puzzles.but 138 KB

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  1. \title Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection
  2. \cfg{winhelp-filename}{puzzles.hlp}
  3. \cfg{winhelp-contents-titlepage}{Contents}
  4. \cfg{text-filename}{puzzles.txt}
  5. \cfg{html-contents-filename}{index.html}
  6. \cfg{html-template-filename}{%k.html}
  7. \cfg{html-index-filename}{docindex.html}
  8. \cfg{html-leaf-level}{1}
  9. \cfg{html-contents-depth-0}{1}
  10. \cfg{html-contents-depth-1}{2}
  11. \cfg{html-leaf-contains-contents}{true}
  12. \cfg{chm-filename}{puzzles.chm}
  13. \cfg{chm-contents-filename}{index.html}
  14. \cfg{chm-template-filename}{%k.html}
  15. \cfg{chm-head-end}{<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="chm.css">}
  16. \cfg{chm-extra-file}{chm.css}
  17. \cfg{info-filename}{puzzles.info}
  18. \cfg{ps-filename}{puzzles.ps}
  19. \cfg{pdf-filename}{puzzles.pdf}
  20. \define{by} \u00D7{x}
  21. \define{dash} \u2013{-}
  22. \define{times} \u00D7{*}
  23. \define{divide} \u00F7{/}
  24. \define{minus} \u2212{-}
  25. This is a collection of small one-player puzzle games.
  26. \copyright This manual is copyright 2004-2021 Simon Tatham. All rights
  27. reserved. You may distribute this documentation under the MIT licence.
  28. See \k{licence} for the licence text in full.
  29. \cfg{html-local-head}{<meta name="AppleTitle" content="Puzzles Help">}
  30. \C{intro} Introduction
  31. I wrote this collection because I thought there should be more small
  32. desktop toys available: little games you can pop up in a window and
  33. play for two or three minutes while you take a break from whatever
  34. else you were doing. And I was also annoyed that every time I found
  35. a good game on (say) \i{Unix}, it wasn't available the next time I
  36. was sitting at a \i{Windows} machine, or vice versa; so I arranged
  37. that everything in my personal puzzle collection will happily run on
  38. both, and have more recently done a port to \i{Mac OS X} as well. When I
  39. find (or perhaps invent) further puzzle games that I like, they'll
  40. be added to this collection and will immediately be available on
  41. both platforms. And if anyone feels like writing any other front
  42. ends \dash PocketPC, Mac OS pre-10, or whatever it might be \dash
  43. then all the games in this framework will immediately become
  44. available on another platform as well.
  45. The actual games in this collection were mostly not my invention; they
  46. are re-implementations of existing game concepts within my portable
  47. puzzle framework. I do not claim credit, in general, for inventing the
  48. rules of any of these puzzles. (I don't even claim authorship of all
  49. the code; some of the puzzles have been submitted by other authors.)
  50. This collection is distributed under the \i{MIT licence} (see
  51. \k{licence}). This means that you can do pretty much anything you like
  52. with the game binaries or the code, except pretending you wrote them
  53. yourself, or suing me if anything goes wrong.
  54. The most recent versions, and \i{source code}, can be found at
  55. \I{website}\W{https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/}\cw{https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/}.
  56. Please report \I{feedback}\i{bugs} to
  57. \W{mailto:anakin@pobox.com}\cw{anakin@pobox.com}.
  58. You might find it helpful to read this article before reporting a bug:
  59. \W{https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html}\cw{https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html}
  60. \ii{Patches} are welcome. Especially if they provide a new front end
  61. (to make all these games run on another platform), or a new game.
  62. \C{common} \ii{Common features}
  63. This chapter describes features that are common to all the games.
  64. \H{common-actions} \I{controls}Common actions
  65. These actions are all available from the \I{Game menu}\q{Game} menu
  66. and via \I{keys}keyboard shortcuts, in addition to any game-specific
  67. actions.
  68. (On \i{Mac OS X}, to conform with local user interface standards, these
  69. actions are situated on the \I{File menu}\q{File} and \I{Edit
  70. menu}\q{Edit} menus instead.)
  71. \dt \ii\e{New game} (\q{N}, Ctrl+\q{N})
  72. \dd Starts a new game, with a random initial state.
  73. \dt \ii\e{Restart game}
  74. \dd Resets the current game to its initial state. (This can be undone.)
  75. \dt \ii\e{Load}
  76. \dd Loads a saved game from a file on disk.
  77. \dt \ii\e{Save}
  78. \dd Saves the current state of your game to a file on disk.
  79. \lcont{
  80. The Load and Save operations preserve your entire game
  81. history (so you can save, reload, and still Undo and Redo things you
  82. had done before saving).
  83. }
  84. \dt \I{printing, on Windows}\e{Print}
  85. \dd Where supported (currently only on Windows), brings up a dialog
  86. allowing you to print an arbitrary number of puzzles randomly
  87. generated from the current parameters, optionally including the
  88. current puzzle. (Only for puzzles which make sense to print, of
  89. course \dash it's hard to think of a sensible printable representation
  90. of Fifteen!)
  91. \dt \ii\e{Undo} (\q{U}, Ctrl+\q{Z}, Ctrl+\q{_}, \q{*})
  92. \dd Undoes a single move. (You can undo moves back to the start of the
  93. session.)
  94. \dt \ii\e{Redo} (\q{R}, Ctrl+\q{R}, \q{#})
  95. \dd Redoes a previously undone move.
  96. \dt \ii\e{Copy}
  97. \dd Copies the current state of your game to the clipboard in text
  98. format, so that you can paste it into (say) an e-mail client or a
  99. web message board if you're discussing the game with someone else.
  100. (Not all games support this feature.)
  101. \dt \ii\e{Solve}
  102. \dd Transforms the puzzle instantly into its solved state. For some
  103. games (Cube) this feature is not supported at all because it is of
  104. no particular use. For other games (such as Pattern), the solved
  105. state can be used to give you information, if you can't see how a
  106. solution can exist at all or you want to know where you made a
  107. mistake. For still other games (such as Sixteen), automatic solution
  108. tells you nothing about how to \e{get} to the solution, but it does
  109. provide a useful way to get there quickly so that you can experiment
  110. with set-piece moves and transformations.
  111. \lcont{
  112. Some games (such as Solo) are capable of solving a game ID you have
  113. typed in from elsewhere. Other games (such as Rectangles) cannot
  114. solve a game ID they didn't invent themself, but when they did
  115. invent the game ID they know what the solution is already. Still
  116. other games (Pattern) can solve \e{some} external game IDs, but only
  117. if they aren't too difficult.
  118. The \q{Solve} command adds the solved state to the end of the undo
  119. chain for the puzzle. In other words, if you want to go back to
  120. solving it yourself after seeing the answer, you can just press Undo.
  121. }
  122. \dt \I{exit}\ii\e{Quit} (\q{Q}, Ctrl+\q{Q})
  123. \dd Closes the application entirely.
  124. \dt \i\e{Preferences}
  125. \dd Where supported, brings up a dialog allowing you to configure
  126. personal preferences about a particular game. Some of these
  127. preferences will be specific to a particular game; others will be
  128. common to all games.
  129. \lcont{
  130. One option common to all games allows you to turn off the one-key
  131. shortcuts like \q{N} for new game or \q{Q} for quit, so that there's
  132. less chance of hitting them by accident. You can still access the same
  133. shortcuts with the Ctrl key.
  134. }
  135. \H{common-id} Specifying games with the \ii{game ID}
  136. There are two ways to save a game specification out of a puzzle and
  137. recreate it later, or recreate it in somebody else's copy of the
  138. same puzzle.
  139. The \q{\i{Specific}} and \q{\i{Random Seed}} options from the
  140. \I{Game menu}\q{Game} menu (or the \q{File} menu, on \i{Mac OS X}) each
  141. show a piece of text (a \q{game ID}) which is sufficient to
  142. reconstruct precisely the same game at a later date.
  143. You can enter either of these pieces of text back into the program
  144. (via the same \q{Specific} or \q{Random Seed} menu options) at a
  145. later point, and it will recreate the same game. You can also use
  146. either one as a \i{command line} argument (on Windows or Unix); see
  147. \k{common-cmdline} for more detail.
  148. The difference between the two forms is that a descriptive game ID
  149. is a literal \e{description} of the \i{initial state} of the game,
  150. whereas a random seed is just a piece of arbitrary text which was
  151. provided as input to the random number generator used to create the
  152. puzzle. This means that:
  153. \b Descriptive game IDs tend to be longer in many puzzles (although
  154. some, such as Cube (\k{cube}), only need very short descriptions).
  155. So a random seed is often a \e{quicker} way to note down the puzzle
  156. you're currently playing, or to tell it to somebody else so they can
  157. play the same one as you.
  158. \b Any text at all is a valid random seed. The automatically
  159. generated ones are fifteen-digit numbers, but anything will do; you
  160. can type in your full name, or a word you just made up, and a valid
  161. puzzle will be generated from it. This provides a way for two or
  162. more people to race to complete the same puzzle: you think of a
  163. random seed, then everybody types it in at the same time, and nobody
  164. has an advantage due to having seen the generated puzzle before
  165. anybody else.
  166. \b It is often possible to convert puzzles from other sources (such
  167. as \q{nonograms} or \q{sudoku} from newspapers) into descriptive
  168. game IDs suitable for use with these programs.
  169. \b Random seeds are not guaranteed to produce the same result if you
  170. use them with a different \i\e{version} of the puzzle program. This
  171. is because the generation algorithm might have been improved or
  172. modified in later versions of the code, and will therefore produce a
  173. different result when given the same sequence of random numbers. Use
  174. a descriptive game ID if you aren't sure that it will be used on the
  175. same version of the program as yours.
  176. \lcont{(Use the \q{About} menu option to find out the version number
  177. of the program. Programs with the same version number running on
  178. different platforms should still be random-seed compatible.)}
  179. \I{ID format}A descriptive game ID starts with a piece of text which
  180. encodes the \i\e{parameters} of the current game (such as grid
  181. size). Then there is a colon, and after that is the description of
  182. the game's initial state. A random seed starts with a similar string
  183. of parameters, but then it contains a hash sign followed by
  184. arbitrary data.
  185. If you enter a descriptive game ID, the program will not be able to
  186. show you the random seed which generated it, since it wasn't
  187. generated \e{from} a random seed. If you \e{enter} a random seed,
  188. however, the program will be able to show you the descriptive game
  189. ID derived from that random seed.
  190. Note that the game parameter strings are not always identical
  191. between the two forms. For some games, there will be parameter data
  192. provided with the random seed which is not included in the
  193. descriptive game ID. This is because that parameter information is
  194. only relevant when \e{generating} puzzle grids, and is not important
  195. when playing them. Thus, for example, the difficulty level in Solo
  196. (\k{solo}) is not mentioned in the descriptive game ID.
  197. These additional parameters are also not set permanently if you type
  198. in a game ID. For example, suppose you have Solo set to \q{Advanced}
  199. difficulty level, and then a friend wants your help with a
  200. \q{Trivial} puzzle; so the friend reads out a random seed specifying
  201. \q{Trivial} difficulty, and you type it in. The program will
  202. generate you the same \q{Trivial} grid which your friend was having
  203. trouble with, but once you have finished playing it, when you ask
  204. for a new game it will automatically go back to the \q{Advanced}
  205. difficulty which it was previously set on.
  206. \H{common-type} The \q{Type} menu
  207. The \I{Type menu}\q{Type} menu, if present, may contain a list of
  208. \i{preset} game settings. Selecting one of these will start a new
  209. random game with the parameters specified.
  210. The \q{Type} menu may also contain a \q{\i{Custom}} option which
  211. allows you to fine-tune game \i{parameters}. The parameters
  212. available are specific to each game and are described in the
  213. following sections.
  214. \H{common-cmdline} Specifying game parameters on the \i{command line}
  215. (This section does not apply to the \i{Mac OS X} version.)
  216. The games in this collection deliberately do not ever save
  217. information on to the computer they run on: they have no high score
  218. tables and no saved preferences. (This is because I expect at least
  219. some people to play them at work, and those people will probably
  220. appreciate leaving as little evidence as possible!)
  221. However, if you do want to arrange for one of these games to
  222. \I{default parameters, specifying}default to a particular set of
  223. parameters, you can specify them on the command line.
  224. The easiest way to do this is to set up the parameters you want
  225. using the \q{Type} menu (see \k{common-type}), and then to select
  226. \q{Random Seed} from the \q{Game} or \q{File} menu (see
  227. \k{common-id}). The text in the \q{Game ID} box will be composed of
  228. two parts, separated by a hash. The first of these parts represents
  229. the game parameters (the size of the playing area, for example, and
  230. anything else you set using the \q{Type} menu).
  231. If you run the game with just that parameter text on the command
  232. line, it will start up with the settings you specified.
  233. For example: if you run Cube (see \k{cube}), select \q{Octahedron}
  234. from the \q{Type} menu, and then go to the game ID selection, you
  235. will see a string of the form \cq{o2x2#338686542711620}. Take only
  236. the part before the hash (\cq{o2x2}), and start Cube with that text
  237. on the command line: \cq{PREFIX-cube o2x2}.
  238. If you copy the \e{entire} game ID on to the command line, the game
  239. will start up in the specific game that was described. This is
  240. occasionally a more convenient way to start a particular game ID
  241. than by pasting it into the game ID selection box.
  242. (You could also retrieve the encoded game parameters using the
  243. \q{Specific} menu option instead of \q{Random Seed}, but if you do
  244. then some options, such as the difficulty level in Solo, will be
  245. missing. See \k{common-id} for more details on this.)
  246. \H{common-unix-cmdline} \i{Unix} \i{command-line} options
  247. (This section only applies to the Unix port.)
  248. In addition to being able to specify game parameters on the command
  249. line (see \k{common-cmdline}), there are various other options:
  250. \dt \cw{--game}
  251. \dt \cw{--load}
  252. \dd These options respectively determine whether the command-line
  253. argument is treated as specifying game parameters or a \i{save} file
  254. to \i{load}. Only one should be specified. If neither of these options
  255. is specified, a guess is made based on the format of the argument.
  256. \dt \cw{--generate }\e{n}
  257. \dd If this option is specified, instead of a puzzle being displayed,
  258. a number of descriptive game IDs will be \I{generating game IDs}invented
  259. and printed on standard output. This is useful for gaining access to
  260. the game generation algorithms without necessarily using the frontend.
  261. \lcont{
  262. If game parameters are specified on the command-line, they will be
  263. used to generate the game IDs; otherwise a default set of parameters
  264. will be used.
  265. The most common use of this option is in conjunction with \c{--print},
  266. in which case its behaviour is slightly different; see below.
  267. }
  268. \dt \cw{--delete-prefs}
  269. \dd This option causes the puzzle to delete the configuration file in
  270. which its user preferences were stored, if there is one.
  271. \dt \I{printing, on Unix}\cw{--print }\e{w}\cw{x}\e{h}
  272. \dd If this option is specified, instead of a puzzle being displayed,
  273. a printed representation of one or more unsolved puzzles is sent to
  274. standard output, in \i{PostScript} format.
  275. \lcont{
  276. On each page of puzzles, there will be \e{w} across and \e{h} down. If
  277. there are more puzzles than \e{w}\by\e{h}, more than one page will be
  278. printed.
  279. If \c{--generate} has also been specified, the invented game IDs will
  280. be used to generate the printed output. Otherwise, a list of game IDs
  281. is expected on standard input (which can be descriptive or random
  282. seeds; see \k{common-id}), in the same format produced by
  283. \c{--generate}.
  284. For example:
  285. \c PREFIX-net --generate 12 --print 2x3 7x7w | lpr
  286. will generate two pages of printed Net puzzles (each of which will
  287. have a 7\by\.7 wrapping grid), and pipe the output to the \c{lpr}
  288. command, which on many systems will send them to an actual printer.
  289. There are various other options which affect printing; see below.
  290. }
  291. \dt \cw{--save }\e{file-prefix} [ \cw{--save-suffix }\e{file-suffix} ]
  292. \dd If this option is specified, instead of a puzzle being
  293. displayed, saved-game files for one or more unsolved puzzles are
  294. written to files constructed from the supplied prefix and/or suffix.
  295. \lcont{
  296. If \c{--generate} has also been specified, the invented game IDs will
  297. be used to generate the printed output. Otherwise, a list of game IDs
  298. is expected on standard input (which can be descriptive or random
  299. seeds; see \k{common-id}), in the same format produced by
  300. \c{--generate}.
  301. For example:
  302. \c PREFIX-net --generate 12 --save game --save-suffix .sav
  303. will generate twelve Net saved-game files with the names
  304. \cw{game0.sav} to \cw{game11.sav}.
  305. }
  306. \dt \cw{--version}
  307. \dd Prints version information about the game, and then quits.
  308. The following options are only meaningful if \c{--print} is also
  309. specified:
  310. \dt \cw{--with-solutions}
  311. \dd The set of pages filled with unsolved puzzles will be followed by
  312. the solutions to those puzzles.
  313. \dt \cw{--scale }\e{n}
  314. \dd Adjusts how big each puzzle is when printed. Larger numbers make
  315. puzzles bigger; the default is 1.0.
