This is a collection of small one-player puzzle games.
-\copyright This manual is copyright 2004-5 Simon Tatham. All rights
+\copyright This manual is copyright 2004-2007 Simon Tatham. All rights
reserved. You may distribute this documentation under the MIT licence.
See \k{licence} for the licence text in full.
a good game on (say) \i{Unix}, it wasn't available the next time I
was sitting at a \i{Windows} machine, or vice versa; so I arranged
that everything in my personal puzzle collection will happily run on
-both, and have more recently done a port to Mac OS X as well. When I
+both, and have more recently done a port to \i{Mac OS X} as well. When I
find (or perhaps invent) further puzzle games that I like, they'll
be added to this collection and will immediately be available on
both platforms. And if anyone feels like writing any other front
and via \I{keys}keyboard shortcuts, in addition to any game-specific
actions.
-(On Mac OS X, to conform with local user interface standards, these
+(On \i{Mac OS X}, to conform with local user interface standards, these
actions are situated on the \I{File menu}\q{File} and \I{Edit
menu}\q{Edit} menus instead.)
\lcont{
-The Load and Save operations should preserve your entire game
+The Load and Save operations preserve your entire game
history (so you can save, reload, and still Undo and Redo things you
had done before saving).
}
-\dt \ii\e{Print}
+\dt \I{printing, on Windows}\e{Print}
\dd Where supported (currently only on Windows), brings up a dialog
allowing you to print an arbitrary number of puzzles randomly
generated from the current parameters, optionally including the
-current puzzle.
+current puzzle. (Only for puzzles which make sense to print, of
+course - it's hard to think of a sensible printable representation
+of Fifteen!)
\dt \ii\e{Undo} (\q{U}, Ctrl+\q{Z}, Ctrl+\q{_})
same puzzle.
The \q{\i{Specific}} and \q{\i{Random Seed}} options from the
-\I{Game menu}\q{Game} menu (or the \q{File} menu, on Mac OS X) each
+\I{Game menu}\q{Game} menu (or the \q{File} menu, on \i{Mac OS X}) each
show a piece of text (a \q{game ID}) which is sufficient to
reconstruct precisely the same game at a later date.
\H{common-cmdline} Specifying game parameters on the \i{command line}
-(This section does not apply to the Mac OS X version.)
+(This section does not apply to the \i{Mac OS X} version.)
The games in this collection deliberately do not ever save
information on to the computer they run on: they have no high score
some people to play them at work, and those people will probably
appreciate leaving as little evidence as possible!)
-However, if you do want to arrange for one of these games to default
-to a particular set of parameters, you can specify them on the
-command line.
+However, if you do want to arrange for one of these games to
+\I{default parameters, specifying}default to a particular set of
+parameters, you can specify them on the command line.
The easiest way to do this is to set up the parameters you want
using the \q{Type} menu (see \k{common-type}), and then to select
then some options, such as the difficulty level in Solo, will be
missing. See \k{common-id} for more details on this.)
+\H{common-unix-cmdline} \i{Unix} \i{command-line} options
+
+(This section only applies to the Unix port.)
+
+In addition to being able to specify game parameters on the command
+line (see \k{common-cmdline}), there are various other options:
+
+\dt \cw{--game}
+
+\dt \cw{--load}
+
+\dd These options respectively determine whether the command-line
+argument is treated as specifying game parameters or a \i{save} file
+to \i{load}. Only one should be specified. If neither of these options
+is specified, a guess is made based on the format of the argument.
+
+\dt \cw{--generate }\e{n}
+
+\dd If this option is specified, instead of a puzzle being displayed,
+a number of descriptive game IDs will be \I{generating game IDs}invented
+and printed on standard output. This is useful for gaining access to
+the game generation algorithms without necessarily using the frontend.
+
+\lcont{
+
+If game parameters are specified on the command-line, they will be
+used to generate the game IDs; otherwise a default set of parameters
+will be used.
+
+The most common use of this option is in conjunction with \c{--print},
+in which case its behaviour is slightly different; see below.
+
+}
+
+\dt \I{printing, on Unix}\cw{--print }\e{w}\cw{x}\e{h}
+
+\dd If this option is specified, instead of a puzzle being displayed,
+a printed representation of one or more unsolved puzzles is sent to
+standard output, in \i{PostScript} format.
+
+\lcont{
+
+On each page of puzzles, there will be \e{w} across and \e{h} down. If
+there are more puzzles than \e{w}\by\e{h}, more than one page will be
+printed.
