| ★ AMSTRAD CPC ★ GAMESLIST ★ PATTERN PUZZLES (c) HTB COMPUTERS ★ |
Amstrad Computer User |
Brain Teasers Yvonne Taylor shows you how to escape from it all with a maddening suite of puzzles from HTB Computers Ltd. All computer users need to relax now and then. Games provide the perfect outlet for all those tensions that have built up during a hard day's work. Some may head straight for a mega-adventure or a shoot-em-up space battle. Those who prefer a more cerebral form of entertainment will no doubt throw up their hands in horror at the mere thought. Bashing monsters and zapping the Klingons require good hand-to-eye co-ordination and fast thinking, which not all of us have. For those who like a good old-fashioned brain teaser. Pattern Puzzles are just the thing. The suite of five puzzles can be worked on at snail's pace if you choose. The puzzles are for users of the Amstrad CPC range fitted with disc drive and colour display. The colour display is all-important because this is what the puzzles rely on to work. The puzzles are based loosely on a commonplace children's toy. You probably had one or used one: a plastic frame containing numbered or lettered tiles, which could be moved round till they were in order. It only took a few tries to get the hang of the toy. Things were made much easier because there was always a free space in the frame. Pattern Puzzles, however, do not have that free space and they are not that easy. There are three basic layouts inside the “frame'' of the puzzles. First, there is the basic layout, where different colours are arranged in rows across the screen. In the simple layout, there are square blocks of colour. The third layout has a loops arrangement, where colours are arranged in concentric squares. The five puzzles; Patterns, Rubicana, Boggier, Snakes and Megamind, use one or more of these arrangements. For example, Boggier can use the simple layout or the loops arrangement. Users can attack the puzzles in four different ways. First, there is the basic layout. You can set your own problem by manipulating a square and then working back to its original state. This is much the best way to start. It will show you how to use the manipulation tools available and get your brain into gear for Ihe more complex thinking later. You can ask the computer to set the puzzle by giving it the number of random moves to make to jumble up the original square. These jumbled squares can be saved if you choose. The manual suggests they be used to form Challenge entries. Players could compete to solve them in the least number of moves. The computer also supplies Competition squares. These have been pre-jumbled but there is no saved solution as there is with the Challenge squares. When you are working on a puzzle, the screen will show an illustration in the corner. This tells you what colours are supposed to end where. This is all the help you will get, so make the most of it. “Tiles” within the puzzle are picked up with a cursor and moved to where you want to place them. This is where your trouble will start. There is no spare space here. If you move a tile one space to the left, the whole row will move one space to the left. The first tile will become the last in the row. There is also complete wrap-around for columns. By the time you arrive at Megamind, you will have learned all the available forms of square manipulation. These include simple left or right movements, block rotations clockwise or anti-clockwise and up or down snaking movements. Pattern Puzzles is not something you will grow tired of in five minutes. It will be with you for years, if you keep your sanity for that long! It has two advantages: you can set your own puzzles or the computer can set them at random. The chances of seeing the same one twice are practically nil. The puzzles will remain as fresh and as annoying as the first time you tried them. ACU |
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