The Tungsten PDA

In Japan, people working in a warehouse are called Sokoban, and thus receives this name in the game that we must push a series of boxes, through a maze, and place them in certain positions. We can only push, and only a further, so that a bad move can leave the boxes in such a position that we can not continue playing.

The initial level of Sokoban

Sokoban was invented in 1980 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi, which won him a design video games. He was subsequently published in 1982 by the company Thinking Rabbit, headed by Hiroyuki own, and because of its simplicity and elegance of rules, but challenging intellectual complexity, at once became very popular. Although subsequently appeared countless versions, there is a core set "standard" of 50 problems, arranged for easier to more difficult, which originally appeared on the PC version of the game developed by Spectrum Holobyte in 1984.

Sokoban hides much more than it seems at first glance. The designs of different levels hidden beauty, detail and complexity that goes far beyond simple fun that is to try to solve them, turning them into little works of art. In fact, some levels are highly valued, and their authors have a high reputation among the fans of this game. Occasionally, somebody has been done with any of these levels more valued, and has amended without knowing the complexity that was hidden behind the design, being compared these events with stealing a box of Velazquez and paint over some lines, destroying the work.

From the standpoint of algorithmic complexity, Sokoban is a type of NP-hard and full-EspacioP, becoming very interesting for researchers in artificial intelligence, because solving a level of Sokoban is comparable to design a robot that can move by a warehouse. Sokoban is very complex due to its branching factor (comparable to that of chess), and the enormous depth of its search tree (some levels require pushing the boxes more than 1000 times). It has been the subject of many studies, such as that resulting in the automatic solver Rolling Stone, developed by the Department of games at the University of Alberta.

A more complicated

Sokoban is available for many systems: Windows, Linux, MacOS X ... and of course also PalmOS. There are a few implementations to choose from, some of payment (HotSokoban, Sokoban, PicoBan), but there is also free:

The interface Boxmeer

• Boxman is I liked most, since although all versions of Sokoban free for PalmOS I've found, are somewhat older and do not support high resolution, or 5-way navigator, this allows easy movement with the stylus: us mark the box to which we want to go, and the program moves hormiguita to that position. The same thing happens when moving the boxes. Has 110 levels, keep score on our movements, so that we can play to beat our own brand, and allows undo our movements. There is a shareware version called HandySokoban, which adds more features to Boxmeer and solutions at all levels.
• BoxWorld yard is pretty basic, although it has option to undo. It has color version, and a collection of levels (100 in total) created by the desarrlolladores.

Sokoban, like all good puzzles, achieved with simple rules, if we want to make us think rather go to the next level. A game addictive and fun, to enjoy our spare time at the Palm.

By: Mark Gonzalez Troyes in Analysis
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