18 February 2013

Sokoban lessons - Parallel

I define the "parallel" as:

- Two (or more) rows of goals, separated by a line of floors. (In some cases -as in the first puzzle of "monry"-, I have admitted 2 lines of separation.)
 

- Between the two rows of goals can have walls (or goals), but not exceeding one third of the space.

Given these restrictions, I have made a extensive selection of the most beautiful puzzles. You can download this set here (
except commercial puzzles):


I recommend to visit the collections of Sven Egevad and Thomas Reinke, where you will find many very good puzzles in this topic.

About the difficulty, I recommend to beginning players to leave the difficult puzzles to the end (rating higher than 7), and try to solve first the easy and medium difficulty.

My scale of difficulty is this:

1 - 4.5    Easy
5 - 6.5    Medium
7 - 8      Difficult
8.5 - 10   Hard


Finally, as a curiosity, my three favorite puzzles are these:


- Yoshio Murase - handmade #47 High jump
- Aymeric du Peloux - Cosmonotes #20
- Eric F. Tchong + zhenying - Atlas 10 #47 Gaming room 3


This is my selection, in chronological order:



Author: Yoshio Sakae
Title: 倉庫番2 (GameBoy) 08-06
Date: June 1990
Note: Published later in Sokoban Revenge (1991) #150 ドラゴン (Dragon)
Difficulty: 5
Best moves/pushes: 268/80 (Stamen Aleksandrov)

Double spiral, figure related to the Yin-Yang symbol.

Double spiral


Author: Shinji Kai
Title: Sokoban Revenge #191 ナイトメア (Nightmare)
Date: 1991
Difficulty: 5
Best moves/pushes: 140/49

Classical "barriers".


Author: monry
Title: 天地無用011 (Tenchi Muyo 011)
Set: Tenchi Muyo series
Date: 1995.1.5
Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 59/20

Excellent "11"! Admirable simplicity. The problem is how to close the last column.


Author: monry
Title: monry-light #107 II
Date: 1998.12.28
Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 150/42

Parallel within a cross-shaped structure. The difficulty is guaranteed.


Author: David W. Skinner
Title: Sasquatch #9
Date: January 1999
Website: users.bentonrea.com/~sasquatch/sokoban/
Difficulty: 4.5
Best moves/pushes: 150/46


Author: Yoshio Murase
Title: handmade #23 イヌ (Dog)
Date: c. 1999
Website: www.ne.jp/asahi/ai/yoshio/sokoban/index.html
Difficulty: 4
Best moves/pushes: 87/26


Author: Hirohiko Nakamiya
Title: Monster Sokoban 8-7
Date: c. June 2000
Website: miya.s16.xrea.com/selection/bannin/
Difficulty: 7.5
Best moves/pushes: 177/41

Similar level to nakamiya #4, but with 4 boxes less.


Author: Yoshio Murase
Title: handmade #47 高跳び (High jump)
Comment:
似たような面がありそうですが、何も参考にはしてません。
完全な創作です。。。が、「これに似てるよ」とか、教えて
下さると嬉しいです。
「似ている面チェッカ」があるといいですね。
Date: 2000.9.10
Website: www.ne.jp/asahi/ai/yoshio/sokoban/index.html
Difficulty: 5
Best moves/pushes: 97/32

Fantastic! This is one of my favorite puzzles.


Author: Erim Sever
Title: erim17-first collection
Date: c. January 2001
Website: www.erimsever.com/
Difficulty: 3
Best moves/pushes: 43/12

Minimum parallel.


Author: David W. Skinner + gyjgw
Title: Sasquatch IV #25 b
Comment: added a wall
Date: March 2001. Remodel: 2005.5.13
Website: users.bentonrea.com/~sasquatch/sokoban/
Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 611/126


Author: David W. Skinner
Title: Sasquatch IV #49
Date: March 2001
Website: users.bentonrea.com/~sasquatch/sokoban/
Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 782/288 (Georgi Georgiev)

There are more difficult versions of York Shen and Marek Letrab, with up to 10 boxes more.



