Sliding puzzle
Encyclopedia
A sliding puzzle, sliding block puzzle, or sliding tile puzzle is a puzzle
that challenges a player to slide usually flat pieces along certain routes (usually on a board) to establish a certain end-configuration.
The fifteen puzzle is the oldest type of sliding block puzzle. It was invented by Noyes Chapman and created a puzzle craze in 1880. Sam Loyd
is often wrongly credited with making sliding puzzles popular based on his false claim that he invented the fifteen puzzle.
Unlike other tour puzzle
s, a sliding block puzzle prohibits lifting any piece off the board. This property separates sliding puzzles from rearrangement puzzles. Hence, finding moves and the paths opened up by each move within the two-dimensional confines of the board are important parts of solving sliding block puzzles.
Sliding puzzles are essentially two-dimensional in nature, even if the sliding is facilitated by mechanically interlinked pieces (like partially encaged marbles) or three-dimensional tokens. As this example shows, some sliding puzzles are mechanical puzzles. However, the mechanical fixtures are usually not essential to these puzzles; the parts could as well be tokens on a flat board that are moved according to certain rules.
This type of puzzle has been computerized (as puzzle video games) and is available to play for free on-line from many Web pages. It is a descendant of the jigsaw puzzle
in that its point is to form a picture on-screen. The last square of the puzzle is then displayed automatically once the other pieces have been lined up.
Puzzle
A puzzle is a problem or enigma that tests the ingenuity of the solver. In a basic puzzle, one is intended to put together pieces in a logical way in order to come up with the desired solution...
that challenges a player to slide usually flat pieces along certain routes (usually on a board) to establish a certain end-configuration.
The fifteen puzzle is the oldest type of sliding block puzzle. It was invented by Noyes Chapman and created a puzzle craze in 1880. Sam Loyd
Sam Loyd
Samuel Loyd , born in Philadelphia and raised in New York, was an American chess player, chess composer, puzzle author, and recreational mathematician....
is often wrongly credited with making sliding puzzles popular based on his false claim that he invented the fifteen puzzle.
Unlike other tour puzzle
Tour puzzle
In tour puzzles the player of the puzzle makes a trip around a board using a token which represents a traveller....
s, a sliding block puzzle prohibits lifting any piece off the board. This property separates sliding puzzles from rearrangement puzzles. Hence, finding moves and the paths opened up by each move within the two-dimensional confines of the board are important parts of solving sliding block puzzles.
Sliding puzzles are essentially two-dimensional in nature, even if the sliding is facilitated by mechanically interlinked pieces (like partially encaged marbles) or three-dimensional tokens. As this example shows, some sliding puzzles are mechanical puzzles. However, the mechanical fixtures are usually not essential to these puzzles; the parts could as well be tokens on a flat board that are moved according to certain rules.
This type of puzzle has been computerized (as puzzle video games) and is available to play for free on-line from many Web pages. It is a descendant of the jigsaw puzzle
Jigsaw puzzle
A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of numerous small, often oddly shaped, interlocking and tessellating pieces.Each piece usually has a small part of a picture on it; when complete, a jigsaw puzzle produces a complete picture...
in that its point is to form a picture on-screen. The last square of the puzzle is then displayed automatically once the other pieces have been lined up.
Examples of sliding puzzles
- Fifteen puzzle
- InakubeInakubeInakube is a puzzle video game currently available for the Apple iPod touch and iPhone devices.The puzzle itself is essentially a 3D version of the Fifteen puzzle in which a scrambled set of tiles must be rearranged to form a picture, or a sequence of numbers...
- KlotskiKlotskiKlotski is a sliding block puzzle. Sometimes it only refers to the block arrangement in the right-hand-side diagram, where the largest block must be moved to the bottom middle location...
- Minus CubeMinus CubeThe Minus Cube is a 3D mechanical variant of the n-puzzle which was manufactured in the Soviet Union. It consists of a bonded transparent plastic box containing seven small cubes, each glued together from two U-shape parts: one white and one coloured. The length of one side of the interior of the...
- JumblyJumblyJumbly is a sliding-block puzzle game by Don Priestley, for the ZX Spectrum. It was published by dk'tronics....
See also
- PuzzlePuzzleA puzzle is a problem or enigma that tests the ingenuity of the solver. In a basic puzzle, one is intended to put together pieces in a logical way in order to come up with the desired solution...
- Mechanical puzzles
- Combination puzzlesCombination puzzlesA combination puzzle, also known as a sequential move puzzle, is a puzzle which consists of a set of pieces which can be manipulated into different combinations by a group of operations. The puzzle is solved by achieving a particular combination starting from a random combination...
- Transport PuzzleTransport puzzleTransport puzzles are logistical puzzles, which often represent real-life transport problems.-Description:In transport puzzles you move persons and/or objects through a given landscape. As in rearrangement puzzles, no piece is ever lost or added to the board...
- Rush HourRush Hour (board game)Rush Hour is a sliding block puzzle invented by Nob Yoshigahara in the late 1970s and first sold in the United States in 1996. It is manufactured by ThinkFun ....
- Rubik's CubeRubik's CubeRubik's Cube is a 3-D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik.Originally called the "Magic Cube", the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Ideal Toy Corp. in 1980 and won the German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle that...
- RO (game)RO (game)RO is a puzzle game first developed for the BREW development platform in 2006 and for the iPhone platform in 2008.- History :RO was initially created as part of a larger unpublished FMV game titled, "Red Sky", which was proposed to Trilobyte Inc in 1996....
A rotational variation