Fix parenthesis problem in Light Up solver. Should fix Debian bug
[sgt/puzzles] / puzzles.but
CommitLineData
e91825f8 1\title Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection
2
3\cfg{winhelp-filename}{puzzles.hlp}
4\cfg{winhelp-contents-titlepage}{Contents}
5
6\cfg{text-filename}{puzzles.txt}
7
fccfd04d 8\cfg{html-contents-filename}{index.html}
8709d5d9 9\cfg{html-template-filename}{%k.html}
10\cfg{html-index-filename}{docindex.html}
fccfd04d 11\cfg{html-leaf-level}{1}
12\cfg{html-contents-depth-0}{1}
13\cfg{html-contents-depth-1}{2}
14\cfg{html-leaf-contains-contents}{true}
15
e91825f8 16\cfg{info-filename}{puzzles.info}
17
18\cfg{ps-filename}{puzzles.ps}
19\cfg{pdf-filename}{puzzles.pdf}
20
1d8e8ad8 21\define{by} \u00D7{x}
22
f1010613 23\define{dash} \u2013{-}
24
e91825f8 25This is a collection of small one-player puzzle games.
26
07a54e52 27\copyright This manual is copyright 2004-2008 Simon Tatham. All rights
e91825f8 28reserved. You may distribute this documentation under the MIT licence.
29See \k{licence} for the licence text in full.
30
8709d5d9 31\cfg{html-local-head}{<meta name="AppleTitle" content="Puzzles Help">}
e91825f8 32
8709d5d9 33\versionid $Id$
e91825f8 34
35\C{intro} Introduction
36
37I wrote this collection because I thought there should be more small
38desktop toys available: little games you can pop up in a window and
39play for two or three minutes while you take a break from whatever
8a771ea7 40else you were doing. And I was also annoyed that every time I found
41a good game on (say) \i{Unix}, it wasn't available the next time I
42was sitting at a \i{Windows} machine, or vice versa; so I arranged
43that everything in my personal puzzle collection will happily run on
bb219ea1 44both, and have more recently done a port to \i{Mac OS X} as well. When I
8a771ea7 45find (or perhaps invent) further puzzle games that I like, they'll
46be added to this collection and will immediately be available on
47both platforms. And if anyone feels like writing any other front
f1010613 48ends \dash PocketPC, Mac OS pre-10, or whatever it might be \dash
49then all the games in this framework will immediately become
50available on another platform as well.
e91825f8 51
aafaa7fb 52The actual games in this collection were mostly not my invention; they
53are re-implementations of existing game concepts within my portable
54puzzle framework. I do not claim credit, in general, for inventing the
55rules of any of these puzzles. (I don't even claim authorship of all
56the code; some of the puzzles have been submitted by other authors.)
e91825f8 57
58This collection is distributed under the \i{MIT licence} (see
59\k{licence}). This means that you can do pretty much anything you like
60with the game binaries or the code, except pretending you wrote them
61yourself, or suing me if anything goes wrong.
62
63The most recent versions, and \i{source code}, can be found at
64\I{website}\W{http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/}\cw{http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/}.
65
66Please report \I{feedback}\i{bugs} to
67\W{mailto:anakin@pobox.com}\cw{anakin@pobox.com}.
68You might find it helpful to read this article before reporting a bug:
69
70\W{http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html}\cw{http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html}
71
72\ii{Patches} are welcome. Especially if they provide a new front end
73(to make all these games run on another platform), or a new game.
74
75
76\C{common} \ii{Common features}
77
78This chapter describes features that are common to all the games.
79
80\H{common-actions} \I{controls}Common actions
81
82These actions are all available from the \I{Game menu}\q{Game} menu
83and via \I{keys}keyboard shortcuts, in addition to any game-specific
84actions.
85
bb219ea1 86(On \i{Mac OS X}, to conform with local user interface standards, these
3101ae26 87actions are situated on the \I{File menu}\q{File} and \I{Edit
bacaa96e 88menu}\q{Edit} menus instead.)
89
e91825f8 90\dt \ii\e{New game} (\q{N}, Ctrl+\q{N})
91
92\dd Starts a new game, with a random initial state.
93
2b06373b 94\dt \ii\e{Restart game}
e91825f8 95
2b06373b 96\dd Resets the current game to its initial state. (This can be undone.)
e91825f8 97
668be019 98\dt \ii\e{Load}
99
100\dd Loads a saved game from a file on disk.
101
102\dt \ii\e{Save}
103
104\dd Saves the current state of your game to a file on disk.
105
106\lcont{
107
ff359b8a 108The Load and Save operations preserve your entire game
668be019 109history (so you can save, reload, and still Undo and Redo things you
110had done before saving).
111
112}
113
3c9388ef 114\dt \I{printing, on Windows}\e{Print}
e28d0584 115
116\dd Where supported (currently only on Windows), brings up a dialog
117allowing you to print an arbitrary number of puzzles randomly
118generated from the current parameters, optionally including the
3c9388ef 119current puzzle. (Only for puzzles which make sense to print, of
120course - it's hard to think of a sensible printable representation
121of Fifteen!)
e28d0584 122
e91825f8 123\dt \ii\e{Undo} (\q{U}, Ctrl+\q{Z}, Ctrl+\q{_})
124
125\dd Undoes a single move. (You can undo moves back to the start of the
2b06373b 126session.)
e91825f8 127
2b06373b 128\dt \ii\e{Redo} (\q{R}, Ctrl+\q{R})
e91825f8 129
2b06373b 130\dd Redoes a previously undone move.
e91825f8 131
bacaa96e 132\dt \ii\e{Copy}
133
134\dd Copies the current state of your game to the clipboard in text
135format, so that you can paste it into (say) an e-mail client or a
136web message board if you're discussing the game with someone else.
137(Not all games support this feature.)
138
2ac6d24e 139\dt \ii\e{Solve}
140
141\dd Transforms the puzzle instantly into its solved state. For some
142games (Cube) this feature is not supported at all because it is of
143no particular use. For other games (such as Pattern), the solved
144state can be used to give you information, if you can't see how a
145solution can exist at all or you want to know where you made a
146mistake. For still other games (such as Sixteen), automatic solution
147tells you nothing about how to \e{get} to the solution, but it does
148provide a useful way to get there quickly so that you can experiment
149with set-piece moves and transformations.
150
151\lcont{
152
153Some games (such as Solo) are capable of solving a game ID you have
154typed in from elsewhere. Other games (such as Rectangles) cannot
155solve a game ID they didn't invent themself, but when they did
156invent the game ID they know what the solution is already. Still
157other games (Pattern) can solve \e{some} external game IDs, but only
158if they aren't too difficult.
159
e8124727 160The \q{Solve} command adds the solved state to the end of the undo
161chain for the puzzle. In other words, if you want to go back to
162solving it yourself after seeing the answer, you can just press Undo.
163
2ac6d24e 164}
165
e91825f8 166\dt \I{exit}\ii\e{Quit} (\q{Q}, Ctrl+\q{Q})
167
168\dd Closes the application entirely.
169
1185e3c5 170\H{common-id} Specifying games with the \ii{game ID}
171
172There are two ways to save a game specification out of a puzzle and
173recreate it later, or recreate it in somebody else's copy of the
174same puzzle.
175
176The \q{\i{Specific}} and \q{\i{Random Seed}} options from the
bb219ea1 177\I{Game menu}\q{Game} menu (or the \q{File} menu, on \i{Mac OS X}) each
1185e3c5 178show a piece of text (a \q{game ID}) which is sufficient to
179reconstruct precisely the same game at a later date.
180
181You can enter either of these pieces of text back into the program
182(via the same \q{Specific} or \q{Random Seed} menu options) at a
183later point, and it will recreate the same game. You can also use
184either one as a \i{command line} argument (on Windows or Unix); see
185\k{common-cmdline} for more detail.
186
187The difference between the two forms is that a descriptive game ID
188is a literal \e{description} of the \i{initial state} of the game,
189whereas a random seed is just a piece of arbitrary text which was
190provided as input to the random number generator used to create the
191puzzle. This means that:
192
193\b Descriptive game IDs tend to be longer in many puzzles (although
194some, such as Cube (\k{cube}), only need very short descriptions).
195So a random seed is often a \e{quicker} way to note down the puzzle
196you're currently playing, or to tell it to somebody else so they can
197play the same one as you.
198
199\b Any text at all is a valid random seed. The automatically
200generated ones are fifteen-digit numbers, but anything will do; you
201can type in your full name, or a word you just made up, and a valid
202puzzle will be generated from it. This provides a way for two or
203more people to race to complete the same puzzle: you think of a
204random seed, then everybody types it in at the same time, and nobody
205has an advantage due to having seen the generated puzzle before
206anybody else.
207
208\b It is often possible to convert puzzles from other sources (such
209as \q{nonograms} or \q{sudoku} from newspapers) into descriptive
210game IDs suitable for use with these programs.
211
212\b Random seeds are not guaranteed to produce the same result if you
213use them with a different \i\e{version} of the puzzle program. This
214is because the generation algorithm might have been improved or
215modified in later versions of the code, and will therefore produce a
216different result when given the same sequence of random numbers. Use
217a descriptive game ID if you aren't sure that it will be used on the
218same version of the program as yours.
219
220\lcont{(Use the \q{About} menu option to find out the version number
221of the program. Programs with the same version number running on
222different platforms should still be random-seed compatible.)}
223
224\I{ID format}A descriptive game ID starts with a piece of text which
225encodes the \i\e{parameters} of the current game (such as grid
226size). Then there is a colon, and after that is the description of
227the game's initial state. A random seed starts with a similar string
228of parameters, but then it contains a hash sign followed by
229arbitrary data.
230
231If you enter a descriptive game ID, the program will not be able to
232show you the random seed which generated it, since it wasn't
233generated \e{from} a random seed. If you \e{enter} a random seed,
234however, the program will be able to show you the descriptive game
235ID derived from that random seed.
236
237Note that the game parameter strings are not always identical
238between the two forms. For some games, there will be parameter data
239provided with the random seed which is not included in the
240descriptive game ID. This is because that parameter information is
241only relevant when \e{generating} puzzle grids, and is not important
242when playing them. Thus, for example, the difficulty level in Solo
243(\k{solo}) is not mentioned in the descriptive game ID.
244
245These additional parameters are also not set permanently if you type
246in a game ID. For example, suppose you have Solo set to \q{Advanced}
247difficulty level, and then a friend wants your help with a
248\q{Trivial} puzzle; so the friend reads out a random seed specifying
249\q{Trivial} difficulty, and you type it in. The program will
250generate you the same \q{Trivial} grid which your friend was having
251trouble with, but once you have finished playing it, when you ask
252for a new game it will automatically go back to the \q{Advanced}
253difficulty which it was previously set on.
e91825f8 254
255\H{common-type} The \q{Type} menu
256
257The \I{Type menu}\q{Type} menu, if present, may contain a list of
258\i{preset} game settings. Selecting one of these will start a new
259random game with the parameters specified.
260
1185e3c5 261The \q{Type} menu may also contain a \q{\i{Custom}} option which
262allows you to fine-tune game \i{parameters}. The parameters
263available are specific to each game and are described in the
264following sections.
e91825f8 265
266\H{common-cmdline} Specifying game parameters on the \i{command line}
267
bb219ea1 268(This section does not apply to the \i{Mac OS X} version.)
