Traffic Jam is a sliding block puzzle that was invented by famous Japanese
puzzle inventor Nob Yoshigahara in the 1970's. In 1996, it was manufactured as a
physical game in the U.S. by the company Binary Arts (now ThinkFun) under the
name
Rush Hour.
The rules for Traffic Jam are very simple. The game is played on a 6x6 square
grid with cars in certain positions on the grid. The goal is to slide the red
car all the way to the right side to get out of the traffic jam. There are other
cars that are blocking your path, and every car can only move forward and
backwards (no turning or driving through another car).
Here is an example of a Traffic
Jam puzzle and its solved state:
A normal Traffic Jam puzzle |
The same puzzle, solved |
Notice how there are arrows on the cars that indicate which directions you can
move them in.
There is an applet that lets you play an interactive version of Traffic Jam. In the
applet, you can set the difficulty of the puzzle and play Traffic Jam puzzles. There
are a little less than 30,000 puzzles implemented so far. Click
here to play the Traffic Jam applet
online.