backtrack.
1789 In `Unreasonable' mode, the program will feel free to generate
1790 puzzles which are as hard as it can possibly make them: the
1791 only constraint is that they should still have a unique
1792 solution. Solving Unreasonable puzzles may require guessing and
1798 You are given a grid of dots, marked with yellow lines to indicate
1799 which dots you are allowed to connect directly together. Your aim is
1800 to use some subset of those yellow lines to draw a single unbroken
1801 loop from dot to dot within the grid.
1803 Some of the spaces between the lines contain numbers. These numbers
1804 indicate how many of the lines around that space form part of the
1805 loop. The loop you draw must correctly satisfy all of these clues to
1806 be considered a correct solution.
1808 In the default mode, the dots are arranged in a grid of squares;
1809 however, you can also play on triangular or hexagonal grids, or even
1812 Credit for the basic puzzle idea goes to Nikoli [10].
1814 Loopy was originally contributed to this collection by Mike Pinna,
1815 and subsequently enhanced to handle various types of non-square grid
1818 [10] http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/slitherlink.html (beware of
1823 Click the left mouse button on a yellow line to turn it black,
1824 indicating that you think it is part of the loop. Click again to
1825 turn the line yellow again (meaning you aren't sure yet).
1827 If you are sure that a particular line segment is _not_ part of the
1828 loop, you can click the right mouse button to remove it completely.
1829 Again, clicking a second time will turn the line back to yellow.
1831 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
1833 23.2 Loopy parameters
1835 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
1840 Size of grid, measured in number of regions across and down. For
1841 square grids, it's clear how this is counted; for other types of
1842 grid you may have to think a bit to see how the dimensions are
1847 Allows you to choose between a selection of types of tiling.
1848 Some have all the faces the same but may have multiple different
1849 types of vertex (e.g. the _Cairo_ or _Kites_ mode); others
1850 have all the vertices the same but may have different types of
1851 face (e.g. the _Great Hexagonal_). The square, triangular and
1852 honeycomb grids are fully regular, and have all their vertices
1853 _and_ faces the same; this makes them the least confusing to
1858 Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle.
1863 You are a small green ball sitting in a grid full of obstacles. Your
1864 aim is to collect all the gems without running into any mines.
1866 You can move the ball in any orthogonal _or diagonal_ direction.
1867 Once the ball starts moving, it will continue until something stops
1868 it. A wall directly in its path will stop it (but if it is moving
1869 diagonally, it will move through a diagonal gap between two other
1870 walls without stopping). Also, some of the squares are `stops'; when
1871 the ball moves on to a stop, it will stop moving no matter what
1872 direction it was going in. Gems do _not_ stop the ball; it picks
1873 them up and keeps on going.
1875 Running into a mine is fatal. Even if you picked up the last gem in
1876 the same move which then hit a mine, the game will count you as dead
1877 rather than victorious.
1879 This game was originally implemented for Windows by Ben Olmstead
1880 [11], who was kind enough to release his source code on request so
1881 that it could be re-implemented for this collection.
1883 [11] http://xn13.com/
1885 24.1 Inertia controls
1887 You can move the ball in any of the eight directions using the
1888 numeric keypad. Alternatively, if you click the left mouse button
1889 on the grid, the ball will begin a move in the general direction of
1892 If you use the `Solve' function on this game, the program will
1893 compute a path through the grid which collects all the remaining
1894 gems and returns to the current position. A hint arrow will appear
1895 on the ball indicating the direction in which you should move to
1896 begin on this path. If you then move in that direction, the arrow
1897 will update to indicate the next direction on the path. You can
1898 also press Space to automatically move in the direction of the hint
1899 arrow. If you move in a different direction from the one shown
1900 by the arrow, arrows will be shown only if the puzzle is still
1903 All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available. In
1904 particular, if you do run into a mine and die, you can use the Undo
1905 function and resume playing from before the fatal move. The game
1906 will keep track of the number of times you have done this.
1908 24.2 Inertia parameters
1910 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
1915 Size of grid in squares.
1920 You have a grid of squares, some of which contain trees. Your aim is
1921 to place tents in some of the remaining squares, in such a way that
1922 the following conditions are met:
1924 - There are exactly as many tents as trees.
1926 - The tents and trees can be matched up in such a way that each
1927 tent is directly adjacent (horizontally or vertically, but not
1928 diagonally) to its own tree. However, a tent may be adjacent to
1929 other trees as well as its own.
1931 - No two tents are adjacent horizontally, vertically _or
1934 - The number of tents in each row, and in each column, matches the
1935 numbers given round the sides of the grid.
1937 This puzzle can be found in several places on the Internet, and was
1938 brought to my attention by e-mail. I don't know who I should credit
1943 Left-clicking in a blank square will place a tent in it. Right-
1944 clicking in a blank square will colour it green, indicating that you
1945 are sure it _isn't_ a tent. Clicking either button in an occupied
1946 square will clear it.
1948 If you _drag_ with the right button along a row or column, every
1949 blank square in the region you cover will be turned green, and no
1950 other squares will be affected. (This is useful for clearing the
1951 remainder of a row once you have placed all its tents.)