8a771ea7 269
e91825f8 270The games in this collection deliberately do not ever save
271information on to the computer they run on: they have no high score
272tables and no saved preferences. (This is because I expect at least
273some people to play them at work, and those people will probably
274appreciate leaving as little evidence as possible!)
275
bb219ea1 276However, if you do want to arrange for one of these games to
277\I{default parameters, specifying}default to a particular set of
278parameters, you can specify them on the command line.
e91825f8 279
280The easiest way to do this is to set up the parameters you want
281using the \q{Type} menu (see \k{common-type}), and then to select
1185e3c5 282\q{Random Seed} from the \q{Game} or \q{File} menu (see
283\k{common-id}). The text in the \q{Game ID} box will be composed of
284two parts, separated by a hash. The first of these parts represents
285the game parameters (the size of the playing area, for example, and
286anything else you set using the \q{Type} menu).
e91825f8 287
288If you run the game with just that parameter text on the command
289line, it will start up with the settings you specified.
290
291For example: if you run Cube (see \k{cube}), select \q{Octahedron}
292from the \q{Type} menu, and then go to the game ID selection, you
1185e3c5 293will see a string of the form \cq{o2x2#338686542711620}. Take only
294the part before the hash (\cq{o2x2}), and start Cube with that text
295on the command line: \cq{cube o2x2}.
e91825f8 296
297If you copy the \e{entire} game ID on to the command line, the game
298will start up in the specific game that was described. This is
299occasionally a more convenient way to start a particular game ID
300than by pasting it into the game ID selection box.
301
1185e3c5 302(You could also retrieve the encoded game parameters using the
303\q{Specific} menu option instead of \q{Random Seed}, but if you do
304then some options, such as the difficulty level in Solo, will be
305missing. See \k{common-id} for more details on this.)
306
bb219ea1 307\H{common-unix-cmdline} \i{Unix} \i{command-line} options
3c9388ef 308
309(This section only applies to the Unix port.)
310
ff359b8a 311In addition to being able to specify game parameters on the command
312line (see \k{common-cmdline}), there are various other options:
313
314\dt \cw{--game}
315
316\dt \cw{--load}
317
318\dd These options respectively determine whether the command-line
319argument is treated as specifying game parameters or a \i{save} file
320to \i{load}. Only one should be specified. If neither of these options
321is specified, a guess is made based on the format of the argument.
3c9388ef 322
323\dt \cw{--generate }\e{n}
324
325\dd If this option is specified, instead of a puzzle being displayed,
bb219ea1 326a number of descriptive game IDs will be \I{generating game IDs}invented
327and printed on standard output. This is useful for gaining access to
328the game generation algorithms without necessarily using the frontend.
3c9388ef 329
330\lcont{
331
332If game parameters are specified on the command-line, they will be
333used to generate the game IDs; otherwise a default set of parameters
334will be used.
335
336The most common use of this option is in conjunction with \c{--print},
337in which case its behaviour is slightly different; see below.
338
339}
340
341\dt \I{printing, on Unix}\cw{--print }\e{w}\cw{x}\e{h}
342
343\dd If this option is specified, instead of a puzzle being displayed,
344a printed representation of one or more unsolved puzzles is sent to
345standard output, in \i{PostScript} format.
346
347\lcont{
348
349On each page of puzzles, there will be \e{w} across and \e{h} down. If
350there are more puzzles than \e{w}\by\e{h}, more than one page will be
351printed.
352
353If \c{--generate} has also been specified, the invented game IDs will
354be used to generate the printed output. Otherwise, a list of game IDs
355is expected on standard input (which can be descriptive or random
356seeds; see \k{common-id}), in the same format produced by
357\c{--generate}.
358
359For example:
360
361\c net --generate 12 --print 2x3 7x7w | lpr
362
363will generate two pages of printed Net puzzles (each of which will
364have a 7\by\.7 wrapping grid), and pipe the output to the \c{lpr}
365command, which on many systems will send them to an actual printer.
366
367There are various other options which affect printing; see below.
368
369}
370
371\dt \cw{--version}
372
373\dd Prints version information about the game, and then quits.
374
375The following options are only meaningful if \c{--print} is also
376specified:
377
378\dt \cw{--with-solutions}
379
380\dd The set of pages filled with unsolved puzzles will be followed by
381the solutions to those puzzles.
382
383\dt \cw{--scale }\e{n}
384
385\dd Adjusts how big each puzzle is when printed. Larger numbers make
386puzzles bigger; the default is 1.0.
387
388\dt \cw{--colour}
389
390\dd Puzzles will be printed in colour, rather than in black and white
391(if supported by the puzzle).
392
e28d0584 393
e91825f8 394\C{net} \i{Net}
395
396\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.net}
397
398(\e{Note:} the \i{Windows} version of this game is called
399\i\cw{NETGAME.EXE} to avoid clashing with Windows's own \cw{NET.EXE}.)
400
401I originally saw this in the form of a Flash game called \i{FreeNet}
6e8e5c51 402\k{FreeNet}, written by Pavils Jurjans; there are several other
403implementations under the name \i{NetWalk}. The computer prepares a
e91825f8 404network by connecting up the centres of squares in a grid, and then
405shuffles the network by rotating every tile randomly. Your job is to
406rotate it all back into place. The successful solution will be an
6e8e5c51 407entirely connected network, with no closed loops. \#{The latter
408clause means that there are no closed paths within the network.
409Could this be clearer? "No closed paths"?} As a visual aid,
e91825f8 410all tiles which are connected to the one in the middle are
411highlighted.
412
413\B{FreeNet} \W{http://www.jurjans.lv/stuff/net/FreeNet.htm}\cw{http://www.jurjans.lv/stuff/net/FreeNet.htm}
414
415\H{net-controls} \i{Net controls}
416
417\IM{Net controls} controls, for Net
418\IM{Net controls} keys, for Net
419\IM{Net controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Net
420
421This game can be played with either the keyboard or the mouse. The
422controls are:
423
424\dt \e{Select tile}: mouse pointer, arrow keys
425
426\dt \e{Rotate tile anticlockwise}: left mouse button, \q{A} key
427
428\dt \e{Rotate tile clockwise}: right mouse button, \q{D} key
429
118473f5 430\dt \e{Rotate tile by 180 degrees}: \q{F} key
431
e91825f8 432\dt \e{Lock (or unlock) tile}: middle mouse button, shift-click, \q{S} key
433
434\dd You can lock a tile once you're sure of its orientation. You can
435also unlock it again, but while it's locked you can't accidentally
436turn it.
437
f0ee053c 438The following controls are not necessary to complete the game, but may
439be useful:
440
441\dt \e{Shift grid}: Shift + arrow keys
442
443\dd On grids that wrap, you can move the origin of the grid, so that
444tiles that were on opposite sides of the grid can be seen together.
445
446\dt \e{Move centre}: Ctrl + arrow keys
447
448\dd You can change which tile is used as the source of highlighting.
449(It doesn't ultimately matter which tile this is, as every tile will
450be connected to every other tile in a correct solution, but it may be
451helpful in the intermediate stages of solving the puzzle.)
452
cbb5549e 453\dt \e{Jumble tiles}: \q{J} key
454
455\dd This key turns all tiles that are not locked to random
456orientations.
457
e91825f8 458(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
459
460\H{net-params} \I{parameters, for Net}Net parameters
461
462These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
463\q{Type} menu.
464
465\dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
466
467\dd Size of grid in tiles.
468
469\dt \e{Walls wrap around}
470
471\dd If checked, flow can pass from the left edge to the right edge,
472and from top to bottom, and vice versa.
473
474\dt \e{Barrier probability}
475
476\dd A number between 0.0 and 1.0 controlling whether an immovable
477barrier is placed between two tiles to prevent flow between them (a
478higher number gives more barriers). Since barriers are immovable, they
479act as constraints on the solution (i.e., hints).
480
481\lcont{
482
483The grid generation in Net has been carefully arranged so that the
484barriers are independent of the rest of the grid. This means that if
1185e3c5 485you note down the random seed used to generate the current puzzle
486(see \k{common-id}), change the \e{Barrier probability} parameter,
487and then re-enter the same random seed, you should see exactly the
488same starting grid, with the only change being the number of
489barriers. So if you're stuck on a particular grid and need a hint,
490you could start up another instance of Net, set up the same
491parameters but a higher barrier probability, and enter the game seed
492from the original Net window.
e91825f8 493
494}
495
40fde884 496\dt \e{Ensure unique solution}
497
498\dd Normally, Net will make sure that the puzzles it presents have
499only one solution. Puzzles with ambiguous sections can be more
500difficult and more subtle, so if you like you can turn off this
501feature and risk having ambiguous puzzles. (Also, finding \e{all}
502the possible solutions can be an additional challenge for an
503advanced player.)
504
e28d0584 505
e91825f8 506\C{cube} \i{Cube}
507
508\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.cube}
509
510This is another one I originally saw as a web game. This one was a
511Java game \k{cube-java-game}, by Paul Scott. You have a grid of 16
512squares, six of which are blue; on one square rests a cube. Your move
513is to use the arrow keys to roll the cube through 90 degrees so that
514it moves to an adjacent square. If you roll the cube on to a blue
515square, the blue square is picked up on one face of the cube; if you
516roll a blue face of the cube on to a non-blue square, the blueness is
517put down again. (In general, whenever you roll the cube, the two faces
518that come into contact swap colours.) Your job is to get all six blue
519squares on to the six faces of the cube at the same time. Count your
520moves and try to do it in as few as possible.
521
522Unlike the original Java game, my version has an additional feature:
523once you've mastered the game with a cube rolling on a square grid,
524you can change to a triangular grid and roll any of a tetrahedron, an
525octahedron or an icosahedron.
526
527\B{cube-java-game} \W{http://www3.sympatico.ca/paulscott/cube/cube.htm}\cw{http://www3.sympatico.ca/paulscott/cube/cube.htm}
528
529\H{cube-controls} \i{Cube controls}
530
531\IM{Cube controls} controls, for Cube
532\IM{Cube controls} keys, for Cube
533\IM{Cube controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Cube
534
a1d5acff 535This game can be played with either the keyboard or the mouse.
e91825f8 536
a1d5acff 537Left-clicking anywhere on the window will move the cube (or other
538solid) towards the mouse pointer.
539
540The arrow keys can also used to roll the cube on its square grid in
541the four cardinal directions.
e91825f8 542On the triangular grids, the mapping of arrow keys to directions is
543more approximate. Vertical movement is disallowed where it doesn't
544make sense. The four keys surrounding the arrow keys on the numeric
545keypad (\q{7}, \q{9}, \q{1}, \q{3}) can be used for diagonal movement.
546
547(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
548
549\H{cube-params} \I{parameters, for Cube}Cube parameters
550
551These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
552\q{Type} menu.
553
554\dt \e{Type of solid}
555
556\dd Selects the solid to roll (and hence the shape of the grid):
557tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, or icosahedron.
558
559\dt \e{Width / top}, \e{Height / bottom}
560
561\dd On a square grid, horizontal and vertical dimensions. On a
562triangular grid, the number of triangles on the top and bottom rows
563respectively.
564
565
566\C{fifteen} \i{Fifteen}
567
568\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.fifteen}
569
1d8e8ad8 570The old ones are the best: this is the good old \q{\i{15-puzzle}}
571with sliding tiles. You have a 4\by\.4 square grid; 15 squares
572contain numbered tiles, and the sixteenth is empty. Your move is to
573choose a tile next to the empty space, and slide it into the space.