Author: Howard Abed + LZY + York Shen + gyjgw
Title: SokoBig-80 #37 d
Date: c. March 2001. Remodel by gyjgw: 2004.9.21
Difficulty: 7
Best moves/pushes: 3033/550

It is the same theme of the double spiral (see above Sokoban Revenge #150 by Yoshio Sakae). There are other later versions of Marko Dzekic and anian.


Author: François Marques
Title: Kokoban #24 The ladder
Date: September 2001
Website: sokoban.online.fr/
Difficulty: 6.5
Best moves/pushes: 98/35


Author: Hiroki Kanou
Title: mx1343
Date: c. November 2001
Difficulty: 7
Best moves/pushes: 97/32

Strangely difficult...


Author: Sven Egevad
Title: SE 402
Comment: line-up hard
Date: c. 2001
Difficulty: 5
Best moves/pushes: 95/27


Author: François Marques
Title: Cuzco
Note: Le concurs du mois de mars 2002
Date: 2002.1.20
Website: sokoban.online.fr/
Difficulty: 6.5
Best moves/pushes: 406/124

Fantastic puzzle, very nice and tight.


Author: David W. Skinner + Jordi Doménech
Title: Microban II variations #23
Comment: based on Microban II #70
Date: April 2002. Remodel: May 2012
Website:
users.bentonrea.com/~sasquatch/sokoban/
www.abelmartin.com/rj/sokoban.html

Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 115/32


Author: François Marques
Title: Sokolate #43 T
Date: September 2002
Website: sokoban.online.fr/
Difficulty: 4.5
Best moves/pushes: 114/30


Author: David W. Skinner
Title: Sasquatch VI #1
Date: October 2002
Website: users.bentonrea.com/~sasquatch/sokoban/
Difficulty: 4.5
Best moves/pushes: 226/52


Author: David W. Skinner
Title: Sasquatch VI #4
Date: October 2002
Website: users.bentonrea.com/~sasquatch/sokoban/
Difficulty: 4.5
Best moves/pushes: 51/18


Author: David W. Skinner
Title: Sasquatch VI #42
Date: October 2002
Website: users.bentonrea.com/~sasquatch/sokoban/
Difficulty: 7.5
Best moves/pushes: 339/122 (kevin cassol)

One of the first puzzles with the classic theme of the "rings". There are enlarged versions (with up to 5 rings) of York Shen, Marek Letrab and Tian Lang.


Author: Sven Egevad
Title: SE 568
Comment: line-up hard
Date: c. 2002
Difficulty: 5.5
Best moves/pushes: 181/68

Hint: Do not move the placed boxes!:
* *
* *


Author: Kenyam (Kenya Maruyama)
Title: Kenyam Set A #19 Trespass
Comment:
The left part was made first. Then the right part was created
to implement two of my ideas. One idea is what the title shows,
while the other is no-name but is well applied to SetA #24, 'Turtle'.
Date: c. May 2003
Website: www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Domino/7999/soko/skrmc_a.htm
Difficulty: 6.5
Best moves/pushes: 176/58


Author: Ghislain Martin + Jordi Doménech
Title: SokoStation variations #70 TRUC RIGOLO
Comment: based on SokoStation #169
Date: 2003.12.23. Remodel: January 2012
Website:
sokoban.pagesperso-orange.fr/
www.abelmartin.com/rj/sokoban.html

Difficulty: 6.5
Best moves/pushes: 102/22


Author: Sven Egevad
Title: SE 846
Comment: line-up medium
Date: c. 2003
Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 103/32


Author: Sven Egevad
Title: SE 893
Comment: lines hard
Date: c. 2003
Difficulty: 6.5
Best moves/pushes: 158/35


Author: Sven Egevad
Title: SE 905
Comment: in-line hard
Date: c. 2003
Difficulty: 6.5
Best moves/pushes: 178/32 (Wolfgang Haas)


Author: Big Panda
Title: Dzxmer Box 40 #22 (corr.)
Date: c. 2003
Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 716/167

Funny tree.