1953 You can also use the cursor keys to move around the grid. Pressing
1954 the return key over an empty square will place a tent, and pressing
1955 the space bar over an empty square will colour it green; either key
1956 will clear an occupied square. Holding Shift and pressing the cursor
1957 keys will colour empty squares green. Holding Control and pressing
1958 the cursor keys will colour green both empty squares and squares
1961 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
1963 25.2 Tents parameters
1965 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
1970 Size of grid in squares.
1974 Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. More difficult
1975 puzzles require more complex deductions, but at present none
1976 of the available difficulty levels requires guesswork or
1982 You have a set of islands distributed across the playing area.
1983 Each island contains a number. Your aim is to connect the islands
1984 together with bridges, in such a way that:
1986 - Bridges run horizontally or vertically.
1988 - The number of bridges terminating at any island is equal to the
1989 number written in that island.
1991 - Two bridges may run in parallel between the same two islands,
1992 but no more than two may do so.
1994 - No bridge crosses another bridge.
1996 - All the islands are connected together.
1998 There are some configurable alternative modes, which involve
1999 changing the parallel-bridge limit to something other than 2, and
2000 introducing the additional constraint that no sequence of bridges
2001 may form a loop from one island back to the same island. The rules
2002 stated above are the default ones.
2004 Credit for this puzzle goes to Nikoli [12].
2006 Bridges was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
2008 [12] http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/hashiwokakero.html (beware
2011 26.1 Bridges controls
2013 To place a bridge between two islands, click the mouse down on one
2014 island and drag it towards the other. You do not need to drag all
2015 the way to the other island; you only need to move the mouse far
2016 enough for the intended bridge direction to be unambiguous. (So you
2017 can keep the mouse near the starting island and conveniently throw
2018 bridges out from it in many directions.)
2020 Doing this again when a bridge is already present will add another
2021 parallel bridge. If there are already as many bridges between the
2022 two islands as permitted by the current game rules (i.e. two by
2023 default), the same dragging action will remove all of them.
2025 If you want to remind yourself that two islands definitely _do not_
2026 have a bridge between them, you can right-drag between them in the
2027 same way to draw a `non-bridge' marker.
2029 If you think you have finished with an island (i.e. you have placed
2030 all its bridges and are confident that they are in the right
2031 places), you can mark the island as finished by left-clicking on it.
2032 This will highlight it and all the bridges connected to it, and you
2033 will be prevented from accidentally modifying any of those bridges
2034 in future. Left-clicking again on a highlighted island will unmark
2035 it and restore your ability to modify it.
2037 You can also use the cursor keys to move around the grid: if
2038 possible the cursor will always move orthogonally, otherwise it
2039 will move towards the nearest island to the indicated direction.
2040 Holding Control and pressing a cursor key will lay a bridge in that
2041 direction (if available); Shift and a cursor key will lay a `non-
2042 bridge' marker. Pressing the return key followed by a cursor key
2043 will also lay a bridge in that direction.
2045 You can mark an island as finished by pressing the space bar or by
2046 pressing the return key twice.
2048 By pressing a number key, you can jump to the nearest island with
2049 that number. Letters `a', ..., `f' count as 10, ..., 15 and `0' as
2052 Violations of the puzzle rules will be marked in red:
2054 - An island with too many bridges will be highlighted in red.
2056 - An island with too few bridges will be highlighted in red if it
2057 is definitely an error (as opposed to merely not being finished
2058 yet): if adding enough bridges would involve having to cross
2059 another bridge or remove a non-bridge marker, or if the island
2060 has been highlighted as complete.
2062 - A group of islands and bridges may be highlighted in red if it
2063 is a closed subset of the puzzle with no way to connect it to
2064 the rest of the islands. For example, if you directly connect
2065 two 1s together with a bridge and they are not the only two
2066 islands on the grid, they will light up red to indicate that
2067 such a group cannot be contained in any valid solution.
2069 - If you have selected the (non-default) option to disallow loops
2070 in the solution, a group of bridges which forms a loop will be
2073 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
2075 26.2 Bridges parameters
2077 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
2082 Size of grid in squares.
2086 Difficulty level of puzzle.
2090 This is set by default. If cleared, puzzles will be generated in
2091 such a way that they are always soluble without creating a loop,
2092 and solutions which do involve a loop will be disallowed.
2094 _Max. bridges per direction_
2096 Maximum number of bridges in any particular direction. The
2097 default is 2, but you can change it to 1, 3 or 4. In general,
2100 _%age of island squares_
2102 Gives a rough percentage of islands the generator will try and
2103 lay before finishing the puzzle. Certain layouts will not manage
2104 to lay enough islands; this is an upper bound.
2106 _Expansion factor (%age)_
2108 The grid generator works by picking an existing island at random
2109 (after first creating an initial island somewhere). It then
2110 decides on a direction (at random), and then works out how far
2111 it could extend before creating another island. This parameter
2112 determines how likely it is to extend as far as it can, rather
2113 than choosing somewhere closer.
2115 High expansion factors usually mean easier puzzles with fewer
2116 possible islands; low expansion factors can create lots of
2117 tightly-packed islands.
2122 You have a square grid; each square may contain a digit from 1 to
2123 the size of the grid, and some squares have clue signs between them.
2124 Your aim is to fully populate the grid with numbers such that:
2126 - Each row contains only one occurrence of each digit
2128 - Each column contains only one occurrence of each digit
2130 - All the clue signs are satisfied.