574The aim is to end up with the tiles in numerical order, with the
575space in the bottom right (so that the top row reads 1,2,3,4 and the
576bottom row reads 13,14,15,\e{space}).
e91825f8 577
578\H{fifteen-controls} \i{Fifteen controls}
579
580\IM{Fifteen controls} controls, for Fifteen
581\IM{Fifteen controls} keys, for Fifteen
582\IM{Fifteen controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Fifteen
583
584This game can be controlled with the mouse or the keyboard.
585
586A left-click with the mouse in the row or column containing the empty
587space will move as many tiles as necessary to move the space to the
588mouse pointer.
589
590The arrow keys will move a tile adjacent to the space in the direction
591indicated (moving the space in the \e{opposite} direction).
592
593(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
594
595\H{fifteen-params} \I{parameters, for Fifteen}Fifteen parameters
596
597The only options available from the \q{Custom...} option on the \q{Type}
598menu are \e{Width} and \e{Height}, which are self-explanatory. (Once
599you've changed these, it's not a \q{15-puzzle} any more, of course!)
600
601
602\C{sixteen} \i{Sixteen}
603
604\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.sixteen}
605
606Another sliding tile puzzle, visually similar to Fifteen (see
607\k{fifteen}) but with a different type of move. This time, there is no
608hole: all 16 squares on the grid contain numbered squares. Your move
609is to shift an entire row left or right, or shift an entire column up
610or down; every time you do that, the tile you shift off the grid
611re-appears at the other end of the same row, in the space you just
612vacated. To win, arrange the tiles into numerical order (1,2,3,4 on
613the top row, 13,14,15,16 on the bottom). When you've done that, try
614playing on different sizes of grid.
615
616I \e{might} have invented this game myself, though only by accident if
617so (and I'm sure other people have independently invented it). I
618thought I was imitating a screensaver I'd seen, but I have a feeling
619that the screensaver might actually have been a Fifteen-type puzzle
620rather than this slightly different kind. So this might be the one
621thing in my puzzle collection which represents creativity on my part
622rather than just engineering.
623
624\H{sixteen-controls} \I{controls, for Sixteen}Sixteen controls
625
626This game is played with the mouse. Left-clicking on an arrow will
627move the appropriate row or column in the direction indicated.
628Right-clicking will move it in the opposite direction.
629
630(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
631
632\H{sixteen-params} \I{parameters, for Sixteen}Sixteen parameters
633
81875211 634The parameters available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
635\q{Type} menu are:
636
637\b \e{Width} and \e{Height}, which are self-explanatory.
638
639\b You can ask for a limited shuffling operation to be performed on
640the grid. By default, Sixteen will shuffle the grid in such a way
641that any arrangement is about as probable as any other. You can
642override this by requesting a precise number of shuffling moves to
643be performed. Typically your aim is then to determine the precise
644set of shuffling moves and invert them exactly, so that you answer
645(say) a four-move shuffle with a four-move solution. Note that the
646more moves you ask for, the more likely it is that solutions shorter
647than the target length will turn out to be possible.
648
e91825f8 649
9038fd11 650\C{twiddle} \i{Twiddle}
651
652\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.twiddle}
653
654Twiddle is a tile-rearrangement puzzle, visually similar to Sixteen
655(see \k{sixteen}): you are given a grid of square tiles, each
656containing a number, and your aim is to arrange the numbers into
657ascending order.
658
659In basic Twiddle, your move is to rotate a square group of four
a3631c72 660tiles about their common centre. (Orientation is not significant in
661the basic puzzle, although you can select it.) On more advanced
662settings, you can rotate a larger square group of tiles.
9038fd11 663
664I first saw this type of puzzle in the GameCube game \q{Metroid
665Prime 2}. In the Main Gyro Chamber in that game, there is a puzzle
666you solve to unlock a door, which is a special case of Twiddle. I
667developed this game as a generalisation of that puzzle.
668
669\H{twiddle-controls} \I{controls, for Twiddle}Twiddle controls
670
671To play Twiddle, click the mouse in the centre of the square group
672you wish to rotate. In the basic mode, you rotate a 2\by\.2 square,
673which means you have to click at a corner point where four tiles
674meet.
675
676In more advanced modes you might be rotating 3\by\.3 or even more at
677a time; if the size of the square is odd then you simply click in
678the centre tile of the square you want to rotate.
679
680Clicking with the left mouse button rotates the group anticlockwise.
681Clicking with the right button rotates it clockwise.
682
683(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
684
685\H{twiddle-parameters} \I{parameters, for Twiddle}Twiddle parameters
686
687Twiddle provides several configuration options via the \q{Custom}
688option on the \q{Type} menu:
689
690\b You can configure the width and height of the puzzle grid.
691
692\b You can configure the size of square block that rotates at a time.
693
694\b You can ask for every square in the grid to be distinguishable
695(the default), or you can ask for a simplified puzzle in which there
696are groups of identical numbers. In the simplified puzzle your aim
697is just to arrange all the 1s into the first row, all the 2s into
698the second row, and so on.
699
a3631c72 700\b You can configure whether the orientation of tiles matters. If
d50832a3 701you ask for an orientable puzzle, each tile will have a triangle
702drawn in it. All the triangles must be pointing upwards to complete
703the puzzle.
a3631c72 704
81875211 705\b You can ask for a limited shuffling operation to be performed on
706the grid. By default, Twiddle will shuffle the grid so much that any
707arrangement is about as probable as any other. You can override this
708by requesting a precise number of shuffling moves to be performed.
709Typically your aim is then to determine the precise set of shuffling
710moves and invert them exactly, so that you answer (say) a four-move
711shuffle with a four-move solution. Note that the more moves you ask
712for, the more likely it is that solutions shorter than the target
713length will turn out to be possible.
714
9038fd11 715
e91825f8 716\C{rectangles} \i{Rectangles}
717
718\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.rectangles}
719
720You have a grid of squares, with numbers written in some (but not all)
721of the squares. Your task is to subdivide the grid into rectangles of
722various sizes, such that (a) every rectangle contains exactly one
723numbered square, and (b) the area of each rectangle is equal to the
724number written in its numbered square.
725
726Credit for this game goes to the Japanese puzzle magazine \i{Nikoli}
26801d29 727\k{nikoli-rect}; I've also seen a Palm implementation at \i{Puzzle
728Palace} \k{puzzle-palace-rect}. Unlike Puzzle Palace's
729implementation, my version automatically generates random grids of
730any size you like. The quality of puzzle design is therefore not
731quite as good as hand-crafted puzzles would be, but on the plus side
732you get an inexhaustible supply of puzzles tailored to your own
733specification.
e91825f8 734
6ae37301 735\B{nikoli-rect} \W{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/puzzles/7/index_text-e.htm}\cw{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/puzzles/7/index_text-e.htm}
e91825f8 736
6ae37301 737\B{puzzle-palace-rect} \W{http://www.puzzle.gr.jp/puzzle/sikaku/palm/index.html.en}\cw{http://www.puzzle.gr.jp/puzzle/sikaku/palm/index.html.en}
e91825f8 738
739\H{rectangles-controls} \I{controls, for Rectangles}Rectangles controls
740
741This game is played with the mouse.
742
743Left-click any edge to toggle it on or off, or click and drag to draw
744an entire rectangle (or line) on the grid in one go (removing any
745existing edges within that rectangle).
746
747When a rectangle of the correct size is completed, it will be shaded.
748
749(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
750
751\H{rectangles-params} \I{parameters, for Rectangles}Rectangles parameters
752
40fde884 753These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
754\q{Type} menu.
755
756\dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
757
758\dd Size of grid, in squares.
759
760\dt \e{Expansion factor}
aea3ed9a 761
40fde884 762\dd This is a mechanism for changing the type of grids generated by
763the program. Some people prefer a grid containing a few large
764rectangles to one containing many small ones. So you can ask
aea3ed9a 765Rectangles to essentially generate a \e{smaller} grid than the size
766you specified, and then to expand it by adding rows and columns.
767
40fde884 768\lcont{
769
aea3ed9a 770The default expansion factor of zero means that Rectangles will
771simply generate a grid of the size you ask for, and do nothing
772further. If you set an expansion factor of (say) 0.5, it means that
773each dimension of the grid will be expanded to half again as big
774after generation. In other words, the initial grid will be 2/3 the
775size in each dimension, and will be expanded to its full size
776without adding any more rectangles.
777
4a03dbb4 778Setting an expansion factor of around 0.5 tends to make the game
779more difficult, and also (in my experience) rewards a less deductive
780and more intuitive playing style. If you set it \e{too} high,
781though, the game simply cannot generate more than a few rectangles
782to cover the entire grid, and the game becomes trivial.
aea3ed9a 783
40fde884 784}
785
786\dt \e{Ensure unique solution}
787
788\dd Normally, Rectangles will make sure that the puzzles it presents
789have only one solution. Puzzles with ambiguous sections can be more
790difficult and more subtle, so if you like you can turn off this
791feature and risk having ambiguous puzzles. Also, finding \e{all} the
792possible solutions can be an additional challenge for an advanced
793player. Turning off this option can also speed up puzzle generation.
794
6ae37301 795
e91825f8 796\C{netslide} \i{Netslide}
797
798\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.netslide}
799
6bbab0fe 800This game combines the grid generation of Net (see \k{net}) with the
801movement of Sixteen (see \k{sixteen}): you have a Net grid, but
802instead of rotating tiles back into place you have to slide them
803into place by moving a whole row at a time.
e91825f8 804
e91825f8 805As in Sixteen, \I{controls, for Netslide}control is with the mouse.
806See \k{sixteen-controls}.
807
aa27d493 808\I{parameters, for Netslide}The available game parameters have similar
809meanings to those in Net (see \k{net-params}) and Sixteen (see
810\k{sixteen-params}).
e91825f8 811
6bbab0fe 812Netslide was contributed to this collection by Richard Boulton.
6ae37301 813
e28d0584 814
b6b0369e 815\C{pattern} \i{Pattern}
816
817\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.pattern}
818
819You have a grid of squares, which must all be filled in either black
820or white. Beside each row of the grid are listed the lengths of the
821runs of black squares on that row; above each column are listed the
822lengths of the runs of black squares in that column. Your aim is to
823fill in the entire grid black or white.
824
825I first saw this puzzle form around 1995, under the name
2e1e03ff 826\q{\i{nonograms}}. I've seen it in various places since then, under
b6b0369e 827different names.
828
829Normally, puzzles of this type turn out to be a meaningful picture
830of something once you've solved them. However, since this version
831generates the puzzles automatically, they will just look like random
832groupings of squares. (One user has suggested that this is actually
833a \e{good} thing, since it prevents you from guessing the colour of
834squares based on the picture, and forces you to use logic instead.)
835The advantage, though, is that you never run out of them.
836
2e1e03ff 837\H{pattern-controls} \I{controls, for Pattern}Pattern controls
b6b0369e 838
839This game is played with the mouse.
840
841Left-click in a square to colour it black. Right-click to colour it
842white. If you make a mistake, you can middle-click, or hold down
843Shift while clicking with any button, to colour the square in the
844default grey (meaning \q{undecided}) again.
