The original Maze of Rah applet was built in December 2000 and first published online in 2001. At that time this easily stood out as the most advanced applet-based puzzle-game I'd ever seen. If you don't have a suitable browser plugin installed to play the applet online, you can instead watch a youtube walkthrough of the first few levels.

The innovative sokoban/logicmaze hybrid mechanics in Maze of Rah had me instantly hooked, in particular the logicmaze potential of the flippable path tiles. Back in 2001 I was very keen to start exploring my own level designs. Thankfully I didn't have to wait long.

Hot on its heels, came the fliptile applet demake by Graham Rogers (2001) supplemented soon after by a stand-alone java app (makeflips) that I could run offline to design my own levels. The java.awt.Graphics2D based UI was very typical of the simple puzzle apps that the two of us were producing at that time. Those java applet paint() methods could be quickly hacked together, cribbed from previous applets.

Fast forward to 2021... a refresh for modern browsers is overdue. Graham set his sights on a native JS/HTML5 app, but puzzlescript was now my tool of choice and the ruleset was a natural fit. That year, we both ended up reworking that old fliptile concept. Graham's JS/HTML5 port arrived first, the graphics being a simple java-to-JS migration. My vanilla PS hack arrived later, its cute 5x5 pixel sprites a masterpiece in re-design (albeit unintelligible). Now I could edit/test/play/solve new levels at top speed. Henleymob was duly updated with a fresh crop of puzzles. Job done.

2021 could have been the end of the story. My cryptic PS hack tucked away in an unpublished GIST, lacking further useful purpose. But in early 2024 canvas support in PSNext arrived, along with it the potential for some realistic java.awt.Graphics2D emulation. To fully exercise it all I needed was a working PS ruleset in need of a graphical overhaul. That old PS hack was the perfect candidate for the first demo project.