Coises’ Slicker

About Coises’ Slicker

Coises’ Slicker, a single-player puzzle/board game copyright 2007, 2016 by Randy Fellmy (aka Coises), is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Expat/MIT License.

After the first time you load Slicker you can play it without an Internet connection if your browser supports that (most do).

On most tablets and smartphones you can instruct your browser to add Slicker to your home screen. On iPads and iPhones, tap the “share” button—the square with an arrow pointing upward—then tap “Add to Home Screen.” On Android, Google Chrome seems to work best: tap the menu button—the three dots stacked vertically at the top right—and select “Add to Home screen.” Using a home screen icon lets Slicker run as an independent app instead of as a page in a browser window.

Slicker saves the game after each move (if your browser supports “local storage”—most do). If you close the window or tab while a game is in progress, the next time you start Slicker it will ask if you want to resume your previous game.

How to play Slicker

There are two games included in Slicker: Classic and Compact. The compact game uses fewer and larger tiles and works well on small screens like smartphones; you can play either game on larger tablets or on a computer. Classic Slicker begins with 112 tiles, 14 each of 8 different kinds, on a 16 by 8 board; Compact Slicker begins with 40 tiles, 8 each of 5 different kinds, on a 10 by 5 board. The tiles are placed randomly, subject to the constraints that there are always two blank spaces in each row and one in each column. Above the board is an information bar showing the number of slide/singleton moves remaining, the number of points scored on your last match, and your total score so far.

• On the opening screen, click or tap the icon for Classic Slicker or Compact Slicker to start your first game. The tiles representing each game on the opening screen are the same sizes the tiles will be in the games.
• Until you start to play, you can click or tap New Game as many times as you like to get new, random arrangements of tiles.
• Click or tap on a tile which adjoins at least one matching tile to remove the entire set of adjoining matched tiles. You score 1 point for the first tile in the set plus 2 for the second tile, 3 for the third tile, and so on. You also add to your available slide/singleton moves according to the following schedule: one additional move for every tile more than three in a set of four or more; one additional move for a set of three; one additional move for a set of two only if you have no slide/singleton moves remaining.
• Click or tap on a singleton tile (one that does not adjoin any tiles of the same kind) to remove it. You can do this only if you have at least one slide/singleton move left. You do not score any points, and you use up one available slide/singleton move.
• Drag a tile to slide it, and any adjoining tiles it pushes, horizontally or vertically. You can do this only if you have at least one slide/singleton move left. You do not score any points, and you use up one available slide/singleton move.
• To cancel a move before you release the mouse button or lift your finger, drag over the board on a diagonal away from where you started.
• Click or tap any blank space on the board to undo your last move.
• The game ends, and you receive a bonus, if you remove all the tiles. The bonus is 60 points in the classic game and 12 points in the compact game.
• The game also ends if you have no more slide/singleton moves and there are only singleton tiles on the board.
• You can click or tap Resign at any time after your first move to end the game.

At the end of the game, Slicker displays your score, your last five scores, your best five scores, and a rating based on all the games you’ve played. Each score or rating is associated with a tile:

Score (classic game)	Score (compact game)	Tile	Level
0-99	0-059		Thumbs down
100-199	60-089		Green leaf
200-299	90-115		Golden apple
300-399	116-137		Rooster
400-499	138-155		Rottweiler
500-599	156-169		Maple leaf
600-699	170-179		Silver star
700-799	180-185		Good luck
800-900	186-192		Tao

About game statistics and browser local storage

Slicker runs entirely in your browser—that keeps things simple and lets it work almost everywhere. However, that means Slicker can only save your game statistics and games in progress by asking your browser to save them. That works most of the time, but if you have to clear browser storage, if your browser clears the storage itself, or if you change browsers or computers, you’ll no longer have access to your best five scores, last five scores, rank and number of games played. The Save/set statistics links here and at the top of this page open a page that lets you copy your game statistics to your computer’s clipboard, or set your game statistics from the clipboard. It’s clumsy, but it’s there, in case you are attached to your scores and want to keep a safety copy somewhere, or want to transfer them from one browser or computer to another.

Slicker Statistics

To copy your game statistics to the clipboard:

• Use Ctrl+C or Ctrl+Insert or right-click in the box above (be sure all the text is highlighted) and choose Copy.
• You can save your statistics by pasting them into a plain text (Notepad) file.

To set your game statistics from the clipboard:

• Use Ctrl+V or Shift+Insert or right-click in the box above (be sure that either the box is empty or all the text is highlighted) and choose Paste.
• using the contents of the box above.

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