Simon Tatham’s Portable Puzzle Collection is a set of separate, single-player logic games—not one campaign or a single puzzle. You can play its games in a JavaScript-enabled browser or download desktop versions; mobile options are third-party ports, maintained separately from the original collection.
What is Simon Tatham’s Portable Puzzle Collection?
It is a collection of compact computer puzzle games created and maintained by Simon Tatham. Each title has its own rules and objective, so you can pick up a game for a short session without following a shared story or progression system. Tatham describes his aim as making small desktop games that people can open for a brief break. The collection mostly reimplements existing puzzle concepts; it does not claim that Tatham invented every puzzle or wrote all the code. The project introduction includes his explanation of the collection’s purpose.
What kinds of puzzles are included?
The titles cover different kinds of deduction, spatial reasoning, and number-based challenges. These examples show the variety; they are not interchangeable modes of one game.
- Black Box: infer where hidden balls are by watching how laser beams bounce.
- Bridges: connect islands with a network of bridges.
- Cube: roll a cube over blue squares.
- Dominosa: tile a rectangle using a full set of dominoes.
- Fifteen: slide tiles into order.
- Galaxies: divide a grid into rotationally symmetric regions centered on dots.
- Keen: complete a Latin square using arithmetic clues.
- Light Up: place lights to illuminate the board according to its rules.
- Mines, Net, Solo, Tents, and Untangle are among the other available titles.
The collection page provides brief descriptions and links to individual game manuals. Consult the manual for the rules of a particular game; the collection does not have one shared ruleset or scoring system.
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Where can you play it?
The available route depends on whether you want to play immediately, install a desktop version, or use a mobile port. The maintainer describes browser play and Windows and Unix downloads; the collection page notes that mobile ports are not maintained upstream.
| Route | What the sources establish | Who maintains it |
|---|---|---|
| Browser | JavaScript versions are available for web play; no installation is described as necessary. | The collection is presented by Simon Tatham’s project. |
| Desktop | Downloads for Windows and Unix are described on the collection page. | The upstream collection. |
| Mobile | Third-party mobile ports exist; availability, compatibility, and store status can vary by port. | Separate port maintainers, not the upstream maintainer. |
For Android, the Android port repository is a separate project. Its existence does not establish the current status or compatibility of every app-store release. Check the individual port’s listing or project page for current details.
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What version is documented, and is it open source?
The project documentation identifies the collection as version 20250615.b589c5e and links to its source code. That is the version stated on the documentation page, not a guarantee that it remains the newest release. The documentation says the collection is distributed under the MIT license. The maintainer’s collection page also describes the license and its attribution and disclaimer terms.
If you want to build or modify the source, the source repository README describes pathways for Linux with GTK, Windows, and Mac OS X. Some build details are historical, so check the repository for applicable toolchain instructions rather than assuming every step is current.
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Is it a good fit for you?
The collection suits players who want a choice of self-contained puzzles and are comfortable learning different rules from one title to the next. Choose a game based on its stated objective, then use its linked manual when you need the exact rules. If you want one unified campaign, shared progression, or a single recurring puzzle format, those features are not established for the collection.
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