TULT 64

C64

TULT 64 is a free puzzle game for the Commodore 64 that involves sliding blocks together so that all their colored sides match and their movement tallies are set to zero.

It's a remake of TULT, an Atari ST game originally created by Walter Siracusa in 1990.

Why TULT?

There is an entire backstory about how I arrived at remaking TULT for the C64, but I'll save that for a future blog post.

To me, the original TULT is a game that I find hard to compare to anything else. Although sliding blocks are a staple of puzzle games, none of them combine pattern matching and a limited number of moves in quite the same way.

The only real-world equivalents I can think of are those games where nine square tiles have to be arranged and rotated so that all their sides match. However, those are placement puzzles, where the number of moves is not a factor.

What I'm trying to say is that TULT is unique and, above all, a whole lot of fun once you understand how it works.

Screenshot of Stage 38. There are nine blocks scattered around the grid.

TULT 64 Features

60 stages (the 19 original stages plus 41 new ones)
Stage codes and continue system
Unlimited undo function
Built-in tutorial
Digitized speech samples originally from MP83's Windows remake
PAL and NTSC compatible

Animation showing a playthrough of Stage 05. With only four blocks, it is one of the introductory stages.

How to Play

Blocks in a grid must be pushed together to form one or several connected shapes. Each block has one or more colored sides. These sides must be connected with the color-matching sides of other blocks.

Each block also has a digit printed on it that goes down each time the block is moved one orthogonal grid step. When the digit reaches 0, it disappears, and the block is locked and can't be moved anymore. A stage is solved when every block is locked and all colored sides match.

Controls

The game is controlled with a joystick in Port 2. You move a square cursor from tile to tile. To slide a block, move the cursor over it, then press and hold the fire button and push the joystick to move it step by step.

Joystick	Action
	Move cursor
Hold fire + push direction	Slide a block

Keyboard	Action
F1	Restart stage
F3	Quit to title menu
F7	Undo move

Downloads

TULT 64 is a free download on itch.io. You can play it in a C64 emulator like VICE, or copy the game to a physical disk or flash cartridge to play on original hardware. It's available as a .prg file or a .d64 disk image. A .pdf manual is also included if you enjoy reading words.

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