# The KSokoban Handbook

Anders
Widell
10/09/1998
0.01.02

This documentation was last updated for ksokoban version 0.1.2. Please make any comments and additions to the author.

KDE
game
sokoban

## Introduction

This game was originally invented in Japan in the early 80's and won a computer game contest there. "Sokoban" is japanese for "warehouse keeper". The idea is that you are a warehouse keeper trying to push crates to their proper locations in a warehouse.

The problem is that you cannot pull the crates or step over them. If you are not careful, some of the crates can get stuck in wrong places and/or block your way.

It can be rather difficult just to solve a level. But if you want to make it even harder, you can try to minimise the number of moves and/or pushes you use to solve the level.

To make the game more fun for small kids (below 10 years or so), some collections with easier levels are also included in ksokoban. These are marked (easy) in the level colletion menu. Of course, these levels can be fun for adults too, for example if you don't want to expose yourself to too much mental strain.

## How to play

The objective of the game is to push all the red gems to the goal squares, which are marked with green glassy round things on the floor.

Use the cursor keys or the mouse to move about. If you move onto a gem using the cursor keys or the middle mouse button, and there is noting blocking it on the opposite side, then you will push the gem. It isn't possible to pull the gems, so if you push a gem into a corner it will be stuck there. You can't step over the gems either, so you can also get trapped in a part of the maze by blocking the way with gems. Also note that it isn't possible to push more than one gem at a time.

If you notice that you have moved the gems in such a way that the level is impossible to solve, then you can always use the undo feature to go back to a position where the mistake has not yet been made. You can of course also restart the level from the very beginning.

### Controls

Cursor keys | Move one square in a direction
CONTROL + Cursor keys | Move as far as possible in a direction without pushing any gems
SHIFT + Cursor keys | Move as far as possible in a direction, pushing any gem in the way
Left mouse button | Move to any place in the maze that can be reached without pushing any gems
Middle mouse button | Move up/down/left/right in a straight line, pushing any gem in the way
Right mouse button or U | Undo the last move
R | Redo the last undone move
N | Go to the next level in the current level collection
P | Go to the previous level in the current level collection
Escape | Restart the current level
Q | Quit the game

## Epilogue

For the latest info on ksokoban, see the ksokoban homepage at http://hem.passagen.se/awl/ksokoban/

### Author

ksokoban is copyright © 1998 by Anders Widell <d95-awi@nada.kth.se>

The background graphics "starfield" was taken from the Gimp. All other graphics were created by Anders Widell <d95-awi@nada.kth.se> using the Povray raytracer.

### License

ksokoban is distributed under the GNU general public license. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html for details.

### Levels

The levels were taken (with permission) from:

xsokoban 3.3c for X-windows

  www: http://xsokoban.lcs.mit.edu/xsokoban.html

  author: Andrew Myers <andru@lcs.mit.edu>

MacSokoban 3.0.3 for Macintosh

  www: http://www.lysator.liu.se/˜ingemar/games.html

  author: Ingemar Ragnemalm <ingemar@lysator.liu.se>

Sokoban 2.4 for Macintosh

  www: http://members.aol.com/SokobanMac/

  author: Scott Lindhurst <scottl@alumni.Princeton.EDU>

Yoshio's sokoban page

  www: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/ai/yoshio/sokoban/main.htm

  author: Yoshio Murase <yoshio@asahi.email.ne.jp>

### Level authors

The levels are copyrighted by their authors:

Original

  the first 50 original levels from xsokoban, by various authors. These levels are public domain

Extra

  some more levels from xsokoban. Also public domain

Still more

  by J. Franklin Mentzer <wryter@aol.com>

MacTommy inventions

  by Tommy in Pennsylvania

Yoshio's autogenerated

  by Yoshio Murase <yoshio@asahi.email.ne.jp>

  See also http://www.ne.jp/asahi/ai/yoshio/sokoban/main.htm where he puts a new sokoban level every week.

For the kids

  by Ross (W.R.) Brown <ross@bnr.ca>

Dimitri & Yorick

  by Jacques Duthen <duthen@club-internet.fr>

Simple Sokoban

  simplified original levels by Phil Shapiro <pshapiro@his.com>