Number Dumber

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The Number Dumber (also called Gem Puzzle, Boss Puzzle, Game of Fifteen, Mystic Square and many others) is a classical and most famous historic sliding puzzle that consists of a frame of numbered square tiles in random order with one tile missing. This is a classical problem for modeling algorithms involving heuristics.

History (as per Wikipedia):-

This puzzle was "invented" by Noyes Palmer Chapman, a postmaster in Canastota, New York, who is said to have shown friends, as early as 1874. Copies of the improved Fifteen Puzzle made their way to Syracuse, New York by way of Noyes' son, Frank, and from there, via sundry connections, to Watch Hill, RI, and finally to Hartford (Connecticut), where students in the American School for the Deaf started manufacturing the puzzle and, by December 1879, selling them both locally and in Boston, Massachusetts.

Matthias Rice, who ran a fancy woodworking business in Boston, started manufacturing the puzzle sometime in December 1879 and convinced a "Yankee Notions" fancy goods dealer to sell them under the name of "Gem Puzzle".

The game became a craze in the U.S. in February 1880, Canada in March, Europe in April, but that craze had pretty much dissipated by July.

Sam Loyd claimed from 1891 until his death in 1911 that he invented the puzzle.

Some later interest was fuelled by him by offering a $1,000 prize for anyone who could provide a solution for achieving a particular combination specified by Loyd, namely reversing the 14 and 15. This was impossible, as had been shown over a decade earlier by Johnson & Story (1879), as it required a transformation from an even to an odd combination.

About this version of game:-

This Version of game is with 9 goals, each with different number sequence. Your task is to achieve that sequence in minimum number of moves. Tile can be moved by sliding it to empty space. Try to solve all the goals in minimum possible moves. Time is no concern in this version, take your own time to solve the puzzle. Keep posting your records time to time. The last goal is impossible task but try to get it as much as possible.

(This is ad supportive version of the game, you may get some ads at top of the screen when online.)

Last update

April 15, 2020

Number Dumber

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