Swap
Swap is a very easy game to play. The game starts out with four different Characters and each Character has four different colors. The idea is very simple. All you have to do is arrange the Characters so that no 2 touch each other, either on the edges or on the corners, that are the same color or have the same design. The example on the right has not been solved.
You may put the Characters and the Colors in whatever order you like. In other words, if you start in the upper lefthand corner, you may put any one of the 16 Characters there. So there are many possibilities. Wow, this game is even easier than I thought.
Move the Characters by swapping their positions. Click 2 Characters that you want to Swap, then press the Enter key. The last 2 Characters you clicked will be swapped. If you don't like the new positions, press the Enter key again and they will go back to their previous positions. You may click more than 2 Characters if you wish. For example, lets say you want to Swap the Red and the Blue Arrows, but you accidently click the Green one first. No problem! Just click the Red Arrow, then the Blue Arrow. Press Enter, and you're all set. The Red Arrow and the Blue Arrow will switch places, and the Green one will stay right where it was.
Some of the Characters look nice and some don't, so I decided to include some more choices. Type of Characters allows the user to select from the following: Numbers, Upper Case Alpha, Lower Case Alpha, All Alpha (Upper and Lower Case), Wingding Characters, Special Characters, and All Ascii Characters. I have created a text file called Swap.Opt that will save the Type of Characters that the user has chosen.If you choose one of the first 3 Character Types; Numbers, Upper Case Alpha, or Lower Case Alpha, you will be offered one more choice; Random or Sequential. For example, if you select Upper Case Alpha, then Sequential, the puzzle characters will be A, B, C and D.
There is an option on the Menu (shown at left) to select the Puzzle Size. You may select any format from 4*4 thru 9*9.
There are many different Characters in this game and they are picked at Random, so it should be different every time you play. Some of the Characters look very similar but there should not be any duplicates. If it is too difficult to tell one Character from another, just click the Menu at the top of the screen, select Options, then Restart. That will start a new game with all new Characters and colors.
Solve will show one possible answer to the puzzle, however, there are many other possible solutions too. Solve currently provides a prefab solution. It is a real solution to the puzzle, using the current Characters & Colors, but it provides the answer using a predetermined algorithm. Solve is a Work-in-progress. I am still working on a more random solution but it has proven to be much more difficult than I anticipated.
Solve Pause Time is new as of Oct. 26, 2006 . It will display the Pause Time control shown on the right. It allows the user to control the speed of the Solve process. Set it to 0 if you just want to see the answer and don't care how it is done.
Note: If you just want to change the time, but don't want to Solve the puzzle right now, you must click the No button in the Solve now box before selecting a time value.
The BackGround colors of the boxes are chosen at random, but only from a select list. I also employed a simple swap routine to make sure that a color is not repeated in a single game. Some colors still look very similar and it may be difficult to tell them apart, so I added the ToolTipText which contains the Color Name and the Ascii Number of the Character. Simply pause the mouse cursor over a box and the Color name and Ascii Number will be displayed.
New (Oct. 27, 2006): You may now Double Click on any box to change the Color of it. All tiles with the same Color will also be changed. You may select any color that is available on the PC. I would suggest not to make it too dark though because the Character may become unreadable. Most colors do not have names associated with them, therefore I will display the RGB Color in the ToolTipText. When you correctly solve a screen, you will know it because you will immediately get a nice little Congratulations! from me. Each time you solve a screen, you will have the option to move up to a higher level .... if you dare! Swap currently has 6 different playing levels (4*4 thru 9*9). 6 levels may not sound like much, but I think you will find it challenging enough just to get through the first 3 levels.
I'm sorry, but I have no idea how many possible winning combinations there are. If you figure it out, please write and tell me how you got your answer. OK. that's it. Have fun and Swap till you drop!