845
846You can click and drag with the left or right mouse button to colour
847a vertical or horizontal line of squares black or white at a time
848(respectively). If you click and drag with the middle button, or
849with Shift held down, you can colour a whole rectangle of squares
850grey.
851
2e1e03ff 852(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
853
b6b0369e 854\H{pattern-parameters} \I{parameters, for Pattern}Pattern parameters
855
856The only options available from the \q{Custom...} option on the \q{Type}
857menu are \e{Width} and \e{Height}, which are self-explanatory.
e91825f8 858
6ae37301 859
1d8e8ad8 860\C{solo} \i{Solo}
861
862\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.solo}
863
81b09746 864You have a square grid, which is divided into as many equally sized
865sub-blocks as the grid has rows. Each square must be filled in with
866a digit from 1 to the size of the grid, in such a way that
1d8e8ad8 867
868\b every row contains only one occurrence of each digit
869
870\b every column contains only one occurrence of each digit
871
872\b every block contains only one occurrence of each digit.
873
81b09746 874\b (optionally, by default off) each of the square's two main
875diagonals contains only one occurrence of each digit.
876
1d8e8ad8 877You are given some of the numbers as clues; your aim is to place the
878rest of the numbers correctly.
879
81b09746 880Under the default settings, the sub-blocks are square or
881rectangular. The default puzzle size is 3\by\.3 (a 9\by\.9 actual
882grid, divided into nine 3\by\.3 blocks). You can also select sizes
883with rectangular blocks instead of square ones, such as 2\by\.3 (a
8846\by\.6 grid divided into six 3\by\.2 blocks). Alternatively, you
885can select \q{jigsaw} mode, in which the sub-blocks are arbitrary
886shapes which differ between individual puzzles.
1d8e8ad8 887
888If you select a puzzle size which requires more than 9 digits, the
889additional digits will be letters of the alphabet. For example, if
890you select 3\by\.4 then the digits which go in your grid will be 1
891to 9, plus \cq{a}, \cq{b} and \cq{c}.
892
3012ffca 893I first saw this puzzle in \i{Nikoli} \k{nikoli-solo}, although it's
894also been popularised by various newspapers under the name
895\q{Sudoku} or \q{Su Doku}. Howard Garns is considered the inventor
896of the modern form of the puzzle, and it was first published in
897\e{Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games}. A more elaborate treatment
898of the history of the puzzle can be found on Wikipedia
899\k{wikipedia-solo}.
1d8e8ad8 900
6ae37301 901\B{nikoli-solo} \W{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/puzzles/1/index_text-e.htm}\cw{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/puzzles/1/index_text-e.htm}
902
3012ffca 903\B{wikipedia-solo} \W{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku}\cw{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku}
904
1d8e8ad8 905\H{solo-controls} \I{controls, for Solo}Solo controls
906
907To play Solo, simply click the mouse in any empty square and then
908type a digit or letter on the keyboard to fill that square. If you
909make a mistake, click the mouse in the incorrect square and press
910Space to clear it again (or use the Undo feature).
911
c8266e03 912If you \e{right}-click in a square and then type a number, that
913number will be entered in the square as a \q{pencil mark}. You can
914have pencil marks for multiple numbers in the same square.
915
916The game pays no attention to pencil marks, so exactly what you use
917them for is up to you: you can use them as reminders that a
918particular square needs to be re-examined once you know more about a
919particular number, or you can use them as lists of the possible
920numbers in a given square, or anything else you feel like.
921
922To erase a single pencil mark, right-click in the square and type
923the same number again.
924
925All pencil marks in a square are erased when you left-click and type
926a number, or when you left-click and press space. Right-clicking and
927pressing space will also erase pencil marks.
928
1d8e8ad8 929(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
930
931\H{solo-parameters} \I{parameters, for Solo}Solo parameters
932
933Solo allows you to configure two separate dimensions of the puzzle
6ae37301 934grid on the \q{Type} menu: the number of columns, and the number of
935rows, into which the main grid is divided. (The size of a block is
936the inverse of this: for example, if you select 2 columns and 3 rows,
937each actual block will have 3 columns and 2 rows.)
1d8e8ad8 938
81b09746 939If you tick the \q{X} checkbox, Solo will apply the optional extra
940constraint that the two main diagonals of the grid also contain one
fbd0fc79 941of every digit. (This is sometimes known as \q{Sudoku-X} in
942newspapers.) In this mode, the squares on the two main diagonals
943will be shaded slightly so that you know it's enabled.
944
81b09746 945If you tick the \q{Jigsaw} checkbox, Solo will generate randomly
946shaped sub-blocks. In this mode, the actual grid size will be taken
947to be the product of the numbers entered in the \q{Columns} and
948\q{Rows} boxes. There is no reason why you have to enter a number
949greater than 1 in both boxes; Jigsaw mode has no constraint on the
950grid size, and it can even be a prime number if you feel like it.
951
ef57b17d 952You can also configure the type of symmetry shown in the generated
953puzzles. More symmetry makes the puzzles look prettier but may also
954make them easier, since the symmetry constraints can force more
955clues than necessary to be present. Completely asymmetric puzzles
956have the freedom to contain as few clues as possible.
957
7c568a48 958Finally, you can configure the difficulty of the generated puzzles.
959Difficulty levels are judged by the complexity of the techniques of
960deduction required to solve the puzzle: each level requires a mode
961of reasoning which was not necessary in the previous one. In
962particular, on difficulty levels \q{Trivial} and \q{Basic} there
963will be a square you can fill in with a single number at all times,
964whereas at \q{Intermediate} level and beyond you will have to make
965partial deductions about the \e{set} of squares a number could be in
e28d0584 966(or the set of numbers that could be in a square).
967\#{Advanced, Extreme?}
968At \q{Unreasonable} level, even this is not enough, and you will
de60d8bd 969eventually have to make a guess, and then backtrack if it turns out
970to be wrong.
7c568a48 971
c65d92ac 972Generating difficult puzzles is itself difficult: if you select one
973of the higher difficulty levels, Solo may have to make many attempts
974at generating a puzzle before it finds one hard enough for you. Be
975prepared to wait, especially if you have also configured a large
976puzzle size.
7c568a48 977
ef57b17d 978
7959b517 979\C{mines} \i{Mines}
980
981\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.mines}
982
983You have a grid of covered squares, some of which contain mines, but
984you don't know which. Your job is to uncover every square which does
985\e{not} contain a mine. If you uncover a square containing a mine,
986you lose. If you uncover a square which does not contain a mine, you
987are told how many mines are contained within the eight surrounding
988squares.
989
990This game needs no introduction; popularised by Windows, it is
991perhaps the single best known desktop puzzle game in existence.
992
993This version of it has an unusual property. By default, it will
994generate its mine positions in such a way as to ensure that you
995never need to \e{guess} where a mine is: you will always be able to
996deduce it somehow. So you will never, as can happen in other
997versions, get to the last four squares and discover that there are
998two mines left but you have no way of knowing for sure where they
999are.
1000
1001\H{mines-controls} \I{controls, for Mines}Mines controls
1002
1003This game is played with the mouse.
1004
1005If you left-click in a covered square, it will be uncovered.
1006
1007If you right-click in a covered square, it will place a flag which
1008indicates that the square is believed to be a mine. Left-clicking in
1009a marked square will not uncover it, for safety. You can right-click
1010again to remove a mark placed in error.
1011
1012If you left-click in an \e{uncovered} square, it will \q{clear
1013around} the square. This means: if the square has exactly as many
1014flags surrounding it as it should have mines, then all the covered
1015squares next to it which are \e{not} flagged will be uncovered. So
1016once you think you know the location of all the mines around a
1017square, you can use this function as a shortcut to avoid having to
1018click on each of the remaining squares one by one.
1019
1020If you uncover a square which has \e{no} mines in the surrounding
1021eight squares, then it is obviously safe to uncover those squares in
1022turn, and so on if any of them also has no surrounding mines. This
1023will be done for you automatically; so sometimes when you uncover a
1024square, a whole new area will open up to be explored.
1025
11d31eb9 1026All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.
1027
7959b517 1028Even Undo is available, although you might consider it cheating to
11d31eb9 1029use it. If you step on a mine, the program will only reveal the mine
1030in question (unlike most other implementations, which reveal all of
1031them). You can then Undo your fatal move and continue playing if you
1032like. The program will track the number of times you died (and Undo
1033will not reduce that counter), so when you get to the end of the
1034game you know whether or not you did it without making any errors.
1035
1036(If you really want to know the full layout of the grid, which other
1037implementations will show you after you die, you can always use the
1038Solve menu option.)
7959b517 1039
1040\H{mines-parameters} \I{parameters, for Mines}Mines parameters
1041
1042The options available from the \q{Custom...} option on the \q{Type}
1043menu are:
1044
1045\dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
1046
1047\dd Size of grid in squares.
1048
1049\dt \e{Mines}
1050
08781119 1051\dd Number of mines in the grid. You can enter this as an absolute
1052mine count, or alternatively you can put a \cw{%} sign on the end in
1053which case the game will arrange for that proportion of the squares
1054in the grid to be mines.
1055
1056\lcont{
1057
1058Beware of setting the mine count too high. At very high densities,
1059the program may spend forever searching for a solvable grid.
1060
1061}
7959b517 1062
1063\dt \e{Ensure solubility}
1064
1065\dd When this option is enabled (as it is by default), Mines will
1066ensure that the entire grid can be fully deduced starting from the
1067initial open space. If you prefer the riskier grids generated by
1068other implementations, you can switch off this option.
1069
1070
6bbab0fe 1071\C{samegame} \i{Same Game}
1072
1073\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.samegame}
1074
1075You have a grid of coloured squares, which you have to clear by
209ab5a7 1076highlighting contiguous regions of more than one coloured square;
6bbab0fe 1077the larger the region you highlight, the more points you get (and
1078the faster you clear the arena).
1079
1080If you clear the grid you win. If you end up with nothing but
209ab5a7 1081single squares (i.e., there are no more clickable regions left) you
6bbab0fe 1082lose.
1083
1084Removing a region causes the rest of the grid to shuffle up:
1085blocks that are suspended will fall down (first), and then empty
1086columns are filled from the right.
1087
6bbab0fe 1088Same Game was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
1089
209ab5a7 1090\H{samegame-controls} \i{Same Game controls}
1091
1092\IM{Same Game controls} controls, for Same Game
1093\IM{Same Game controls} keys, for Same Game
1094\IM{Same Game controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Same Game
1095
1096This game can be played with either the keyboard or the mouse.
6bbab0fe 1097
1098If you left-click an unselected region, it becomes selected (possibly
1099clearing the current selection).
1100
1101If you left-click the selected region, it will be removed (and the
1102rest of the grid shuffled immediately).
1103
1104If you right-click the selected region, it will be unselected.
1105
209ab5a7 1106The cursor keys move a cursor around the grid. Pressing the Space or
1107Enter keys while the cursor is in an unselected region selects it;
1108pressing Space or Enter again removes it as above.
1109
e28d0584 1110(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
1111
6bbab0fe 1112\H{samegame-parameters} \I{parameters, for Same Game}Same Game parameters
1113
209ab5a7 1114These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
1115\q{Type} menu.
1116
6bbab0fe 1117\dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
1118
1119\dd Size of grid in squares.
1120
1121\dt \e{No. of colours}
1122
1123\dd Number of different colours used to fill the grid; the more colours,
209ab5a7 1124the fewer large regions of colour and thus the more difficult it is to
1125successfully clear the grid.
