Power Squares

A sliding-square strategy game for one or two players. A five-by-five board holds 12 blue and 12 red squares in a checker pattern, with the centre cell empty. Blue moves first. On your turn, pick one of your own squares in the same row or column as the gap: it and every square between it and the gap slide one cell toward the gap, red and blue alike. When the next player has no square in line with the gap, the turn passes back. Blue aims to fill the top two rows and the two left cells of the middle row; red the bottom two rows and the two right cells. A full goal wins at once; otherwise, after 100 moves, whoever has more squares home wins. Play a friend, the computer, or watch the computer play itself.

Controls: The stick moves the cursor one cell (hold it to repeat), and either button picks the square under it. With two players, controller 1 plays blue and controller 2 red; in a one-player game either controller plays blue. In the demo a button goes back to the title. On the title, up and down choose and a button starts.

ColecoVision version credited in the source to Claude (an AI made by Anthropic) for Amy Studio, in Amy, the language by Amy Bienvenu, 2026: a reimagined adaptation of the published rules. From Ahoy! No. 42, June 1987, page 41: original Commodore 64 program by John Fedor. This is a modern homebrew adaptation, not a commercial Coleco release.