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Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection

chiark.greenend.org.uk

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Re: Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection

#21

Post by Arainach »

enasterosophes wrote: post #18

I really like loopy. It has a very stat mech or discrete math feel. I think it could be used to introduce deeper concepts in mathematics to novices, such as proofs, and the question of whether mathematics is constructed or discovered. A lot of the time solving loopy involves noticing re-usable patterns. But how do you know a possible pattern is re-usable? Well, you can prove it, such as with notions from graph theory…

For more variations, research papers, implementations, etc. search for its canonical name `Slitherlink`.

Re: Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection

#26

Post by omoikane »

ooterness wrote: post #17
leni536 wrote: post #7

It has the best version of minesweeper, where every board is solvable.

There was a Minesweeper variant called Kaboom, where you're playing against a computer that's trying to make you lose. The computer has to comply with all revealed information, but if you ever make a guess, no matter how improbable, it's have over. https://pwmarcz.pl/blog/kaboom/ Previous discussion on HackerNews: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21883875

There is also Yusuke Endoh's version, where the only thing you do is guess. Computer will automatically mark all the spots where it has enough information to make an inference.

https://mame.github.io/minesweeper-spoiled-by-ai/

Re: Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection

#27

Post by II2II »

rustcleaner wrote: post #4

I install this on everything. It is really really good, and IMO the way more games should be made: make a fast simple windowmanager friendly interface presenting puzzles and games in a very pure and unencumbered form. Another example: I love SimCity 2000 for Win95, but not SimCity 3000 or SimCity 4. Why? Wright did 2000 right, the post-EA SimCities were all full screen flashy playskool interface monstrosities. 3000 b…

Along similar lines, I really enjoyed shapez. Please forgive the blasphemy here, but I never could get into Factorio even though many of the mechanics are similar. (The former allowed me to focus on game play. The latter was a little too grim for my liking.)

Re: Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection

#28

Post by devilbunny »

th4tg41 wrote: post #22

At least on Android some games are flawed. Never played them on another system. For example Flood can be solved in less turns than the 'calculated' minimum.

That’s not a calculated minimum. It’s a generous maximum; less-than-optimal play can still win.

Re: Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection

#29

Post by ink_13 »

I have played a lot of Pearl, and almost as much Unruly and and Keen.

I find a custom-sized Pearl board so that it fills as much of my phone screen as possible without getting teeny is just the right length to fill a minute or two. I wanted to play even bigger boards on my tablet, but it seems the puzzle generation algorithm is exponential and asking for a too-big board will crash the app.

Re: Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection

#30

Post by hirsin »

Arainach wrote: post #21
enasterosophes wrote: post #18

I really like loopy. It has a very stat mech or discrete math feel. I think it could be used to introduce deeper concepts in mathematics to novices, such as proofs, and the question of whether mathematics is constructed or discovered. A lot of the time solving loopy involves noticing re-usable patterns. But how do you know a possible pattern is re-usable? Well, you can prove it, such as with notions from graph theory…

For more variations, research papers, implementations, etc. search for its canonical name `Slitherlink`.

There's an excellent Android version of Slitherlink with multiple variants, well worth the couple bucks to unlock unlimited games beyond the initial couple hundred.
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