1126
1127\dt \e{Scoring system}
1128
1129\dd Controls the precise mechanism used for scoring. With the default
1130system, \q{(n-2)^2}, only regions of three squares or more will score
1131any points at all. With the alternative \q{(n-1)^2} system, regions of
1132two squares score a point each, and larger regions score relatively
1133more points.
6bbab0fe 1134
e4a7ab56 1135\dt \e{Ensure solubility}
1136
1137\dd If this option is ticked (the default state), generated grids
1138will be guaranteed to have at least one solution.
1139
1140\lcont{
1141
1142If you turn it off, the game generator will not try to guarantee
1143soluble grids; it will, however, still ensure that there are at
1144least 2 squares of each colour on the grid at the start (since a
1145grid with exactly one square of a given colour is \e{definitely}
1146insoluble). Grids generated with this option disabled may contain
1147more large areas of contiguous colour, leading to opportunities for
1148higher scores; they can also take less time to generate.
1149
1150}
1151
f4afe206 1152
1153\C{flip} \i{Flip}
1154
1155\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.flip}
1156
1157You have a grid of squares, some light and some dark. Your aim is to
1158light all the squares up at the same time. You can choose any square
1159and flip its state from light to dark or dark to light, but when you
1160do so, other squares around it change state as well.
1161
1162Each square contains a small diagram showing which other squares
1163change when you flip it.
1164
d6acbe63 1165\H{flip-controls} \i{Flip controls}
f4afe206 1166
1167\IM{Flip controls} controls, for Flip
1168\IM{Flip controls} keys, for Flip
1169\IM{Flip controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Flip
1170
33317d37 1171This game can be played with either the keyboard or the mouse.
1172
1173Left-click in a square to flip it and its associated squares, or
1174use the cursor keys to choose a square and the space bar or Enter
1175key to flip.
79cb09e9 1176
5f6050b4 1177If you use the \q{Solve} function on this game, it will mark some of
1178the squares in red. If you click once in every square with a red
1179mark, the game should be solved. (If you click in a square
1180\e{without} a red mark, a red mark will appear in it to indicate
1181that you will need to reverse that operation to reach the solution.)
f4afe206 1182
e28d0584 1183(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
1184
f4afe206 1185\H{flip-parameters} \I{parameters, for flip}Flip parameters
1186
1187These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
1188\q{Type} menu.
1189
1190\dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
1191
1192\dd Size of grid in squares.
1193
1194\dt \e{Shape type}
1195
1196\dd This control determines the shape of the region which is flipped
1197by clicking in any given square. The default setting, \q{Crosses},
1198causes every square to flip itself and its four immediate neighbours
1199(or three or two if it's at an edge or corner). The other setting,
1200\q{Random}, causes a random shape to be chosen for every square, so
1201the game is different every time.
1202
1203
c6203e43 1204\C{guess} \i{Guess}
1205
1206\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.guess}
1207
1208You have a set of coloured pegs, and have to reproduce a
1209predetermined sequence of them (chosen by the computer) within a
1210certain number of guesses.
1211
1212Each guess gets marked with the number of correctly-coloured pegs
9ffde3e8 1213in the correct places (in black), and also the number of
1214correctly-coloured pegs in the wrong places (in white).
c6203e43 1215
1216This game is also known (and marketed, by Hasbro, mainly) as
bb219ea1 1217a board game \q{\i{Mastermind}}, with 6 colours, 4 pegs per row,
1218and 10 guesses. However, this version allows custom settings of number
1219of colours (up to 10), number of pegs per row, and number of guesses.
c6203e43 1220
64455a5a 1221Guess was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
1222
c6203e43 1223\H{guess-controls} \i{Guess controls}
1224
1225\IM{Guess controls} controls, for Guess
1226\IM{Guess controls} keys, for Guess
1227\IM{Guess controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Guess
1228
9ffde3e8 1229This game can be played with either the keyboard or the mouse.
1230
9c63a011 1231With the mouse, drag a coloured peg from the tray on the left-hand
1232side to its required position in the current guess; pegs may also be
1233dragged from current and past guesses to copy them elsewhere. To
1234remove a peg, drag it off its current position to somewhere invalid.
c6203e43 1235
9ffde3e8 1236Right-clicking in the current guess adds a \q{hold} marker; pegs
c6203e43 1237that have hold markers will be automatically added to the next guess
1238after marking.
1239
9ffde3e8 1240Alternatively, with the keyboard, the up and down cursor keys can be
1241used to select a peg colour, the left and right keys to select a
9c63a011 1242peg position, and the space bar or Enter key to place a peg of the
59dae0db 1243selected colour in the chosen position. \q{D} or Backspace removes a
1244peg, and \q{H} adds a hold marker.
9ffde3e8 1245
9c63a011 1246When the guess is complete, the smaller feedback pegs will be highlighted;
9ffde3e8 1247clicking on these (or moving the peg cursor to them with the arrow keys
9c63a011 1248and pressing the space bar or Enter key) will mark the current guess,
1249copy any held pegs to the next guess, and move the \q{current guess}
1250marker.
c6203e43 1251
1252If you correctly position all the pegs the solution will be displayed
9ffde3e8 1253below; if you run out of guesses (or select \q{Solve...}) the solution
9c63a011 1254will also be revealed.
c6203e43 1255
e28d0584 1256(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
1257
13b443e3 1258\H{guess-parameters} \I{parameters, for Guess}Guess parameters
c6203e43 1259
1260These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
1261\q{Type} menu. The default game matches the parameters for the
9ffde3e8 1262board game \q{Mastermind}.
c6203e43 1263
1264\dt \e{Colours}
1265
1266\dd Number of colours the solution is chosen from; from 2 to 10
1267(more is harder).
1268
1269\dt \e{Pegs per guess}
1270
1271\dd Number of pegs per guess (more is harder).
1272
1273\dt \e{Guesses}
1274
1275\dd Number of guesses you have to find the solution in (fewer is harder).
1276
1277\dt \e{Allow blanks}
1278
1279\dd Allows blank pegs to be given as part of a guess (makes it easier, because
1280you know that those will never be counted as part of the solution). This
1281is turned off by default.
1282
1283Note that this doesn't allow blank pegs in the solution; if you really wanted
1284that, use one extra colour.
1285
1286\dt \e{Allow duplicates}
1287
1288\dd Allows the solution (and the guesses) to contain colours more than once;
1289this increases the search space (making things harder), and is turned on by
1290default.
1291
1292
13b443e3 1293\C{pegs} \i{Pegs}
1294
1295\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.pegs}
1296
1297A number of pegs are placed in holes on a board. You can remove a
33a3deb2 1298peg by jumping an adjacent peg over it (horizontally or vertically)
1299to a vacant hole on the other side. Your aim is to remove all but one
1300of the pegs initially present.
13b443e3 1301
e28d0584 1302This game, best known as \I{Solitaire, Peg}\q{Peg Solitaire}, is
1303possibly one of the oldest puzzle games still commonly known.
13b443e3 1304
1305\H{pegs-controls} \i{Pegs controls}
1306
1307\IM{Pegs controls} controls, for Pegs
1308
1309To move a peg, drag it with the mouse from its current position to
1310its final position. If the final position is exactly two holes away
1311from the initial position, is currently unoccupied by a peg, and
1312there is a peg in the intervening square, the move will be permitted
1313and the intervening peg will be removed.
1314
1315Vacant spaces which you can move a peg into are marked with holes. A
1316space with no peg and no hole is not available for moving at all: it
1317is an obstacle which you must work around.
1318
e28d0584 1319(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
13b443e3 1320
1321\H{pegs-parameters} \I{parameters, for Pegs}Pegs parameters
1322
1323These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
1324\q{Type} menu.
1325
1326\dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
1327
1328\dd Size of grid in holes.
1329
1330\dt \e{Board type}
1331
1332\dd Controls whether you are given a board of a standard shape or a
1333randomly generated shape. The two standard shapes currently
1334supported are \q{Cross} and \q{Octagon} (also commonly known as the
1335English and European traditional board layouts respectively).
1336Selecting \q{Random} will give you a different board shape every
1337time (but always one that is known to have a solution).
1338
1339
6c04c334 1340\C{dominosa} \i{Dominosa}
1341
1342\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.dominosa}
1343
f1010613 1344A normal set of dominoes \dash that is, one instance of every
1345(unordered) pair of numbers from 0 to 6 \dash has been arranged
1346irregularly into a rectangle; then the number in each square has
1347been written down and the dominoes themselves removed. Your task is
1348to reconstruct the pattern by arranging the set of dominoes to match
1349the provided array of numbers.
6c04c334 1350
1351This puzzle is widely credited to O. S. Adler, and takes part of its
1352name from those initials.
1353
1354\H{dominosa-controls} \i{Dominosa controls}
1355
1356\IM{Dominosa controls} controls, for Dominosa
1357
1358Left-clicking between any two adjacent numbers places a domino
1359covering them, or removes one if it is already present. Trying to
1360place a domino which overlaps existing dominoes will remove the ones
1361it overlaps.
1362
1363Right-clicking between two adjacent numbers draws a line between
1364them, which you can use to remind yourself that you know those two
1365numbers are \e{not} covered by a single domino. Right-clicking again
1366removes the line.
1367
e28d0584 1368(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
6c04c334 1369
1370\H{dominosa-parameters} \I{parameters, for Dominosa}Dominosa parameters
1371
1372These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
1373\q{Type} menu.
1374
1375\dt \e{Maximum number on dominoes}
1376
1377\dd Controls the size of the puzzle, by controlling the size of the
1378set of dominoes used to make it. Dominoes with numbers going up to N
1379will give rise to an (N+2) \by (N+1) rectangle; so, in particular,
1380the default value of 6 gives an 8\by\.7 grid.
1381
1382\dt \e{Ensure unique solution}
1383
1384\dd Normally, Dominosa will make sure that the puzzles it presents
1385have only one solution. Puzzles with ambiguous sections can be more
1386difficult and sometimes more subtle, so if you like you can turn off
1387this feature. Also, finding \e{all} the possible solutions can be an
1388additional challenge for an advanced player. Turning off this option
1389can also speed up puzzle generation.
1390
1391
9d6c3859 1392\C{untangle} \i{Untangle}
1393
1394\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.untangle}
1395
1396You are given a number of points, some of which have lines drawn
1397between them. You can move the points about arbitrarily; your aim is
1398to position the points so that no line crosses another.
1399
1400I originally saw this in the form of a Flash game called \i{Planarity}
1401\k{Planarity}, written by John Tantalo.
1402
1403\B{Planarity} \W{http://home.cwru.edu/~jnt5/Planarity}\cw{http://home.cwru.edu/~jnt5/Planarity}
1404
1405\H{untangle-controls} \i{Untangle controls}
1406
1407\IM{Untangle controls} controls, for Untangle
1408
1409To move a point, click on it with the left mouse button and drag it
1410into a new position.
1411
e28d0584 1412(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
1413
9d6c3859 1414\H{untangle-parameters} \I{parameters, for Untangle}Untangle parameters
1415
1416There is only one parameter available from the \q{Custom...} option
1417on the \q{Type} menu:
1418
1419\dt \e{Number of points}
1420
1421\dd Controls the size of the puzzle, by specifying the number of
1422points in the generated graph.