2132 There are two modes for this game, `Unequal' and `Adjacent'.
2134 In `Unequal' mode, the clue signs are greater-than symbols
2135 indicating one square's value is greater than its neighbour's. In
2136 this mode not all clues may be visible, particularly at higher
2139 In `Adjacent' mode, the clue signs are bars indicating one square's
2140 value is numerically adjacent (i.e. one higher or one lower) than
2141 its neighbour. In this mode all clues are always visible: absence of
2142 a bar thus means that a square's value is definitely not numerically
2143 adjacent to that neighbour's.
2145 In `Trivial' difficulty level (available via the `Custom' game type
2146 selector), there are no greater-than signs in `Unequal' mode; the
2147 puzzle is to solve the Latin square only.
2149 At the time of writing, the `Unequal' mode of this puzzle is
2150 appearing in the Guardian weekly under the name `Futoshiki'.
2152 Unequal was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
2154 27.1 Unequal controls
2156 Unequal shares much of its control system with Solo.
2158 To play Unequal, simply click the mouse in any empty square and then
2159 type a digit or letter on the keyboard to fill that square. If you
2160 make a mistake, click the mouse in the incorrect square and press
2161 Space to clear it again (or use the Undo feature).
2163 If you _right_-click in a square and then type a number, that
2164 number will be entered in the square as a `pencil mark'. You can
2165 have pencil marks for multiple numbers in the same square. Squares
2166 containing filled-in numbers cannot also contain pencil marks.
2168 The game pays no attention to pencil marks, so exactly what you
2169 use them for is up to you: you can use them as reminders that a
2170 particular square needs to be re-examined once you know more about
2171 a particular number, or you can use them as lists of the possible
2172 numbers in a given square, or anything else you feel like.
2174 To erase a single pencil mark, right-click in the square and type
2175 the same number again.
2177 All pencil marks in a square are erased when you left-click and type
2178 a number, or when you left-click and press space. Right-clicking and
2179 pressing space will also erase pencil marks.
2181 As for Solo, the cursor keys can be used in conjunction with the
2182 digit keys to set numbers or pencil marks. You can also use the `M'
2183 key to auto-fill every numeric hint, ready for removal as required,
2184 or the `H' key to do the same but also to remove all obvious hints.
2186 Alternatively, use the cursor keys to move the mark around the grid.
2187 Pressing the return key toggles the mark (from a normal mark to a
2188 pencil mark), and typing a number in is entered in the square in the
2189 appropriate way; typing in a 0 or using the space bar will clear a
2192 Left-clicking a clue will mark it as done (grey it out), or unmark
2193 it if it is already marked. Holding Control or Shift and pressing
2194 an arrow key likewise marks any clue adjacent to the cursor in the
2197 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
2199 27.2 Unequal parameters
2201 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
2206 Mode of the puzzle (`Unequal' or `Adjacent')
2214 Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. At Trivial
2215 level, there are no greater-than signs; the puzzle is to solve
2216 the Latin square only. At Recursive level (only available via
2217 the `Custom' game type selector) backtracking will be required,
2218 but the solution should still be unique. The levels in between
2219 require increasingly complex reasoning to avoid having to
2222 Chapter 28: Galaxies
2223 --------------------
2225 You have a rectangular grid containing a number of dots. Your aim is
2226 to draw edges along the grid lines which divide the rectangle into
2227 regions in such a way that every region is 180-degree rotationally
2228 symmetric, and contains exactly one dot which is located at its
2231 This puzzle was invented by Nikoli [13], under the name `Tentai
2232 Show'; its name is commonly translated into English as `Spiral
2235 Galaxies was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
2237 [13] http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/astronomical_show.html
2239 28.1 Galaxies controls
2241 Left-click on any grid line to draw an edge if there isn't one
2242 already, or to remove one if there is. When you create a valid
2243 region (one which is closed, contains exactly one dot, is 180-degree
2244 symmetric about that dot, and contains no extraneous edges inside
2245 it) it will be highlighted automatically; so your aim is to have the
2246 whole grid highlighted in that way.
2248 During solving, you might know that a particular grid square belongs
2249 to a specific dot, but not be sure of where the edges go and which
2250 other squares are connected to the dot. In order to mark this so you
2251 don't forget, you can right-click on the dot and drag, which will
2252 create an arrow marker pointing at the dot. Drop that in a square of
2253 your choice and it will remind you which dot it's associated with.
2254 You can also right-click on existing arrows to pick them up and move
2255 them, or destroy them by dropping them off the edge of the grid.
2256 (Also, if you're not sure which dot an arrow is pointing at, you can
2257 pick it up and move it around to make it clearer. It will swivel
2258 constantly as you drag it, to stay pointed at its parent dot.)
2260 You can also use the cursor keys to move around the grid squares and
2261 lines. Pressing the return key when over a grid line will draw or
2262 clear its edge, as above. Pressing the return key when over a dot
2263 will pick up an arrow, to be dropped the next time the return key
2264 is pressed; this can also be used to move existing arrows around,
2265 removing them by dropping them on a dot or another arrow.
2267 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
2269 28.2 Galaxies parameters
2271 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
2276 Size of grid in squares.
2280 Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. More difficult
2281 puzzles require more complex deductions, and the `Unreasonable'
2282 difficulty level may require backtracking.
2287 You have a grid of squares, some of which contain digits, and the
2288 rest of which are empty. Your job is to fill in digits in the empty
2289 squares, in such a way that each connected region of squares all
2290 containing the same digit has an area equal to that digit.
2292 (`Connected region', for the purposes of this game, does not count
2293 diagonally separated squares as adjacent.)
