Sometimes after a hard day at the computer (making comics etc.) we all need a little mental breather. Sometimes playing with a little toy, or going for a walk can spark new inspiration, or clear the mind for better thoughts. Sometimes, however you just want to play some games!

 

The aim of pluzzle is to move all the tiles into numerical order, from left to right and top to bottom, leaving the bottom right square empty. You do this by simply dragging the tiles, or by clicking a tile to move it into an adjacent empty space. You can even move collections of tiles by grabbing one end and pushing the other tiles.

 

You can make pluzzle as big as 7x7 or as little as 3x3 depending on the challenge required. Sounds and animations can be switched off - all of these options are in the preferences panel. If you get stuck, you can always try again! For a real challenge, try turning off the numbers.

 

Change the scenery.

If you tire of looking at San Fransisco (like, like, no way) you can always put in your own picture by simply dragging in a photo from the Finder. You can also copy and paste from any application that supports photos. Or for a minimalist look, just hit 'delete' and you will be left with plain black tiles.

 

pluzzle is based upon mathematician Sam Loyd's (1841-1911) "Fifteen Puzzle" produced during the 1870s. His original version was a 4x4 grid, with 15 tiles arranged in a random order - he offered $1,000 to anyone who could solve the puzzle. No one was able to claim the prize because the puzzle was really a trick! - two tiles had been switched around making it impossible to solve. But don't worry, pluzzle is (usually) solvable. Tip - make pluzzle easier - click early before the pluzzle is too shuffled!

A similar software puzzle was included in the original Apple Macintosh computer, released in 1984 (there is an amazing story of how the creator managed to fit it in 600 bytes of memory!) It was a favorite for many years, but now returns in a new form for Mac OS X users to enjoy! Now, get pluzzling!