1423
1424
bf7ebf5a 1425\C{blackbox} \i{Black Box}
1426
1427\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.blackbox}
1428
1429A number of balls are hidden in a rectangular arena. You have to
1430deduce the positions of the balls by firing lasers from positions
1431on the edge of the arena and observing how they are deflected.
1432
1433Lasers will fire straight until they hit the opposite side of the
1434arena (at which point they emerge), unless affected by balls in one of
1435the following ways:
1436
1437\b A laser that hits a ball head-on is absorbed and will never re-emerge.
1438 This includes lasers that meet a ball on the first rank of the arena.
1439
1440\b A laser with a ball to its front-left square gets deflected 90 degrees
1441 to the right.
1442
1443\b A laser with a ball to its front-right square gets similarly deflected
1444 to the left.
1445
1446\b A laser that would re-emerge from the entry location is considered to be
ebf54ec9 1447 \q{reflected}.
bf7ebf5a 1448
a4c9750f 1449\b A laser which would get deflected before entering the arena (down the
1450 \q{firing range}) by a ball to the front-left or front-right of its
1451 entry point is also considered to be \q{reflected}.
bf7ebf5a 1452
ebf54ec9 1453Lasers that are reflected appear as a \q{R}; lasers that hit balls
1454dead-on appear as \q{H}. Otherwise, a number appears at the firing point
bf7ebf5a 1455and the location where the laser emerges (this number is unique to
1456that shot).
1457
1458You can place guesses as to the location of the balls, based on the
1459entry and exit patterns of the lasers; once you have placed enough
1460balls a button appears enabling you to have your guesses checked.
1461
1462Here is a diagram showing how the positions of balls can create each
1463of the laser behaviours shown above:
1464
1465\c 1RHR----
1466\c |..O.O...|
1467\c 2........3
1468\c |........|
1469\c |........|
1470\c 3........|
1471\c |......O.|
1472\c H........|
1473\c |.....O..|
1474\c 12-RH---
1475
1476As shown, it is possible for a ball to receive multiple reflections
1477before re-emerging (see turn 3). Similarly, a ball may be reflected
ebf54ec9 1478(possibly more than once) before receiving a hit (the \q{H} on the
bf7ebf5a 1479left side of the example).
1480
1481Note that any layout with more that 4 balls may have a non-unique
1482solution. The following diagram illustrates this; if you know the
1483board contains 5 balls, it is impossible to determine where the fifth
1484ball is (possible positions marked with an x):
1485
1486\c --------
1487\c |........|
1488\c |........|
1489\c |..O..O..|
1490\c |...xx...|
1491\c |...xx...|
1492\c |..O..O..|
1493\c |........|
1494\c |........|
1495\c --------
1496
1497For this reason when you have your guesses checked the game will
1498check that your solution \e{produces the same results} as the
1499computer's, rather than that your solution is identical to the
1500computer's. So in the above example, you could put the fifth ball at
1501\e{any} of the locations marked with an x, and you would still win.
1502
1503Black Box was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
1504
1505\H{blackbox-controls} \i{Black Box controls}
1506
1507\IM{Black Box controls}controls, for Black Box
1508
1509To fire a laser, left-click in a square around the side of the arena.
1510The results will be displayed immediately. Lasers may not be fired
1511twice (because the results will never change). Holding down the left
1512button will highlight the current go (or a previous go) to confirm the
1513exit point for that laser, if applicable.
1514
1515To guess the location of a ball, left-click within the arena and a
1516black circle will appear marking the guess; to remove the guessed ball
1517click again.
1518
1519Locations in the arena may be locked against modification by
1520right-clicking; whole rows and columns may be similarly locked by
1521right-clicking in the laser firing range above/below that column, or
1522to the left/right of that row.
1523
1524When an appropriate number of balls have been guessed a button will
a4c9750f 1525appear at the top-left corner of the grid; clicking that will mark
bf7ebf5a 1526your guesses.
1527
27388471 1528If you click the \q{mark} button and your guesses are not correct,
1529the game will show you as little information as possible to
1530demonstrate this to you, so you can try again. If your ball
1531positions are not consistent with the laser paths you already know
1532about, one laser path will be circled to indicate that it proves you
1533wrong. If your positions match all the existing laser paths but are
1534still wrong, one new laser path will be revealed (written in red)
1535which is not consistent with your current guesses.
1536
1537If you decide to give up completely, you can select Solve to reveal
1538the actual ball positions. At this point, correctly-placed balls
1539will be displayed as filled black circles; incorrectly-placed balls
1540are displayed as filled black circles with red crosses, and missing
1541balls are filled red circles. In addition, a red circle marks any
1542laser you had already fired which is not consistent with your ball
1543layout (just as when you press the mark button), and red text marks
bf7ebf5a 1544any laser you \e{could} have fired in order to distinguish your ball
1545layout from the right one.
1546
1547(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
1548
1549\H{blackbox-parameters} \I{parameters, for Black Box}Black Box parameters
1550
1551These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
1552\q{Type} menu.
1553
1554\dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
1555
ebf54ec9 1556\dd Size of grid in squares. There are 2 \by \e{Width} \by \e{Height} lasers
bf7ebf5a 1557per grid, two per row and two per column.
1558
1559\dt \e{No. of balls}
1560
1561\dd Number of balls to place in the grid. This can be a single number,
ebf54ec9 1562or a range (separated with a hyphen, like \q{2-6}), and determines the
1563number of balls to place on the grid. The \q{reveal} button is only
bf7ebf5a 1564enabled if you have guessed an appropriate number of balls; a guess
1565using a different number to the original solution is still acceptable,
1566if all the laser inputs and outputs match.
1567
1568
f1010613 1569\C{slant} \i{Slant}
1570
1571\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.slant}
1572
1573You have a grid of squares. Your aim is to draw a diagonal line
1574through each square, and choose which way each line slants so that
1575the following conditions are met:
1576
1577\b The diagonal lines never form a loop.
1578
1579\b Any point with a circled number has precisely that many lines
1580meeting at it. (Thus, a 4 is the centre of a cross shape, whereas a
1581zero is the centre of a diamond shape \dash or rather, a partial
1582diamond shape, because a zero can never appear in the middle of the
1583grid because that would immediately cause a loop.)
1584
1585Credit for this puzzle goes to \i{Nikoli} \k{nikoli-slant}.
1586
1587\B{nikoli-slant}
1588\W{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/puzzles/39/index.htm}\cw{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/puzzles/39/index.htm}
1589(in Japanese)
1590
f1010613 1591\H{slant-controls} \i{Slant controls}
1592
1593\IM{Slant controls} controls, for Slant
f1010613 1594
1595Left-clicking in a blank square will place a \cw{\\} in it (a line
1596leaning to the left, i.e. running from the top left of the square to
1597the bottom right). Right-clicking in a blank square will place a
1598\cw{/} in it (leaning to the right, running from top right to bottom
1599left).
1600
1601Continuing to click either button will cycle between the three
1602possible square contents. Thus, if you left-click repeatedly in a
1603blank square it will change from blank to \cw{\\} to \cw{/} back to
1604blank, and if you right-click repeatedly the square will change from
1605blank to \cw{/} to \cw{\\} back to blank. (Therefore, you can play
1606the game entirely with one button if you need to.)
1607
1608(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
1609
e3478a4b 1610\H{slant-parameters} \I{parameters, for Slant}Slant parameters
f1010613 1611
1612These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
1613\q{Type} menu.
1614
1615\dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
1616
1617\dd Size of grid in squares.
1618
15164c74 1619\dt \e{Difficulty}
1620
1621\dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. At Hard level,
1622you are required to do deductions based on knowledge of
1623\e{relationships} between squares rather than always being able to
1624deduce the exact contents of one square at a time. (For example, you
1625might know that two squares slant in the same direction, even if you
1626don't yet know what that direction is, and this might enable you to
1627deduce something about still other squares.) Even at Hard level,
1628guesswork and backtracking should never be necessary.
1629
f1010613 1630
e3478a4b 1631\C{lightup} \i{Light Up}
1632
1633\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.lightup}
1634
1635You have a grid of squares. Some are filled in black; some of the
1636black squares are numbered. Your aim is to \q{light up} all the
1637empty squares by placing light bulbs in some of them.
1638
1639Each light bulb illuminates the square it is on, plus all squares in
1640line with it horizontally or vertically unless a black square is
1641blocking the way.
1642
1643To win the game, you must satisfy the following conditions:
1644
1645\b All non-black squares are lit.
1646
1647\b No light is lit by another light.
1648
1649\b All numbered black squares have exactly that number of lights adjacent to
1650 them (in the four squares above, below, and to the side).
1651
1652Non-numbered black squares may have any number of lights adjacent to them.
1653
1654Credit for this puzzle goes to \i{Nikoli} \k{nikoli-lightup}.
1655
1656Light Up was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
1657
1658\B{nikoli-lightup}
1659\W{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/puzzles/32/index-e.htm}\cw{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/puzzles/32/index-e.htm}
1660(beware of Flash)
1661
1662\H{lightup-controls} \i{Light Up controls}
1663
1664\IM{Light Up controls} controls, for Light Up
e3478a4b 1665
1666Left-clicking in a non-black square will toggle the presence of a light
1667in that square. Right-clicking in a non-black square toggles a mark there to aid
1668solving; it can be used to highlight squares that cannot be lit, for example.
1669
1670You may not place a light in a marked square, nor place a mark in a lit square.
1671
1672The game will highlight obvious errors in red. Lights lit by other
1673lights are highlighted in this way, as are numbered squares which
1674do not (or cannot) have the right number of lights next to them.
1675
1676Thus, the grid is solved when all non-black squares have yellow
1677highlights and there are no red lights.
1678
e28d0584 1679(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
e3478a4b 1680
1681\H{lightup-parameters} \I{parameters, for Light Up}Light Up parameters
1682
1683These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
1684\q{Type} menu.
1685
1686\dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
1687
1688\dd Size of grid in squares.
1689
1690\dt \e{%age of black squares}
1691
1692\dd Rough percentage of black squares in the grid.
1693
1694\lcont{
1695
1696This is a hint rather than an instruction. If the grid generator is
1697unable to generate a puzzle to this precise specification, it will
1698increase the proportion of black squares until it can.
1699
1700}
1701
1702\dt \e{Symmetry}
1703
1704\dd Allows you to specify the required symmetry of the black squares
1705in the grid. (This does not affect the difficulty of the puzzles
1706noticeably.)
1707
1708\dt \e{Difficulty}
1709
1710\dd \q{Easy} means that the puzzles should be soluble without
1711backtracking or guessing, \q{Hard} means that some guesses will
1712probably be necessary.
1713
1714
c51c7de6 1715\C{map} \i{Map}
1716
1717\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.map}
1718
1719You are given a map consisting of a number of regions. Your task is
1720to colour each region with one of four colours, in such a way that
1721no two regions sharing a boundary have the same colour. You are
1722provided with some regions already coloured, sufficient to make the
1723remainder of the solution unique.
1724
1725Only regions which share a length of border are required to be
1726different colours. Two regions which meet at only one \e{point}
1727(i.e. are diagonally separated) may be the same colour.