Author: Big Panda
Title: Dzxmer Panda 92 #36
Date: c. 2003?
Difficulty: 7
Best moves/pushes: 347/122

Very nice "rings", similar to Sasquatch VI #42 (see above). There are many versions of this puzzle, with up to 3 rings, of York Shen and others. This is the simplest version.


Author: Erim Sever + Marek Letrab
Title: erim181c_sharpen collection
Date: c. 2003
Website: www.erimsever.com/
Difficulty: 7
Best moves/pushes: 628/200

Stoned version of erim181.


Author: Ghislain Martin + Jordi Doménech
Title: SokoStation variations #80 LE VIRAGE QUI TOURNE
Comment: based on SokoStation #205
Date: 2004.6.23. Remodel: January 2012
Website:
sokoban.pagesperso-orange.fr/
www.abelmartin.com/rj/sokoban.html

Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 140/55


Author: gyjgw
Title: jgw032
Date: 2004.7.22
Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 503/158

Nice spirals. There is another version (of York Shen?) with a box more in the center.


Author: Dries De Clercq
Title: Sokodries1 #10 E
Date: October 2004
Website: puzzles.net23.net/sok.htm
Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 97/27

Extra-mini parallel, but of strange difficulty.


Author: Aymeric du Peloux
Title: Cosmonotes #20
Date: c. October 2004
Website: membres.multimania.fr/nabokos/index.html
Difficulty: 7
(A. du P.)
Best moves/pushes: 223/44

Excellent! This is another of my favorite puzzles, along with the of Yoshio Murase. My difficulty rating: 6.5.


Author: gyjgw
Title: 20050304
Date: 2005.3.4
Difficulty: 7.5
Best moves/pushes: 585/87

Classic "fix one"! This seems to be a version - more difficult - of Second Set #8 by Howard Abed.


Author: gyjgw
Title: gyjgw20050513-_0160
Date: 2005.5.13
Difficulty: 7
Best moves/pushes: 384/126

Another beautiful puzzle with the classic theme of the "rings".
Good!


Author: Thomas Reinke
Title: Albizia #14
Date: May 2005
Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 128/18

Excellent!


Author: Thomas Reinke
Title: Anomaly #28
Date: September 2005
Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 76/22


Author: Sven Egevad
Title: SE 1203
Comment: lines hard
Date: c. 2005
Difficulty: 5
Best moves/pushes: 121/28


Author: Sven Egevad
Title: SE 1206
Comment: lines medium
Date: c. 2005
Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 122/34


Author: Sven Egevad
Title: SE 1275
Comment: lines hard
Date: c. 2005
Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 250/58 (ken glass)


Author: Sven Egevad
Title: SE 1487
Comment: line-up hard
Date: c. 2006
Difficulty: 6.5
Best moves/pushes: 139/34


Author: Eric F. Tchong + zhenying
Title: Atlas 10 #47 Gaming room 3 a
Date: February 2008. Remodel: 2009.4.22
Website: blog.163.com/changkai_8428/
URL: free.activeclub.net/script/forum/view.asp?article_id=34649845&Page=3
Difficulty: 7.5
Best moves/pushes: 584/85

Beautiful remodel! I love it! "很多1!" ("A lot of 1!") is a more difficult version; see here: blog.163.com/changkai_8428/blog/static/774519182011111348595/


Author: zhenying
Title: Hanhan
Date: 2008.3.14
Website: blog.163.com/changkai_8428/
Difficulty: 8.5
Best moves/pushes: 3332/1156

This is the first version of this puzzle. There are later versions of the own zhenying, Marko Dzekic, Tian Lang, anian and stopheart.


Author: Jordi Doménech
Title: The beautiful world of remodels, 1 #60 Inspired by Sasquatch IV #29 by David W. Skinner (b)
Website: www.abelmartin.com/rj/sokoban.html
Date: April 2010
Difficulty: 8
Best moves/pushes: 239/68


Author: zhenying
Title: 61-16
Date: 2010.9.27
Website: blog.163.com/changkai_8428/
Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 239/42


Author: Jordi Doménech + Tian Lang
Title:
The beautiful world of remodels, 4 #3 Double square (a)
Date: 2010.11.24
Website: www.abelmartin.com/rj/sokoban.html
Difficulty: 8
Best moves/pushes: 222/66

Beautiful stoned version.


