Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection

Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection is a collection of roughly 40 single-player logic games written by the titular Simon Tatham. The game was originally made to be a cross-compatible small puzzle collection that was available across platforms, as the author was annoyed that many small games were only available on one platform such as Unix. The game was made as a personal collection of Simon's, though he would release the game to the public. The author stated that the games in the collection were not his invention; they are mostly re-implementations of existing game, and some of the code were even written by other authors. Originally, the game is made for computers, though an Android version would be made by Chris Boyle. This Android version is the primary subject for this review.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection is a collection of roughly 40 single-player logic games written by the titular Simon Tatham. The game was originally made to be a cross-compatible small puzzle collection that was available across platforms, as the author was annoyed that many small games were only available on one platform such as Unix.


The game was made as a personal collection of Simon's, though he would release the game to the public. The author stated that the games in the collection were not his invention; they are mostly re-implementations of existing game, and some of the code were even written by other authors.


Originally, the game is made for computers, though an Android version would be made by Chris Boyle. This Android version is the primary subject for this review.




Installation

The original game is available on Windows and Unix system with GTK support (e.g. Linux). However, some people have also ported the game on iPhone, iPad, Rockbox, and Android. The Android port by Chris Boyle can be obtained through the Google Play Store, F-Droid, GitHub, or Chris's personal web page. For this review, we are going to use Chris Boyle's port released on 29 March 2024.


The size of the game is around 9 MB during download, and it takes up a total of 14 MB on install. We installed the game from F-Droid and experienced no problem during the installation process.




Gameplay




The gameplay of this puzzle game varies depending on which puzzle you choose; as of this review, there are 42 puzzle games available in the collection, each with their own rules. These rules can be read by clicking on the question mark button on the top-right of the screen and then choosing "help"



As there are plenty of puzzles to go through, we will only focus on some examples in the review:


Gameplay footage of Net and Untangle


NET

The main goal of net is to connect every blue square tiles using each connecting pieces to the central square in order to create a complete network with no closed loops. To do this, you are able to rotate every squares in the grid until they are connected. Net is perhaps one of the simpler game in the collection and is a good place to start.


UNTANGLE

In untangle, you are given a number of points (dots) with some lines drawn between them. Your goal is to move the points so that no line crosses one another. The rule is simple, but making sure all the lines not cross each other can be quite difficult because you often need to move multiple points just to make one line not cross each other. It honestly feels like trying to untangle a tangled wired earphones.


LIGHTS UP

In lights up, the main goal is to place an exact number of light bulbs around numbered tiles based on the number (2 means the tile needs two lightbulbs, not more and not less) while also lighting up every blank (non-wall) tiles on the board. Every light bulb will light up the tiles in line with it horizontally and vertically, and no light bulbs may be placed on a tile that is already lit up by another light bulb. The aim of the game is to strategically place the light bulbs, as every light bulb placed somewhere will prevent you from placing more elsewhere, so you must make sure the light bulb does not prevent you from placing more where it is needed.


Gameplay footage of Mines and Fifteen


MINES (a.k.a. MINESWEEPER)

Mines is a game based on the famous Minesweeper, perhaps one of the most well-known desktop puzzle game. The goal is to uncover every square that doesn't contain a square. Everytime you uncover a square without mines, you will be told how many squares within its eight surrounding squares contain mines. It is a classic, and Simon's implementation has a neat feature which prevents the game from being unsolvable through deduction.


FIFTEEN

Fifteen is a game based on the physical "15 puzzle with sliding tiles" game. The game is played on a square grid with equal amount of squares horizontally and vertically (e.g. 4x4). Every tile has a number from 1 to the amount of grids in the square minus one; one square is empty. The goal of the game is to slide the squares next to the empty grids so that they are placed in numerical order from left to right first, then top to bottom. This is a basic digital re-implementation of the classic sliding puzzle game.


PEGS

Pegs is based on "Peg Solitaire," which is one of the oldest puzzle games. In the game, a number of pegs are placed in holes on the board. You can remove a peg by jumping another peg over a peg and into an empty hole. The goal is to remove all but one peg on the board. However, you must be careful to make sure that there are no pegs that cannot be reached by another peg and thus cannot be removed.


Overall, most of the games in the collection requires quite a bit of thinking. In an interview, our respondent said that the game really challenges the brain. In the same interview, the respondent said that most of the games were complex and took a lot to understand, and even then many were difficult to solve unless one played on the easier difficulty.


Looking at it, this game can be quite fun if you are into logic puzzle games, though most of the game were rather difficult to get into unless you were interested in challenging brain teasers to begin with. This fact was corroborated by our respondent in the interview.


Aside from the puzzle itself, the game provides some features to help you play, including an undo and redo button, show solutions (if you are really stuck), and the ability to mark or lock solutions in games where it makes sense


Of course, being such a simple game means that the game rarely lags no matter which hardware you are playing on.




Graphics



The graphics of the game is overall very minimal. For the most part, the game consists of just basic and flat colors with simple designs and simple animations. The art style is reminiscent of older Windows 95 and 98 design. It is serviceable but not too interesting. Users can also enable dark mode if they wish, which would make most elements in the game black.


However, the simplicity of the graphics may not necessarily a bad thing; it does help keep the game size small, and it makes the puzzle more legible. Our respondent stated that the games do not need fancy designs, and fancier designs may "distract from the puzzle".




Audio


The game has no audio in any form.




Customizability



When it comes to customization, the game does offer some, though not much. In game, you are able to customize some aspects depending on the game. This is mostly done by choosing which puzzle type or difficulty you want (for example, when playing net, you can choose to play on a 5x5 grid, 7x7 grid, 9x9 grid, 5x5 with wrapping, 7x7 with wrapping, and more). You can customize the type and difficulty further by choosing the custom option (for net, you can adjust the width and height of the puzzle, enable/disable wall wrap, and choose barrier probability). Different games have different options; some game has plenty of customization, while others do not.


Aside from that, the in-game settings only consists of toggling control reminders, screen rotation, night/dark mode, animations, full screen, and a few other small tweaks. Additionally, you are able to mark the games you like with a star, and starred games will be put on the very top of the list, allowing you to put some game as favorites.




Verdict


Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection is an fascinating trove of puzzle games. The game may seem simple, but oftentimes it can be surprisingly difficult to crack. It is a great game to play for a short while, but the complexity of the games will be off-putting for many people.


Still, if you are in the mood for some tough, brain-teasing puzzle games, then this might be the game for you. It probably won't be the kind of game you play for hours on end, but it may fill the time whenever you have an odd minute or so of doing nothing.




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