1728
1729I believe this puzzle is original; I've never seen an implementation
bb219ea1 1730of it anywhere else. The concept of a \i{four-colouring} puzzle was
c51c7de6 1731suggested by Owen Dunn; credit must also go to Nikoli and to Verity
1732Allan for inspiring the train of thought that led to me realising
1733Owen's suggestion was a viable puzzle. Thanks also to Gareth Taylor
1734for many detailed suggestions.
1735
c51c7de6 1736\H{map-controls} \i{Map controls}
1737
1738\IM{Map controls} controls, for Map
c51c7de6 1739
1cdd1306 1740To colour a region, click the left mouse button on an existing
1741region of the desired colour and drag that colour into the new
1742region.
c51c7de6 1743
1744(The program will always ensure the starting puzzle has at least one
1745region of each colour, so that this is always possible!)
1746
1747If you need to clear a region, you can drag from an empty region, or
1748from the puzzle boundary if there are no empty regions left.
1749
1cdd1306 1750Dragging a colour using the \e{right} mouse button will stipple the
1751region in that colour, which you can use as a note to yourself that
1752you think the region \e{might} be that colour. A region can contain
1753stipples in multiple colours at once. (This is often useful at the
1754harder difficulty levels.)
1755
e857e161 1756If you press L during play, the game will toggle display of a number
1757in each region of the map. This is useful if you want to discuss a
1758particular puzzle instance with a friend \dash having an unambiguous
1759name for each region is much easier than trying to refer to them all
1760by names such as \q{the one down and right of the brown one on the
1761top border}.
1762
e28d0584 1763(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
c51c7de6 1764
1765\H{map-parameters} \I{parameters, for Map}Map parameters
1766
1767These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
1768\q{Type} menu.
1769
1770\dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
1771
1772\dd Size of grid in squares.
1773
1774\dt \e{Regions}
1775
1776\dd Number of regions in the generated map.
1777
1778\dt \e{Difficulty}
1779
1780\dd In \q{Easy} mode, there should always be at least one region
1cdd1306 1781whose colour can be determined trivially. In \q{Normal} and \q{Hard}
1782modes, you will have to use increasingly complex logic to deduce the
1783colour of some regions. However, it will always be possible without
1784having to guess or backtrack.
c51c7de6 1785
b3728d72 1786\lcont{
1787
1788In \q{Unreasonable} mode, the program will feel free to generate
1789puzzles which are as hard as it can possibly make them: the only
1790constraint is that they should still have a unique solution. Solving
1791Unreasonable puzzles may require guessing and backtracking.
1792
1793}
1794
c51c7de6 1795
6193da8d 1796\C{loopy} \i{Loopy}
1797
1798\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.loopy}
1799
7c95608a 1800You are given a grid of dots, marked with yellow lines to indicate
1801which dots you are allowed to connect directly together. Your aim is
1802to use some subset of those yellow lines to draw a single unbroken
6193da8d 1803loop from dot to dot within the grid.
1804
7c95608a 1805Some of the spaces between the lines contain numbers. These numbers
1806indicate how many of the lines around that space form part of the
1807loop. The loop you draw must correctly satisfy all of these clues to
1808be considered a correct solution.
6193da8d 1809
7c95608a 1810In the default mode, the dots are arranged in a grid of squares;
1811however, you can also play on triangular or hexagonal grids, or even
1812more exotic ones.
6193da8d 1813
7c95608a 1814Credit for the basic puzzle idea goes to \i{Nikoli}
1815\k{nikoli-loopy}.
1816
1817Loopy was originally contributed to this collection by Mike Pinna,
1818and subsequently enhanced to handle various types of non-square grid
1819by Lambros Lambrou.
6193da8d 1820
1821\B{nikoli-loopy}
1822\W{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/puzzles/3/index-e.htm}\cw{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/puzzles/3/index-e.htm}
1823(beware of Flash)
1824
6193da8d 1825\H{loopy-controls} \i{Loopy controls}
1826
1827\IM{Loopy controls} controls, for Loopy
6193da8d 1828
7c95608a 1829Click the left mouse button on a yellow line to turn it black,
1830indicating that you think it is part of the loop. Click again to
1831turn the line yellow again (meaning you aren't sure yet).
6193da8d 1832
1833If you are sure that a particular line segment is \e{not} part of
7c95608a 1834the loop, you can click the right mouse button to remove it
1835completely. Again, clicking a second time will turn the line back to
1836yellow.
6193da8d 1837
e28d0584 1838(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
6193da8d 1839
1840\H{loopy-parameters} \I{parameters, for Loopy}Loopy parameters
1841
1842These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
1843\q{Type} menu.
1844
1845\dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
1846
7c95608a 1847\dd Size of grid, measured in number of regions across and down. For
1848square grids, it's clear how this is counted; for other types of
1849grid you may have to think a bit to see how the dimensions are
1850measured.
1851
1852\dt \e{Grid type}
1853
1854\dd Allows you to choose between a selection of types of tiling.
1855Some have all the faces the same but may have multiple different
1856types of vertex (e.g. the \e{Cairo} or \e{Kites} mode); others have
1857all the vertices the same but may have differnt types of face (e.g.
1858the \e{Great Hexagonal}). The square, triangular and honeycomb grids
1859are fully regular, and have all their vertices \e{and} faces the
1860same; this makes them the least confusing to play.
6193da8d 1861
550742c1 1862\dt \e{Difficulty}
6193da8d 1863
550742c1 1864\dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle.
1865\#{FIXME: what distinguishes Easy, Medium, and Hard? In particular,
1866when are backtracking/guesswork required, if ever?}
6193da8d 1867
1868
81eef9aa 1869\C{inertia} \i{Inertia}
1870
1871\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.inertia}
1872
1873You are a small green ball sitting in a grid full of obstacles. Your
1874aim is to collect all the gems without running into any mines.
1875
1876You can move the ball in any orthogonal \e{or diagonal} direction.
1877Once the ball starts moving, it will continue until something stops
1878it. A wall directly in its path will stop it (but if it is moving
1879diagonally, it will move through a diagonal gap between two other
1880walls without stopping). Also, some of the squares are \q{stops};
1881when the ball moves on to a stop, it will stop moving no matter what
1882direction it was going in. Gems do \e{not} stop the ball; it picks
1883them up and keeps on going.
1884
1885Running into a mine is fatal. Even if you picked up the last gem in
1886the same move which then hit a mine, the game will count you as dead
1887rather than victorious.
1888
1889This game was originally implemented for Windows by Ben Olmstead
1890\k{bem}, who was kind enough to release his source code on request
1891so that it could be re-implemented for this collection.
1892
1893\B{bem} \W{http://xn13.com/}\cw{http://xn13.com/}
1894
1895\H{inertia-controls} \i{Inertia controls}
1896
1897\IM{Inertia controls} controls, for Inertia
1898\IM{Inertia controls} keys, for Inertia
1899\IM{Inertia controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Inertia
1900
1901You can move the ball in any of the eight directions using the
1902numeric keypad. Alternatively, if you click the left mouse button on
1903the grid, the ball will begin a move in the general direction of
1904where you clicked.
1905
8b5b08f7 1906If you use the \q{Solve} function on this game, the program will
1907compute a path through the grid which collects all the remaining
1908gems and returns to the current position. A hint arrow will appear
1909on the ball indicating the direction in which you should move to
1910begin on this path. If you then move in that direction, the arrow
1911will update to indicate the next direction on the path. You can also
1912press Space to automatically move in the direction of the hint
1913arrow. If you move in a different direction from the one shown by
1914the arrow, the hint arrows will stop appearing because you have
1915strayed from the provided path; you can then use \q{Solve} again to
1916generate a new path if you want to.
1917
81eef9aa 1918All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.
1919In particular, if you do run into a mine and die, you can use the
1920Undo function and resume playing from before the fatal move. The
1921game will keep track of the number of times you have done this.
1922
1923\H{inertia-parameters} \I{parameters, for Inertia}Inertia parameters
1924
1925These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
1926\q{Type} menu.
1927
1928\dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
1929
1930\dd Size of grid in squares.
1931
1932
86e60e3d 1933\C{tents} \i{Tents}
1934
1935\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.tents}
1936
1937You have a grid of squares, some of which contain trees. Your aim is
1938to place tents in some of the remaining squares, in such a way that
1939the following conditions are met:
1940
1941\b There are exactly as many tents as trees.
1942
1943\b The tents and trees can be matched up in such a way that each
1944tent is directly adjacent (horizontally or vertically, but not
1945diagonally) to its own tree. However, a tent may be adjacent to
1946other trees as well as its own.
1947
1948\b No two tents are adjacent horizontally, vertically \e{or
1949diagonally}.
1950
1951\b The number of tents in each row, and in each column, matches the
1952numbers given round the sides of the grid.
1953
1954This puzzle can be found in several places on the Internet, and was
1955brought to my attention by e-mail. I don't know who I should credit
1956for inventing it.
1957
1958\H{tents-controls} \i{Tents controls}
1959
1960\IM{Tents controls} controls, for Tents
1961
1962Left-clicking in a blank square will place a tent in it.
1963Right-clicking in a blank square will colour it green, indicating
1964that you are sure it \e{isn't} a tent. Clicking either button in an
1965occupied square will clear it.
1966
565394e7 1967If you \e{drag} with the right button along a row or column, every
1968blank square in the region you cover will be turned green, and no
1969other squares will be affected. (This is useful for clearing the
1970remainder of a row once you have placed all its tents.)
1971
86e60e3d 1972(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
1973
1974\H{tents-parameters} \I{parameters, for Tents}Tents parameters
1975
1976These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
1977\q{Type} menu.
1978
1979\dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
1980
1981\dd Size of grid in squares.
1982
1983\dt \e{Difficulty}
1984
1985\dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. More difficult
1986puzzles require more complex deductions, but at present none of the
1987available difficulty levels requires guesswork or backtracking.
1988
1989
e7c63b02 1990\C{bridges} \i{Bridges}
1991
1992\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.bridges}
1993
1994You have a set of islands distributed across the playing area. Each
1995island contains a number. Your aim is to connect the islands
1996together with bridges, in such a way that:
1997
1998\b Bridges run horizontally or vertically.
1999
2000\b The number of bridges terminating at any island is equal to the
2001number written in that island.
2002
2003\b Two bridges may run in parallel between the same two islands, but
2004no more than two may do so.
2005
2006\b No bridge crosses another bridge.
2007
2008\b All the islands are connected together.
2009
2010There are some configurable alternative modes, which involve
2011changing the parallel-bridge limit to something other than 2, and
2012introducing the additional constraint that no sequence of bridges
2013may form a loop from one island back to the same island. The rules
2014stated above are the default ones.
2015
2016Credit for this puzzle goes to \i{Nikoli} \k{nikoli-bridges}.
2017
2018Bridges was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
2019
2020\B{nikoli-bridges}
2021\W{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/puzzles/14/index-e.htm}\cw{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/puzzles/14/index-e.htm}
2022
2023\H{bridges-controls} \i{Bridges controls}
2024
2025\IM{Bridges controls} controls, for Bridges
2026
2027To place a bridge between two islands, click the mouse down on one
2028island and drag it towards the other. You do not need to drag all
2029the way to the other island; you only need to move the mouse far
2030enough for the intended bridge direction to be unambiguous. (So you
2031can keep the mouse near the starting island and conveniently throw
2032bridges out from it in many directions.)
2033
2034Doing this again when a bridge is already present will add another
2035parallel bridge. If there are already as many bridges between the
2036two islands as permitted by the current game rules (i.e. two by
2037default), the same dragging action will remove all of them.