+
+If \c{--generate} has also been specified, the invented game IDs will
+be used to generate the printed output. Otherwise, a list of game IDs
+is expected on standard input (which can be descriptive or random
+seeds; see \k{common-id}), in the same format produced by
+\c{--generate}.
+
+For example:
+
+\c net --generate 12 --print 2x3 7x7w | lpr
+
+will generate two pages of printed Net puzzles (each of which will
+have a 7\by\.7 wrapping grid), and pipe the output to the \c{lpr}
+command, which on many systems will send them to an actual printer.
+
+There are various other options which affect printing; see below.
+
+}
+
+\dt \cw{--version}
+
+\dd Prints version information about the game, and then quits.
+
+The following options are only meaningful if \c{--print} is also
+specified:
+
+\dt \cw{--with-solutions}
+
+\dd The set of pages filled with unsolved puzzles will be followed by
+the solutions to those puzzles.
+
+\dt \cw{--scale }\e{n}
+
+\dd Adjusts how big each puzzle is when printed. Larger numbers make
+puzzles bigger; the default is 1.0.
+
+\dt \cw{--colour}
+
+\dd Puzzles will be printed in colour, rather than in black and white
+(if supported by the puzzle).
+
\C{net} \i{Net}
you select 3\by\.4 then the digits which go in your grid will be 1
to 9, plus \cq{a}, \cq{b} and \cq{c}.
-I first saw this puzzle in \i{Nikoli} \k{nikoli-solo}, although it's also
-been popularised by various newspapers under the name \q{Sudoku} or
-\q{Su Doku}.
+I first saw this puzzle in \i{Nikoli} \k{nikoli-solo}, although it's
+also been popularised by various newspapers under the name
+\q{Sudoku} or \q{Su Doku}. Howard Garns is considered the inventor
+of the modern form of the puzzle, and it was first published in
+\e{Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games}. A more elaborate treatment
+of the history of the puzzle can be found on Wikipedia
+\k{wikipedia-solo}.
\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}
+\B{wikipedia-solo} \W{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku}\cw{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku}
+
\H{solo-controls} \I{controls, for Solo}Solo controls
To play Solo, simply click the mouse in any empty square and then
correctly-coloured pegs in the wrong places (in white).
This game is also known (and marketed, by Hasbro, mainly) as
-a board game \q{Mastermind}, with 6 colours, 4 pegs per row, and 10 guesses.
-However, this version allows custom settings of number of colours
-(up to 10), number of pegs per row, and number of guesses.
+a board game \q{\i{Mastermind}}, with 6 colours, 4 pegs per row,
+and 10 guesses. However, this version allows custom settings of number
+of colours (up to 10), number of pegs per row, and number of guesses.
Guess was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
(i.e. are diagonally separated) may be the same colour.
I believe this puzzle is original; I've never seen an implementation
-of it anywhere else. The concept of a four-colouring puzzle was
+of it anywhere else. The concept of a \i{four-colouring} puzzle was
suggested by Owen Dunn; credit must also go to Nikoli and to Verity
Allan for inspiring the train of thought that led to me realising
Owen's suggestion was a viable puzzle. Thanks also to Gareth Taylor
\dd Size of grid in squares.
-\dt \e{Recursion depth}
-
-\dd Determines how much guesswork and backtracking you will need to
-do to solve the puzzle. When this is set to zero (as it is for all
-of the \q{Easy} options in the menu), you should always be able to
-deduce the state of an edge without having to guess. If you increase
-it, you will have to guess more and more.
-
-\lcont{
-
-Setting a high value for this option is liable to consume a lot of
-CPU time and memory. Be warned!
+\dt \e{Difficulty}
-}
+\dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle.
+\#{FIXME: what distinguishes Easy, Medium, and Hard? In particular,
+when are backtracking/guesswork required, if ever?}
\C{inertia} \i{Inertia}
that you are sure it \e{isn't} a tent. Clicking either button in an
occupied square will clear it.
+If you \e{drag} with the right button along a row or column, every
+blank square in the region you cover will be turned green, and no
+other squares will be affected. (This is useful for clearing the
+remainder of a row once you have placed all its tents.)
+
(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
\H{tents-parameters} \I{parameters, for Tents}Tents parameters
available difficulty levels requires guesswork or backtracking.
+\C{bridges} \i{Bridges}
+
+\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.bridges}
+
+You have a set of islands distributed across the playing area. Each
+island contains a number. Your aim is to connect the islands
+together with bridges, in such a way that:
+
+\b Bridges run horizontally or vertically.
+
+\b The number of bridges terminating at any island is equal to the
+number written in that island.