  316. \dt \cw{--colour}
  317. \dd Puzzles will be printed in colour, rather than in black and white
  318. (if supported by the puzzle).
  319. \C{net} \i{Net}
  320. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.net}
  321. (\e{Note:} the \i{Windows} version of this game is called
  322. \i\cw{NETGAME.EXE} to avoid clashing with Windows's own \cw{NET.EXE}.)
  323. I originally saw this in the form of a Flash game called \i{FreeNet}
  324. \k{FreeNet}, written by Pavils Jurjans; there are several other
  325. implementations under the name \i{NetWalk}. The computer prepares a
  326. network by connecting up the centres of squares in a grid, and then
  327. shuffles the network by rotating every tile randomly. Your job is to
  328. rotate it all back into place. The successful solution will be an
  329. entirely connected network, with no closed loops. \#{The latter
  330. clause means that there are no closed paths within the network.
  331. Could this be clearer? "No closed paths"?} As a visual aid,
  332. all tiles which are connected to the one in the middle are
  333. highlighted.
  334. \B{FreeNet} \W{http://www.jurjans.lv/stuff/net/FreeNet.htm}\cw{http://www.jurjans.lv/stuff/net/FreeNet.htm}
  335. \H{net-controls} \i{Net controls}
  336. \IM{Net controls} controls, for Net
  337. \IM{Net controls} keys, for Net
  338. \IM{Net controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Net
  339. This game can be played with either the keyboard or the mouse. The
  340. controls are:
  341. \dt \e{Select tile}: mouse pointer, arrow keys
  342. \dt \e{Rotate tile anticlockwise}: left mouse button, \q{A} key
  343. \dt \e{Rotate tile clockwise}: right mouse button, \q{D} key
  344. \dt \e{Rotate tile by 180 degrees}: \q{F} key
  345. \dt \e{Lock (or unlock) tile}: middle mouse button, shift-click, \q{S} key
  346. \dd You can lock a tile once you're sure of its orientation. You can
  347. also unlock it again, but while it's locked you can't accidentally
  348. turn it.
  349. The following controls are not necessary to complete the game, but may
  350. be useful:
  351. \dt \e{Shift grid}: Shift + arrow keys
  352. \dd On grids that wrap, you can move the origin of the grid, so that
  353. tiles that were on opposite sides of the grid can be seen together.
  354. \dt \e{Move centre}: Ctrl + arrow keys
  355. \dd You can change which tile is used as the source of highlighting.
  356. (It doesn't ultimately matter which tile this is, as every tile will
  357. be connected to every other tile in a correct solution, but it may be
  358. helpful in the intermediate stages of solving the puzzle.)
  359. \dt \e{Jumble tiles}: \q{J} key
  360. \dd This key turns all tiles that are not locked to random
  361. orientations.
  362. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  363. \H{net-params} \I{parameters, for Net}Net parameters
  364. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  365. \q{Type} menu.
  366. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  367. \dd Size of grid in tiles.
  368. \dt \e{Walls wrap around}
  369. \dd If checked, flow can pass from the left edge to the right edge,
  370. and from top to bottom, and vice versa.
  371. \dt \e{Barrier probability}
  372. \dd A number between 0.0 and 1.0 controlling whether an immovable
  373. barrier is placed between two tiles to prevent flow between them (a
  374. higher number gives more barriers). Since barriers are immovable, they
  375. act as constraints on the solution (i.e., hints).
  376. \lcont{
  377. The grid generation in Net has been carefully arranged so that the
  378. barriers are independent of the rest of the grid. This means that if
  379. you note down the random seed used to generate the current puzzle
  380. (see \k{common-id}), change the \e{Barrier probability} parameter,
  381. and then re-enter the same random seed, you should see exactly the
  382. same starting grid, with the only change being the number of
  383. barriers. So if you're stuck on a particular grid and need a hint,
  384. you could start up another instance of Net, set up the same
  385. parameters but a higher barrier probability, and enter the game seed
  386. from the original Net window.
  387. }
  388. \dt \e{Ensure unique solution}
  389. \dd Normally, Net will make sure that the puzzles it presents have
  390. only one solution. Puzzles with ambiguous sections can be more
  391. difficult and more subtle, so if you like you can turn off this
  392. feature and risk having ambiguous puzzles. (Also, finding \e{all}
  393. the possible solutions can be an additional challenge for an
  394. advanced player.)
  395. \H{net-prefs} \I{preferences, for Net}Net user preferences
  396. On platforms that support user preferences, the \q{Preferences} option
  397. on the \q{Game} menu will let you configure when loops are highlighted
  398. as errors. By default, they're always highlighted; by changing this
  399. option, you can ask for a loop to be highlighted only if every tile
  400. forming part of the loop is locked. This avoids the loop highlighting
  401. acting as a spoiler for available deductions about squares you haven't
  402. even looked at yet.
  403. \C{cube} \i{Cube}
  404. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.cube}
  405. This is another one I originally saw as a web game. This one was a
  406. Java game \k{cube-java-game}, by Paul Scott. You have a grid of 16
  407. squares, six of which are blue; on one square rests a cube. Your move
  408. is to use the arrow keys to roll the cube through 90 degrees so that
  409. it moves to an adjacent square. If you roll the cube on to a blue
  410. square, the blue square is picked up on one face of the cube; if you
  411. roll a blue face of the cube on to a non-blue square, the blueness is
  412. put down again. (In general, whenever you roll the cube, the two faces
  413. that come into contact swap colours.) Your job is to get all six blue
  414. squares on to the six faces of the cube at the same time. Count your
  415. moves and try to do it in as few as possible.
  416. Unlike the original Java game, my version has an additional feature:
  417. once you've mastered the game with a cube rolling on a square grid,
  418. you can change to a triangular grid and roll any of a tetrahedron, an
  419. octahedron or an icosahedron.
  420. \B{cube-java-game} \W{http://www3.sympatico.ca/paulscott/cube/cube.htm}\cw{http://www3.sympatico.ca/paulscott/cube/cube.htm}
  421. \H{cube-controls} \i{Cube controls}
  422. \IM{Cube controls} controls, for Cube
  423. \IM{Cube controls} keys, for Cube
  424. \IM{Cube controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Cube
  425. This game can be played with either the keyboard or the mouse.
  426. Left-clicking anywhere on the window will move the cube (or other
  427. solid) towards the mouse pointer.
  428. The arrow keys can also used to roll the cube on its square grid in
  429. the four cardinal directions.
  430. On the triangular grids, the mapping of arrow keys to directions is
  431. more approximate. Vertical movement is disallowed where it doesn't
  432. make sense. The four keys surrounding the arrow keys on the numeric
  433. keypad (\q{7}, \q{9}, \q{1}, \q{3}) can be used for diagonal movement.
  434. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  435. \H{cube-params} \I{parameters, for Cube}Cube parameters
  436. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  437. \q{Type} menu.
  438. \dt \e{Type of solid}
  439. \dd Selects the solid to roll (and hence the shape of the grid):
  440. tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, or icosahedron.
  441. \dt \e{Width / top}, \e{Height / bottom}
  442. \dd On a square grid, horizontal and vertical dimensions. On a
  443. triangular grid, the number of triangles on the top and bottom rows
  444. respectively.
  445. \C{fifteen} \i{Fifteen}
  446. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.fifteen}
  447. The old ones are the best: this is the good old \q{\i{15-puzzle}}
  448. with sliding tiles, which dates from the 1870s.
  449. You have a 4\by\.4 square grid; 15 squares
  450. contain numbered tiles, and the sixteenth is empty. Your move is to
  451. choose a tile next to the empty space, and slide it into the space.
  452. The aim is to end up with the tiles in numerical order, with the
  453. space in the bottom right (so that the top row reads 1,2,3,4 and the
  454. bottom row reads 13,14,15,\e{space}).
  455. \H{fifteen-controls} \i{Fifteen controls}
  456. \IM{Fifteen controls} controls, for Fifteen
  457. \IM{Fifteen controls} keys, for Fifteen
  458. \IM{Fifteen controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Fifteen
  459. This game can be controlled with the mouse or the keyboard.
  460. A left-click with the mouse in the row or column containing the empty
  461. space will move as many tiles as necessary to move the space to the
  462. mouse pointer.
  463. By default, the arrow keys will move a tile adjacent to the space in
  464. the direction indicated (moving the space in the \e{opposite}
  465. direction).
  466. Pressing \q{h} will make a suggested move. Pressing \q{h} enough
  467. times will solve the game, but it may scramble your progress while
  468. doing so.
  469. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  470. \H{fifteen-params} \I{parameters, for Fifteen}Fifteen parameters
  471. The only options available from the \q{Custom...} option on the \q{Type}
  472. menu are \e{Width} and \e{Height}, which are self-explanatory. (Once
  473. you've changed these, it's not a \q{15-puzzle} any more, of course!)
  474. \H{fifteen-prefs} \I{preferences, for Fifteen}Fifteen user preferences
  475. On platforms that support user preferences, the \q{Preferences} option
  476. on the \q{Game} menu will let you configure the sense of the arrow
  477. keys. With the default setting, \q{Move the tile}, the arrow key you
  478. press indicates the direction that you want a tile to move, so that
  479. (for example) if you want to move the tile left of the gap rightwards
  480. into the gap, you'd press Right. With the opposite setting, \q{Move
  481. the gap}, the behaviour of the arrow keys is reversed, and you would
  482. press Left to move the tile left of the gap into the gap, so that the
  483. \e{gap} ends up one square left of where it was.
  484. \C{sixteen} \i{Sixteen}
  485. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.sixteen}
  486. Another sliding tile puzzle, visually similar to Fifteen (see
  487. \k{fifteen}) but with a different type of move. This time, there is no
  488. hole: all 16 squares on the grid contain numbered squares. Your move
  489. is to shift an entire row left or right, or shift an entire column up
  490. or down; every time you do that, the tile you shift off the grid
  491. re-appears at the other end of the same row, in the space you just
  492. vacated. To win, arrange the tiles into numerical order (1,2,3,4 on
  493. the top row, 13,14,15,16 on the bottom). When you've done that, try
  494. playing on different sizes of grid.
  495. I \e{might} have invented this game myself, though only by accident if
  496. so (and I'm sure other people have independently invented it). I
  497. thought I was imitating a screensaver I'd seen, but I have a feeling
  498. that the screensaver might actually have been a Fifteen-type puzzle
  499. rather than this slightly different kind. So this might be the one
  500. thing in my puzzle collection which represents creativity on my part
  501. rather than just engineering.
  502. \H{sixteen-controls} \I{controls, for Sixteen}Sixteen controls
  503. Left-clicking on an arrow will move the appropriate row or column in
  504. the direction indicated. Right-clicking will move it in the opposite
  505. direction.
  506. Alternatively, use the cursor keys to move the position indicator
  507. around the edge of the grid, and use the return key to move the
  508. row/column in the direction indicated.
  509. You can also move the tiles directly. Move the cursor onto a tile,
  510. hold Control and press an arrow key to move the tile under the
  511. cursor and move the cursor along with the tile. Or, hold Shift to
  512. move only the tile. Pressing Enter simulates holding down Control
  513. (press Enter again to release), while pressing Space simulates
  514. holding down shift.
  515. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  516. \H{sixteen-params} \I{parameters, for Sixteen}Sixteen parameters
  517. The parameters available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  518. \q{Type} menu are:
  519. \b \e{Width} and \e{Height}, which are self-explanatory.
  520. \b You can ask for a limited shuffling operation to be performed on
  521. the grid. By default, Sixteen will shuffle the grid in such a way
  522. that any arrangement is about as probable as any other. You can
  523. override this by requesting a precise number of shuffling moves to
  524. be performed. Typically your aim is then to determine the precise
  525. set of shuffling moves and invert them exactly, so that you answer
  526. (say) a four-move shuffle with a four-move solution. Note that the
  527. more moves you ask for, the more likely it is that solutions shorter
  528. than the target length will turn out to be possible.
  529. \C{twiddle} \i{Twiddle}
  530. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.twiddle}
  531. Twiddle is a tile-rearrangement puzzle, visually similar to Sixteen
  532. (see \k{sixteen}): you are given a grid of square tiles, each
  533. containing a number, and your aim is to arrange the numbers into
  534. ascending order.
  535. In basic Twiddle, your move is to rotate a square group of four
  536. tiles about their common centre. (Orientation is not significant in
  537. the basic puzzle, although you can select it.) On more advanced
  538. settings, you can rotate a larger square group of tiles.
  539. I first saw this type of puzzle in the GameCube game \q{Metroid
  540. Prime 2}. In the Main Gyro Chamber in that game, there is a puzzle
  541. you solve to unlock a door, which is a special case of Twiddle. I
  542. developed this game as a generalisation of that puzzle.
  543. \H{twiddle-controls} \I{controls, for Twiddle}Twiddle controls
  544. To play Twiddle, click the mouse in the centre of the square group
  545. you wish to rotate. In the basic mode, you rotate a 2\by\.2 square,
  546. which means you have to click at a corner point where four tiles
  547. meet.
  548. In more advanced modes you might be rotating 3\by\.3 or even more at
  549. a time; if the size of the square is odd then you simply click in
  550. the centre tile of the square you want to rotate.
  551. Clicking with the left mouse button rotates the group anticlockwise.
  552. Clicking with the right button rotates it clockwise.
  553. You can also move an outline square around the grid with the cursor
  554. keys; the square is the size above (2\by\.2 by default, or larger).
  555. Pressing the return key or space bar will rotate the current square
  556. anticlockwise or clockwise respectively.
  557. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  558. \H{twiddle-parameters} \I{parameters, for Twiddle}Twiddle parameters
  559. Twiddle provides several configuration options via the \q{Custom}
  560. option on the \q{Type} menu:
  561. \b You can configure the width and height of the puzzle grid.
  562. \b You can configure the size of square block that rotates at a time.
  563. \b You can ask for every square in the grid to be distinguishable
  564. (the default), or you can ask for a simplified puzzle in which there
  565. are groups of identical numbers. In the simplified puzzle your aim
  566. is just to arrange all the 1s into the first row, all the 2s into
  567. the second row, and so on.
  568. \b You can configure whether the orientation of tiles matters. If
  569. you ask for an orientable puzzle, each tile will have a triangle
  570. drawn in it. All the triangles must be pointing upwards to complete
  571. the puzzle.
  572. \b You can ask for a limited shuffling operation to be performed on
  573. the grid. By default, Twiddle will shuffle the grid so much that any
  574. arrangement is about as probable as any other. You can override this
  575. by requesting a precise number of shuffling moves to be performed.
  576. Typically your aim is then to determine the precise set of shuffling
  577. moves and invert them exactly, so that you answer (say) a four-move
  578. shuffle with a four-move solution. Note that the more moves you ask
  579. for, the more likely it is that solutions shorter than the target
  580. length will turn out to be possible.
  581. \C{rect} \i{Rectangles}
  582. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.rectangles}
  583. You have a grid of squares, with numbers written in some (but not all)
  584. of the squares. Your task is to subdivide the grid into rectangles of
  585. various sizes, such that (a) every rectangle contains exactly one
  586. numbered square, and (b) the area of each rectangle is equal to the
  587. number written in its numbered square.
  588. Credit for this game goes to the Japanese puzzle magazine \i{Nikoli}
  589. \k{nikoli-rect}; I've also seen a Palm implementation at \i{Puzzle
  590. Palace} \k{puzzle-palace-rect}. Unlike Puzzle Palace's
  591. implementation, my version automatically generates random grids of
  592. any size you like. The quality of puzzle design is therefore not
  593. quite as good as hand-crafted puzzles would be, but on the plus side
  594. you get an inexhaustible supply of puzzles tailored to your own
  595. specification.
  596. \B{nikoli-rect} \W{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/shikaku/}\cw{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/shikaku/}
  597. \B{puzzle-palace-rect} \W{https://web.archive.org/web/20041024001459/http://www.puzzle.gr.jp/puzzle/sikaku/palm/index.html.en}\cw{https://web.archive.org/web/20041024001459/http://www.puzzle.gr.jp/puzzle/sikaku/palm/index.html.en}
  598. \H{rectangles-controls} \I{controls, for Rectangles}Rectangles controls
  599. This game is played with the mouse or cursor keys.
  600. Left-click any edge to toggle it on or off, or left-click and drag to draw
  601. an entire rectangle (or line) on the grid in one go (removing any existing
  602. edges within that rectangle). Right-clicking and dragging will allow you
  603. to erase the contents of a rectangle without affecting its edges.
  604. Alternatively, use the cursor keys to move the position indicator
  605. around the board. Pressing the return key then allows you to use the
  606. cursor keys to drag a rectangle out from that position, and pressing
  607. the return key again completes the rectangle. Using the space bar
  608. instead of the return key allows you to erase the contents of a
  609. rectangle without affecting its edges, as above. Pressing escape
  610. cancels a drag.
  611. When a rectangle of the correct size is completed, it will be shaded.
  612. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  613. \H{rectangles-params} \I{parameters, for Rectangles}Rectangles parameters
  614. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  615. \q{Type} menu.
  616. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  617. \dd Size of grid, in squares.
