Thinking Rabbit

The company that started it all back in 1982 by releasing Sokoban(1982) and then continued with Sokoban2(1984), SokobanMSX(1984), Sokoban Perfect(1989) and Sokoban Revenge(1991). (Full list of releases here).
Probably every Sokoban puzzle from Thinking Rabbit published in the English talking world was included in these releases.
Probably a few levels are only known in Japan.
But in fact, all you have to do is to play “The Original Collection”, Sokoban Perfect and Sokoban Revenge, and then you have played practically all from Thinking Rabbit.

Original #37 variations
Above original #37, the original original at the right. Only change is the block at the arrow, but the gameplay changes considerably. Try both versions for comparison.

Forget about Boxxle, Radio Schack, XSokoban, MacIntosh, Boxworld… Just copies.
The puzzles in “The Original Collection” came from Sokoban(1982), Sokoban2(1984) and a few from SokobanMSX(1984)
Some of the levels were modified slightly by Spectrum Holobyte for various reasons.
Some of the levels were modified when the collection were copied and republished for the XSokoban player, first published early in the 90es. These modifications followed lots of recopying during the years. Notably 6 levels (12, 20, 25, 37, 42 and 50) were modified. Some with considerable influence on gameplay, some with practically no influenze.

XSokoban contained 90 levels, the original 50 levels + 40 more levels, usually referred to as Original Extra, but not made by Thinking Rabbit.

For further information, try
Jordi Domenenc – The Original Collection

 

You will find Thinking Rabbits collections freely downloadable on the net even if the copyright has never been given free.

You will also find information about many of the authors and comments for many level if you are interested. Not easily found since most of the sites with downloadable collections remove a lot of the info in original collections, but you can try here(Sorry, not ready, but eventually comments for Sokoban Perfect and Sokoban Revenge).

The authors for the main collections are listed below. To my knowledge, only Yoshio Murase has ever made an appearance in the Sokoban community. What great puzzles have we missed?

Original Collection authors:

  • Akira Yotsuji
  • Akira Yotsumichi
  • Hachiro Kajiwara
  • Hiroshi Tanaka
  • Katsuaki Yonetani
  • Katsuhiko Sadomoto
  • Katsuji Shimizu
  • Noriko Hashimoto
  • Shinji Yamada
  • Yoshiki Kondo

Download the level set “Original Plus Extra” here. The set contains levels from the collection “Original” and “Original Extra” with all variants commented.

Sokoban Perfect authors:

  • Akira Yoshima
  • Akira Yotsumichi
  • Hachiro Kajiwara
  • Hideki Akiyama
  • Hidemitsu Kobayashi
  • Hiroshi Tanaka
  • Katsuhiko Sadamoto
  • Katsuji Shmizu
  • Kouji Kouno
  • Masaki Ishino
  • Mitirou Ikemizu
  • Noriko Hashimoto
  • Seiji Nishikawa
  • Shinji Yamada
  • Yoshinao Sakuma
  • Yasuhiro Morita
  • Yoshiki Kondou
  • Yoshio Sakae
  • Youiti Oosawa

Sokoban Revenge authors:

  • Akihiro Miyamoto
  • Akira Tanimura
  • Eiji Takeuchi
  • Hidemitsu Kobayashi
  • Hiroshi Inoue
  • Hiroshi Yamamoto
  • Hiroyuki Kaneda
  • Ichiro Mitsui
  • Kazuhiro Yamaguchi
  • Kazuo Fukushima
  • Keiichi Enomoto
  • Kouji Kouno
  • Masaki Ishino
  • Masaki Nakajo
  • Michirou Ikemizu
  • Motoyuki Ozeki
  • Ryou Hachiya
  • Ryuu Maruta
  • Satoshi Matsumoto
  • Seiichi Katsurada
  • Shinji Kai
  • Shuu Ikeda
  • Takahiro Suzushima
  • Takashi Aoyanagi
  • Takashi Hiratsuka
  • Takemi Watanabe
  • Takeshi Miyake
  • Tamanai