2038
2039If you want to remind yourself that two islands definitely \e{do
2040not} have a bridge between them, you can right-drag between them in
2041the same way to draw a \q{non-bridge} marker.
2042
2043If you think you have finished with an island (i.e. you have placed
2044all its bridges and are confident that they are in the right
2045places), you can mark the island as finished by left-clicking on it.
2046This will highlight it and all the bridges connected to it, and you
2047will be prevented from accidentally modifying any of those bridges
2048in future. Left-clicking again on a highlighted island will unmark
2049it and restore your ability to modify it.
2050
2051Violations of the puzzle rules will be marked in red:
2052
2053\b An island with too many bridges will be highlighted in red.
2054
2055\b An island with too few bridges will be highlighted in red if it
2056is definitely an error (as opposed to merely not being finished
2057yet): if adding enough bridges would involve having to cross another
2058bridge or remove a non-bridge marker, or if the island has been
2059highlighted as complete.
2060
2061\b A group of islands and bridges may be highlighted in red if it is
2062a closed subset of the puzzle with no way to connect it to the rest
2063of the islands. For example, if you directly connect two 1s together
2064with a bridge and they are not the only two islands on the grid,
2065they will light up red to indicate that such a group cannot be
2066contained in any valid solution.
2067
2068\b If you have selected the (non-default) option to disallow loops
2069in the solution, a group of bridges which forms a loop will be
2070highlighted.
2071
2072(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
2073
2074\H{bridges-parameters} \I{parameters, for Bridges}Bridges parameters
2075
2076These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
2077\q{Type} menu.
2078
2079\dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
2080
2081\dd Size of grid in squares.
2082
2083\dt \e{Difficulty}
2084
2085\dd Difficulty level of puzzle.
2086
2087\dt \e{Allow loops}
2088
2089\dd This is set by default. If cleared, puzzles will be generated in
2090such a way that they are always soluble without creating a loop, and
2091solutions which do involve a loop will be disallowed.
2092
2093\dt \e{Max. bridges per direction}
2094
2095\dd Maximum number of bridges in any particular direction. The
2096default is 2, but you can change it to 1, 3 or 4. In general, fewer
2097is easier.
2098
2099\dt \e{%age of island squares}
2100
2101\dd Gives a rough percentage of islands the generator will try and
2102lay before finishing the puzzle. Certain layouts will not manage to
2103lay enough islands; this is an upper bound.
2104
2105\dt \e{Expansion factor (%age)}
2106
2107\dd The grid generator works by picking an existing island at random
2108(after first creating an initial island somewhere). It then decides
2109on a direction (at random), and then works out how far it could
2110extend before creating another island. This parameter determines how
2111likely it is to extend as far as it can, rather than choosing
2112somewhere closer.
2113
2114High expansion factors usually mean easier puzzles with fewer
2115possible islands; low expansion factors can create lots of
2116tightly-packed islands.
2117
2118
149255d7 2119\C{unequal} \i{Unequal}
2120
2121\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.unequal}
2122
2123You have a square grid; each square may contain a digit from 1 to
055b9cd2 2124the size of the grid, and some squares have greater-than signs between
149255d7 2125them. Your aim is to fully populate the grid with numbers such that:
2126
2127\b Each row contains only one occurrence of each digit
2128
2129\b Each column contains only one occurrence of each digit
2130
2131\b All the greater-than signs are satisfied.
2132
feb306dc 2133In \q{Trivial} mode (available via the \q{Custom} game type
2134selector), there are no greater-than signs; the puzzle is to solve
2135the \i{Latin square} only.
149255d7 2136
2137At the time of writing, this puzzle is appearing in the Guardian
055b9cd2 2138weekly under the name \q{\i{Futoshiki}}.
149255d7 2139
2140Unequal was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
2141
2142\H{unequal-controls} \i{Unequal controls}
2143
2144\IM{Unequal controls} controls, for Unequal
2145
2146Unequal shares much of its control system with Solo.
2147
2148To play Unequal, simply click the mouse in any empty square and then
2149type a digit or letter on the keyboard to fill that square. If you
2150make a mistake, click the mouse in the incorrect square and press
2151Space to clear it again (or use the Undo feature).
2152
2153If you \e{right}-click in a square and then type a number, that
2154number will be entered in the square as a \q{pencil mark}. You can
2155have pencil marks for multiple numbers in the same square.
2156
2157The game pays no attention to pencil marks, so exactly what you use
2158them for is up to you: you can use them as reminders that a
2159particular square needs to be re-examined once you know more about a
2160particular number, or you can use them as lists of the possible
2161numbers in a given square, or anything else you feel like.
2162
2163To erase a single pencil mark, right-click in the square and type
2164the same number again.
2165
2166All pencil marks in a square are erased when you left-click and type
2167a number, or when you left-click and press space. Right-clicking and
2168pressing space will also erase pencil marks.
2169
2170(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
2171
2172\H{unequal-parameters} \I{parameters, for Unequal}Unequal parameters
2173
2174These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
2175\q{Type} menu.
2176
2177\dt \e{Size (s*s)}
2178
2179\dd Size of grid.
2180
2181\dt \e{Difficulty}
2182
845a3be0 2183\dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. At Trivial
feb306dc 2184level, there are no greater-than signs; the puzzle is to solve the
2185Latin square only. At Recursive level (only available via the
2186\q{Custom} game type selector) backtracking will be required, but
2187the solution should still be unique. The levels in between require
2188increasingly complex reasoning to avoid having to backtrack.
149255d7 2189
2190
ab3a1e43 2191
2192\C{galaxies} \i{Galaxies}
2193
2194\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.galaxies}
2195
2196You have a rectangular grid containing a number of dots. Your aim is
2197to draw edges along the grid lines which divide the rectangle into
2198regions in such a way that every region is 180\u00b0{-degree}
2199rotationally symmetric, and contains exactly one dot which is
2200located at its centre of symmetry.
2201
2202This puzzle was invented by \i{Nikoli} \k{nikoli-galaxies}, under
a799e87f 2203the name \q{Tentai Show}; its name is commonly translated into
2204English as \q{Spiral Galaxies}.
ab3a1e43 2205
f3ed4ec3 2206Galaxies was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
2207
ab3a1e43 2208\B{nikoli-galaxies} \W{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/astronomical_show/}\cw{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/astronomical_show/}
2209
2210\H{galaxies-controls} \i{Galaxies controls}
2211
2212\IM{Galaxies controls} controls, for Galaxies
2213
2214Left-click on any grid line to draw an edge if there isn't one
2215already, or to remove one if there is. When you create a valid
2216region (one which is closed, contains exactly one dot, is
2217180\u00b0{-degree} symmetric about that dot, and contains no
2218extraneous edges inside it) it will be highlighted automatically; so
2219your aim is to have the whole grid highlighted in that way.
2220
2221During solving, you might know that a particular grid square belongs
2222to a specific dot, but not be sure of where the edges go and which
2223other squares are connected to the dot. In order to mark this so you
2224don't forget, you can right-click on the dot and drag, which will
2225create an arrow marker pointing at the dot. Drop that in a square of
2226your choice and it will remind you which dot it's associated with.
2227You can also right-click on existing arrows to pick them up and move
2228them, or destroy them by dropping them off the edge of the grid.
2229(Also, if you're not sure which dot an arrow is pointing at, you can
2230pick it up and move it around to make it clearer. It will swivel
2231constantly as you drag it, to stay pointed at its parent dot.)
2232
2233(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
2234
2235\H{galaxies-parameters} \I{parameters, for Galaxies}Galaxies parameters
2236
2237These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
2238\q{Type} menu.
2239
2240\dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
2241
2242\dd Size of grid in squares.
2243
2244\dt \e{Difficulty}
2245
2246\dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. More difficult
59206b9c 2247puzzles require more complex deductions, and the \q{Unreasonable}
a799e87f 2248difficulty level may require backtracking.
ab3a1e43 2249
2250
2251
8b3b3223 2252\C{filling} \i{Filling}
2253
2254\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.filling}
2255
2256You have a grid of squares, some of which contain digits, and the
2257rest of which are empty. Your job is to fill in digits in the empty
2258squares, in such a way that each connected region of squares all
2259containing the same digit has an area equal to that digit.
2260
2261(\q{Connected region}, for the purposes of this game, does not count
2262diagonally separated squares as adjacent.)
2263
2264For example, it follows that no square can contain a zero, and that
2265two adjacent squares can not both contain a one. No region has an
2266area greater than 9 (because then its area would not be a single
2267digit).
2268
2269Credit for this puzzle goes to \i{Nikoli} \k{nikoli-fillomino}.
2270
2271Filling was contributed to this collection by Jonas K\u00F6{oe}lker.
2272
2273\B{nikoli-fillomino}
2274\W{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/fillomino/}\cw{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/fillomino/}
2275
2276\H{filling-controls} \I{controls, for Filling}Filling controls
2277
2278To play Filling, simply click the mouse in any empty square and then
b182e5d5 2279type a digit on the keyboard to fill that square. By dragging the
2280mouse, you can select multiple squares to fill with a single keypress.
2281If you make a mistake, click the mouse in the incorrect square and
2282press 0, Space, Backspace or Enter to clear it again (or use the Undo
2283feature).
8b3b3223 2284
2285(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
2286
2287\H{filling-parameters} \I{parameters, for Filling}Filling parameters
2288
2289Filling allows you to configure the number of rows and columns of the
2290grid, through the \q{Type} menu.
2291
2292
ab3a1e43 2293
e91825f8 2294\A{licence} \I{MIT licence}\ii{Licence}
2295
07a54e52 2296This software is \i{copyright} 2004-2008 Simon Tatham.
e91825f8 2297
2c930807 2298Portions copyright Richard Boulton, James Harvey, Mike Pinna, Jonas
0477157e 2299K\u00F6{oe}lker, Dariusz Olszewski, Michael Schierl and Lambros
2300Lambrou.
e91825f8 2301
2302Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
2303obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files
a799e87f 2304(the \q{Software}), to deal in the Software without restriction,
e91825f8 2305including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge,
2306publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software,
2307and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so,
2308subject to the following conditions:
2309
2310The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
2311included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
2312
a799e87f 2313THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED \q{AS IS}, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
e91825f8 2314EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
2315MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
2316NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS
2317BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN
2318ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN
2319CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
2320SOFTWARE.
2321
3c9388ef 2322\IM{command-line}{command line} command line
2323
bb219ea1 2324\IM{default parameters, specifying} default parameters, specifying
2325\IM{default parameters, specifying} preferences, specifying default
2326
2327\IM{Unix} Unix
2328\IM{Unix} Linux
2329
2330\IM{generating game IDs} generating game IDs
2331\IM{generating game IDs} game ID, generating
2332
1185e3c5 2333\IM{specific} \q{Specific}, menu option
2334\IM{custom} \q{Custom}, menu option
e91825f8 2335
2336\IM{game ID} game ID
2337\IM{game ID} ID, game
2338\IM{ID format} ID format
2339\IM{ID format} format, ID
2340\IM{ID format} game ID, format
2341
2342\IM{keys} keys
2343\IM{keys} shortcuts (keyboard)
2344
2345\IM{initial state} initial state
2346\IM{initial state} state, initial
2347
2348\IM{MIT licence} MIT licence
2349\IM{MIT licence} licence, MIT