Floor Tiles

Floor Tiles is a small Macintosh shareware puzzle in the tile-matching tradition that flourished on the platform during the System 7 and Mac OS 8 era. The player rearranges or pairs tiles on a grid to clear the board, with new layouts adding wrinkles such as locked tiles, color rules, or timed pressure.

Gameplay

Each board presents a fixed arrangement of decorated tiles. Selecting tiles in valid sequences (matching colors, patterns, or shapes, depending on the rule set) removes them from play. Boards are won by clearing every tile and lost when no legal move remains.

Mac shareware roots

Like many puzzle releases of its time, Floor Tiles was distributed as a BinHex- or StuffIt-encoded download through user groups, BBSes, and FTP archives such as Info-Mac and the University of Michigan archive. Authors typically asked a small registration fee in exchange for a code that unlocked extra levels or removed a nag screen.

Controls and presentation

Mouse-driven throughout. The interface follows classic Mac Human Interface Guidelines: a single document window with a menu bar offering New Game, difficulty selection, and a brief help screen.

System requirements

Designed for 68k and early PowerPC Macintosh systems running System 7 through Mac OS 9. Color display recommended; sound is optional and short.