Fifteen (Vircon32)

About the game

Fifteen is the sliding puzzle that has been sold in toy shops since the 1880s. Fifteen numbered tiles sit on a four by four board with one empty square, and the only thing you can do is slide a tile next to the gap into it. Start from a shuffled board and put the numbers back in order, 1 to 15, row by row, with the gap in the bottom right corner.

The board is shuffled with random legal moves, so every puzzle can be solved. A clock and a move counter run on the right side of the screen, and the score starts at 999,999 and drops as time passes and moves add up: the faster and the more economical you are, the more you keep.

This version was made by joyrider3774 for the Vircon32 fantasy console, built on the code and the chunky wooden-tile look of Carra's 2048 for the same machine.

Playing it here

Vircon32 is an open fantasy console, a 32-bit machine designed from scratch with a 640×360 screen, and this game runs in its official emulator compiled for the browser. Click Play and press Enter (the Start button) on the title screen to get a shuffled board. X (the A button) brings up a question to quit the game in progress. F2 saves the emulator state and F4 loads it.

The original game plays a separate piece of music during the puzzle; we left that track out because we could not confirm its licence, so here the title music keeps playing instead.

Controls

On a phone or tablet the console buttons appear on screen, around the picture.

Tips

One row at a time. Solve the top row first, then the second, and never disturb them again. The last two rows are solved together, column by column, from left to right.

Corners need a detour. The last tile of a row rarely slides straight in. Park it below its place, bring its neighbour beside it, and rotate the pair into position.

Think in circuits. Moving tiles around a small loop of the board, like a two by three block, shifts a tile without breaking what is already solved.

Credits and licence

Fifteen was made in 2025 by Davy (joyrider3774) on top of the 2048 game by Carra, who also designed the Vircon32 console; the 2048 idea itself comes from Gabriele Cirulli. The game is under the 3-Clause BSD License. We build the cartridge ourselves from the author's source with the official Vircon32 tools; the licence text and the exact source are linked from this page.