Programming, Language: Rust

Recent posts (Page 6 of 13)

The Golf (Peaks) of Solving

The Golf (Peaks) of Solving

2024-06-17 in Programming

Another day (week? month?), another puzzle game.

This time around, we’re going to solve Golf Peaks. I picked this up a while ago on iOS, but only recently on Steam. It’s a cute little puzzle game themed around minigolf.

Basically, you’re on a grid and you have to get the ball (in the bottom in that screenshot above) to the flag (currently at the top). You have a set list of moves you can take, styled as cards–all of which either move a certain number of tiles in a specific direction or possibly jump into the air (and fly over obstacles).

It gets more complicated from there, but hopefully you have the basic idea. 😄

read more...

Solving Sokobond

Solving Sokobond

2024-04-06 in Programming

Another solver that I’ve been working on, after A Good Snowman Is Hard To … Solve?. This time, we have Sokobond! It’s a Sokobon… but with chemical bonds! Yeah, that’s a really good title.

The basic idea is you have a field of elements with (chemical accurate) free electrons):

A basic level

Here we have 4 hydrogens (1 bond each) and a carbon (4 bonds). It should seem pretty obvious that the carbon should end up with a hydrogen on each end. The one last bit of interest: the element with the dashed border is the one we actually control, that will never change.

This eventually gets more complicated, adding:

  • Modifiers that are placed on the map between squares:
    • One that strengthens bonds, turning a single bond into double into triple
    • One that weakens bonds, turning triple to double to single or breaking single bonds
    • One that rotates bonds as you move by it
  • More elements, eventually hydrogen (1), oxygen (2), nitrogen (3), carbon (4), and helium (0)
  • Solutions that require forming multiple elements at the same time

It’s a pretty neat puzzle game with 144 levels of increasing difficulty. Perfect to solve.

read more...

A Good Snowman Is Hard To ... Solve?

2024-03-28 in Programming

I enjoy puzzle games. I especially enjoy letting computers solve them for me 😄. Once upon a time, I set up a framework for solving random things. Let’s solve some more.

Today: A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build

It’s a Sokoban about making snowmen! You can push snowballs of three sizes around, collecting snow if you roll over it. You can push smaller snowballs onto bigger ones, stacking them. Or back off, in order to get around one another.

And that’s really it.

There are some interesting twists (multiple snowmen, the ability to leave and re-enter levels, and even a whole second ‘hard mode’), but at a basic level, it’s just pushing.

read more...

AoC 2023 Day 22: Block Dropinator

2023-12-22 in Programming

Source: Day 22: Sand Slabs

Full solution for today (spoilers!)

Part 1

Given a series of 3D blocks, allow them to fall until the simulation is stable. Any cube of a block is sufficient to support another block, ignore rotations etc.

How many blocks are not the sole supporter for any other block?

read more...

AoC 2023 Day 20: Flip-Flopinator

AoC 2023 Day 20: Flip-Flopinator

2023-12-20 in Programming

Source: Day 20: Pulse Propagation

Full solution for today (spoilers!)

Part 1

Simulate a virtual circuit with high and low pulses and four kinds of chips:

  • Broadcast - Re-transmit all pulses
  • Flip-flops - On a low pulse, toggle internal state; if it was on, send high; otherwise send low
  • Conjunction - Remember input from each attached module; if all inputs were high, send a low, otherwise send high
  • Output - Do nothing; just receive pulses

Count the product of low and high pulses sent after 1000 low inputs to broadcaster.

read more...

All posts