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Sokoban
Puzzle video game series From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Sokoban[a] is a series of puzzle video games in which the player pushes boxes around in a warehouse, trying to get them to storage locations. Hiroyuki Imabayashi created the first Sokoban game in 1981 as a personal project. It was the basis for the first commercial release, published in Japan in 1982 by his company Thinking Rabbit for the NEC PC-8801 computer. It was ported to various platforms, and new titles followed over the years. Sokoban became popular in Japan and internationally, and the series has remained active, with the most recent title released in 2021. Sokoban has inspired unofficial versions, thousands of custom puzzles, similar games, and artificial intelligence research.
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Gameplay
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The warehouse is a grid composed of floor squares and impassable wall squares. Some floor squares contain a box and some are marked as storage locations. The number of boxes equals the number of storage locations.
The player, often represented as a worker character, can move one square at a time horizontally or vertically onto empty floor squares, but cannot pass through walls or boxes.
To move a box, the player walks up to it and pushes it to an empty square directly beyond the box. Boxes cannot be pushed to squares with walls or other boxes, and they cannot be pulled.
The puzzle is solved when all boxes are on storage locations.
Progressing through the game requires careful planning and precise maneuvering.[2] A single mistake, such as pushing a box into a corner or obstructing the path of others, can render the puzzle unsolvable, forcing the player to backtrack or restart. Anticipating the consequences of each push and considering the overall layout of the puzzle are crucial to avoid deadlocks and complete the puzzle successfully. A deadlock is a situation from which the puzzle cannot be solved, regardless of subsequent moves.[3]
Deadlocks
Common deadlocks are:[4]
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History
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In 1981, Hiroyuki Imabayashi created the first Sokoban game as a personal project for the NEC PC-8001 computer. The game used text-based graphics and featured five challenging levels designed by him. For the core mechanic, he was inspired by one part of the gameplay of Hudson Soft's 1980 action game, Aldebaran #1, for the MZ-80K,[5] where the player pushed luggage to prevent radiation. Imabayashi conceptualized that the luggage needed to be organized and that the luggage itself would become an obstacle in the process. He enjoyed playing the game with friends at his home. During this time, his wife's family had owned a disc record store that had a small computer corner. By chance, a salesman saw the game and suggested that it would sell. Imabayashi ported the game to the more advanced NEC PC-8801 computer from the store's corner, enhancing the graphics and expanding the levels to 20. In 1982, he founded his company, Thinking Rabbit, based in Takarazuka, Japan, and in December released this PC-8801 version as the first commercial Sokoban game.[6][7][8][9]
In subsequent years, ports and new titles for various home computers and video game consoles appeared, developed by Thinking Rabbit or by other companies through license.[10][11]
In 1988, Spectrum HoloByte published Sokoban in the U.S. for the IBM PC, Commodore 64, and Apple II as Soko-Ban.[12]
In 1990, FCI released Boxxle for the Game Boy in both North America and Europe,[13] followed by Boxxle II in 1992.[14]
Between 1996 and 2000, several Sokoban games were released for Windows and PlayStation in Japan.[15]
In 2001, the Japanese software company Falcon acquired the copyright to the official Sokoban games and the trademarks for Sokoban and Thinking Rabbit.[16] Since then, Falcon has continued to develop and license official Sokoban games.
Between 2004 and 2007, several Sokoban titles for Japanese mobile phones were distributed through i-mode by Square Enix and Dwango.[17][18]
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Versions
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Since its debut in 1982, Sokoban has been released on various platforms, primarily in Japan but also in other regions. Most titles are independent without a continuous narrative, though a few are direct sequels to a specific earlier release—for example, Sokoban 2 (1984) follows Sokoban (1982), and Sokoban Revenge (1991) is a sequel to Sokoban Perfect (1989). The following table lists a selection of official Sokoban titles.[19]
Reception
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In an October 1983 review, Pasocom Game Ranking Book scored Sokoban (1982) 94 out of 100 points.[22] A December 1983 issue of MICOMGAMES described the game as highly addictive, noting that "once you start playing, it's hard to stop" (translated from Japanese). [23] By June 1984, the developer reported that the game had sold 22,000 copies in Japan,[24] and by March 1985, it had reached 30,000 copies.[25]
Spectrum Holobyte reported that Sokoban was a hit in Japan, selling over 400,000 copies there before the 1988 release of the title Soko-Ban in the United States.[26][27]
Soko-Ban received a positive review from Computer Gaming World, which described it as simple yet mentally challenging and praised its addictive nature.[28] In Dragon magazine, reviewers rated it 4½ out of 5 stars.[29]
In 1990, in Game Player's magazine, Tom R. Halfhill reviewed Boxyboy, describing it as the first pure puzzle game for the NEC TurboGrafx-16. He praised its untimed, logical puzzles, but noted that enjoyment requires a willingness to repeat the same basic puzzle goal over and over again. He added that it offered a welcome change from typical action games while being "virtually identical" to Shove It! and Boxxle.[30]
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Legacy
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Name genericization
The name Sokoban is a registered trademark for video game titles. However, the core mechanic—pushing boxes to storage locations on a grid—is not protected by copyright or patent. This has allowed the widespread creation of numerous unofficial versions.[31] Some feature only custom levels, while others include level designs that may be subject to copyright. As a result, the term Sokoban has become informally genericized and is commonly used to refer to any game with these mechanics, regardless of origin.[32] Standalone levels are frequently described as Sokoban puzzles.
Cultural impact
An active fan community has produced thousands of custom puzzles,[33] and software tools, including puzzle editors, solvers,[34] and solution optimizers.[35]
Derivatives
Sokoban is considered the originator of a puzzle game subgenre featuring box-pushing mechanics, commonly referred to as "Sokoban-like" games.[36][37]
In Picoban, the goal is to reach a green stone, often blocked by one or more doors that require collecting keys or placing boxes on all storage locations.[38] In Beanstalk, the objective is to push the elements of the puzzle onto a target square in a fixed sequence.[39] In Pukoban, the character can pull boxes in addition to pushing them.[40] In Sokoboxes Duo, two pushers must collaborate to solve the puzzle.[41]
Variants
Hexoban uses a hexagonal grid instead of a square grid, allowing movements in six directions instead of four.[42] In Multiban, the puzzle contains more than one pusher.[43]
In Sokoban Limit the puzzles must be solved within a very strict number of moves.[44]
Some Sokoban programs also offer a "reverse mode" in which players play a puzzle backward. Starting with all boxes on storage locations, they pull the boxes to return to the initial puzzle state.[45]
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Computer science research
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Sokoban has been studied using the theory of computational complexity. The computational problem of solving Sokoban puzzles was first shown to be NP-hard.[46][47] Further work proved it is also PSPACE-complete.[48][49]
Solving non-trivial Sokoban puzzles is difficult for computers because of the high branching factor (many legal pushes at each turn) and the large search depth (many pushes needed to reach a solution).[50][51] Even small puzzles can require lengthy solutions.[52]
The Sokoban game provides a challenging testbed for developing and evaluating planning techniques.[53] The first documented automated solver, Rolling Stone, was developed at the University of Alberta. It employed a conventional search algorithm enhanced with domain-specific techniques such as deadlock detection.[54][55] A later solver, Festival, introduced the FESS search algorithm and became the first automatic system to solve all 90 puzzles in the widely used XSokoban test suite.[56][57] Despite these advances, even the most sophisticated solvers cannot solve many highly complex puzzles that humans can solve with time and effort, using their ability to plan ahead, recognize patterns, and reason about long-term consequences.[58][59][60]
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See also
Notes
References
External links
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