  618. \dt \e{Expansion factor}
  619. \dd This is a mechanism for changing the type of grids generated by
  620. the program. Some people prefer a grid containing a few large
  621. rectangles to one containing many small ones. So you can ask
  622. Rectangles to essentially generate a \e{smaller} grid than the size
  623. you specified, and then to expand it by adding rows and columns.
  624. \lcont{
  625. The default expansion factor of zero means that Rectangles will
  626. simply generate a grid of the size you ask for, and do nothing
  627. further. If you set an expansion factor of (say) 0.5, it means that
  628. each dimension of the grid will be expanded to half again as big
  629. after generation. In other words, the initial grid will be 2/3 the
  630. size in each dimension, and will be expanded to its full size
  631. without adding any more rectangles.
  632. Setting an expansion factor of around 0.5 tends to make the game
  633. more difficult, and also (in my experience) rewards a less deductive
  634. and more intuitive playing style. If you set it \e{too} high,
  635. though, the game simply cannot generate more than a few rectangles
  636. to cover the entire grid, and the game becomes trivial.
  637. }
  638. \dt \e{Ensure unique solution}
  639. \dd Normally, Rectangles will make sure that the puzzles it presents
  640. have only one solution. Puzzles with ambiguous sections can be more
  641. difficult and more subtle, so if you like you can turn off this
  642. feature and risk having ambiguous puzzles. Also, finding \e{all} the
  643. possible solutions can be an additional challenge for an advanced
  644. player. Turning off this option can also speed up puzzle generation.
  645. \C{netslide} \i{Netslide}
  646. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.netslide}
  647. This game combines the grid generation of Net (see \k{net}) with the
  648. movement of Sixteen (see \k{sixteen}): you have a Net grid, but
  649. instead of rotating tiles back into place you have to slide them
  650. into place by moving a whole row at a time.
  651. As in Sixteen, \I{controls, for Netslide}control is with the mouse or
  652. cursor keys. See \k{sixteen-controls}.
  653. \I{parameters, for Netslide}The available game parameters have similar
  654. meanings to those in Net (see \k{net-params}) and Sixteen (see
  655. \k{sixteen-params}).
  656. Netslide was contributed to this collection by Richard Boulton.
  657. \C{pattern} \i{Pattern}
  658. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.pattern}
  659. You have a grid of squares, which must all be filled in either black
  660. or white. Beside each row of the grid are listed, in order, the
  661. lengths of the runs of black squares on that row; above each column
  662. are listed, in order, the lengths of the runs of black squares in that
  663. column. Your aim is to fill in the entire grid black or white.
  664. I first saw this puzzle form around 1995, under the name
  665. \q{\i{nonograms}}. I've seen it in various places since then, under
  666. different names.
  667. Normally, puzzles of this type turn out to be a meaningful picture
  668. of something once you've solved them. However, since this version
  669. generates the puzzles automatically, they will just look like random
  670. groupings of squares. (One user has suggested that this is actually
  671. a \e{good} thing, since it prevents you from guessing the colour of
  672. squares based on the picture, and forces you to use logic instead.)
  673. The advantage, though, is that you never run out of them.
  674. \H{pattern-controls} \I{controls, for Pattern}Pattern controls
  675. This game is played with the mouse.
  676. Left-click in a square to colour it black. Right-click to colour it
  677. white. If you make a mistake, you can middle-click, or hold down
  678. Shift while clicking with any button, to colour the square in the
  679. default grey (meaning \q{undecided}) again.
  680. You can click and drag with the left or right mouse button to colour
  681. a vertical or horizontal line of squares black or white at a time
  682. (respectively). If you click and drag with the middle button, or
  683. with Shift held down, you can colour a whole rectangle of squares
  684. grey.
  685. You can also move around the grid with the cursor keys. Pressing the
  686. return key will cycle the current cell through empty, then black, then
  687. white, then empty, and the space bar does the same cycle in reverse.
  688. Moving the cursor while holding Control will colour the moved-over
  689. squares black. Holding Shift will colour the moved-over squares
  690. white, and holding both will colour them grey.
  691. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  692. \H{pattern-parameters} \I{parameters, for Pattern}Pattern parameters
  693. The only options available from the \q{Custom...} option on the \q{Type}
  694. menu are \e{Width} and \e{Height}, which are self-explanatory.
  695. \C{solo} \i{Solo}
  696. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.solo}
  697. You have a square grid, which is divided into as many equally sized
  698. sub-blocks as the grid has rows. Each square must be filled in with
  699. a digit from 1 to the size of the grid, in such a way that
  700. \b every row contains only one occurrence of each digit
  701. \b every column contains only one occurrence of each digit
  702. \b every block contains only one occurrence of each digit.
  703. \b (optionally, by default off) each of the square's two main
  704. diagonals contains only one occurrence of each digit.
  705. You are given some of the numbers as clues; your aim is to place the
  706. rest of the numbers correctly.
  707. Under the default settings, the sub-blocks are square or
  708. rectangular. The default puzzle size is 3\by\.3 (a 9\by\.9 actual
  709. grid, divided into nine 3\by\.3 blocks). You can also select sizes
  710. with rectangular blocks instead of square ones, such as 2\by\.3 (a
  711. 6\by\.6 grid divided into six 3\by\.2 blocks). Alternatively, you
  712. can select \q{jigsaw} mode, in which the sub-blocks are arbitrary
  713. shapes which differ between individual puzzles.
  714. Another available mode is \q{killer}. In this mode, clues are not
  715. given in the form of filled-in squares; instead, the grid is divided
  716. into \q{cages} by coloured lines, and for each cage the game tells
  717. you what the sum of all the digits in that cage should be. Also, no
  718. digit may appear more than once within a cage, even if the cage
  719. crosses the boundaries of existing regions.
  720. If you select a puzzle size which requires more than 9 digits, the
  721. additional digits will be letters of the alphabet. For example, if
  722. you select 3\by\.4 then the digits which go in your grid will be 1
  723. to 9, plus \cq{a}, \cq{b} and \cq{c}. This cannot be selected for
  724. killer puzzles.
  725. I first saw this puzzle in \i{Nikoli} \k{nikoli-solo}, although it's
  726. also been popularised by various newspapers under the name
  727. \q{Sudoku} or \q{Su Doku}. Howard Garns is considered the inventor
  728. of the modern form of the puzzle, and it was first published in
  729. \e{Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games}. A more elaborate treatment
  730. of the history of the puzzle can be found on Wikipedia
  731. \k{wikipedia-solo}.
  732. \B{nikoli-solo} \W{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/sudoku/}\cw{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/sudoku/}
  733. \B{wikipedia-solo} \W{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku}\cw{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku}
  734. \H{solo-controls} \I{controls, for Solo}Solo controls
  735. To play Solo, simply click the mouse in any empty square and then
  736. type a digit or letter on the keyboard to fill that square. If you
  737. make a mistake, click the mouse in the incorrect square and press
  738. Space to clear it again (or use the Undo feature).
  739. If you \e{right}-click in a square and then type a number, that
  740. number will be entered in the square as a \q{pencil mark}. You can
  741. have pencil marks for multiple numbers in the same square. Squares
  742. containing filled-in numbers cannot also contain pencil marks.
  743. The game pays no attention to pencil marks, so exactly what you use
  744. them for is up to you: you can use them as reminders that a
  745. particular square needs to be re-examined once you know more about a
  746. particular number, or you can use them as lists of the possible
  747. numbers in a given square, or anything else you feel like.
  748. To erase a single pencil mark, right-click in the square and type
  749. the same number again.
  750. All pencil marks in a square are erased when you left-click and type
  751. a number, or when you left-click and press space. Right-clicking and
  752. pressing space will also erase pencil marks.
  753. Alternatively, use the cursor keys to move the mark around the grid.
  754. Pressing the return key toggles the mark (from a normal mark to a
  755. pencil mark), and typing a number in is entered in the square in the
  756. appropriate way; typing in a 0 or using the space bar will clear a
  757. filled square.
  758. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  759. \H{solo-parameters} \I{parameters, for Solo}Solo parameters
  760. Solo allows you to configure two separate dimensions of the puzzle
  761. grid on the \q{Type} menu: the number of columns, and the number of
  762. rows, into which the main grid is divided. (The size of a block is
  763. the inverse of this: for example, if you select 2 columns and 3 rows,
  764. each actual block will have 3 columns and 2 rows.)
  765. If you tick the \q{X} checkbox, Solo will apply the optional extra
  766. constraint that the two main diagonals of the grid also contain one
  767. of every digit. (This is sometimes known as \q{Sudoku-X} in
  768. newspapers.) In this mode, the squares on the two main diagonals
  769. will be shaded slightly so that you know it's enabled.
  770. If you tick the \q{Jigsaw} checkbox, Solo will generate randomly
  771. shaped sub-blocks. In this mode, the actual grid size will be taken
  772. to be the product of the numbers entered in the \q{Columns} and
  773. \q{Rows} boxes. There is no reason why you have to enter a number
  774. greater than 1 in both boxes; Jigsaw mode has no constraint on the
  775. grid size, and it can even be a prime number if you feel like it.
  776. If you tick the \q{Killer} checkbox, Solo will generate a set of
  777. of cages, which are randomly shaped and drawn in an outline of a
  778. different colour. Each of these regions contains a smaller clue
  779. which shows the digit sum of all the squares in this region.
  780. You can also configure the type of symmetry shown in the generated
  781. puzzles. More symmetry makes the puzzles look prettier but may also
  782. make them easier, since the symmetry constraints can force more
  783. clues than necessary to be present. Completely asymmetric puzzles
  784. have the freedom to contain as few clues as possible.
  785. Finally, you can configure the difficulty of the generated puzzles.
  786. Difficulty levels are judged by the complexity of the techniques of
  787. deduction required to solve the puzzle: each level requires a mode
  788. of reasoning which was not necessary in the previous one. In
  789. particular, on difficulty levels \q{Trivial} and \q{Basic} there
  790. will be a square you can fill in with a single number at all times,
  791. whereas at \q{Intermediate} level and beyond you will have to make
  792. partial deductions about the \e{set} of squares a number could be in
  793. (or the set of numbers that could be in a square).
  794. \#{Advanced, Extreme?}
  795. At \q{Unreasonable} level, even this is not enough, and you will
  796. eventually have to make a guess, and then backtrack if it turns out
  797. to be wrong.
  798. Generating difficult puzzles is itself difficult: if you select one
  799. of the higher difficulty levels, Solo may have to make many attempts
  800. at generating a puzzle before it finds one hard enough for you. Be
  801. prepared to wait, especially if you have also configured a large
  802. puzzle size.
  803. \C{mines} \i{Mines}
  804. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.mines}
  805. You have a grid of covered squares, some of which contain mines, but
  806. you don't know which. Your job is to uncover every square which does
  807. \e{not} contain a mine. If you uncover a square containing a mine,
  808. you lose. If you uncover a square which does not contain a mine, you
  809. are told how many mines are contained within the eight surrounding
  810. squares.
  811. This game needs no introduction; popularised by Windows, it is
  812. perhaps the single best known desktop puzzle game in existence.
  813. This version of it has an unusual property. By default, it will
  814. generate its mine positions in such a way as to ensure that you
  815. never need to \e{guess} where a mine is: you will always be able to
  816. deduce it somehow. So you will never, as can happen in other
  817. versions, get to the last four squares and discover that there are
  818. two mines left but you have no way of knowing for sure where they
  819. are.
  820. \H{mines-controls} \I{controls, for Mines}Mines controls
  821. This game is played with the mouse.
  822. If you left-click in a covered square, it will be uncovered.
  823. If you right-click in a covered square, it will place a flag which
  824. indicates that the square is believed to be a mine. Left-clicking in
  825. a marked square will not uncover it, for safety. You can right-click
  826. again to remove a mark placed in error.
  827. If you left-click in an \e{uncovered} square, it will \q{clear
  828. around} the square. This means: if the square has exactly as many
  829. flags surrounding it as it should have mines, then all the covered
  830. squares next to it which are \e{not} flagged will be uncovered. So
  831. once you think you know the location of all the mines around a
  832. square, you can use this function as a shortcut to avoid having to
  833. click on each of the remaining squares one by one.
  834. If you uncover a square which has \e{no} mines in the surrounding
  835. eight squares, then it is obviously safe to uncover those squares in
  836. turn, and so on if any of them also has no surrounding mines. This
  837. will be done for you automatically; so sometimes when you uncover a
  838. square, a whole new area will open up to be explored.
  839. You can also use the cursor keys to move around the minefield.
  840. Pressing the return key in a covered square uncovers it, and in an
  841. uncovered square will clear around it (so it acts as the left button),
  842. pressing the space bar in a covered square will place a flag
  843. (similarly, it acts as the right button).
  844. All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.
  845. Even Undo is available, although you might consider it cheating to
  846. use it. If you step on a mine, the program will only reveal the mine
  847. in question (unlike most other implementations, which reveal all of
  848. them). You can then Undo your fatal move and continue playing if you
  849. like. The program will track the number of times you died (and Undo
  850. will not reduce that counter), so when you get to the end of the
  851. game you know whether or not you did it without making any errors.
  852. (If you really want to know the full layout of the grid, which other
  853. implementations will show you after you die, you can always use the
  854. Solve menu option.)
  855. \H{mines-parameters} \I{parameters, for Mines}Mines parameters
  856. The options available from the \q{Custom...} option on the \q{Type}
  857. menu are:
  858. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  859. \dd Size of grid in squares.
  860. \dt \e{Mines}
  861. \dd Number of mines in the grid. You can enter this as an absolute
  862. mine count, or alternatively you can put a \cw{%} sign on the end in
  863. which case the game will arrange for that proportion of the squares
  864. in the grid to be mines.
  865. \lcont{
  866. Beware of setting the mine count too high. At very high densities,
  867. the program may spend forever searching for a solvable grid.
  868. }
  869. \dt \e{Ensure solubility}
  870. \dd When this option is enabled (as it is by default), Mines will
  871. ensure that the entire grid can be fully deduced starting from the
  872. initial open space. If you prefer the riskier grids generated by
  873. other implementations, you can switch off this option.
  874. \C{samegame} \i{Same Game}
  875. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.samegame}
  876. You have a grid of coloured squares, which you have to clear by
  877. highlighting contiguous regions of more than one coloured square;
  878. the larger the region you highlight, the more points you get (and
  879. the faster you clear the arena).
  880. If you clear the grid you win. If you end up with nothing but
  881. single squares (i.e., there are no more clickable regions left) you
  882. lose.
  883. Removing a region causes the rest of the grid to shuffle up:
  884. blocks that are suspended will fall down (first), and then empty
  885. columns are filled from the right.
  886. Same Game was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
  887. \H{samegame-controls} \i{Same Game controls}
  888. \IM{Same Game controls} controls, for Same Game
  889. \IM{Same Game controls} keys, for Same Game
  890. \IM{Same Game controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Same Game
  891. This game can be played with either the keyboard or the mouse.
  892. If you left-click an unselected region, it becomes selected (possibly
  893. clearing the current selection).
  894. If you left-click the selected region, it will be removed (and the
  895. rest of the grid shuffled immediately).
  896. If you right-click the selected region, it will be unselected.
  897. The cursor keys move a cursor around the grid. Pressing the Space or
  898. Enter keys while the cursor is in an unselected region selects it;
  899. pressing Space or Enter again removes it as above.
  900. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  901. \H{samegame-parameters} \I{parameters, for Same Game}Same Game parameters
  902. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  903. \q{Type} menu.
  904. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  905. \dd Size of grid in squares.
  906. \dt \e{No. of colours}
  907. \dd Number of different colours used to fill the grid; the more colours,
  908. the fewer large regions of colour and thus the more difficult it is to
  909. successfully clear the grid.
  910. \dt \e{Scoring system}
  911. \dd Controls the precise mechanism used for scoring. With the default
  912. system, \q{(n-2)^2}, only regions of three squares or more will score
  913. any points at all. With the alternative \q{(n-1)^2} system, regions of
  914. two squares score a point each, and larger regions score relatively
  915. more points.
  916. \dt \e{Ensure solubility}
  917. \dd If this option is ticked (the default state), generated grids
  918. will be guaranteed to have at least one solution.
  919. \lcont{
  920. If you turn it off, the game generator will not try to guarantee
  921. soluble grids; it will, however, still ensure that there are at
  922. least 2 squares of each colour on the grid at the start (since a
  923. grid with exactly one square of a given colour is \e{definitely}
  924. insoluble). Grids generated with this option disabled may contain
  925. more large areas of contiguous colour, leading to opportunities for
  926. higher scores; they can also take less time to generate.
  927. }
  928. \C{flip} \i{Flip}
  929. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.flip}
  930. You have a grid of squares, some light and some dark. Your aim is to
  931. light all the squares up at the same time. You can choose any square
  932. and flip its state from light to dark or dark to light, but when you
  933. do so, other squares around it change state as well.
  934. Each square contains a small diagram showing which other squares
  935. change when you flip it.
  936. \H{flip-controls} \i{Flip controls}
  937. \IM{Flip controls} controls, for Flip
  938. \IM{Flip controls} keys, for Flip
  939. \IM{Flip controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Flip
  940. This game can be played with either the keyboard or the mouse.
  941. Left-click in a square to flip it and its associated squares, or
  942. use the cursor keys to choose a square and the space bar or Enter
  943. key to flip.