Author: Jordi Doménech
Title: Miniatures - Part One (easy) #6
Date: December 2010
Website: www.abelmartin.com/rj/sokoban.html
Difficulty: 3.5
Best moves/pushes: 47/16

Minimum parallel, with rooms :)


Author: laizhufu + Jordi Doménech
Title: The beautiful world of remodels, 4 #21 L
Date: 2011.4.8
Website: www.abelmartin.com/rj/sokoban.html
Difficulty: 7.5
Best moves/pushes: 430/71


Author: Kevin Cassol
Title: Magic Sokoban 1 #100
Date: June 2011
Difficulty: 7
Best moves/pushes: 322/96


Author: laizhufu + stopheart
Title: 叶子 - "Q" (Leaf - Q) a
Date: 2011.7.14
URL: bbs.mf8-china.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=72975&extra=&page=21
Difficulty: 7
Best moves/pushes: 364/110

There are later versions more difficult, of stopheart and anian.


Author: laizhufu
Title: 喜出望外 (Overjoyed)
Date: 2011.8.15
URL: bbs.mf8-china.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=72975&extra=&page=30
Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 569/122


Author: zhenying
Title: 有个0 ? (There is a 0?)
Date: 2011.10.23
Website: blog.163.com/changkai_8428/
URL: blog.163.com/changkai_8428/blog/static/774519182011111348595/
Difficulty: 9
Best moves/pushes: 1037/258


Author: Thomas Reinke
Title: Quagmire 2 #29 Library
Date: November 2011
Difficulty: 7
Best moves/pushes: 218/50


Author: Thomas Reinke
Title: Quagmire 2 #30 Olive Oil
Date: November 2011
Difficulty: 6.5
Best moves/pushes: 171/32


Author: Thomas Reinke + Jordi Doménech
Title: Magic Sokoban 2 #98 Doublet III variation
Comment: based on Quagmire 2 #46 Doublet III
Date: November 2011. Remodel: April 2012
Difficulty: 6.5
Best moves/pushes: 206/34


Author: Eric F. Tchong + Jordi Doménech
Title: Chuchubi 15 #46 4 balls up
Date: December 2011. Remodel: 2013.1.28
Difficulty: 8
Best moves/pushes: 225/83


Author: Thomas Reinke
Title: Anomaly 3 #17 Triplet
Date: February 2012
Difficulty: 7.5
Best moves/pushes: 255/50


Author: Jordi Doménech
Title: Magic Sokoban 2 #94 Broken parallel
Date: April 2012
Website: www.abelmartin.com/rj/sokoban.html
Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 107/25


Author: Přemysl Zíka
Title: Level 258 Triple blockade
Date: June 2012
Website: www.zusbreznice.cz/rozvrhy-zika-premysl-sokoban.cz
Difficulty: 8
Best moves/pushes: 413/66 (Sokobano)

Spectacular!


Author: Eric F. Tchong + Jordi Doménech
Title: Dushi 2 #35 In little moves or pushes
Date: July 2012. Remodel: 2012.7.17
Difficulty: 8
Best moves/pushes: 544/102


Author: Jordi Doménech + anian + Tian Lang
Title: Tribute to the Greek people, for two times victim of Nazi brutality (b1)
Date: 2012.11.2
URL: bbs.mf8-china.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=37579&extra=page%3D1&page=110
Difficulty: 8.5
Best moves/pushes: 578/139



Author: Jordi Doménech
Title: Three parallel #17
Comment: to Přemysl Zíka
Date: January 2013
Website: www.abelmartin.com/rj/sokoban.html
Difficulty: 7.5
Best moves/pushes: 301/74



Author: David Buchweitz + Jordi Doménech
Title: Chrysalis variations 2 #14
Date: January 2013
Difficulty: 6
Best moves/pushes: 435/106

Double parallel boxes/goals...




