This is the README for TileSlide.s.tar.gz [Download] [Browse] [Up]
TileSlide Released to the public domain September, 1991 TileSlide is a NeXT version of the old-faithful 15-Puzzle. It is fairly NeXTish, in that it includes DSP-generated music, drag-and-drop loading of pictures, and use of the defaults database. When the program is first run, the use of pictures is disabled because there is no picture loaded. To use a picture, just drag a tiff or eps file icon from the Workspace Manager's File Viewer and drop it onto the playing field, or use the Background... menu item. The filepath is stored in the defaults database, and the same picture is used when the program is next executed. The playing board may be resized when using an eps picture (or none at all). The size of the board is selectable with the Difficulty menu item to be 3X3 (Easy), 4X4 (Normal) or 5X5 (Hard). This preference is also stored in the defaults database. You have a choice of playing a randomly scrambled board (Mix Randomly menu item) or playing one of four preset patterns for each size (Challenge Mix menu item). The best score for each preset pattern is stored in the defaults database, so you can challenge yourself to solve the puzzle in as few moves as possible for each pattern. A panel displaying the best scores can be displayed with the Bests... menu option. This game was written as a programming exercise, to help me become familiar with the power of the AppKit. It uses the AppKit exclusively for all drawing. The tiles are buttons, with or without icons on them, and the old button positions are erased by moving around a plain light gray Box. Not the most efficient way to do things, I know. The music borrows from the BreakApp demo application, to the point that it copies, nearly identically, the class that plays the music and the interface file for adjusting sound parameters. The only significant change I made was to change the 'frequency multiplier' parameter to a more musically pleasing 'transpose' function. Reported bugs may or may not be fixed, but any comments are always welcome! Kevin Brain (ksbrain@zeus.UWaterloo.ca)
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.