  944. If you use the \q{Solve} function on this game, it will mark some of
  945. the squares in red. If you click once in every square with a red
  946. mark, the game should be solved. (If you click in a square
  947. \e{without} a red mark, a red mark will appear in it to indicate
  948. that you will need to reverse that operation to reach the solution.)
  949. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  950. \H{flip-parameters} \I{parameters, for flip}Flip parameters
  951. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  952. \q{Type} menu.
  953. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  954. \dd Size of grid in squares.
  955. \dt \e{Shape type}
  956. \dd This control determines the shape of the region which is flipped
  957. by clicking in any given square. The default setting, \q{Crosses},
  958. causes every square to flip itself and its four immediate neighbours
  959. (or three or two if it's at an edge or corner). The other setting,
  960. \q{Random}, causes a random shape to be chosen for every square, so
  961. the game is different every time.
  962. \C{guess} \i{Guess}
  963. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.guess}
  964. You have a set of coloured pegs, and have to reproduce a
  965. predetermined sequence of them (chosen by the computer) within a
  966. certain number of guesses.
  967. Each guess gets marked with the number of correctly-coloured pegs
  968. in the correct places (in black), and also the number of
  969. correctly-coloured pegs in the wrong places (in white).
  970. This game is also known (and marketed, by Hasbro, mainly) as
  971. a board game \q{\i{Mastermind}}, with 6 colours, 4 pegs per row,
  972. and 10 guesses. However, this version allows custom settings of number
  973. of colours (up to 10), number of pegs per row, and number of guesses.
  974. Guess was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
  975. \H{guess-controls} \i{Guess controls}
  976. \IM{Guess controls} controls, for Guess
  977. \IM{Guess controls} keys, for Guess
  978. \IM{Guess controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Guess
  979. This game can be played with either the keyboard or the mouse.
  980. With the mouse, drag a coloured peg from the tray on the left-hand
  981. side to its required position in the current guess; pegs may also be
  982. dragged from current and past guesses to copy them elsewhere. To
  983. remove a peg, drag it off its current position to somewhere invalid.
  984. Right-clicking in the current guess adds a \q{hold} marker; pegs
  985. that have hold markers will be automatically added to the next guess
  986. after marking.
  987. Alternatively, with the keyboard, the up and down cursor keys can be
  988. used to select a peg colour, the left and right keys to select a
  989. peg position, and the Enter key to place a peg of the
  990. selected colour in the chosen position. \q{D} or Backspace removes a
  991. peg, and Space adds a hold marker.
  992. The number keys can also be used to insert pegs: \q{1} inserts the
  993. top-most colour, \q{2} the second one, and so forth. These also
  994. move the peg cursor to the right. Pressing \q{L} will label the
  995. pegs with their numbers.
  996. Pressing \q{h} or \q{?} will fill the current guess with a suggested
  997. guess. Using this is not recommended for 10 or more pegs as it is
  998. slow.
  999. When the guess is complete, the smaller feedback pegs will be highlighted;
  1000. clicking on these (or moving the peg cursor to them with the arrow keys
  1001. and pressing the space bar or Enter key) will mark the current guess,
  1002. copy any held pegs to the next guess, and move the \q{current guess}
  1003. marker.
  1004. If you correctly position all the pegs the solution will be displayed
  1005. below; if you run out of guesses (or select \q{Solve...}) the solution
  1006. will also be revealed.
  1007. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  1008. \H{guess-parameters} \I{parameters, for Guess}Guess parameters
  1009. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  1010. \q{Type} menu. The default game matches the parameters for the
  1011. board game \q{Mastermind}.
  1012. \dt \e{Colours}
  1013. \dd Number of colours the solution is chosen from; from 2 to 10
  1014. (more is harder).
  1015. \dt \e{Pegs per guess}
  1016. \dd Number of pegs per guess (more is harder).
  1017. \dt \e{Guesses}
  1018. \dd Number of guesses you have to find the solution in (fewer is harder).
  1019. \dt \e{Allow blanks}
  1020. \dd Allows blank pegs to be given as part of a guess (makes it easier, because
  1021. you know that those will never be counted as part of the solution). This
  1022. is turned off by default.
  1023. \lcont{
  1024. Note that this doesn't allow blank pegs in the solution; if you really wanted
  1025. that, use one extra colour.
  1026. }
  1027. \dt \e{Allow duplicates}
  1028. \dd Allows the solution (and the guesses) to contain colours more than once;
  1029. this increases the search space (making things harder), and is turned on by
  1030. default.
  1031. \H{guess-prefs} \I{preferences, for Guess}Guess user preferences
  1032. On platforms that support user preferences, the \q{Preferences} option
  1033. on the \q{Game} menu will let you configure whether pegs are labelled
  1034. with their numbers. Unlike the \q{L} key, this will persist between
  1035. games.
  1036. \C{pegs} \i{Pegs}
  1037. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.pegs}
  1038. A number of pegs are placed in holes on a board. You can remove a
  1039. peg by jumping an adjacent peg over it (horizontally or vertically)
  1040. to a vacant hole on the other side. Your aim is to remove all but one
  1041. of the pegs initially present.
  1042. This game, best known as \I{Solitaire, Peg}\q{Peg Solitaire}, is
  1043. possibly one of the oldest puzzle games still commonly known.
  1044. \H{pegs-controls} \i{Pegs controls}
  1045. \IM{Pegs controls} controls, for Pegs
  1046. To move a peg, drag it with the mouse from its current position to
  1047. its final position. If the final position is exactly two holes away
  1048. from the initial position, is currently unoccupied by a peg, and
  1049. there is a peg in the intervening square, the move will be permitted
  1050. and the intervening peg will be removed.
  1051. Vacant spaces which you can move a peg into are marked with holes. A
  1052. space with no peg and no hole is not available for moving at all: it
  1053. is an obstacle which you must work around.
  1054. You can also use the cursor keys to move a position indicator around
  1055. the board. Pressing the return key while over a peg, followed by a
  1056. cursor key, will jump the peg in that direction (if that is a legal
  1057. move).
  1058. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  1059. \H{pegs-parameters} \I{parameters, for Pegs}Pegs parameters
  1060. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  1061. \q{Type} menu.
  1062. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  1063. \dd Size of grid in holes.
  1064. \dt \e{Board type}
  1065. \dd Controls whether you are given a board of a standard shape or a
  1066. randomly generated shape. The two standard shapes currently
  1067. supported are \q{Cross} (in various sizes) and \q{Octagon}.
  1068. The 7\by\.7 Cross is the traditional English board layout.
  1069. The Octagon is the traditional French one.
  1070. Selecting \q{Random} will give you a different board shape every
  1071. time (but always one that is known to have a solution).
  1072. \C{dominosa} \i{Dominosa}
  1073. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.dominosa}
  1074. A normal set of dominoes \dash that is, one instance of every
  1075. (unordered) pair of numbers from 0 to 6 \dash has been arranged
  1076. irregularly into a rectangle; then the number in each square has
  1077. been written down and the dominoes themselves removed. Your task is
  1078. to reconstruct the pattern by arranging the set of dominoes to match
  1079. the provided array of numbers.
  1080. This puzzle is widely credited to O. S. Adler, and takes part of its
  1081. name from those initials.
  1082. \H{dominosa-controls} \i{Dominosa controls}
  1083. \IM{Dominosa controls} controls, for Dominosa
  1084. Left-clicking between any two adjacent numbers places a domino
  1085. covering them, or removes one if it is already present. Trying to
  1086. place a domino which overlaps existing dominoes will remove the ones
  1087. it overlaps.
  1088. Right-clicking between two adjacent numbers draws a line between
  1089. them, which you can use to remind yourself that you know those two
  1090. numbers are \e{not} covered by a single domino. Right-clicking again
  1091. removes the line.
  1092. You can also use the cursor keys to move a cursor around the grid.
  1093. When the cursor is half way between two adjacent numbers, pressing
  1094. the return key will place a domino covering those numbers, or
  1095. pressing the space bar will lay a line between the two squares.
  1096. Repeating either action removes the domino or line.
  1097. Pressing a number key will highlight all occurrences of that
  1098. number. Pressing that number again will clear the highlighting. Up to two
  1099. different numbers can be highlighted at any given time.
  1100. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  1101. \H{dominosa-parameters} \I{parameters, for Dominosa}Dominosa parameters
  1102. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  1103. \q{Type} menu.
  1104. \dt \e{Maximum number on dominoes}
  1105. \dd Controls the size of the puzzle, by controlling the size of the
  1106. set of dominoes used to make it. Dominoes with numbers going up to N
  1107. will give rise to an (N+2) \by (N+1) rectangle; so, in particular,
  1108. the default value of 6 gives an 8\by\.7 grid.
  1109. \dt \e{Ensure unique solution}
  1110. \dd Normally, Dominosa will make sure that the puzzles it presents
  1111. have only one solution. Puzzles with ambiguous sections can be more
  1112. difficult and sometimes more subtle, so if you like you can turn off
  1113. this feature. Also, finding \e{all} the possible solutions can be an
  1114. additional challenge for an advanced player. Turning off this option
  1115. can also speed up puzzle generation.
  1116. \C{untangle} \i{Untangle}
  1117. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.untangle}
  1118. You are given a number of points, some of which have lines drawn
  1119. between them. You can move the points about arbitrarily; your aim is
  1120. to position the points so that no line crosses another.
  1121. I originally saw this in the form of a Flash game called \i{Planarity}
  1122. \k{Planarity}, written by John Tantalo.
  1123. \B{Planarity} \W{http://planarity.net}\cw{http://planarity.net}
  1124. \H{untangle-controls} \i{Untangle controls}
  1125. \IM{Untangle controls} controls, for Untangle
  1126. To move a point, click on it with the left mouse button and drag it
  1127. into a new position.
  1128. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  1129. \H{untangle-parameters} \I{parameters, for Untangle}Untangle parameters
  1130. There is only one parameter available from the \q{Custom...} option
  1131. on the \q{Type} menu:
  1132. \dt \e{Number of points}
  1133. \dd Controls the size of the puzzle, by specifying the number of
  1134. points in the generated graph.
  1135. \C{blackbox} \i{Black Box}
  1136. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.blackbox}
  1137. A number of balls are hidden in a rectangular arena. You have to
  1138. deduce the positions of the balls by firing lasers positioned at
  1139. the edges of the arena and observing how their beams are deflected.
  1140. Beams will travel straight from their origin until they hit the
  1141. opposite side of the arena (at which point they emerge), unless
  1142. affected by balls in one of the following ways:
  1143. \b A beam that hits a ball head-on is absorbed and will never
  1144. re-emerge. This includes beams that meet a ball on the first rank
  1145. of the arena.
  1146. \b A beam with a ball in its front-left square and no ball ahead of it
  1147. gets deflected 90 degrees to the right.
  1148. \b A beam with a ball in its front-right square and no ball ahead of
  1149. it gets similarly deflected to the left.
  1150. \b A beam that would re-emerge from its entry location is considered to be
  1151. \q{reflected}.
  1152. \b A beam which would get deflected before entering the arena by a
  1153. ball to the front-left or front-right of its entry point is also
  1154. considered to be \q{reflected}.
  1155. Beams that are reflected appear as a \q{R}; beams that hit balls
  1156. head-on appear as \q{H}. Otherwise, a number appears at the firing
  1157. point and the location where the beam emerges (this number is unique
  1158. to that shot).
  1159. You can place guesses as to the location of the balls, based on the
  1160. entry and exit patterns of the beams; once you have placed enough
  1161. balls a button appears enabling you to have your guesses checked.
  1162. Here is a diagram showing how the positions of balls can create each
  1163. of the beam behaviours shown above:
  1164. \c 1RHR----
  1165. \c |..O.O...|
  1166. \c 2........3
  1167. \c |........|
  1168. \c |........|
  1169. \c 3........|
  1170. \c |......O.|
  1171. \c H........|
  1172. \c |.....O..|
  1173. \c 12-RR---
  1174. As shown, it is possible for a beam to receive multiple reflections
  1175. before re-emerging (see turn 3). Similarly, a beam may be reflected
  1176. (possibly more than once) before receiving a hit (the \q{H} on the
  1177. left side of the example).
  1178. Note that any layout with more than 4 balls may have a non-unique
  1179. solution. The following diagram illustrates this; if you know the
  1180. board contains 5 balls, it is impossible to determine where the fifth
  1181. ball is (possible positions marked with an \cw{x}):
  1182. \c --------
  1183. \c |........|
  1184. \c |........|
  1185. \c |..O..O..|
  1186. \c |...xx...|
  1187. \c |...xx...|
  1188. \c |..O..O..|
  1189. \c |........|
  1190. \c |........|
  1191. \c --------
  1192. For this reason, when you have your guesses checked, the game will
  1193. check that your solution \e{produces the same results} as the
  1194. computer's, rather than that your solution is identical to the
  1195. computer's. So in the above example, you could put the fifth ball at
  1196. \e{any} of the locations marked with an \cw{x}, and you would still
  1197. win.
  1198. Black Box was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
  1199. \H{blackbox-controls} \i{Black Box controls}
  1200. \IM{Black Box controls} controls, for Black Box
  1201. \IM{Black Box controls} keys, for Black Box
  1202. \IM{Black Box controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Black Box
  1203. To fire a laser beam, left-click in a square around the edge of the
  1204. arena. The results will be displayed immediately. Clicking or holding
  1205. the left button on one of these squares will highlight the current go
  1206. (or a previous go) to confirm the exit point for that laser, if
  1207. applicable.
  1208. To guess the location of a ball, left-click within the arena and a
  1209. black circle will appear marking the guess; click again to remove the
  1210. guessed ball.
  1211. Locations in the arena may be locked against modification by
  1212. right-clicking; whole rows and columns may be similarly locked by
  1213. right-clicking in the laser square above/below that column, or to the
  1214. left/right of that row.
  1215. The cursor keys may also be used to move around the grid. Pressing the
  1216. Enter key will fire a laser or add a new ball-location guess, and
  1217. pressing Space will lock a cell, row, or column.
  1218. When an appropriate number of balls have been guessed, a button will
  1219. appear at the top-left corner of the grid; clicking that (with mouse
  1220. or cursor) will check your guesses.
  1221. If you click the \q{check} button and your guesses are not correct,
  1222. the game will show you the minimum information necessary to
  1223. demonstrate this to you, so you can try again. If your ball
  1224. positions are not consistent with the beam paths you already know
  1225. about, one beam path will be circled to indicate that it proves you
  1226. wrong. If your positions match all the existing beam paths but are
  1227. still wrong, one new beam path will be revealed (written in red)
  1228. which is not consistent with your current guesses.
  1229. If you decide to give up completely, you can select Solve to reveal
  1230. the actual ball positions. At this point, correctly-placed balls
  1231. will be displayed as filled black circles, incorrectly-placed balls
  1232. as filled black circles with red crosses, and missing balls as filled
  1233. red circles. In addition, a red circle marks any laser you had already
  1234. fired which is not consistent with your ball layout (just as when you
  1235. press the \q{check} button), and red text marks any laser you
  1236. \e{could} have fired in order to distinguish your ball layout from the
  1237. correct one.
  1238. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  1239. \H{blackbox-parameters} \I{parameters, for Black Box}Black Box parameters
  1240. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  1241. \q{Type} menu.
  1242. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  1243. \dd Size of grid in squares. There are 2 \by \e{Width} \by \e{Height} lasers
  1244. per grid, two per row and two per column.
  1245. \dt \e{No. of balls}
  1246. \dd Number of balls to place in the grid. This can be a single number,
  1247. or a range (separated with a hyphen, like \q{2-6}), and determines the
  1248. number of balls to place on the grid. The \q{reveal} button is only
  1249. enabled if you have guessed an appropriate number of balls; a guess
  1250. using a different number to the original solution is still acceptable,
  1251. if all the beam inputs and outputs match.
  1252. \C{slant} \i{Slant}
  1253. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.slant}
  1254. You have a grid of squares. Your aim is to draw a diagonal line
  1255. through each square, and choose which way each line slants so that
  1256. the following conditions are met:
  1257. \b The diagonal lines never form a loop.
  1258. \b Any point with a circled number has precisely that many lines
  1259. meeting at it. (Thus, a 4 is the centre of a cross shape, whereas a
  1260. zero is the centre of a diamond shape \dash or rather, a partial
  1261. diamond shape, because a zero can never appear in the middle of the
  1262. grid because that would immediately cause a loop.)
  1263. Credit for this puzzle goes to \i{Nikoli} \k{nikoli-slant}.
  1264. \B{nikoli-slant}
  1265. \W{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/ja/puzzles/gokigen_naname/}\cw{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/ja/puzzles/gokigen_naname/}
  1266. (in Japanese)
  1267. \H{slant-controls} \i{Slant controls}
  1268. \IM{Slant controls} controls, for Slant
  1269. Left-clicking in a blank square will place a \cw{\\} in it (a line
  1270. leaning to the left, i.e. running from the top left of the square to
  1271. the bottom right). Right-clicking in a blank square will place a
  1272. \cw{/} in it (leaning to the right, running from top right to bottom
  1273. left).
