Automatically fill any user-defined playing area with any combination of the 12 Pentominoes.
 
For each pentomino type, you can determine whether the computer should use no tile, one tile or many (unlimited) tiles. Just click '0', '1' or 'M' for any of the twelve types displayed at the top.
 
Given a shape and a set of tiles to fill it with, it is in general not known whether such a tiling problem has a solution. (For example, which pentominoes or pairs of pentominoes tile the doughnut shape given in the default variant?) Pento-Solver allows you to try any combination of pentominoes for any given shape, and there are many discoveries still waiting to be made!
 
You can give the computer any shape made from squares. Select 'T0' with the right mouse button to add a square to the board.
 
Finally, click one of the two text bars to let the computer tile the given playing area automatically. The left button saying 'Fixed Colours' means that each pentomino type has its own, fixed colour. The right button saying 'Sequential Colours' means that the colour will change with each tile placed, the colours being from a series of 16 colours. This is especially useful when you use only very few types of tiles.
 
NOTE: YOU CAN SPEED UP PENTO-SOLVER THREEFOLD by switching off the sound (menu option VIEW/OPTIONS/SOUND).
 
Please note that there are six alternative piece sets available, producing three types of coloured tiles and two types of Blanks.
 
Version 1.3: 50% faster, 30% less moves necessary per solution.
 
 
Sources for pentomino-related problems:
- Solomon Golomb's book 'Polyominoes'.
- Michael Reid's Web pages
- Torsten Sillke's Web pages
- Many articles in the 'Journal of Recreational Mathematics'
and many others.
 
The following Zillions games also deal with polysquare tilings: Backtrack, Reptiles, Reptiles II, Pento, Ypento, MAX-Solver, G-Backtrack, G-Primes, P-Backtrack, P-Primes, Y-Backtrack, Y-Primes.
 
'Pentomino' and 'polyomino' is a trademark by Solomon Golomb.
 
More freeware as well as real puzzles and games at my homepage http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.