2295 For example, it follows that no square can contain a zero, and that
2296 two adjacent squares can not both contain a one. No region has an
2297 area greater than 9 (because then its area would not be a single
2300 Credit for this puzzle goes to Nikoli [14].
2302 Filling was contributed to this collection by Jonas Koelker.
2304 [14] http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/fillomino.html
2306 29.1 Filling controls
2308 To play Filling, simply click the mouse in any empty square and
2309 then type a digit on the keyboard to fill that square. By dragging
2310 the mouse, you can select multiple squares to fill with a single
2311 keypress. If you make a mistake, click the mouse in the incorrect
2312 square and press 0, Space, Backspace or Enter to clear it again (or
2313 use the Undo feature).
2315 You can also move around the grid with the cursor keys; typing a
2316 digit will fill the square containing the cursor with that number;
2317 typing 0 will clear it. You can also select multiple squares for
2318 numbering or clearing with the return and arrow keys, before typing
2319 a digit to fill or clear the highlighted squares (as above). The
2320 space bar adds and removes single squares to and from the selection.
2321 Backspace and escape remove all squares from the selection.
2323 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
2325 29.2 Filling parameters
2327 Filling allows you to configure the number of rows and columns of
2328 the grid, through the `Type' menu.
2333 You have a square grid; each square may contain a digit from 1 to
2334 the size of the grid. The grid is divided into blocks of varying
2335 shape and size, with arithmetic clues written in them. Your aim is
2336 to fully populate the grid with digits such that:
2338 - Each row contains only one occurrence of each digit
2340 - Each column contains only one occurrence of each digit
2342 - The digits in each block can be combined to form the number
2343 stated in the clue, using the arithmetic operation given in the
2346 - An addition clue means that the sum of the digits in the
2347 block must be the given number. For example, `15+' means the
2348 contents of the block adds up to fifteen.
2350 - A multiplication clue (e.g. `60*'), similarly, means that
2351 the product of the digits in the block must be the given
2354 - A subtraction clue will always be written in a block of
2355 size two, and it means that one of the digits in the block
2356 is greater than the other by the given amount. For example,
2357 `2-' means that one of the digits in the block is 2 more
2358 than the other, or equivalently that one digit minus the
2359 other one is 2. The two digits could be either way round,
2362 - A division clue (e.g. `3/'), similarly, is always in a block
2363 of size two and means that one digit divided by the other is
2364 equal to the given amount.
2366 Note that a block may contain the same digit more than once
2367 (provided the identical ones are not in the same row and
2368 column). This rule is precisely the opposite of the rule in
2369 Solo's `Killer' mode (see chapter 11).
2371 This puzzle appears in the Times under the name `KenKen'.
2375 Keen shares much of its control system with Solo (and Unequal).
2377 To play Keen, simply click the mouse in any empty square and then
2378 type a digit on the keyboard to fill that square. If you make a
2379 mistake, click the mouse in the incorrect square and press Space to
2380 clear it again (or use the Undo feature).
2382 If you _right_-click in a square and then type a number, that
2383 number will be entered in the square as a `pencil mark'. You can
2384 have pencil marks for multiple numbers in the same square. Squares
2385 containing filled-in numbers cannot also contain pencil marks.
2387 The game pays no attention to pencil marks, so exactly what you
2388 use them for is up to you: you can use them as reminders that a
2389 particular square needs to be re-examined once you know more about
2390 a particular number, or you can use them as lists of the possible
2391 numbers in a given square, or anything else you feel like.
2393 To erase a single pencil mark, right-click in the square and type
2394 the same number again.
2396 All pencil marks in a square are erased when you left-click and type
2397 a number, or when you left-click and press space. Right-clicking and
2398 pressing space will also erase pencil marks.
2400 As for Solo, the cursor keys can be used in conjunction with the
2401 digit keys to set numbers or pencil marks. Use the cursor keys to
2402 move a highlight around the grid, and type a digit to enter it in
2403 the highlighted square. Pressing return toggles the highlight into a
2404 mode in which you can enter or remove pencil marks.
2406 Pressing M will fill in a full set of pencil marks in every square
2407 that does not have a main digit in it.
2409 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
2411 30.2 Keen parameters
2413 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
2418 Specifies the size of the grid. Lower limit is 3; upper limit is
2419 9 (because the user interface would become more difficult with
2420 `digits' bigger than 9!).
2424 Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. At Unreasonable
2425 level, some backtracking will be required, but the solution
2426 should still be unique. The remaining levels require
2427 increasingly complex reasoning to avoid having to backtrack.
2429 _Multiplication only_
2431 If this is enabled, all boxes will be multiplication boxes. With
2432 this rule, the puzzle is known as `Inshi No Heya'.
2437 You have a square grid. On each square of the grid you can build
2438 a tower, with its height ranging from 1 to the size of the grid.
2439 Around the edge of the grid are some numeric clues.
2441 Your task is to build a tower on every square, in such a way that:
2443 - Each row contains every possible height of tower once
2445 - Each column contains every possible height of tower once
2447 - Each numeric clue describes the number of towers that can be
2448 seen if you look into the square from that direction, assuming
2449 that shorter towers are hidden behind taller ones. For example,
2450 in a 5x5 grid, a clue marked `5' indicates that the five tower
2451 heights must appear in increasing order (otherwise you would
2452 not be able to see all five towers), whereas a clue marked `1'
2453 indicates that the tallest tower (the one marked 5) must come
2456 In harder or larger puzzles, some towers will be specified for you
2457 as well as the clues round the edge, and some edge clues may be
2460 This puzzle appears on the web under various names, particularly
2461 `Skyscrapers', but I don't know who first invented it.