  1274. Continuing to click either button will cycle between the three
  1275. possible square contents. Thus, if you left-click repeatedly in a
  1276. blank square it will change from blank to \cw{\\} to \cw{/} back to
  1277. blank, and if you right-click repeatedly the square will change from
  1278. blank to \cw{/} to \cw{\\} back to blank. (Therefore, you can play
  1279. the game entirely with one button if you need to.)
  1280. You can also use the cursor keys to move around the grid. Pressing the
  1281. return or space keys will place a \cw{\\} or a \cw{/}, respectively,
  1282. and will then cycle them as above. You can also press \cw{/} or
  1283. \cw{\\} to place a \cw{/} or \cw{\\}, respectively, independent of
  1284. what is already in the cursor square. Backspace removes any line from
  1285. the cursor square.
  1286. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  1287. \H{slant-parameters} \I{parameters, for Slant}Slant parameters
  1288. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  1289. \q{Type} menu.
  1290. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  1291. \dd Size of grid in squares.
  1292. \dt \e{Difficulty}
  1293. \dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. At Hard level,
  1294. you are required to do deductions based on knowledge of
  1295. \e{relationships} between squares rather than always being able to
  1296. deduce the exact contents of one square at a time. (For example, you
  1297. might know that two squares slant in the same direction, even if you
  1298. don't yet know what that direction is, and this might enable you to
  1299. deduce something about still other squares.) Even at Hard level,
  1300. guesswork and backtracking should never be necessary.
  1301. \H{slant-prefs} \I{preferences, for Slant}Slant user preferences
  1302. On platforms that support user preferences, the \q{Preferences} option
  1303. on the \q{Game} menu will let you configure which way round the mouse
  1304. buttons work.
  1305. \C{lightup} \i{Light Up}
  1306. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.lightup}
  1307. You have a grid of squares. Some are filled in black; some of the
  1308. black squares are numbered. Your aim is to \q{light up} all the
  1309. empty squares by placing light bulbs in some of them.
  1310. Each light bulb illuminates the square it is on, plus all squares in
  1311. line with it horizontally or vertically unless a black square is
  1312. blocking the way.
  1313. To win the game, you must satisfy the following conditions:
  1314. \b All non-black squares are lit.
  1315. \b No light is lit by another light.
  1316. \b All numbered black squares have exactly that number of lights adjacent to
  1317. them (in the four squares above, below, and to the side).
  1318. Non-numbered black squares may have any number of lights adjacent to them.
  1319. Credit for this puzzle goes to \i{Nikoli} \k{nikoli-lightup}.
  1320. Light Up was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
  1321. \B{nikoli-lightup}
  1322. \W{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/akari/}\cw{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/akari/}
  1323. \H{lightup-controls} \i{Light Up controls}
  1324. \IM{Light Up controls} controls, for Light Up
  1325. Left-clicking in a non-black square will toggle the presence of a light
  1326. in that square. Right-clicking in a non-black square toggles a mark there to aid
  1327. solving; it can be used to highlight squares that cannot be lit, for example.
  1328. You may not place a light in a marked square, nor place a mark in a lit square.
  1329. The game will highlight obvious errors in red. Lights lit by other
  1330. lights are highlighted in this way, as are numbered squares which
  1331. do not (or cannot) have the right number of lights next to them.
  1332. Thus, the grid is solved when all non-black squares have yellow
  1333. highlights and there are no red lights.
  1334. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  1335. \H{lightup-parameters} \I{parameters, for Light Up}Light Up parameters
  1336. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  1337. \q{Type} menu.
  1338. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  1339. \dd Size of grid in squares.
  1340. \dt \e{%age of black squares}
  1341. \dd Rough percentage of black squares in the grid.
  1342. \lcont{
  1343. This is a hint rather than an instruction. If the grid generator is
  1344. unable to generate a puzzle to this precise specification, it will
  1345. increase the proportion of black squares until it can.
  1346. }
  1347. \dt \e{Symmetry}
  1348. \dd Allows you to specify the required symmetry of the black squares
  1349. in the grid. (This does not affect the difficulty of the puzzles
  1350. noticeably.)
  1351. \dt \e{Difficulty}
  1352. \dd \q{Easy} means that the puzzles should be soluble without
  1353. backtracking or guessing, \q{Hard} means that some guesses will
  1354. probably be necessary.
  1355. \H{lightup-prefs} \I{preferences, for Light Up}Light Up user preferences
  1356. On platforms that support user preferences, the \q{Preferences} option
  1357. on the \q{Game} menu will let you configure whether \q{this is not a
  1358. light} marks are shown when the square is also lit.
  1359. \C{map} \i{Map}
  1360. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.map}
  1361. You are given a map consisting of a number of regions. Your task is
  1362. to colour each region with one of four colours, in such a way that
  1363. no two regions sharing a boundary have the same colour. You are
  1364. provided with some regions already coloured, sufficient to make the
  1365. remainder of the solution unique.
  1366. Only regions which share a length of border are required to be
  1367. different colours. Two regions which meet at only one \e{point}
  1368. (i.e. are diagonally separated) may be the same colour.
  1369. I believe this puzzle is original; I've never seen an implementation
  1370. of it anywhere else. The concept of a \i{four-colouring} puzzle was
  1371. suggested by Alexandra Lanes; credit must also go to Nikoli and to Verity
  1372. Allan for inspiring the train of thought that led to me realising
  1373. Alex's suggestion was a viable puzzle. Thanks also to Gareth Taylor
  1374. for many detailed suggestions.
  1375. \H{map-controls} \i{Map controls}
  1376. \IM{Map controls} controls, for Map
  1377. To colour a region, click the left mouse button on an existing
  1378. region of the desired colour and drag that colour into the new
  1379. region.
  1380. (The program will always ensure the starting puzzle has at least one
  1381. region of each colour, so that this is always possible!)
  1382. If you need to clear a region, you can drag from an empty region, or
  1383. from the puzzle boundary if there are no empty regions left.
  1384. Dragging a colour using the \e{right} mouse button will stipple the
  1385. region in that colour, which you can use as a note to yourself that
  1386. you think the region \e{might} be that colour. A region can contain
  1387. stipples in multiple colours at once. (This is often useful at the
  1388. harder difficulty levels.)
  1389. You can also use the cursor keys to move around the map: the colour of
  1390. the cursor indicates the position of the colour you would drag (which
  1391. is not obvious if you're on a region's boundary, since it depends on the
  1392. direction from which you approached the boundary). Pressing the return
  1393. key starts a drag of that colour, as above, which you control with the
  1394. cursor keys; pressing the return key again finishes the drag. The
  1395. space bar can be used similarly to create a stippled region.
  1396. Double-pressing the return key (without moving the cursor) will clear
  1397. the region, as a drag from an empty region does: this is useful with
  1398. the cursor mode if you have filled the entire map in but need to
  1399. correct the layout.
  1400. If you press L during play, the game will toggle display of a number
  1401. in each region of the map. This is useful if you want to discuss a
  1402. particular puzzle instance with a friend \dash having an unambiguous
  1403. name for each region is much easier than trying to refer to them all
  1404. by names such as \q{the one down and right of the brown one on the
  1405. top border}.
  1406. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  1407. \H{map-parameters} \I{parameters, for Map}Map parameters
  1408. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  1409. \q{Type} menu.
  1410. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  1411. \dd Size of grid in squares.
  1412. \dt \e{Regions}
  1413. \dd Number of regions in the generated map.
  1414. \dt \e{Difficulty}
  1415. \dd In \q{Easy} mode, there should always be at least one region
  1416. whose colour can be determined trivially. In \q{Normal} and \q{Hard}
  1417. modes, you will have to use increasingly complex logic to deduce the
  1418. colour of some regions. However, it will always be possible without
  1419. having to guess or backtrack.
  1420. \lcont{
  1421. In \q{Unreasonable} mode, the program will feel free to generate
  1422. puzzles which are as hard as it can possibly make them: the only
  1423. constraint is that they should still have a unique solution. Solving
  1424. Unreasonable puzzles may require guessing and backtracking.
  1425. }
  1426. \H{map-prefs} \I{preferences, for Map}Map user preferences
  1427. On platforms that support user preferences, the \q{Preferences} option
  1428. on the \q{Game} menu will let you configure the style of the victory
  1429. flash and also whether the regions start out labelled with numbers.
  1430. \C{loopy} \i{Loopy}
  1431. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.loopy}
  1432. You are given a grid of dots, marked with yellow lines to indicate
  1433. which dots you are allowed to connect directly together. Your aim is
  1434. to use some subset of those yellow lines to draw a single unbroken
  1435. loop from dot to dot within the grid.
  1436. Some of the spaces between the lines contain numbers. These numbers
  1437. indicate how many of the lines around that space form part of the
  1438. loop. The loop you draw must correctly satisfy all of these clues to
  1439. be considered a correct solution.
  1440. In the default mode, the dots are arranged in a grid of squares;
  1441. however, you can also play on triangular or hexagonal grids, or even
  1442. more exotic ones.
  1443. Credit for the basic puzzle idea goes to \i{Nikoli}
  1444. \k{nikoli-loopy}.
  1445. Loopy was originally contributed to this collection by Mike Pinna,
  1446. and subsequently enhanced to handle various types of non-square grid
  1447. by Lambros Lambrou.
  1448. \B{nikoli-loopy}
  1449. \W{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/slitherlink/}\cw{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/slitherlink/}
  1450. \H{loopy-controls} \i{Loopy controls}
  1451. \IM{Loopy controls} controls, for Loopy
  1452. Click the left mouse button on a yellow line to turn it black,
  1453. indicating that you think it is part of the loop. Click again to
  1454. turn the line yellow again (meaning you aren't sure yet).
  1455. If you are sure that a particular line segment is \e{not} part of
  1456. the loop, you can click the right mouse button to remove it
  1457. completely. Again, clicking a second time will turn the line back to
  1458. yellow.
  1459. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  1460. \H{loopy-parameters} \I{parameters, for Loopy}Loopy parameters
  1461. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  1462. \q{Type} menu.
  1463. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  1464. \dd Size of grid, measured in number of regions across and down. For
  1465. square grids, it's clear how this is counted; for other types of
  1466. grid you may have to think a bit to see how the dimensions are
  1467. measured.
  1468. \dt \e{Grid type}
  1469. \dd Allows you to choose between a selection of types of tiling.
  1470. Some have all the faces the same but may have multiple different
  1471. types of vertex (e.g. the \e{Cairo} or \e{Kites} mode); others have
  1472. all the vertices the same but may have different types of face (e.g.
  1473. the \e{Great Hexagonal}). The square, triangular and honeycomb grids
  1474. are fully regular, and have all their vertices \e{and} faces the
  1475. same; this makes them the least confusing to play.
  1476. \dt \e{Difficulty}
  1477. \dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle.
  1478. \#{FIXME: what distinguishes Easy, Medium, and Hard? In particular,
  1479. when are backtracking/guesswork required, if ever?}
  1480. \H{loopy-prefs} \I{preferences, for Loopy}Loopy user preferences
  1481. On platforms that support user preferences, the \q{Preferences} option
  1482. on the \q{Game} menu will let you configure the following things:
  1483. \q{Draw excluded grid lines faintly}. This is on by default: when a
  1484. line of the grid has been explicitly excluded from the solution by
  1485. right-clicking it, the line is still drawn, just in a faint grey
  1486. colour. If you turn this option off, excluded lines are not drawn at
  1487. all.
  1488. \q{Auto-follow unique paths of edges}. This is off by default. When
  1489. it's on, clicking to change the status of a single grid line will
  1490. potentially propagate the change along multiple lines, if one or both
  1491. ends of the line you clicked connect to only one other line. (The idea
  1492. is that if two lines meet at a vertex and no other lines do at all,
  1493. then those lines are either both part of the loop or neither, so
  1494. there's no reason you should have to click separately to toggle each
  1495. one.)
  1496. In the mode \q{Based on grid only}, the effects of a click will only
  1497. propagate across vertices that have degree 2 in the underlying grid.
  1498. For example, in the square grid, the effect will \e{only} occur at the
  1499. four grid corners.
  1500. In the mode \q{Based on grid and game state}, the propagation will
  1501. also take account of edges you've already excluded from the solution,
  1502. so that it will do even more work for you.
  1503. \C{inertia} \i{Inertia}
  1504. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.inertia}
  1505. You are a small green ball sitting in a grid full of obstacles. Your
  1506. aim is to collect all the gems without running into any mines.
  1507. You can move the ball in any orthogonal \e{or diagonal} direction.
  1508. Once the ball starts moving, it will continue until something stops
  1509. it. A wall directly in its path will stop it (but if it is moving
  1510. diagonally, it will move through a diagonal gap between two other
  1511. walls without stopping). Also, some of the squares are \q{stops};
  1512. when the ball moves on to a stop, it will stop moving no matter what
  1513. direction it was going in. Gems do \e{not} stop the ball; it picks
  1514. them up and keeps on going.
  1515. Running into a mine is fatal. Even if you picked up the last gem in
  1516. the same move which then hit a mine, the game will count you as dead
  1517. rather than victorious.
  1518. This game was originally implemented for Windows by Ben Olmstead
  1519. \k{bem}, who was kind enough to release his source code on request
  1520. so that it could be re-implemented for this collection.
  1521. \B{bem} \W{http://xn13.com/}\cw{http://xn13.com/}
  1522. \H{inertia-controls} \i{Inertia controls}
  1523. \IM{Inertia controls} controls, for Inertia
  1524. \IM{Inertia controls} keys, for Inertia
  1525. \IM{Inertia controls} shortcuts (keyboard), for Inertia
  1526. You can move the ball in any of the eight directions using the
  1527. numeric keypad. Alternatively, if you click the left mouse button on
  1528. the grid, the ball will begin a move in the general direction of
  1529. where you clicked.
  1530. If you use the \q{Solve} function on this game, the program will
  1531. compute a path through the grid which collects all the remaining
  1532. gems and returns to the current position. A hint arrow will appear
  1533. on the ball indicating the direction in which you should move to
  1534. begin on this path. If you then move in that direction, the arrow
  1535. will update to indicate the next direction on the path. You can also
  1536. press Space to automatically move in the direction of the hint
  1537. arrow. If you move in a different direction from the one shown by
  1538. the arrow, arrows will be shown only if the puzzle is still solvable.
  1539. All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.
  1540. In particular, if you do run into a mine and die, you can use the
  1541. Undo function and resume playing from before the fatal move. The
  1542. game will keep track of the number of times you have done this.
  1543. \H{inertia-parameters} \I{parameters, for Inertia}Inertia parameters
  1544. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  1545. \q{Type} menu.
  1546. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  1547. \dd Size of grid in squares.
  1548. \C{tents} \i{Tents}
  1549. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.tents}
  1550. You have a grid of squares, some of which contain trees. Your aim is
  1551. to place tents in some of the remaining squares, in such a way that
  1552. the following conditions are met:
  1553. \b There are exactly as many tents as trees.
  1554. \b The tents and trees can be matched up in such a way that each
  1555. tent is directly adjacent (horizontally or vertically, but not
  1556. diagonally) to its own tree. However, a tent may be adjacent to
  1557. other trees as well as its own.
  1558. \b No two tents are adjacent horizontally, vertically \e{or
  1559. diagonally}.
  1560. \b The number of tents in each row, and in each column, matches the
  1561. numbers given round the sides of the grid.
  1562. This puzzle can be found in several places on the Internet, and was
  1563. brought to my attention by e-mail. I don't know who I should credit
  1564. for inventing it.
  1565. \H{tents-controls} \i{Tents controls}
  1566. \IM{Tents controls} controls, for Tents
  1567. Left-clicking in a blank square will place a tent in it.
  1568. Right-clicking in a blank square will colour it green, indicating
  1569. that you are sure it \e{isn't} a tent. Clicking either button in an
  1570. occupied square will clear it.
  1571. If you \e{drag} with the right button along a row or column, every
  1572. blank square in the region you cover will be turned green, and no
  1573. other squares will be affected. (This is useful for clearing the
  1574. remainder of a row once you have placed all its tents.)
  1575. You can also use the cursor keys to move around the grid. Pressing the
  1576. return key over an empty square will place a tent, and pressing the
  1577. space bar over an empty square will colour it green; either key will
  1578. clear an occupied square. Holding Shift and pressing the cursor keys
  1579. will colour empty squares green. Holding Control and pressing the
  1580. cursor keys will colour green both empty squares and squares with tents.
  1581. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  1582. \H{tents-parameters} \I{parameters, for Tents}Tents parameters
  1583. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  1584. \q{Type} menu.
  1585. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  1586. \dd Size of grid in squares.
  1587. \dt \e{Difficulty}
  1588. \dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. More difficult
  1589. puzzles require more complex deductions, but at present none of the
  1590. available difficulty levels requires guesswork or backtracking.
  1591. \C{bridges} \i{Bridges}
  1592. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.bridges}
  1593. You have a set of islands distributed across the playing area. Each
  1594. island contains a number. Your aim is to connect the islands
  1595. together with bridges, in such a way that:
  1596. \b Bridges run horizontally or vertically.
  1597. \b The number of bridges terminating at any island is equal to the
  1598. number written in that island.
