Peter Box

Yet another Sokoban clone
Copyright © 1992,2005 Joel Yliluoma

Instructions

Fill the targets with the boxes. When all boxes have been moved into the targets, you get to the next level.

Keys

Arrows=move/push, Space=undo, K,0=kick, D=retry.
During movie playback, F=fast-forward. Hold M while clicking "refresh" in score list to see all movies.

Note: If the keys aren't working, point&click the game window once.
You can also walk Peter by point&clicking (but not push boxes).
The mouse middle button acts as a "kick" key too.

If you want to retain your level completions over sessions, you need to enable JavaScript access to cookies in your browser.

History

This game was originally created in ⅯⅭⅯⅩⅭⅣ by a Spanish shareware house called "True Emotions Software". They released it by two names: Peter Box and Soko Sex♥. The concept is derived from the Japanese puzzle game "Sokoban".
The source code of the DOS Peterbox is probably lost, and the game itself is very rare too, but in 2005, Joel Yliluoma recreated it in Javascript.

Ps: The sheep is a mammal with a four legs.

Discuss

The game can be discussed here.

Timings

Hardcore players may use this data to optimize their paths.

Walking (keyboard): 0.03 seconds to change directions (0 if done while walking/pushing), 0.2 seconds per unit
Walking (mouse): 0 seconds to change directions, 0.2 seconds per unit
Pushing: 0.05 seconds to start pushing, 0.4 seconds per unit
Kicking: 0.5 seconds to start kicking, 0.15 seconds per unit
The game is rendered at 30 fps. Timings are rounded up to frames.
The clock is started by the first actual push/kick/step. Facing changes, grabs and kick preparations don't start it.

Note that keyboard and mouse navigation are differently timed, and that mouse navigation might have some quirks in it.

Technical aspects

This game is implemented in JavaScript with W3C DOM - sometimes called DHTML.

The reference browsers I have used in testing are Mozilla 1.7.8, Firefox 1.0.6 and Opera 8.02.

I have also tried Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, but it fails in numerous aspects of standard DOM and CSS.
It might be possible to work around them by add a couple of "if"s and use IE's proprietary mechanisms instead of the standard mechanisms, but hey, I don't care. It would be an endless swamp and not rewarding at all.

This game uses Mozilla's XMLHttpRequest extension for sending the high scores to the server. This browser-dependent approach was chosen after many successive fails with alternative methods (such as dynamically embedding server-generated javascript using URL params or using an iframe with a form). However, most modern browsers now support this, or some compatible, approach, and the game uses any of them that is available.

BisqBot's corner

BisqBot is a virtual robot created by Bisqwit. He appears in many contexts, and for this game, he's been devising optimal solutions for a few levels. Specifically, he has played these levels:

In future, he will hopefully play more levels. However, most of the levels are computationally very demanding. On the level statistics pages, there is a "bounty" value listed. The higher the bounty, the more challenging it's for BisqBot. Currently the level with highest bounty that BisqBot can find the optimal solution for is .

For the levels where the record exists, there is a movie to prove each one of those records, but the movies are not currently publicly available, for they would spoil the exercise of finding the best play.
They will be revealed one-by-one by the server administration when the players have found the same solution.

Peter Box

Questions and answers

Q: Why can't I reach the record times even though I play the exact same route and I'm not doing mistakes?

A: You are probably playing the game with keyboard. There are some delays in the keyboard navigation that don't exist in the mouse navigation. Read the technical details for more information.

Q: Why is there a turning delay in the keyboard navigation?

A: It is there in order to make it possible to change Peter's facing without having to walk or push. With mouse, this delay is not needed because turning and walking can be distinguished without delay.

Q: Did you design the levels?

A: Nope, I copied all of them from Truesoft's game. Truesoft seems to have copied at least some of them from Sokoban. Read the history for more details.

Q: What's that spanish text? And the "beeeh, beeeh"?

A: You have to ask Truesoft for that. I have no idea.
(Note: I do not need translations of them. I know it talks about sheeps. I chose to keep it in Spanish. No, I don't speak Spanish.)

Q: How do I view BisqBot's results?

A: For stages 1-1 … 2-5, you must simply have completed the level yourself. For stages 3-1 onwards, you must reach a timing close enough to BisqBot's, and BisqBot's solution will be opened for viewing.
Or, you can hold M while clicking Refresh.