2463 31.1 Towers controls
2465 Towers shares much of its control system with Solo, Unequal and
2468 To play Towers, simply click the mouse in any empty square and then
2469 type a digit on the keyboard to fill that square with a tower of
2470 the given height. If you make a mistake, click the mouse in the
2471 incorrect square and press Space to clear it again (or use the Undo
2474 If you _right_-click in a square and then type a number, that
2475 number will be entered in the square as a `pencil mark'. You can
2476 have pencil marks for multiple numbers in the same square. A square
2477 containing a tower cannot also contain pencil marks.
2479 The game pays no attention to pencil marks, so exactly what you
2480 use them for is up to you: you can use them as reminders that a
2481 particular square needs to be re-examined once you know more about
2482 a particular number, or you can use them as lists of the possible
2483 numbers in a given square, or anything else you feel like.
2485 To erase a single pencil mark, right-click in the square and type
2486 the same number again.
2488 All pencil marks in a square are erased when you left-click and type
2489 a number, or when you left-click and press space. Right-clicking and
2490 pressing space will also erase pencil marks.
2492 As for Solo, the cursor keys can be used in conjunction with the
2493 digit keys to set numbers or pencil marks. Use the cursor keys to
2494 move a highlight around the grid, and type a digit to enter it in
2495 the highlighted square. Pressing return toggles the highlight into a
2496 mode in which you can enter or remove pencil marks.
2498 Pressing M will fill in a full set of pencil marks in every square
2499 that does not have a main digit in it.
2501 Left-clicking a clue will mark it as done (grey it out), or unmark
2502 it if it is already marked. Holding Control or Shift and pressing an
2503 arrow key likewise marks any clue in the given direction.
2505 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
2507 31.2 Towers parameters
2509 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
2514 Specifies the size of the grid. Lower limit is 3; upper limit is
2515 9 (because the user interface would become more difficult with
2516 `digits' bigger than 9!).
2520 Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. At Unreasonable
2521 level, some backtracking will be required, but the solution
2522 should still be unique. The remaining levels require
2523 increasingly complex reasoning to avoid having to backtrack.
2528 You have a grid of white squares, all of which contain numbers. Your
2529 task is to colour some of the squares black (removing the number) so
2530 as to satisfy all of the following conditions:
2532 - No number occurs more than once in any row or column.
2534 - No black square is horizontally or vertically adjacent to any
2537 - The remaining white squares must all form one contiguous region
2538 (connected by edges, not just touching at corners).
2540 Credit for this puzzle goes to Nikoli [15] who call it Hitori.
2542 Singles was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
2544 [15] http://www.nikoli.com/en/puzzles/hitori.html (beware of Flash)
2546 32.1 Singles controls
2548 Left-clicking on an empty square will colour it black; left-clicking
2549 again will restore the number. Right-clicking will add a circle
2550 (useful for indicating that a cell is definitely not black).
2552 You can also use the cursor keys to move around the grid. Pressing
2553 the return or space keys will turn a square black or add a circle
2554 respectively, and pressing the key again will restore the number or
2557 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
2559 32.2 Singles parameters
2561 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
2566 Size of grid in squares.
2570 Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle.
2575 A rectangular grid has been filled with a mixture of magnets (that
2576 is, dominoes with one positive end and one negative end) and blank
2577 dominoes (that is, dominoes with two neutral poles). These dominoes
2578 are initially only seen in silhouette. Around the grid are placed a
2579 number of clues indicating the number of positive and negative poles
2580 contained in certain columns and rows.
2582 Your aim is to correctly place the magnets and blank dominoes such
2583 that all the clues are satisfied, with the additional constraint
2584 that no two similar magnetic poles may be orthogonally adjacent
2585 (since they repel). Neutral poles do not repel, and can be adjacent
2588 Credit for this puzzle goes to Janko [16].
2590 Magnets was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
2592 [16] http://www.janko.at/Raetsel/Magnete/index.htm
2594 33.1 Magnets controls
2596 Left-clicking on an empty square places a magnet at that position
2597 with the positive pole on the square and the negative pole on the
2598 other half of the magnet; left-clicking again reverses the polarity,
2599 and a third click removes the magnet.
2601 Right-clicking on an empty square places a blank domino there.
2602 Right-clicking again places two question marks on the domino,
2603 signifying `this cannot be blank' (which can be useful to note
2604 deductions while solving), and right-clicking again empties the
2607 Left-clicking a clue will mark it as done (grey it out), or unmark
2608 it if it is already marked.
2610 You can also use the cursor keys to move a cursor around the grid.
2611 Pressing the return key will lay a domino with a positive pole at
2612 that position; pressing again reverses the polarity and then removes
2613 the domino, as with left-clicking. Using the space bar allows
2614 placement of blank dominoes and cannot-be-blank hints, as for right-
2617 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
2619 33.2 Magnets parameters
2621 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
2626 Size of grid in squares. There will be half _Width_ x _Height_
2627 dominoes in the grid: if this number is odd then one square will
2630 (Grids with at least one odd dimension tend to be easier to
2635 Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. At Tricky
2636 level, you are required to make more deductions about empty
2637 dominoes and row/column counts.
2641 If true, some of the clues around the grid are removed at
2642 generation time, making the puzzle more difficult.