  1599. \b Two bridges may run in parallel between the same two islands, but
  1600. no more than two may do so.
  1601. \b No bridge crosses another bridge.
  1602. \b All the islands are connected together.
  1603. There are some configurable alternative modes, which involve
  1604. changing the parallel-bridge limit to something other than 2, and
  1605. introducing the additional constraint that no sequence of bridges
  1606. may form a loop from one island back to the same island. The rules
  1607. stated above are the default ones.
  1608. Credit for this puzzle goes to \i{Nikoli} \k{nikoli-bridges}.
  1609. Bridges was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
  1610. \B{nikoli-bridges}
  1611. \W{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/Hashiwokakero/}\cw{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/Hashiwokakero/}
  1612. \H{bridges-controls} \i{Bridges controls}
  1613. \IM{Bridges controls} controls, for Bridges
  1614. To place a bridge between two islands, click the mouse down on one
  1615. island and drag it towards the other. You do not need to drag all
  1616. the way to the other island; you only need to move the mouse far
  1617. enough for the intended bridge direction to be unambiguous. (So you
  1618. can keep the mouse near the starting island and conveniently throw
  1619. bridges out from it in many directions.)
  1620. Doing this again when a bridge is already present will add another
  1621. parallel bridge. If there are already as many bridges between the
  1622. two islands as permitted by the current game rules (i.e. two by
  1623. default), the same dragging action will remove all of them.
  1624. If you want to remind yourself that two islands definitely \e{do
  1625. not} have a bridge between them, you can right-drag between them in
  1626. the same way to draw a \q{non-bridge} marker.
  1627. If you think you have finished with an island (i.e. you have placed
  1628. all its bridges and are confident that they are in the right
  1629. places), you can mark the island as finished by left-clicking on it.
  1630. This will highlight it and all the bridges connected to it, and you
  1631. will be prevented from accidentally modifying any of those bridges
  1632. in future. Left-clicking again on a highlighted island will unmark
  1633. it and restore your ability to modify it.
  1634. You can also use the cursor keys to move around the grid: if possible
  1635. the cursor will always move orthogonally, otherwise it will move
  1636. towards the nearest island to the indicated direction. Holding Control
  1637. and pressing a cursor key will lay a bridge in that direction (if
  1638. available); Shift and a cursor key will lay a \q{non-bridge} marker.
  1639. Pressing the return key followed by a cursor key will also lay a
  1640. bridge in that direction.
  1641. You can mark an island as finished by pressing the space bar or by
  1642. pressing the return key twice.
  1643. By pressing a number key, you can jump to the nearest island with that
  1644. number. Letters \q{a}, ..., \q{f} count as 10, ..., 15 and \q{0} as
  1645. 16.
  1646. The \q{G} key will draw a grey line between each pair of islands that
  1647. could be connected with a bridge or non-bridge but are currently not.
  1648. Violations of the puzzle rules will be marked in red:
  1649. \b An island with too many bridges will be highlighted in red.
  1650. \b An island with too few bridges will be highlighted in red if it
  1651. is definitely an error (as opposed to merely not being finished
  1652. yet): if adding enough bridges would involve having to cross another
  1653. bridge or remove a non-bridge marker, or if the island has been
  1654. highlighted as complete.
  1655. \b A group of islands and bridges may be highlighted in red if it is
  1656. a closed subset of the puzzle with no way to connect it to the rest
  1657. of the islands. For example, if you directly connect two 1s together
  1658. with a bridge and they are not the only two islands on the grid,
  1659. they will light up red to indicate that such a group cannot be
  1660. contained in any valid solution.
  1661. \b If you have selected the (non-default) option to disallow loops
  1662. in the solution, a group of bridges which forms a loop will be
  1663. highlighted.
  1664. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  1665. \H{bridges-parameters} \I{parameters, for Bridges}Bridges parameters
  1666. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  1667. \q{Type} menu.
  1668. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  1669. \dd Size of grid in squares.
  1670. \dt \e{Difficulty}
  1671. \dd Difficulty level of puzzle.
  1672. \dt \e{Allow loops}
  1673. \dd This is set by default. If cleared, puzzles will be generated in
  1674. such a way that they are always soluble without creating a loop, and
  1675. solutions which do involve a loop will be disallowed.
  1676. \dt \e{Max. bridges per direction}
  1677. \dd Maximum number of bridges in any particular direction. The
  1678. default is 2, but you can change it to 1, 3 or 4. In general, fewer
  1679. is easier.
  1680. \dt \e{%age of island squares}
  1681. \dd Gives a rough percentage of islands the generator will try and
  1682. lay before finishing the puzzle. Certain layouts will not manage to
  1683. lay enough islands; this is an upper bound.
  1684. \dt \e{Expansion factor (%age)}
  1685. \dd The grid generator works by picking an existing island at random
  1686. (after first creating an initial island somewhere). It then decides
  1687. on a direction (at random), and then works out how far it could
  1688. extend before creating another island. This parameter determines how
  1689. likely it is to extend as far as it can, rather than choosing
  1690. somewhere closer.
  1691. \lcont{
  1692. High expansion factors usually mean easier puzzles with fewer
  1693. possible islands; low expansion factors can create lots of
  1694. tightly-packed islands.
  1695. }
  1696. \H{bridges-prefs} \I{preferences, for Bridges}Bridges user preferences
  1697. On platforms that support user preferences, the \q{Preferences} option
  1698. on the \q{Game} menu will let you configure whether possible bridge
  1699. locations are shown. Unlike the \q{G} key, this will persist between
  1700. games.
  1701. \C{unequal} \i{Unequal}
  1702. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.unequal}
  1703. You have a square grid; each square may contain a digit from 1 to
  1704. the size of the grid, and some squares have clue signs between
  1705. them. Your aim is to fully populate the grid with numbers such that:
  1706. \b Each row contains only one occurrence of each digit
  1707. \b Each column contains only one occurrence of each digit
  1708. \b All the clue signs are satisfied.
  1709. There are two modes for this game, \q{Unequal} and \q{Adjacent}.
  1710. In \q{Unequal} mode, the clue signs are greater-than symbols indicating one
  1711. square's value is greater than its neighbour's. In this mode not all clues
  1712. may be visible, particularly at higher difficulty levels.
  1713. In \q{Adjacent} mode, the clue signs are bars indicating
  1714. one square's value is numerically adjacent (i.e. one higher or one lower)
  1715. than its neighbour. In this mode all clues are always visible: absence of
  1716. a bar thus means that a square's value is definitely not numerically adjacent
  1717. to that neighbour's.
  1718. In \q{Trivial} difficulty level (available via the \q{Custom} game type
  1719. selector), there are no greater-than signs in \q{Unequal} mode; the puzzle is
  1720. to solve the \i{Latin square} only.
  1721. At the time of writing, the \q{Unequal} mode of this puzzle is appearing in the
  1722. Guardian weekly under the name \q{\i{Futoshiki}}.
  1723. Unequal was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
  1724. \H{unequal-controls} \i{Unequal controls}
  1725. \IM{Unequal controls} controls, for Unequal
  1726. Unequal shares much of its control system with Solo.
  1727. To play Unequal, simply click the mouse in any empty square and then
  1728. type a digit or letter on the keyboard to fill that square. If you
  1729. make a mistake, click the mouse in the incorrect square and press
  1730. Space to clear it again (or use the Undo feature).
  1731. If you \e{right}-click in a square and then type a number, that
  1732. number will be entered in the square as a \q{pencil mark}. You can
  1733. have pencil marks for multiple numbers in the same square. Squares
  1734. containing filled-in numbers cannot also contain pencil marks.
  1735. The game pays no attention to pencil marks, so exactly what you use
  1736. them for is up to you: you can use them as reminders that a
  1737. particular square needs to be re-examined once you know more about a
  1738. particular number, or you can use them as lists of the possible
  1739. numbers in a given square, or anything else you feel like.
  1740. To erase a single pencil mark, right-click in the square and type
  1741. the same number again.
  1742. All pencil marks in a square are erased when you left-click and type
  1743. a number, or when you left-click and press space. Right-clicking and
  1744. pressing space will also erase pencil marks.
  1745. As for Solo, the cursor keys can be used in conjunction with the digit
  1746. keys to set numbers or pencil marks. You can also use the \q{M} key to
  1747. auto-fill every numeric hint, ready for removal as required, or the \q{H}
  1748. key to do the same but also to remove all obvious hints.
  1749. Alternatively, use the cursor keys to move the mark around the grid.
  1750. Pressing the return key toggles the mark (from a normal mark to a
  1751. pencil mark), and typing a number in is entered in the square in the
  1752. appropriate way; typing in a 0 or using the space bar will clear a
  1753. filled square.
  1754. Left-clicking a clue will mark it as done (grey it out), or unmark it
  1755. if it is already marked. Holding Control or Shift and pressing an
  1756. arrow key likewise marks any clue adjacent to the cursor in the given
  1757. direction.
  1758. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  1759. \H{unequal-parameters} \I{parameters, for Unequal}Unequal parameters
  1760. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  1761. \q{Type} menu.
  1762. \dt \e{Mode}
  1763. \dd Mode of the puzzle (\q{Unequal} or \q{Adjacent})
  1764. \dt \e{Size (s*s)}
  1765. \dd Size of grid.
  1766. \dt \e{Difficulty}
  1767. \dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. At Trivial
  1768. level, there are no greater-than signs; the puzzle is to solve the
  1769. Latin square only. At Recursive level (only available via the
  1770. \q{Custom} game type selector) backtracking will be required, but
  1771. the solution should still be unique. The levels in between require
  1772. increasingly complex reasoning to avoid having to backtrack.
  1773. \C{galaxies} \i{Galaxies}
  1774. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.galaxies}
  1775. You have a rectangular grid containing a number of dots. Your aim is
  1776. to partition the rectangle into connected regions of squares, in such
  1777. a way that every region is 180\u00b0{-degree} rotationally symmetric,
  1778. and contains exactly one dot which is located at its centre of
  1779. symmetry.
  1780. To enter your solution, you draw lines along the grid edges to mark
  1781. the boundaries of the regions. The puzzle is complete when the marked
  1782. lines on the grid are precisely those that separate two squares
  1783. belonging to different regions.
  1784. This puzzle was invented by \i{Nikoli} \k{nikoli-galaxies}, under
  1785. the name \q{Tentai Show}; its name is commonly translated into
  1786. English as \q{Spiral Galaxies}.
  1787. Galaxies was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
  1788. \B{nikoli-galaxies} \W{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/tentai_show/}\cw{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/tentai_show/}
  1789. \H{galaxies-controls} \i{Galaxies controls}
  1790. \IM{Galaxies controls} controls, for Galaxies
  1791. Left-click on any grid line to draw an edge if there isn't one
  1792. already, or to remove one if there is. When you create a valid region
  1793. (one which is closed, contains exactly one dot, is 180\u00b0{-degree}
  1794. symmetric about that dot, and contains no extraneous edges between two
  1795. of its own squares), it will be highlighted automatically; so your aim
  1796. is to have the whole grid highlighted in that way.
  1797. During solving, you might know that a particular grid square belongs
  1798. to a specific dot, but not be sure of where the edges go and which
  1799. other squares are connected to the dot. In order to mark this so you
  1800. don't forget, you can right-click on the dot and drag, which will
  1801. create an arrow marker pointing at the dot. Drop that in a square of
  1802. your choice and it will remind you which dot it's associated with.
  1803. You can also right-click on existing arrows to pick them up and move
  1804. them, or destroy them by dropping them off the edge of the grid.
  1805. (Also, if you're not sure which dot an arrow is pointing at, you can
  1806. pick it up and move it around to make it clearer. It will swivel
  1807. constantly as you drag it, to stay pointed at its parent dot.)
  1808. You can also use the cursor keys to move around the grid squares and
  1809. lines. Pressing the return key when over a grid line will draw or
  1810. clear its edge, as above. Pressing the return key when over a dot will
  1811. pick up an arrow, to be dropped the next time the return key is
  1812. pressed; this can also be used to move existing arrows around, removing
  1813. them by dropping them on a dot or another arrow.
  1814. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  1815. \H{galaxies-parameters} \I{parameters, for Galaxies}Galaxies parameters
  1816. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  1817. \q{Type} menu.
  1818. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  1819. \dd Size of grid in squares.
  1820. \dt \e{Difficulty}
  1821. \dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. More difficult
  1822. puzzles require more complex deductions, and the \q{Unreasonable}
  1823. difficulty level may require backtracking.
  1824. \C{filling} \i{Filling}
  1825. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.filling}
  1826. You have a grid of squares, some of which contain digits, and the
  1827. rest of which are empty. Your job is to fill in digits in the empty
  1828. squares, in such a way that each connected region of squares all
  1829. containing the same digit has an area equal to that digit.
  1830. (\q{Connected region}, for the purposes of this game, does not count
  1831. diagonally separated squares as adjacent.)
  1832. For example, it follows that no square can contain a zero, and that
  1833. two adjacent squares can not both contain a one. No region has an
  1834. area greater than 9 (because then its area would not be a single
  1835. digit).
  1836. Credit for this puzzle goes to \i{Nikoli} \k{nikoli-fillomino}.
  1837. Filling was contributed to this collection by Jonas K\u00F6{oe}lker.
  1838. \B{nikoli-fillomino}
  1839. \W{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/fillomino/}\cw{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/fillomino/}
  1840. \H{filling-controls} \I{controls, for Filling}Filling controls
  1841. To play Filling, simply click the mouse in any empty square and then
  1842. type a digit on the keyboard to fill that square. By dragging the
  1843. mouse, you can select multiple squares to fill with a single keypress.
  1844. If you make a mistake, click the mouse in the incorrect square and
  1845. press 0, Space, Backspace or Enter to clear it again (or use the Undo
  1846. feature).
  1847. You can also move around the grid with the cursor keys; typing a digit will
  1848. fill the square containing the cursor with that number; typing 0 will clear
  1849. it. You can also select multiple squares for numbering or clearing with the
  1850. return and arrow keys, before typing a digit to fill or clear the highlighted
  1851. squares (as above). The space bar adds and removes single squares to and from
  1852. the selection. Backspace and escape remove all squares from the selection.
  1853. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  1854. \H{filling-parameters} \I{parameters, for Filling}Filling parameters
  1855. Filling allows you to configure the number of rows and columns of the
  1856. grid, through the \q{Type} menu.
  1857. \C{keen} \i{Keen}
  1858. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.keen}
  1859. You have a square grid; each square may contain a digit from 1 to
  1860. the size of the grid. The grid is divided into blocks of varying
  1861. shape and size, with arithmetic clues written in them. Your aim is
  1862. to fully populate the grid with digits such that:
  1863. \b Each row contains only one occurrence of each digit
  1864. \b Each column contains only one occurrence of each digit
  1865. \b The digits in each block can be combined to form the number
  1866. stated in the clue, using the arithmetic operation given in the
  1867. clue. That is:
  1868. \lcont{
  1869. \b An addition clue means that the sum of the digits in the block
  1870. must be the given number. For example, \q{15+} means the contents of
  1871. the block adds up to fifteen.
  1872. \b A multiplication clue (e.g. \q{60\times}), similarly, means that
  1873. the product of the digits in the block must be the given number.
  1874. \b A subtraction clue will always be written in a block of size two,
  1875. and it means that one of the digits in the block is greater than the
  1876. other by the given amount. For example, \q{2\minus} means that one
  1877. of the digits in the block is 2 more than the other, or equivalently
  1878. that one digit minus the other one is 2. The two digits could be
  1879. either way round, though.
  1880. \b A division clue (e.g. \q{3\divide}), similarly, is always in a
  1881. block of size two and means that one digit divided by the other is
  1882. equal to the given amount.
  1883. Note that a block may contain the same digit more than once
  1884. (provided the identical ones are not in the same row and column).
  1885. This rule is precisely the opposite of the rule in Solo's \q{Killer}
  1886. mode (see \k{solo}).
  1887. }
  1888. This puzzle appears in the Times under the name \q{\i{KenKen}}.
  1889. \H{keen-controls} \i{Keen controls}
  1890. \IM{Keen controls} controls, for Keen
  1891. Keen shares much of its control system with Solo (and Unequal).
  1892. To play Keen, simply click the mouse in any empty square and then
  1893. type a digit on the keyboard to fill that square. If you make a
  1894. mistake, click the mouse in the incorrect square and press Space to
  1895. clear it again (or use the Undo feature).
  1896. If you \e{right}-click in a square and then type a number, that
  1897. number will be entered in the square as a \q{pencil mark}. You can
  1898. have pencil marks for multiple numbers in the same square. Squares
  1899. containing filled-in numbers cannot also contain pencil marks.
  1900. The game pays no attention to pencil marks, so exactly what you use
  1901. them for is up to you: you can use them as reminders that a
  1902. particular square needs to be re-examined once you know more about a
  1903. particular number, or you can use them as lists of the possible
  1904. numbers in a given square, or anything else you feel like.
  1905. To erase a single pencil mark, right-click in the square and type
  1906. the same number again.
  1907. All pencil marks in a square are erased when you left-click and type
  1908. a number, or when you left-click and press space. Right-clicking and
  1909. pressing space will also erase pencil marks.
