Sokoban

[Minim]

Anyone a Sokoban fan? I just recently started playing a similar version to that and thought I'd mention about it in a thread.

In this game you basically push boxes into targets, almost like sending lemmings towards their respective home. You cannot push two boxes, you cannot pull them and you cannot move diagonally.

The similar version I was talking about was Sokomind, which has been around since I was a kid. It was the first downloadable game I managed to find that included a level editor. However, the main puzzles are more difficult than those in the original game.

[geoo]

Back in highschool I wrote a version of Sokoban for my pocket calculator. I made some levels of my own, but I also found a great batch of very small (just 3 boxes) but often very difficult levels (especially check the autogenerated ones): http://www.ne.jp/asahi/ai/yoshio/sokoban/index.html

At a university science night in 2008 some people set up real life sokoban (see photo below), and I gave them one of the Yoshio Murase autogenerated levels (number #2 if I recall), which they thought was impossible (and I'm not sure if I remembered the solution). It does have a solution though, of course: https://web.archive.org/web/20041011150149/http://sokoban.ionichost.com/ViewSolutions.php?LevelSetID=2

I don't think I've played Sokoban ever since. Some Supaplex levels had sokoban-like level portions with yellow disks though, like level 67 that I got stuck on for years 15 years ago.

[Simon]

Sokoban is a great puzzle game, coming from the simplest possible rules. My gripe is that larger Sokoban levels are often interesting only at the beginning. After solving the core problem, you'll be pushing 5 to 10 crates around the same loop into the goal area. I'll keep the small levels linked by geoo in mind, those sound exactly like good level design.

I have played Lasertank back when I was a teenager, and still run the game occasionally in Wine. The game mechanics contain Sokoban as a subset. Several levels in the Lasertank main level pack are Sokoban levels, and there exist dedicated Sokoban packs for it.

Lasertank is reasonably well-designed as a discrete game with undo, savestates, and no time limit. Like Lix, the author has maintained mostly the engine, and the hardcore fanbase maintains the huge amount of levels. As of February 2015, they have 19,730 levels.

What I consider problematic is summed up in this quote from the website: "If you are having problems with a level maybe there is a trick that you need to figure out. [They have a level pack to showcase and teach these tricks.] Most of these tricks are actually bugs in the software, but I have left them in to make the game more exciting."

-- Simon

[mobius]

chips challenge has sokobon elements; there are blocks and buttons to push the blocks on. Except very few of the original game levels have true sokobon puzzles [just boring tedious bridge building]
Noteworthy sokobon levels: [also really good levels in their own right]
Corridor, Mixed Nuts, Teleblock, Roadsign.
Since this game had everything Sokobon has and more; I've never been inclined to actually play sokobon itself But I'd still like to someday.

You'll need to check out custom levels if you want some real challenging sokobons; supposedly "The same game" by Pieguy is really difficult. There are a lot of really good ones in custom levepacks I just can't think of any to mention right now.
ccx made a level called "encased in mud" which involves some block pushing but this level probably requires some glitch and I have no idea how to solve it.

Chuck Challenge featured quite a bit of sokobons [and good ones too!]. Chucks challenge also has "ice blocks" which unlike the regular blocks can push more than one in a row; which is similar to that old Windows game where a mouse pushed blocks and escaped a cat.
The unreleased CC2 was supposed to have an item "hook" which could enable you to pull blocks.

The game, Jewels of the Oracle features a puzzle which is very sokobon like. In fact one version of it is a recreation of an actual sokobon level or part of it. [called "Hall of the Sun"]

[ccexplore]

Speaking of Chip's Challenge

The unreleased CC2

As もびうす pointed out to me recently, apparently they've finally gotten Chip's Challenge 2 released, although it is only available via Steam at this point it looks like.  It even got an article on Ars Technica today: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/06/how-an-early-90s-windows-gaming-classic-was-unearthed-after-years-in-limbo/

You'll need to check out custom levels if you want some real challenging sokobons; supposedly "The same game" by Pieguy is really difficult.

That definitely remains my favorite custom level in CC.  It is glitch-free and will confuse and frustrate you for quite a while (especially once you get to the final room, which I can't say more without spoiling too much), but is quite rewarding once you finally make the breakthrough and figure out what the level is about, just like a good difficult glitch-free custom Lemmings level.  I liked it so much I even remade that level for a certain game that is inspired by CC (but with vastly different graphics and backstory), however that game's crowd is simply not suitable for challenging levels so it was somewhat of a wasted effort.

That said, I don't think the level can be remade under pure Sokobon mechanics.  Part of the level's concept as you may notice from just looking at the level, is that the rooms are slightly different and those slight differences end up changing a lot of things (hence the accurate but ironic title).  Pure Sokobon only has block-pushing in its mechanics, so I don't think you can quite adapt the CC level to that, though I guess the very general idea of slightly different rooms with vastly different solutions (adding up to, well, can't say here for spoilers) can probably be adapted in some form somehow.

ccx made a level called "encased in mud" which involves some block pushing but this level probably requires some glitch and I have no idea how to solve it.

I don't recall the details but I don't believe it requires any glitches, at least nothing outrageous.  If I recall, I was simply experimenting around with a certain layout exemplified by the setup you see in that level, and simply tried to work out the maximum number of blocks one can extract out of that layout.  There is some logic to solving it but overall it wasn't that deep of a concept, nowhere on the level of "The same game" for example.

It also does make use of CC elements not available in pure Sokoban, so again not a level adaptable to pure Sokoban.