2644 Chapter 34: Signpost
2645 --------------------
2647 You have a grid of squares; each square (except the last one)
2648 contains an arrow, and some squares also contain numbers. Your job
2649 is to connect the squares to form a continuous list of numbers
2650 starting at 1 and linked in the direction of the arrows - so the
2651 arrow inside the square with the number 1 will point to the square
2652 containing the number 2, which will point to the square containing
2653 the number 3, etc. Each square can be any distance away from the
2654 previous one, as long as it is somewhere in the direction of the
2657 By convention the first and last numbers are shown; one or more
2658 interim numbers may also appear at the beginning.
2660 Credit for this puzzle goes to Janko [17], who call it `Pfeilpfad'
2663 Signpost was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
2665 [17] http://janko.at/Raetsel/Pfeilpfad/index.htm
2667 34.1 Signpost controls
2669 To play Signpost, you connect squares together by dragging from
2670 one square to another, indicating that they are adjacent in the
2671 sequence. Drag with the left button from a square to its successor,
2672 or with the right button from a square to its predecessor.
2674 If you connect together two squares in this way and one of them has
2675 a number in it, the appropriate number will appear in the other
2676 square. If you connect two non-numbered squares, they will be
2677 assigned temporary algebraic labels: on the first occasion, they
2678 will be labelled `a' and `a+1', and then `b' and `b+1', and so on.
2679 Connecting more squares on to the ends of such a chain will cause
2680 them all to be labelled with the same letter.
2682 When you left-click or right-click in a square, the legal squares to
2683 connect it to will be shown.
2685 The arrow in each square starts off black, and goes grey once you
2686 connect the square to its successor. Also, each square which needs
2687 a predecessor has a small dot in the bottom left corner, which
2688 vanishes once you link a square to it. So your aim is always to
2689 connect a square with a black arrow to a square with a dot.
2691 To remove any links for a particular square (both incoming and
2692 outgoing), left-drag it off the grid. To remove a whole chain,
2693 right-drag any square in the chain off the grid.
2695 You can also use the cursor keys to move around the grid squares
2696 and lines. Pressing the return key when over a square starts a link
2697 operation, and pressing the return key again over a square will
2698 finish the link, if allowable. Pressing the space bar over a square
2699 will show the other squares pointing to it, and allow you to form a
2700 backward link, and pressing the space bar again cancels this.
2702 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
2704 34.2 Signpost parameters
2706 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
2711 Size of grid in squares.
2713 _Force start/end to corners_
2715 If true, the start and end squares are always placed in opposite
2716 corners (the start at the top left, and the end at the bottom
2717 right). If false the start and end squares are placed randomly
2718 (although always both shown).
2723 You have a grid of squares; some squares contain numbers. Your job
2724 is to colour some of the squares black, such that several criteria
2727 - no square with a number is coloured black.
2729 - no two black squares are adjacent (horizontally or vertically).
2731 - for any two white squares, there is a path between them using
2734 - for each square with a number, that number denotes the total
2735 number of white squares reachable from that square going in a
2736 straight line in any horizontal or vertical direction until
2737 hitting a wall or a black square; the square with the number is
2738 included in the total (once).
2740 For instance, a square containing the number one must have four
2741 black squares as its neighbours by the last criterion; but then it's
2742 impossible for it to be connected to any outside white square, which
2743 violates the second to last criterion. So no square will contain the
2746 Credit for this puzzle goes to Nikoli, who have variously called it
2747 `Kurodoko', `Kuromasu' or `Where is Black Cells'. [18].
2749 Range was contributed to this collection by Jonas Koelker.
2751 [18] http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/where_is_black_cells.html
2755 Click with the left button to paint a square black, or with the
2756 right button to mark a square with a dot to indicate that you are
2757 sure it should _not_ be painted black. Repeated clicking with either
2758 button will cycle the square through the three possible states
2759 (filled, dotted or empty) in opposite directions.
2761 You can also use the cursor keys to move around the grid squares.
2762 Pressing Return does the same as clicking with the left button,
2763 while pressing Space does the same as a right button click. Moving
2764 with the cursor keys while holding Shift will place dots in all
2765 squares that are moved through.
2767 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
2769 35.2 Range parameters
2771 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
2776 Size of grid in squares.
2781 You have a grid of squares. Your job is to draw lines between the
2782 centres of horizontally or vertically adjacent squares, so that the
2783 lines form a single closed loop. In the resulting grid, some of the
2784 squares that the loop passes through will contain corners, and some
2785 will be straight horizontal or vertical lines. (And some squares can
2786 be completely empty - the loop doesn't have to pass through every
2789 Some of the squares contain black and white circles, which are clues
2790 that the loop must satisfy.
2792 A black circle in a square indicates that that square is a corner,
2793 but neither of the squares adjacent to it in the loop is also a
2796 A white circle indicates that the square is a straight edge, but _at
2797 least one_ of the squares adjacent to it in the loop is a corner.
2799 (In both cases, the clue only constrains the two squares adjacent
2800 _in the loop_, that is, the squares that the loop passes into after
2801 leaving the clue square. The squares that are only adjacent _in the
2802 grid_ are not constrained.)
2804 Credit for this puzzle goes to Nikoli, who call it `Masyu'. [19]
2806 Thanks to James Harvey for assistance with the implementation.
2808 [19] http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/masyu.html (beware of Flash)
2812 Click with the left button on a grid edge to draw a segment of the
2813 loop through that edge, or to remove a segment once it is drawn.