  1910. As for Solo, the cursor keys can be used in conjunction with the
  1911. digit keys to set numbers or pencil marks. Use the cursor keys to
  1912. move a highlight around the grid, and type a digit to enter it in
  1913. the highlighted square. Pressing return toggles the highlight into a
  1914. mode in which you can enter or remove pencil marks.
  1915. Pressing M will fill in a full set of pencil marks in every square
  1916. that does not have a main digit in it.
  1917. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  1918. \H{keen-parameters} \I{parameters, for Keen}Keen parameters
  1919. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  1920. \q{Type} menu.
  1921. \dt \e{Grid size}
  1922. \dd Specifies the size of the grid. Lower limit is 3; upper limit is
  1923. 9 (because the user interface would become more difficult with
  1924. \q{digits} bigger than 9!).
  1925. \dt \e{Difficulty}
  1926. \dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. At Unreasonable
  1927. level, some backtracking will be required, but the solution should
  1928. still be unique. The remaining levels require increasingly complex
  1929. reasoning to avoid having to backtrack.
  1930. \dt \e{Multiplication only}
  1931. \dd If this is enabled, all boxes will be multiplication boxes.
  1932. With this rule, the puzzle is known as \q{Inshi No Heya}.
  1933. \C{towers} \i{Towers}
  1934. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.towers}
  1935. You have a square grid. On each square of the grid you can build a
  1936. tower, with its height ranging from 1 to the size of the grid.
  1937. Around the edge of the grid are some numeric clues.
  1938. Your task is to build a tower on every square, in such a way that:
  1939. \b Each row contains every possible height of tower once
  1940. \b Each column contains every possible height of tower once
  1941. \b Each numeric clue describes the number of towers that can be seen
  1942. if you look into the square from that direction, assuming that
  1943. shorter towers are hidden behind taller ones. For example, in a
  1944. 5\by\.5 grid, a clue marked \q{5} indicates that the five tower
  1945. heights must appear in increasing order (otherwise you would not be
  1946. able to see all five towers), whereas a clue marked \q{1} indicates
  1947. that the tallest tower (the one marked 5) must come first.
  1948. In harder or larger puzzles, some towers will be specified for you
  1949. as well as the clues round the edge, and some edge clues may be
  1950. missing.
  1951. This puzzle appears on the web under various names, particularly
  1952. \q{\i{Skyscrapers}}, but I don't know who first invented it.
  1953. \H{towers-controls} \i{Towers controls}
  1954. \IM{Towers controls} controls, for Towers
  1955. Towers shares much of its control system with Solo, Unequal and Keen.
  1956. To play Towers, simply click the mouse in any empty square and then
  1957. type a digit on the keyboard to fill that square with a tower of the
  1958. given height. If you make a mistake, click the mouse in the
  1959. incorrect square and press Space to clear it again (or use the Undo
  1960. feature).
  1961. If you \e{right}-click in a square and then type a number, that
  1962. number will be entered in the square as a \q{pencil mark}. You can
  1963. have pencil marks for multiple numbers in the same square. A square
  1964. containing a tower cannot also contain pencil marks.
  1965. The game pays no attention to pencil marks, so exactly what you use
  1966. them for is up to you: you can use them as reminders that a
  1967. particular square needs to be re-examined once you know more about a
  1968. particular number, or you can use them as lists of the possible
  1969. numbers in a given square, or anything else you feel like.
  1970. To erase a single pencil mark, right-click in the square and type
  1971. the same number again.
  1972. All pencil marks in a square are erased when you left-click and type
  1973. a number, or when you left-click and press space. Right-clicking and
  1974. pressing space will also erase pencil marks.
  1975. As for Solo, the cursor keys can be used in conjunction with the
  1976. digit keys to set numbers or pencil marks. Use the cursor keys to
  1977. move a highlight around the grid, and type a digit to enter it in
  1978. the highlighted square. Pressing return toggles the highlight into a
  1979. mode in which you can enter or remove pencil marks.
  1980. Pressing M will fill in a full set of pencil marks in every square
  1981. that does not have a main digit in it.
  1982. Left-clicking a clue will mark it as done (grey it out), or unmark it
  1983. if it is already marked. Holding Control or Shift and pressing an
  1984. arrow key likewise marks any clue in the given direction.
  1985. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  1986. \H{towers-parameters} \I{parameters, for Towers}Towers parameters
  1987. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  1988. \q{Type} menu.
  1989. \dt \e{Grid size}
  1990. \dd Specifies the size of the grid. Lower limit is 3; upper limit is
  1991. 9 (because the user interface would become more difficult with
  1992. \q{digits} bigger than 9!).
  1993. \dt \e{Difficulty}
  1994. \dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. At Unreasonable
  1995. level, some backtracking will be required, but the solution should
  1996. still be unique. The remaining levels require increasingly complex
  1997. reasoning to avoid having to backtrack.
  1998. \H{towers-prefs} \I{preferences, for Towers}Towers user preferences
  1999. On platforms that support user preferences, the \q{Preferences} option
  2000. on the \q{Game} menu will let you configure the style of the game
  2001. display. If you don't like the three-dimensional mode, selecting
  2002. \q{2D} will switch to a simpler display style in which towers are
  2003. shown by just writing their height in the square.
  2004. \C{singles} \i{Singles}
  2005. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.singles}
  2006. You have a grid of white squares, all of which contain numbers. Your task
  2007. is to colour some of the squares black (removing the number) so as to satisfy
  2008. all of the following conditions:
  2009. \b No number occurs more than once in any row or column.
  2010. \b No black square is horizontally or vertically adjacent to any other black
  2011. square.
  2012. \b The remaining white squares must all form one contiguous region
  2013. (connected by edges, not just touching at corners).
  2014. Credit for this puzzle goes to \i{Nikoli} \k{nikoli-hitori} who call it
  2015. \i{Hitori}.
  2016. Singles was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
  2017. \B{nikoli-hitori}
  2018. \W{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/hitori/}\cw{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/hitori/}
  2019. \H{singles-controls} \i{Singles controls}
  2020. \IM{Singles controls} controls, for Singles
  2021. Left-clicking on an empty square will colour it black; left-clicking again
  2022. will restore the number. Right-clicking will add a circle (useful for
  2023. indicating that a cell is definitely not black).
  2024. You can also use the cursor keys to move around the grid. Pressing the
  2025. return or space keys will turn a square black or add a circle respectively,
  2026. and pressing the key again will restore the number or remove the circle.
  2027. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  2028. \H{singles-parameters} \I{parameters, for Singles}Singles parameters
  2029. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  2030. \q{Type} menu.
  2031. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  2032. \dd Size of grid in squares.
  2033. \dt \e{Difficulty}
  2034. \dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle.
  2035. \C{magnets} \i{Magnets}
  2036. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.magnets}
  2037. A rectangular grid has been filled with a mixture of magnets (that is,
  2038. dominoes with one positive end and one negative end) and blank dominoes
  2039. (that is, dominoes with two neutral poles).
  2040. These dominoes are initially only seen in silhouette. Around the grid
  2041. are placed a number of clues indicating the number of positive and
  2042. negative poles contained in certain columns and rows.
  2043. Your aim is to correctly place the magnets and blank dominoes such that
  2044. all the clues are satisfied, with the additional constraint that no two
  2045. similar magnetic poles may be orthogonally adjacent (since they repel).
  2046. Neutral poles do not repel, and can be adjacent to any other pole.
  2047. Credit for this puzzle goes to \i{Janko} \k{janko-magnets}.
  2048. Magnets was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
  2049. \B{janko-magnets}
  2050. \W{http://www.janko.at/Raetsel/Magnete/index.htm}\cw{http://www.janko.at/Raetsel/Magnete/index.htm}
  2051. \H{magnets-controls} \i{Magnets controls}
  2052. \IM{Magnets controls} controls, for Magnets
  2053. Left-clicking on an empty square places a magnet at that position with
  2054. the positive pole on the square and the negative pole on the other half
  2055. of the magnet; left-clicking again reverses the polarity, and a third
  2056. click removes the magnet.
  2057. Right-clicking on an empty square places a blank domino there.
  2058. Right-clicking again places two question marks on the domino, signifying
  2059. \q{this cannot be blank} (which can be useful to note deductions while
  2060. solving), and right-clicking again empties the domino.
  2061. Left-clicking a clue will mark it as done (grey it out), or unmark it if
  2062. it is already marked.
  2063. You can also use the cursor keys to move a cursor around the grid.
  2064. Pressing the return key will lay a domino with a positive pole at that
  2065. position; pressing again reverses the polarity and then removes the
  2066. domino, as with left-clicking. Using the space bar allows placement
  2067. of blank dominoes and cannot-be-blank hints, as for right-clicking.
  2068. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  2069. \H{magnets-parameters} \I{parameters, for Magnets}Magnets parameters
  2070. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  2071. \q{Type} menu.
  2072. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  2073. \dd Size of grid in squares. There will be half \e{Width} \by \e{Height}
  2074. dominoes in the grid: if this number is odd then one square will be blank.
  2075. \lcont{
  2076. (Grids with at least one odd dimension tend to be easier to solve.)
  2077. }
  2078. \dt \e{Difficulty}
  2079. \dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle. At Tricky level,
  2080. you are required to make more deductions about empty dominoes and
  2081. row/column counts.
  2082. \dt \e{Strip clues}
  2083. \dd If true, some of the clues around the grid are removed at generation
  2084. time, making the puzzle more difficult.
  2085. \C{signpost} \i{Signpost}
  2086. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.signpost}
  2087. You have a grid of squares; each square (except the last one)
  2088. contains an arrow, and some squares also contain numbers. Your job
  2089. is to connect the squares to form a continuous list of numbers
  2090. starting at 1 and linked in the direction of the arrows \dash so the
  2091. arrow inside the square with the number 1 will point to the square
  2092. containing the number 2, which will point to the square containing
  2093. the number 3, etc. Each square can be any distance away from the
  2094. previous one, as long as it is somewhere in the direction of the
  2095. arrow.
  2096. By convention the first and last numbers are shown; one or more
  2097. interim numbers may also appear at the beginning.
  2098. Credit for this puzzle goes to \i{Janko} \k{janko-arrowpath}, who call it
  2099. \q{Pfeilpfad} (\q{arrow path}).
  2100. Signpost was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
  2101. \B{janko-arrowpath}
  2102. \W{http://janko.at/Raetsel/Pfeilpfad/index.htm}\cw{http://janko.at/Raetsel/Pfeilpfad/index.htm}
  2103. \H{signpost-controls} \I{controls, for Signpost}Signpost controls
  2104. To play Signpost, you connect squares together by dragging from one
  2105. square to another, indicating that they are adjacent in the
  2106. sequence. Drag with the left button from a square to its successor,
  2107. or with the right button from a square to its predecessor.
  2108. If you connect together two squares in this way and one of them has
  2109. a number in it, the appropriate number will appear in the other
  2110. square. If you connect two non-numbered squares, they will be
  2111. assigned temporary algebraic labels: on the first occasion, they
  2112. will be labelled \cq{a} and \cq{a+1}, and then \cq{b} and \cq{b+1},
  2113. and so on. Connecting more squares on to the ends of such a chain
  2114. will cause them all to be labelled with the same letter.
  2115. When you left-click or right-click in a square, the legal squares to
  2116. connect it to will be shown.
  2117. The arrow in each square starts off black, and goes grey once you
  2118. connect the square to its successor. Also, each square which needs a
  2119. predecessor has a small dot in the bottom left corner, which
  2120. vanishes once you link a square to it. So your aim is always to
  2121. connect a square with a black arrow to a square with a dot.
  2122. To remove any links for a particular square (both incoming and
  2123. outgoing), left-drag it off the grid. To remove a whole chain,
  2124. right-drag any square in the chain off the grid.
  2125. You can also use the cursor keys to move around the grid squares and
  2126. lines. Pressing the return key when over a square starts a link
  2127. operation, and pressing the return key again over a square will
  2128. finish the link, if allowable. Pressing the space bar over a square
  2129. will show the other squares pointing to it, and allow you to form a
  2130. backward link, and pressing the space bar again cancels this.
  2131. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  2132. \H{signpost-parameters} \I{parameters, for Signpost}Signpost parameters
  2133. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  2134. \q{Type} menu.
  2135. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  2136. \dd Size of grid in squares.
  2137. \dt \e{Force start/end to corners}
  2138. \dd If true, the start and end squares are always placed in opposite corners
  2139. (the start at the top left, and the end at the bottom right). If false the start
  2140. and end squares are placed randomly (although always both shown).
  2141. \H{signpost-prefs} \I{preferences, for Signpost}Signpost user preferences
  2142. On platforms that support user preferences, the \q{Preferences} option
  2143. on the \q{Game} menu will let you configure the style of the victory
  2144. effect.
  2145. \C{range} \i{Range}
  2146. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.range}
  2147. You have a grid of squares; some squares contain numbers. Your job is
  2148. to colour some of the squares black, such that several criteria are
  2149. satisfied:
  2150. \b no square with a number is coloured black.
  2151. \b no two black squares are adjacent (horizontally or vertically).
  2152. \b for any two white squares, there is a path between them using only
  2153. white squares.
  2154. \b for each square with a number, that number denotes the total number
  2155. of white squares reachable from that square going in a straight line
  2156. in any horizontal or vertical direction until hitting a wall or a
  2157. black square; the square with the number is included in the total
  2158. (once).
  2159. For instance, a square containing the number one must have four black
  2160. squares as its neighbours by the last criterion; but then it's
  2161. impossible for it to be connected to any outside white square, which
  2162. violates the second to last criterion. So no square will contain the
  2163. number one.
  2164. Credit for this puzzle goes to \i{Nikoli}, who have variously called
  2165. it \q{Kurodoko}, \q{Kuromasu} or \q{Where is Black Cells}.
  2166. \k{nikoli-range}.
  2167. Range was contributed to this collection by Jonas K\u00F6{oe}lker.
  2168. \B{nikoli-range}
  2169. \W{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/kurodoko/}\cw{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/kurodoko/}
  2170. \H{range-controls} \I{controls, for Range}Range controls
  2171. Click with the left button to paint a square black, or with the right
  2172. button to mark a square with a dot to indicate that you are sure it
  2173. should \e{not} be painted black. Repeated clicking with either button
  2174. will cycle the square through the three possible states (filled,
  2175. dotted or empty) in opposite directions.
  2176. You can also use the cursor keys to move around the grid squares.
  2177. Pressing Return does the same as clicking with the left button, while
  2178. pressing Space does the same as a right button click. Moving with the
  2179. cursor keys while holding Shift will place dots in all squares that
  2180. are moved through.
  2181. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  2182. \H{range-parameters} \I{parameters, for Range}Range parameters
  2183. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  2184. \q{Type} menu.
  2185. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  2186. \dd Size of grid in squares.
  2187. \H{range-prefs} \I{preferences, for Range}Range user preferences
  2188. On platforms that support user preferences, the \q{Preferences} option
  2189. on the \q{Game} menu will let you configure which way round the mouse
  2190. buttons work.
  2191. \C{pearl} \i{Pearl}
  2192. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.pearl}
  2193. You have a grid of squares. Your job is to draw lines between the
  2194. centres of horizontally or vertically adjacent squares, so that the
  2195. lines form a single closed loop. In the resulting grid, some of the
  2196. squares that the loop passes through will contain corners, and some
  2197. will be straight horizontal or vertical lines. (And some squares can
  2198. be completely empty \dash the loop doesn't have to pass through every
  2199. square.)
  2200. Some of the squares contain black and white circles, which are clues
  2201. that the loop must satisfy.
  2202. A black circle in a square indicates that that square is a corner, but
  2203. neither of the squares adjacent to it in the loop is also a corner.
  2204. A white circle indicates that the square is a straight edge, but \e{at
  2205. least one} of the squares adjacent to it in the loop is a corner.
  2206. (In both cases, the clue only constrains the two squares adjacent
  2207. \e{in the loop}, that is, the squares that the loop passes into after
  2208. leaving the clue square. The squares that are only adjacent \e{in the
  2209. grid} are not constrained.)
  2210. Credit for this puzzle goes to \i{Nikoli}, who call it \q{Masyu}.
  2211. \k{nikoli-pearl}
  2212. Thanks to James Harvey for assistance with the implementation.
  2213. \B{nikoli-pearl}
  2214. \W{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/masyu/}\cw{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/masyu/}
  2215. \H{pearl-controls} \I{controls, for Pearl}Pearl controls
  2216. Click with the left button on a grid edge to draw a segment of the
  2217. loop through that edge, or to remove a segment once it is drawn.
  2218. Drag with the left button through a series of squares to draw more
  2219. than one segment of the loop in one go. Alternatively, drag over an
  2220. existing part of the loop to undraw it, or to undraw part of it and
  2221. then go in a different direction.
  2222. Click with the right button on a grid edge to mark it with a cross,
  2223. indicating that you are sure the loop does not go through that edge.
  2224. (For instance, if you have decided which of the squares adjacent to a
  2225. white clue has to be a corner, but don't yet know which way the corner
  2226. turns, you might mark the one way it \e{can't} go with a cross.)
