Sokoban
|
|
KSokoban-screenshot.png
Sokoban_PC_game_01.png
Sokoban (倉庫番, Japanese for "warehouse keeper") is a transport puzzle in which the player pushes boxes around a maze, viewed from above, and tries to put them in designated locations. Only one box may be pushed at a time, not two, and boxes cannot be pulled. As the puzzle would be extremely difficult to create physically, it is usually implemented as a video game.
Sokoban was created in 1982 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi, and was published by Thinking Rabbit, a software house based in Takarazuka, Japan. Thinking Rabbit also released three sequels: Boxxle, Sokoban Perfect and Sokoban Revenge.
Implementations of Sokoban have been written for numerous computer platforms, including almost all home computer and personal computer systems. Versions also exist for several hand held and video game consoles, including mobile phones. The text-based computer game NetHack contains a sequence of dungeon levels deliberately designed to simulate a Sokoban game.
Sokoban variants
Several transport puzzles can be considered variants of the original Sokoban game, in the sense that they all make use of a controllable character who pushes boxes around a maze.
Alternative Tilings: In the standard game, the mazes are laid out on a tiling of squares. Several variants apply the rules of Sokoban to mazes laid out on other tilings. Hexoban uses a tiling of regular hexagons and Trioban a tiling of equilateral triangles.
Multiple pushers: In the variant Multiban the player can control multiple characters.
Alternative goals: Several variants adjust the requirements for completing a level. For example, in Block-o-Mania the boxes are different colours and the goal is to push them onto squares which match their colours. Sokomind Plus implements a similar idea, with boxes and target squares uniquely numbered. In Interlock and Sokolor, the boxes are also different colours, but the goal is to move them so that similarly coloured boxes are adjacent. In Cyberbox, each level has a designated exit square, and the goal is to reach that exit.
Additional game elements: Sokonex, Xsok, Cyberbox and Block-o-Mania all add new elements to the basic puzzle. Examples include holes, teleports, moving blocks and one-way passages.
External links
- Official Sokoban site, in Japanese (http://www.sokoban.jp/)
- Yahoo! Sokoban discussion group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sokoban/)
- Web pages with lots of useful Sokoban information:
- Sokosave resources (http://www.high-speed-software.com/sokosave//links.php#resources),
- Eric Sever's Sokoban pages (http://www.geocities.com/erimsever/sokoban.htm),
- Rodolfo Valeiras Reina's Sokoban pages (Spanish) (http://www.rodoval.com/heureka/sokoban/sokoban.html),
- Robert Vasicek's Sokoban links (http://rvas.webzdarma.cz/sokolinks.htm)
- Sokoban variants:
- Block-o-Mania (http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=4191)
- Interlock (http://interlockgame.com)
- Sokolor and Sokonex (http://www.sokofun.de)
- Sokomind plus (http://www.sokomind.de/)de:Sokoban ja:倉庫番 nl:Sokoban pl:Sokoban