If you buy an affordable computer from PCRetro.com, you might think that your next step is to go buy some software for the computer. Not so fast! There is excellent free software for many different purposes that you can use on your computer. Today I’d like to tell you about some fun logic puzzles, SYA Sokoban, that I helped design. These puzzles can be used by children as young as kindergarten, yet the more difficult versions of the puzzles are well-suited for adults. The Sokoban puzzles were originally invented in Japan in the early 1980’s. “Sokoban” means “warehouse keeper.” Your job as the warehouse keeper is to push heavy boxes around the screen to move them to the storage area. Since the boxes are so heavy you can only push one box at a time. In case you accidentally push a box into a corner, you can undo your move.
You can download SYA Sokoban from here. This software is available for Linux, Macintosh and Windows. I’ve created a screencast, a narrated explanation about playing the puzzles, that you can view right on the same web site. To play the “Simple Sokoban” puzzles I designed, press the letter “c” after you start SYA Sokoban. Then use the down arrow on your keyboard to scroll down to Simple Sokoban – Phil Shapiro.
After you have progressed thru the 60 puzzles I designed, you will have some excellent strategies for solving the more difficult Sokoban puzzles. I designed my puzzles to help youth and adults develop confidence in solving Sokoban puzzles. It’s sometime fun to solve these puzzles together with friends and families. Don’t you love it when you reach that “Aha! I got it!” moment?
Children who develop an appetite for solving these kinds of multi-step puzzles will have a much easier time with high school algebra, geometry and calculus. Students might even find that the math they learn at school is easier than the puzzles they solve at home for fun.
And in case you might be interested, here is an article I wrote about the educational value of the Sokoban logic puzzles. I wrote this article almost 20 years ago. If you develop a real fondness for solving Sokoban puzzles, you’ll be happy to hear that there are many places on the web where you can play these puzzles for free. Just search for: “Sokoban Java” to find versions of Sokoban to play on the web. Some of these can be quite difficult, though. I’m proud to say that the free SYA Sokoban puzzles are the best Sokoban puzzles I know of.
And I need to give credit where credit is due. David Joffe is the programmer who created the SYA Sokoban puzzles. He deserves a lot of credit. I had a much lesser role in designing the Simple Sokoban puzzles.
(Phil can be reached at pshapiro@his.com He works at the Takoma Park Maryland Library during the day and teaches a graduate class in educational technology at American University in the evenings.)