2815 Drag with the left button through a series of squares to draw more
2816 than one segment of the loop in one go. Alternatively, drag over an
2817 existing part of the loop to undraw it, or to undraw part of it and
2818 then go in a different direction.
2820 Click with the right button on a grid edge to mark it with a cross,
2821 indicating that you are sure the loop does not go through that edge.
2822 (For instance, if you have decided which of the squares adjacent
2823 to a white clue has to be a corner, but don't yet know which way
2824 the corner turns, you might mark the one way it _can't_ go with a
2827 Alternatively, use the cursor keys to move the cursor. Use the Enter
2828 key to begin and end keyboard `drag' operations. Use the Space,
2829 Escape or Backspace keys to cancel the drag. Or, hold Control while
2830 dragging with the cursor keys to toggle segments as you move between
2833 Pressing Control-Shift-arrowkey or Shift-arrowkey simulates a left
2834 or right click, respectively, on the edge in the direction of the
2837 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
2839 36.2 Pearl parameters
2841 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
2847 You are given a grid of squares, some of which contain diagonal
2848 mirrors. Every square which is not a mirror must be filled with one
2849 of three types of undead monster: a ghost, a vampire, or a zombie.
2851 Vampires can be seen directly, but are invisible when reflected in
2852 mirrors. Ghosts are the opposite way round: they can be seen in
2853 mirrors, but are invisible when looked at directly. Zombies are
2854 visible by any means.
2856 You are also told the total number of each type of monster in the
2857 grid. Also around the edge of the grid are written numbers, which
2858 indicate how many monsters can be seen if you look into the grid
2859 along a row or column starting from that position. (The diagonal
2860 mirrors are reflective on both sides. If your reflected line of
2861 sight crosses the same monster more than once, the number will count
2862 it each time it is visible, not just once.)
2864 This puzzle type was invented by David Millar, under the name
2865 `Haunted Mirror Maze'. See [20] for more details.
2867 Undead was contributed to this collection by Steffen Bauer.
2869 [20] http://www.janko.at/Raetsel/Spukschloss/index.htm
2871 37.1 Undead controls
2873 Undead has a similar control system to Solo, Unequal and Keen.
2875 To play Undead, click the mouse in any empty square and then type
2876 a letter on the keyboard indicating the type of monster: `G' for
2877 a ghost, `V' for a vampire, or `Z' for a zombie. If you make a
2878 mistake, click the mouse in the incorrect square and press Space to
2879 clear it again (or use the Undo feature).
2881 If you _right_-click in a square and then type a letter, the
2882 corresponding monster will be shown in reduced size in that square,
2883 as a `pencil mark'. You can have pencil marks for multiple monsters
2884 in the same square. A square containing a full-size monster cannot
2885 also contain pencil marks.
2887 The game pays no attention to pencil marks, so exactly what you
2888 use them for is up to you: you can use them as reminders that a
2889 particular square needs to be re-examined once you know more about
2890 a particular monster, or you can use them as lists of the possible
2891 monster in a given square, or anything else you feel like.
2893 To erase a single pencil mark, right-click in the square and type
2894 the same letter again.
2896 All pencil marks in a square are erased when you left-click and type
2897 a monster letter, or when you left-click and press Space. Right-
2898 clicking and pressing space will also erase pencil marks.
2900 As for Solo, the cursor keys can be used in conjunction with the
2901 letter keys to place monsters or pencil marks. Use the cursor keys
2902 to move a highlight around the grid, and type a monster letter to
2903 enter it in the highlighted square. Pressing return toggles the
2904 highlight into a mode in which you can enter or remove pencil marks.
2906 If you prefer plain letters of the alphabet to cute monster
2907 pictures, you can press `A' to toggle between showing the monsters
2908 as monsters or showing them as letters.
2910 Left-clicking a clue will mark it as done (grey it out), or unmark
2911 it if it is already marked.
2913 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
2915 37.2 Undead parameters
2917 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
2922 Size of grid in squares.
2926 Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle.
2931 You are given a grid of squares, which you must colour either black
2932 or white. Some squares are provided as clues; the rest are left for
2933 you to fill in. Each row and column must contain the same number
2934 of black and white squares, and no row or column may contain three
2935 consecutive squares of the same colour.
2937 This puzzle type was invented by Adolfo Zanellati, under the name
2938 `Tohu wa Vohu'. See [21] for more details.
2940 Unruly was contributed to this collection by Lennard Sprong.
2942 [21] http://www.janko.at/Raetsel/Tohu-Wa-Vohu/index.htm
2944 38.1 Unruly controls
2946 To play Unruly, click the mouse in a square to change its colour.
2947 Left-clicking an empty square will turn it black, and right-clicking
2948 will turn it white. Keep clicking the same button to cycle through
2949 the three possible states for the square. If you middle-click in a
2950 square it will be reset to empty.
2952 You can also use the cursor keys to move around the grid. Pressing
2953 the return or space keys will turn an empty square black or white
2954 respectively (and then cycle the colours in the same way as the
2955 mouse buttons), and pressing Backspace will reset a square to empty.
2957 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
2959 38.2 Unruly parameters
2961 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
2966 Size of grid in squares. (Note that the rules of the game
2967 require both the width and height to be even numbers.)
2971 Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle.