+
+\b Two bridges may run in parallel between the same two islands, but
+no more than two may do so.
+
+\b No bridge crosses another bridge.
+
+\b All the islands are connected together.
+
+There are some configurable alternative modes, which involve
+changing the parallel-bridge limit to something other than 2, and
+introducing the additional constraint that no sequence of bridges
+may form a loop from one island back to the same island. The rules
+stated above are the default ones.
+
+Credit for this puzzle goes to \i{Nikoli} \k{nikoli-bridges}.
+
+Bridges was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
+
+\B{nikoli-bridges}
+\W{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/puzzles/14/index-e.htm}\cw{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/puzzles/14/index-e.htm}
+
+\H{bridges-controls} \i{Bridges controls}
+
+\IM{Bridges controls} controls, for Bridges
+
+To place a bridge between two islands, click the mouse down on one
+island and drag it towards the other. You do not need to drag all
+the way to the other island; you only need to move the mouse far
+enough for the intended bridge direction to be unambiguous. (So you
+can keep the mouse near the starting island and conveniently throw
+bridges out from it in many directions.)
+
+Doing this again when a bridge is already present will add another
+parallel bridge. If there are already as many bridges between the
+two islands as permitted by the current game rules (i.e. two by
+default), the same dragging action will remove all of them.
+
+If you want to remind yourself that two islands definitely \e{do
+not} have a bridge between them, you can right-drag between them in
+the same way to draw a \q{non-bridge} marker.
+
+If you think you have finished with an island (i.e. you have placed
+all its bridges and are confident that they are in the right
+places), you can mark the island as finished by left-clicking on it.
+This will highlight it and all the bridges connected to it, and you
+will be prevented from accidentally modifying any of those bridges
+in future. Left-clicking again on a highlighted island will unmark
+it and restore your ability to modify it.
+
+Violations of the puzzle rules will be marked in red:
+
+\b An island with too many bridges will be highlighted in red.
+
+\b An island with too few bridges will be highlighted in red if it
+is definitely an error (as opposed to merely not being finished
+yet): if adding enough bridges would involve having to cross another
+bridge or remove a non-bridge marker, or if the island has been
+highlighted as complete.
+
+\b A group of islands and bridges may be highlighted in red if it is
+a closed subset of the puzzle with no way to connect it to the rest
+of the islands. For example, if you directly connect two 1s together
+with a bridge and they are not the only two islands on the grid,
+they will light up red to indicate that such a group cannot be
+contained in any valid solution.
+
+\b If you have selected the (non-default) option to disallow loops
+in the solution, a group of bridges which forms a loop will be
+highlighted.
+
+(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
+
+\H{bridges-parameters} \I{parameters, for Bridges}Bridges parameters
+
+These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
+\q{Type} menu.
+
+\dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
+
+\dd Size of grid in squares.
+
+\dt \e{Difficulty}
+
+\dd Difficulty level of puzzle.
+
+\dt \e{Allow loops}
+
+\dd This is set by default. If cleared, puzzles will be generated in
+such a way that they are always soluble without creating a loop, and
+solutions which do involve a loop will be disallowed.
+
+\dt \e{Max. bridges per direction}
+
+\dd Maximum number of bridges in any particular direction. The
+default is 2, but you can change it to 1, 3 or 4. In general, fewer
+is easier.
+
+\dt \e{%age of island squares}
+
+\dd Gives a rough percentage of islands the generator will try and
+lay before finishing the puzzle. Certain layouts will not manage to
+lay enough islands; this is an upper bound.
+
+\dt \e{Expansion factor (%age)}
+
+\dd The grid generator works by picking an existing island at random
+(after first creating an initial island somewhere). It then decides
+on a direction (at random), and then works out how far it could
+extend before creating another island. This parameter determines how
+likely it is to extend as far as it can, rather than choosing
+somewhere closer.
+
+High expansion factors usually mean easier puzzles with fewer
+possible islands; low expansion factors can create lots of
+tightly-packed islands.
+
+
+\C{unequal} \i{Unequal}
+
+\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.unequal}
+
+You have a square grid; each square may contain a digit from 1 to
+the size of the grid, and some squares have greater-than signs between
+them. Your aim is to fully populate the grid with numbers such that:
+
+\b Each row contains only one occurrence of each digit
+
+\b Each column contains only one occurrence of each digit
+
+\b All the greater-than signs are satisfied.
+
+In \q{Trivial} mode, there are no greater-than signs; the puzzle is
+to solve the \i{Latin square} only.
+
+At the time of writing, this puzzle is appearing in the Guardian
+weekly under the name \q{\i{Futoshiki}}.
