clickmazes

2D tilt mazes

This page features the ever popular single-goal and multi-goal tilt-mazes. Try the single-goal mazes first, and then tackle the multi-goal mazes. Capturing all those blue-targets is not as easy as it looks.

June 2009: Big News! The 2D tilt-mazes are now available for iPhone & iPod touch as puzzle-app iTilt, developed by Cancerian-9. iTilt includes a range of new features and many new challenges suitable for all age-groups and skill-levels. Read more below.

Sorry, this is a Java applet.

A red ball sits in a flat tray containing one or more blue squares (goals). The challenge is to guide the ball around the tray and collect all the blue squares. Tilt the tray to, literally, start the ball rolling. The ball rolls in a straight line until it hits a wall, you can then tilt again.

Controls
Click Restart to load first maze or reload current maze.
Click Previous/Next to switch between mazes.

Movement
Use the cursor keys to tilt.

Keys
n – next maze
p – previous maze
r – restart current maze
s – jump to first single-goal maze
m – jump to first multi-goal maze

June 2009: Introducing iTilt. 2D-tilt-mazes ported to the iPhone & iPod touch. Featuring...

Extensive new puzzle range.
Suitable for all age-groups and skill-levels.
Minimum-moves published.
Personal-best scores recorded.
Swipe, tilt or button play-modes.
Undo and redo support.
Free "lite" version also available.

Developer: Cancerian-9
Home site: Puzzle Lobby
iTunes store: Go buy!

Here is a photo of a tilt-maze implemented as a walk-round maze (Cherry-Crest Farm, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA - Summer 2001). Photo provided by Robert Abbott.

The photo on the right shows a mechanical implementation of a 2D tilt maze made by M. Oskar van Deventer. The maze is made of transparent material and filled with very black coffee. The 'runner' is an air-bubble in the coffee that moves through the maze when you rotate it. The object is to get the air-bubble in the centre, while keeping the Coffee Maze vertical.

The photo on the left shows a top down view of the tilt maze console developed by my partner Bill Mitchell. It utilises mercury switches to detect tilt and supports a wide variety of configurable puzzles. Read more about it on its own page.

related pages
MENSA magazine: Tilt mazes (Robert Abbott)
Tilt mazes for children (Gerald Tomlyn)
Tilt mazes as spin puzzles (Graham Rogers)
The tilt maze console (Bill Mitchell)
Tilt mazes are featured in the September 2003 issue of the US magazine Discover.