2973 _Unique rows and columns_
2975 If enabled, no two rows are permitted to have exactly the same
2976 pattern, and likewise columns. (A row and a column can match,
2982 You are given a grid of squares, coloured at random in multiple
2983 colours. In each move, you can flood-fill the top left square in a
2984 colour of your choice (i.e. every square reachable from the starting
2985 square by an orthogonally connected path of squares all the same
2986 colour will be filled in the new colour). As you do this, more and
2987 more of the grid becomes connected to the starting square.
2989 Your aim is to make the whole grid the same colour, in as few moves
2990 as possible. The game will set a limit on the number of moves, based
2991 on running its own internal solver. You win if you can make the
2992 whole grid the same colour in that many moves or fewer.
2994 I saw this game (with a fixed grid size, fixed number of colours,
2995 and fixed move limit) at http://floodit.appspot.com (no longer
3000 To play Flood, click the mouse in a square. The top left corner and
3001 everything connected to it will be flood-filled with the colour of
3002 the square you clicked. Clicking a square the same colour as the top
3003 left corner has no effect, and therefore does not count as a move.
3005 You can also use the cursor keys to move a cursor (outline black
3006 square) around the grid. Pressing the return key will fill the top
3007 left corner in the colour of the square under the cursor.
3009 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
3011 39.2 Flood parameters
3013 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
3018 Size of the grid, in squares.
3022 Number of colours used to fill the grid. Must be at least 3
3023 (with two colours there would only be one legal move at any
3024 stage, hence no choice to make at all), and at most 10.
3026 _Extra moves permitted_
3028 Controls the difficulty of the puzzle, by increasing the move
3029 limit. In each new grid, Flood will run an internal solver to
3030 generate its own solution, and then the value in this field
3031 will be added to the length of Flood's solution to generate the
3032 game's move limit. So a value of 0 requires you to be just as
3033 efficient as Flood's automated solver, and a larger value makes
3036 (Note that Flood's internal solver will not necessarily find the
3037 shortest possible solution, though I believe it's pretty close.
3038 For a real challenge, set this value to 0 and then try to solve
3039 a grid in _strictly fewer_ moves than the limit you're given!)
3044 You are given a grid of squares, some of which are filled with train
3045 tracks. You need to complete the track from A to B so that the
3046 rows and columns contain the same number of track segments as are
3047 indicated in the clues to the top and right of the grid.
3049 There are only straight and 90 degree curved rails, and the track
3050 may not cross itself.
3052 Tracks was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
3054 40.1 Tracks controls
3056 Left-clicking on an edge between two squares adds a track segment
3057 between the two squares. Right-clicking on an edge adds a cross on
3058 the edge, indicating no track is possible there.
3060 Left-clicking in a square adds a colour indicator showing that
3061 you know the square must contain a track, even if you don't know
3062 which edges it crosses yet. Right-clicking in a square adds a cross
3063 indicating it contains no track segment.
3065 Left- or right-dragging between squares allows you to lay a straight
3066 line of is-track or is-not-track indicators, useful for filling in
3067 rows or columns to match the clue.
3069 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
3071 40.2 Tracks parameters
3073 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
3078 Size of the grid, in squares.
3082 Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle: at Tricky
3083 level, you are required to make more deductions regarding
3084 disregarding moves that would lead to impossible crossings
3087 _Disallow consecutive 1 clues_
3089 Controls whether the Tracks game generation permits two adjacent
3090 rows or columns to have a 1 clue, or permits the row or column
3091 of the track's endpoint to have a 1 clue. By default this is
3092 not permitted, to avoid long straight boring segments of track
3093 and make the games more twiddly and interesting. If you want to
3094 restore the possibility, turn this option off.
3096 Chapter 41: Palisade
3097 --------------------
3099 You're given a grid of squares, some of which contain numbers. Your
3100 goal is to subdivide the grid into contiguous regions, all of the
3101 same (given) size, such that each square containing a number is
3102 adjacent to exactly that many edges (including those between the
3103 inside and the outside of the grid).
3105 Credit for this puzzle goes to Nikoli, who call it `Five Cells'.
3108 Palisade was contributed to this collection by Jonas Koelker.
3110 [22] http://nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/five_cells.html
3112 41.1 Palisade controls
3114 Left-click to place an edge. Right-click to indicate `no edge'.
3115 Alternatively, the arrow keys will move a keyboard cursor. Holding
3116 Control while pressing an arrow key will place an edge. Press Shift-
3117 arrowkey to switch off an edge. Repeat an action to perform its
3120 (All the actions described in section 2.1 are also available.)
3122 41.2 Palisade parameters
3124 These parameters are available from the `Custom...' option on the
3129 Size of grid in squares.
3133 The size of the regions into which the grid must be subdivided.
3138 This software is copyright 2004-2014 Simon Tatham.
3140 Portions copyright Richard Boulton, James Harvey, Mike Pinna, Jonas
3141 Koelker, Dariusz Olszewski, Michael Schierl, Lambros Lambrou, Bernd
3142 Schmidt, Steffen Bauer, Lennard Sprong and Rogier Goossens.
3144 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
3145 obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files
3146 (the `Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction,
3147 including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge,
3148 publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software,
3149 and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so,
3150 subject to the following conditions:
3152 The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
3153 included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
3155 THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED `AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
3156 EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES
3157 OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
3158 NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS
3159 BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN
3160 ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN
3161 CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
3164 [Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection, version 20170606.272beef]