+
+Unequal was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
+
+\H{unequal-controls} \i{Unequal controls}
+
+\IM{Unequal controls} controls, for Unequal
+
+Unequal shares much of its control system with Solo.
+
+To play Unequal, simply click the mouse in any empty square and then
+type a digit or letter on the keyboard to fill that square. If you
+make a mistake, click the mouse in the incorrect square and press
+Space to clear it again (or use the Undo feature).
+
+If you \e{right}-click in a square and then type a number, that
+number will be entered in the square as a \q{pencil mark}. You can
+have pencil marks for multiple numbers in the same square.
+
+The game pays no attention to pencil marks, so exactly what you use
+them for is up to you: you can use them as reminders that a
+particular square needs to be re-examined once you know more about a
+particular number, or you can use them as lists of the possible
+numbers in a given square, or anything else you feel like.
+
+To erase a single pencil mark, right-click in the square and type
+the same number again.
+
+All pencil marks in a square are erased when you left-click and type
+a number, or when you left-click and press space. Right-clicking and
+pressing space will also erase pencil marks.
+
+(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
+
+\H{unequal-parameters} \I{parameters, for Unequal}Unequal parameters
+
+These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
+\q{Type} menu.
+
+\dt \e{Size (s*s)}
+
+\dd Size of grid.
+
+\dt \e{Difficulty}
+
+\dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. At Trivial
+level, there are no greater-than signs (the puzzle is to solve the
+Latin square only); at Recursive level backtracking will be required
+(but the solution should still be unique); the levels in between
+require increasingly complex reasoning to avoid having to backtrack.
+
+
+
+\C{galaxies} \i{Galaxies}
+
+\cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.galaxies}
+
+You have a rectangular grid containing a number of dots. Your aim is
+to draw edges along the grid lines which divide the rectangle into
+regions in such a way that every region is 180\u00b0{-degree}
+rotationally symmetric, and contains exactly one dot which is
+located at its centre of symmetry.
+
+This puzzle was invented by \i{Nikoli} \k{nikoli-galaxies}, under
+the name 'Tentai Show'; its name is commonly translated into English
+as 'Spiral Galaxies'.
+
+\B{nikoli-galaxies} \W{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/astronomical_show/}\cw{http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/astronomical_show/}
+
+\H{galaxies-controls} \i{Galaxies controls}
+
+\IM{Galaxies controls} controls, for Galaxies
+
+Left-click on any grid line to draw an edge if there isn't one
+already, or to remove one if there is. When you create a valid
+region (one which is closed, contains exactly one dot, is
+180\u00b0{-degree} symmetric about that dot, and contains no
+extraneous edges inside it) it will be highlighted automatically; so
+your aim is to have the whole grid highlighted in that way.
+
+During solving, you might know that a particular grid square belongs
+to a specific dot, but not be sure of where the edges go and which
+other squares are connected to the dot. In order to mark this so you
+don't forget, you can right-click on the dot and drag, which will
+create an arrow marker pointing at the dot. Drop that in a square of
+your choice and it will remind you which dot it's associated with.
+You can also right-click on existing arrows to pick them up and move
+them, or destroy them by dropping them off the edge of the grid.
+(Also, if you're not sure which dot an arrow is pointing at, you can
+pick it up and move it around to make it clearer. It will swivel
+constantly as you drag it, to stay pointed at its parent dot.)
+
+(All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
+
+\H{galaxies-parameters} \I{parameters, for Galaxies}Galaxies parameters
+
+These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
+\q{Type} menu.
+
+\dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
+
+\dd Size of grid in squares.
+
+\dt \e{Difficulty}
+
+\dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. More difficult
+puzzles require more complex deductions, and the 'Recursive' difficulty
+level may require backtracking.
+
+
+
+
\A{licence} \I{MIT licence}\ii{Licence}
-This software is \i{copyright} 2004-2005 Simon Tatham.
+This software is \i{copyright} 2004-2007 Simon Tatham.
Portions copyright Richard Boulton, James Harvey and Mike Pinna.
CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.
+\IM{command-line}{command line} command line
+
+\IM{default parameters, specifying} default parameters, specifying
+\IM{default parameters, specifying} preferences, specifying default
+
+\IM{Unix} Unix
+\IM{Unix} Linux
+
+\IM{generating game IDs} generating game IDs
+\IM{generating game IDs} game ID, generating
+
\IM{specific} \q{Specific}, menu option
\IM{custom} \q{Custom}, menu option
~mdw / sgt / puzzles / blobdiff