Tile Trader

A sliding-tile puzzle. A picture is cut into a 3 x 3 grid, the bottom-right piece is taken out to leave a gap, and the other eight pieces are mixed by sliding them into the gap while you watch. Study the picture first, then slide pieces into the gap one at a time until the picture is whole again, in as few moves as you can. Only a piece next to the gap can move, and each slide counts as one move. Choose from four pictures, BULLSEYE, HAPPY FACE, E and 3-D BOXES, and a mix of 4, 10, 20, 30 or 60 slides; the small mixes suit young children. When every piece is home the last piece drops in and the game shows how many moves you took. The best score for each picture is kept on the title.

Controls: Use either joystick. Push the stick toward the side of the gap where a piece sits and that piece slides into the gap; pushes that move nothing are not counted. On the title, choose the picture and the size of the mix and press a button.

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 COMPUTE!'s Gazette, March 1987: original Commodore 128 program by Michael Wiens and Kevin Black. This is a modern homebrew adaptation, not a commercial Coleco release.