Puzzle Games

The term puzzle game isn't all that old. The PC Games Bible by Robin Matthews and Paul Rigby, 1992, does not know it yet. Some of the games that we would call puzzle games nowadays (Blue Angel 69, Boulder Dash, Chip's Challenge, Lemmings, Pipe Mania) are listed under arcade, but most (7 Colors, Atomic, Blockout, Lin Wu's Challenge, Logical, Logo, Loopz, Puzznic, Sarakon, Soko-ban, Swap, Tetris, or X Rock) are listed under strategy games. The term strategy game was used far wider and more vaguely then. On the other hand, a lot of games we would call strategy games are listed as war games, a term that has completely gone out of use meanwhile.

That the PC Games Bible does not know the term puzzle game does not necessarily mean it wasn't around at the time. But obviously it wasn't established well enough to have to be included.

Puzzle vs. Strategy

As a gameplay element, a puzzle is something the player has to figure out. The problem, and its solution, has been devised by the game designer.

Let's look at two examples. Soko-ban is a good example for a game where the gameplay is indeed puzzle solving. For each level there is at least one solution. It is the players task to find it out. Once you have found a solution, you may still try to find another one with fewer steps and pushes. You might even come up with one that the designer did not anticipate. But basically the level is solved, time to move on to the next. If there is really no solution, then it's the designers fault, and the level is pointless.

On the other hand, SameGame is a good example for a game based not on puzzle-solving, but strategy. The playing field is randomly generated, which alone precludes a pre-defined solution.

Seperate Lists

1984–90

Beast

Boulder Dash

MSX

Relentless Logic

Conway, Hong, and Smith

Soko-ban

NES

Creative Contraptions

Zodiac Strip

Chain Shot!

Fujitsu FM 8/7

Kuniaki Moribe

Ilan Ginzburg

Larry Ludwick

John Dale & Spiny Norman

The Adventures of Lolo

NES

Chip's Challenge

Lynx

Chuck Sommerville

Loopz

NES

Pipe Mania

NES

Mines

Ian Heath

1991–93

Swap	91	Microïds
S.C. Out		Remake of Saracen
Blow Up
Crux		Bob Lancaster
Fences		Steve Blanding
Gripple		Doug Beeferman
HowTwo		Christopher G. Gunn
Koolah		Marko Teittinen
Logical
Memory		P. Höhn
Memory Blocks		Charles Timmerman
Mine Field		Charles A. Hardy
Rodent's Revenge		Christopher Lee Fraley
Satori		Rinzai Satori
Ungaria		Oscar Daudt Neto
Alchemyst	92	Bruce Hansen
Ariva		Tom Wilson
Boxcars		Jim Radcliffe
Contraption Zack
Flagger		James A. Sausville
The Incredible Machine
Colorix		Andreas Turowsky
Oxyd
Stone Age
Switch 'Em		Brian Boese
SqueezePlay
Stuffin' the Briefcase		Getaway Entertainment 6 Pack
Kye		Colin Garbutt
Tiles		Daniel G. Rigal
15 Move Hole Puzzle	93
Mynes		Marc Palms
Cubicmaze		Lee C. Dickinson
DOSMine		David Vancina
Minefind		Edward Henigin
Sokoball		Jim Radcliffe
Jotto ][
Laserstrike		Kevin Ng
WormWorld		Kevin Ng
Nankin		Ikuo Hirohata
Pipeline (Windows)
Linx		Arkady Elterman
Span-It!		Mark T. Chapman
WOWSpill		Ben C. Pullen

1994–96

Kainan	94	Takashi Miura
Marble Cooking
Boggled		Chas Mastrandrea
Arcy 2
Clockwiser		Team Hoi
Hirnriss	95	Harald Müller
Bombs Away!		Dave Dobson
Mindgame		Michael Werneburg
Lines
Lunacy		Kevin Ng
Reproduction Man		David Kilmer
Keibot
MacPipes
Jotto	96	Peter Donnelly

1997–2000

Axium Adventures	97	Soleau
Balltrix		Paul Benenson
Galapagos
New Beetle Tracks & Gaps		Mario Knezovic
Simon		Fernando Lagos
Bubbles		Maxym Runov
Fruit Salad		Anthony Guye-Vuilleme
Capy	98	YesCREW
Marbles		Fredrik Olsson
Color linez		Ivan Golubev
Pastel Fantasy
Diabolika	99	Jon Perry & Derek Yu
Codex		Baltazar & Mariano Birnios
DonDen		Ichikawa Shinji
WormWorld (remake)	00	Arnab Bose
Atomic for Windows		Philippe Lesire
Hexagon		Peter Balch

Since 2001

Spych		01	Pawel Slawinski
Tile World		01	Remake of Chip's Challenge
Chromatron		02
Pluvia		02	A & J Bushnaq
Catast		03
Diabolika 2			Derek Yu
Enigma			Remake of Oxyd
Escape	NES	04
The Adventures of Lolo (Remake)		05
Penta			Matthias Arndt
Chip's Advance	GBA