Sliding Number Puzzle
History
The first form of the sliding number puzzle was the 15-puzzle, which was invented in 1874 by Noyes Palmer Chapman, a postmaster in Canastota, New York. The puzzle made its way to Hartford, Connecticut, where students in the American school of the Deaf started manufacturing the puzzle. The puzzle became a craze in the U.S. in Febuarary 1880.
Rules
There are N tiles numbered 1 to N on an X-row, Y-column board, such that N is one less than the product of X and Y (there is always one space on the board not occupied by a tile). Most often, the board is square, so X=Y and N is one less than a square number.
The tiles are arranged randomly on the board at the start of the puzzle.
To move, slide any tile adjacent to the empty space to the empty space.
The puzzle is solved when the tiles are arranged in row-major order. Specificially, the puzzle is solved when for each tile, if the tile is numbered n, then it is at the nth cell of the board according to 1-indexed row-major order.
GamesCrafters
Arturo Olvera (Backend, GamesmanUni GUI v0)
Cameron Cheung (GamesmanUni GUI v1)