  2227. Alternatively, use the cursor keys to move the cursor. Use the Enter
  2228. key to begin and end keyboard \q{drag} operations. Use the Space,
  2229. Escape or Backspace keys to cancel the drag. Or, hold Control while
  2230. dragging with the cursor keys to toggle segments as you move between
  2231. squares.
  2232. Pressing Control-Shift-arrowkey or Shift-arrowkey simulates a left or
  2233. right click, respectively, on the edge in the direction of the key.
  2234. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  2235. \H{pearl-parameters} \I{parameters, for Pearl}Pearl parameters
  2236. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  2237. \q{Type} menu.
  2238. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  2239. \dd Size of grid in squares.
  2240. \dt \e{Difficulty}
  2241. \dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle.
  2242. \dt \e{Allow unsoluble}
  2243. \dd If this is set, then the game will be generated in the simplest
  2244. way: every clue square that can possibly be provided will be shown,
  2245. and the generator will not check whether the puzzle can be uniquely
  2246. solved.
  2247. \lcont{
  2248. This speeds up game generation, and allows much larger grids to be
  2249. played. At least one possible solution will still always exist, but
  2250. there's no guarantee that it will be unique, or that it will be
  2251. possible to deduce it step by step.
  2252. }
  2253. \H{pearl-prefs} \I{preferences, for Pearl}Pearl user preferences
  2254. On platforms that support user preferences, the \q{Preferences} option
  2255. on the \q{Game} menu will let you configure the style of the game
  2256. display. \q{Traditional} is the default mode, in which the loop runs
  2257. between centres of grid squares, and each clue occupies a square.
  2258. \q{Loopy-style} is an alternative mode that looks more like Loopy
  2259. (\k{loopy}), in which the loop runs between grid \e{vertices}, and the
  2260. clues also occupy vertices.
  2261. \C{undead} \i{Undead}
  2262. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.undead}
  2263. You are given a grid of squares, some of which contain diagonal
  2264. mirrors. Every square which is not a mirror must be filled with one of
  2265. three types of undead monster: a ghost, a vampire, or a zombie.
  2266. Vampires can be seen directly, but are invisible when reflected in
  2267. mirrors. Ghosts are the opposite way round: they can be seen in
  2268. mirrors, but are invisible when looked at directly. Zombies are
  2269. visible by any means.
  2270. You are also told the total number of each type of monster in the
  2271. grid. Also around the edge of the grid are written numbers, which
  2272. indicate how many monsters can be seen if you look into the grid along
  2273. a row or column starting from that position. (The diagonal mirrors are
  2274. reflective on both sides. If your reflected line of sight crosses the
  2275. same monster more than once, the number will count it each time it is
  2276. visible, not just once.)
  2277. This puzzle type was invented by David Millar, under the name
  2278. \q{Haunted Mirror Maze}. See \k{janko-undead} for more details.
  2279. Undead was contributed to this collection by Steffen Bauer.
  2280. \B{janko-undead}
  2281. \W{http://www.janko.at/Raetsel/Spukschloss/index.htm}\cw{http://www.janko.at/Raetsel/Spukschloss/index.htm}
  2282. \H{undead-controls} \I{controls, for Undead}Undead controls
  2283. Undead has a similar control system to Solo, Unequal and Keen.
  2284. To play Undead, click the mouse in any empty square and then type a
  2285. letter or number on the keyboard indicating the type of monster:
  2286. \q{G} or \q{1} for a ghost, \q{V} or \q{2} for a vampire,
  2287. or \q{Z} or \q{3} for a zombie. If you make a
  2288. mistake, click the mouse in the incorrect square and press Space to
  2289. clear it again (or use the Undo feature).
  2290. If you \e{right}-click in a square and then type a letter or number, the
  2291. corresponding monster will be shown in reduced size in that square, as
  2292. a \q{pencil mark}. You can have pencil marks for multiple monsters in
  2293. the same square. A square containing a full-size monster cannot also
  2294. contain pencil marks.
  2295. The game pays no attention to pencil marks, so exactly what you use
  2296. them for is up to you: you can use them as reminders that a particular
  2297. square needs to be re-examined once you know more about a particular
  2298. monster, or you can use them as lists of the possible monster in a
  2299. given square, or anything else you feel like.
  2300. To erase a single pencil mark, right-click in the square and type
  2301. the same letter or number again.
  2302. All pencil marks in a square are erased when you left-click and type a
  2303. monster letter, or when you left-click and press Space. Right-clicking
  2304. and pressing space will also erase pencil marks.
  2305. As for Solo, the cursor keys can be used in conjunction with the letter
  2306. keys to place monsters or pencil marks. Use the cursor keys to move a
  2307. highlight around the grid, and type a monster letter or number to enter it in
  2308. the highlighted square. Pressing return toggles the highlight into a
  2309. mode in which you can enter or remove pencil marks.
  2310. If you prefer plain letters of the alphabet to cute monster pictures,
  2311. you can press \q{A} to toggle between showing the monsters as monsters or
  2312. showing them as letters.
  2313. Left-clicking a clue will mark it as done (grey it out), or unmark it
  2314. if it is already marked.
  2315. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  2316. \H{undead-parameters} \I{parameters, for Undead}Undead parameters
  2317. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  2318. \q{Type} menu.
  2319. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  2320. \dd Size of grid in squares.
  2321. \dt \e{Difficulty}
  2322. \dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle.
  2323. \H{undead-prefs} \I{preferences, for Undead}Undead user preferences
  2324. On platforms that support user preferences, the \q{Preferences} option
  2325. on the \q{Game} menu will let you configure whether Undead uses letters
  2326. or pictures to represent monsters.
  2327. \C{unruly} \i{Unruly}
  2328. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.unruly}
  2329. You are given a grid of squares, which you must colour either black or
  2330. white. Some squares are provided as clues; the rest are left for you
  2331. to fill in. Each row and column must contain the same number of black
  2332. and white squares, and no row or column may contain three consecutive
  2333. squares of the same colour.
  2334. This puzzle type was invented by Adolfo Zanellati, under the name
  2335. \q{Tohu wa Vohu}. See \k{janko-unruly} for more details.
  2336. Unruly was contributed to this collection by Lennard Sprong.
  2337. \B{janko-unruly}
  2338. \W{http://www.janko.at/Raetsel/Tohu-Wa-Vohu/index.htm}\cw{http://www.janko.at/Raetsel/Tohu-Wa-Vohu/index.htm}
  2339. \H{unruly-controls} \I{controls, for Unruly}Unruly controls
  2340. To play Unruly, click the mouse in a square to change its colour.
  2341. Left-clicking an empty square will turn it black, and right-clicking
  2342. will turn it white. Keep clicking the same button to cycle through the
  2343. three possible states for the square. If you middle-click in a square
  2344. it will be reset to empty.
  2345. You can also use the cursor keys to move around the grid. Pressing the
  2346. return or space keys will turn an empty square black or white
  2347. respectively (and then cycle the colours in the same way as the mouse
  2348. buttons), and pressing Backspace will reset a square to empty.
  2349. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  2350. \H{unruly-parameters} \I{parameters, for Unruly}Unruly parameters
  2351. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  2352. \q{Type} menu.
  2353. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  2354. \dd Size of grid in squares. (Note that the rules of the game require
  2355. both the width and height to be even numbers.)
  2356. \dt \e{Difficulty}
  2357. \dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle.
  2358. \dt \e{Unique rows and columns}
  2359. \dd If enabled, no two rows are permitted to have exactly the same
  2360. pattern, and likewise columns. (A row and a column can match, though.)
  2361. \C{flood} \i{Flood}
  2362. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.flood}
  2363. You are given a grid of squares, coloured at random in multiple
  2364. colours. In each move, you can flood-fill the top left square in a
  2365. colour of your choice (i.e. every square reachable from the starting
  2366. square by an orthogonally connected path of squares all the same
  2367. colour will be filled in the new colour). As you do this, more and
  2368. more of the grid becomes connected to the starting square.
  2369. Your aim is to make the whole grid the same colour, in as few moves as
  2370. possible. The game will set a limit on the number of moves, based on
  2371. running its own internal solver. You win if you can make the whole
  2372. grid the same colour in that many moves or fewer.
  2373. I saw this game (with a fixed grid size, fixed number of colours, and
  2374. fixed move limit) at http://floodit.appspot.com (no longer accessible).
  2375. \H{flood-controls} \I{controls, for Flood}Flood controls
  2376. To play Flood, click the mouse in a square. The top left corner and
  2377. everything connected to it will be flood-filled with the colour of the
  2378. square you clicked. Clicking a square the same colour as the top left
  2379. corner has no effect, and therefore does not count as a move.
  2380. You can also use the cursor keys to move a cursor (outline black
  2381. square) around the grid. Pressing the return key will fill the top
  2382. left corner in the colour of the square under the cursor.
  2383. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  2384. \H{flood-parameters} \I{parameters, for Flood}Flood parameters
  2385. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  2386. \q{Type} menu.
  2387. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  2388. \dd Size of the grid, in squares.
  2389. \dt \e{Colours}
  2390. \dd Number of colours used to fill the grid. Must be at least 3 (with
  2391. two colours there would only be one legal move at any stage, hence no
  2392. choice to make at all), and at most 10.
  2393. \dt \e{Extra moves permitted}
  2394. \dd Controls the difficulty of the puzzle, by increasing the move
  2395. limit. In each new grid, Flood will run an internal solver to generate
  2396. its own solution, and then the value in this field will be added to
  2397. the length of Flood's solution to generate the game's move limit. So a
  2398. value of 0 requires you to be just as efficient as Flood's automated
  2399. solver, and a larger value makes it easier.
  2400. \lcont{
  2401. (Note that Flood's internal solver will not necessarily find the
  2402. shortest possible solution, though I believe it's pretty close. For a
  2403. real challenge, set this value to 0 and then try to solve a grid in
  2404. \e{strictly fewer} moves than the limit you're given!)
  2405. }
  2406. \C{tracks} \i{Tracks}
  2407. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.tracks}
  2408. You are given a grid of squares, some of which are filled with train
  2409. tracks. You need to complete the track from A to B so that the rows and
  2410. columns contain the same number of track segments as are indicated in the
  2411. clues to the top and right of the grid.
  2412. There are only straight and 90 degree curved rails, and the track may not
  2413. cross itself.
  2414. Tracks was contributed to this collection by James Harvey.
  2415. \H{tracks-controls} \I{controls, for Tracks}Tracks controls
  2416. Left-clicking on an edge between two squares adds a track segment between
  2417. the two squares. Right-clicking on an edge adds a cross on the edge,
  2418. indicating no track is possible there.
  2419. Left-clicking in a square adds a colour indicator showing that you know the
  2420. square must contain a track, even if you don't know which edges it crosses
  2421. yet. Right-clicking in a square adds a cross indicating it contains no
  2422. track segment.
  2423. Left- or right-dragging between squares allows you to lay a straight line
  2424. of is-track or is-not-track indicators, useful for filling in rows or
  2425. columns to match the clue.
  2426. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  2427. \H{tracks-parameters} \I{parameters, for Tracks}Tracks parameters
  2428. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  2429. \q{Type} menu.
  2430. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  2431. \dd Size of the grid, in squares.
  2432. \dt \e{Difficulty}
  2433. \dd Controls the difficulty of the generated puzzle: at Tricky level,
  2434. you are required to make more deductions regarding disregarding moves
  2435. that would lead to impossible crossings later.
  2436. \dt \e{Disallow consecutive 1 clues}
  2437. \dd Controls whether the Tracks game generation permits two adjacent
  2438. rows or columns to have a 1 clue, or permits the row or column of the
  2439. track's endpoint to have a 1 clue. By default this is not permitted,
  2440. to avoid long straight boring segments of track and make the games
  2441. more twiddly and interesting. If you want to restore the possibility,
  2442. turn this option off.
  2443. \C{palisade} \i{Palisade}
  2444. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.palisade}
  2445. You're given a grid of squares, some of which contain numbers. Your
  2446. goal is to subdivide the grid into contiguous regions, all of the same
  2447. (given) size, such that each square containing a number is adjacent to
  2448. exactly that many edges (including those between the inside and the
  2449. outside of the grid).
  2450. Credit for this puzzle goes to \i{Nikoli}, who call it \q{Five Cells}.
  2451. \k{nikoli-palisade}.
  2452. Palisade was contributed to this collection by Jonas K\u00F6{oe}lker.
  2453. \B{nikoli-palisade}
  2454. \W{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/five_cells/}\cw{https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/five_cells/}
  2455. \H{palisade-controls} \I{controls, for Palisade}Palisade controls
  2456. Left-click to place an edge. Right-click to indicate \q{no edge}.
  2457. Alternatively, the arrow keys will move a keyboard cursor. Holding
  2458. Control while pressing an arrow key will place an edge. Press
  2459. Shift-arrowkey to switch off an edge. Repeat an action to perform
  2460. its inverse.
  2461. (All the actions described in \k{common-actions} are also available.)
  2462. \H{Palisade-parameters} \I{parameters, for Palisade}Palisade parameters
  2463. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  2464. \q{Type} menu.
  2465. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  2466. \dd Size of grid in squares.
  2467. \dt \e{Region size}
  2468. \dd The size of the regions into which the grid must be subdivided.
  2469. \C{mosaic} \i{Mosaic}
  2470. \cfg{winhelp-topic}{games.mosaic}
  2471. You are given a grid of squares, which you must colour either black or
  2472. white.
  2473. Some squares contain clue numbers. Each clue tells you the number of
  2474. black squares in the 3\times\.3 region surrounding the clue \dash
  2475. \e{including} the clue square itself.
  2476. This game is variously known in other locations as: ArtMosaico, Count
  2477. and Darken, Cuenta Y Sombrea, Fill-a-Pix, Fill-In, Komsu Karala,
  2478. Magipic, Majipiku, Mosaico, Mosaik, Mozaiek, Nampre Puzzle,
  2479. Nurie-Puzzle, Oekaki-Pix, Voisimage.
  2480. Mosaic was contributed to this collection by Didi Kohen. Colour design
  2481. by Michal Shomer. The implementation is loosely based on
  2482. \W{https://github.com/mordechaim/Mosaic}\cw{github.com/mordechaim/Mosaic}.
  2483. \H{mosaic-controls} \I{controls, for Mosaic}Mosaic controls
  2484. To play Mosaic, click the mouse in a square to change its colour.
  2485. Left-clicking an empty square will turn it black, and right-clicking
  2486. will turn it white. Keep clicking the same button to cycle through the
  2487. three possible states for the square.
  2488. If you hold down the mouse button and drag, you can colour multiple
  2489. cells in a single action.
  2490. You can also use the cursor keys to move around the grid. Pressing the
  2491. return or space keys will turn an empty square black or white
  2492. respectively (and then cycle the colours in the same way as the mouse
  2493. buttons), and pressing Backspace will reset a square to empty.
  2494. \H{Mosaic-parameters} \I{parameters, for Mosaic}Mosaic parameters
  2495. These parameters are available from the \q{Custom...} option on the
  2496. \q{Type} menu.
  2497. \dt \e{Width}, \e{Height}
  2498. \dd Size of grid in squares.
  2499. \dt \e{Aggressive generation}
  2500. \dd With this option set, the game generator will try harder to
  2501. eliminate unnecessary clues on the board. This slows down generation,
  2502. so it's not recommended for boards larger than, say, 30\times\.30.
  2503. \A{licence} \I{MIT licence}\ii{Licence}
  2504. This software is \i{copyright} 2004-2023 Simon Tatham.
  2505. Portions copyright Richard Boulton, James Harvey, Mike Pinna, Jonas
  2506. K\u00F6{oe}lker, Dariusz Olszewski, Michael Schierl, Lambros Lambrou,
  2507. Bernd Schmidt, Steffen Bauer, Lennard Sprong, Rogier Goossens, Michael
  2508. Quevillon, Asher Gordon, Didi Kohen, and Ben Harris.
  2509. Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
  2510. obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files
  2511. (the \q{Software}), to deal in the Software without restriction,
  2512. including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge,
  2513. publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software,
  2514. and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so,
  2515. subject to the following conditions:
  2516. The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
  2517. included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
  2518. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED \q{AS IS}, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
  2519. EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
  2520. MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
  2521. NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS
  2522. BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN
  2523. ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN
  2524. CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
  2525. SOFTWARE.
  2526. \IM{command-line}{command line} command line
  2527. \IM{default parameters, specifying} default parameters, specifying
  2528. \IM{default parameters, specifying} preferences, specifying default
  2529. \IM{Unix} Unix
  2530. \IM{Unix} Linux
  2531. \IM{generating game IDs} generating game IDs
  2532. \IM{generating game IDs} game ID, generating
  2533. \IM{specific} \q{Specific}, menu option
  2534. \IM{custom} \q{Custom}, menu option
  2535. \IM{game ID} game ID
  2536. \IM{game ID} ID, game
  2537. \IM{ID format} ID format
  2538. \IM{ID format} format, ID
  2539. \IM{ID format} game ID, format
  2540. \IM{keys} keys
  2541. \IM{keys} shortcuts (keyboard)
  2542. \IM{initial state} initial state
  2543. \IM{initial state} state, initial
  2544. \IM{MIT licence} MIT licence
  2545. \IM{MIT licence} licence, MIT