 
Author: Jordi Doménech
Title: Magic Sokoban 5 #1
Date: September 2013
Difficulty: 3
Best moves/pushes: 43/9

So easy, but not obvious. If you can solve on the first attempt, you are a very thoughtful person. However, for many players it seems very easily, and immediately push a box... and they are wrong :s



New additions

Note: These puzzles are not included in the downloadable file
#######
#     #
#     #
##*$*##
# .@. #
# *$* #
#  #  #
#######


Author: niwa
Title: Square dance #6 Washitsu
Date: February 2014
Difficulty: 5
Best moves/pushes: 67/20


Other puzzles:

- Howard Abed
Second Set #8 and #18
SokoBig-80 #37 (and remodels by York Shen, LZY, gyjgw and others)

- Mario Bonenfant
Mb-29

- Kevin Cassol
SokoChallenge #6 and #9

- Dries De Clercq
696 #283

- Jordi Doménech
Miniatures - Part One (easy) #36
Miniatures - Part Two (hard) #14 Parallels, #26 Parallels hard
Magic Sokoban 1 #30, #98 H
Magic Sokoban 2 #85
Magic Sokoban 3 #79

The beautiful world of remodels, 4 #13 Not too boring 1
Three parallel (collection)

- Sven Egevad
SE 430, 515, 540, 600, 832, 851, 852, 854, 1020, 1074, 1337, 1352

- David Holland
bagatelle #8 slinky5
bagatelle 2 #14 moebius2
cantrip 2 #13 footy6

- François Marques
Sokompact #33
Kokoban #18
100 boxes #4 Two lines
Sokolate #43 T
Le concurs du mois d'août 2002 - The cloud
Le concurs du mois. Bonus levels - Memories

- Ghislain Martin
SokoStation #223 ESCALIER, #299 CHLOSTROPHOBIA, #324 TRIPHASE


- Ghislain Martin + Jordi Doménech

SokoStation variations #44, #81
 
- Kseniya Mierzejewska
Spirals #2 Christmas

- monry
FirstStep 408

- Hirohiko Nakamiya + hir
nakamiya #4 break (D)

- Aymeric du Peloux
Picokosmos #7

- Frantisek Pokorny
#30 Parallel

- Kevin B. Reilly
kbr885, 1048, 1060, 1096, 1598, 1624, 1812, 2017

- Thomas Reinke
Albizia #5, #17
Anomaly #6
Anomaly 3 #1 Vitality, #19 Scribble, #37 Visitation
Quagmire #33, #36
Quagmire 2 #8 Doublet II, #25 Nemesis, #49 Stockade III

- Seppolino
Symmetrixx #6 M.C. Escher

- Shaggath
V2009 #18

- David W. Skinner
Microban #83, #137
Microban III #19
Microban IV #18
Sasquatch VIII #1
Sasquatch IX #24


- Sokoban Basic 2
Yoshio Sakae #1-13

- Sokoban Revenge
Yoshio Sakae #47
Masaki Nakajo #196
Hiroshi Inoue #225, #298

- Keijo Sopuli
KEAS Collection #26 Zeal

- Michael Steins
Diagonal twentyfour

- Eric F. Tchong
Aruba 10 #34 Cross country
Serena 4 #14 Temple
Serena 6 #29 Joy of thinking, #30 One to fix
Serena 8 #74 C scale
Serena 9 #15 Leave some untouched
Cosmac 2 #25 Aspergus
Cosmac 8 #26 Walk a marathon
Cosmac 9 #32 Cliffhanger II
Chuchubi 1 #18 Pacman 2, #27 Senior class
Chuchubi 2 #70 Marathon walk
Chuchubi 5 #64 Temple walk 3
Chuchubi 8 #12 Get dizzy
Chuchubi 10 #10 Tour de France
Chuchubi 13 #11 Anaconda
Chuchubi 14 #4 Luna Park honoring Marko Dzekic
Dushi 1 #34 Blade, #38 Barricade pop

- XiBei TianLang
TL09

- zhenying
61-14, 61-19, 61-20, 61-36
很多1! (blog.163.com/changkai_8428/blog/static/774519182011111348595/)

- Přemysl Zíka
Level 266
Primus gradus ad Olympo #47