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What are serpentiles? Serpentiles are hexagonal puzzle pieces with colored segments joining the sides of the hexagon.
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In the early 1970's, one of my sisters received a puzzle game as a gift. I only had a vague recollection what the game was called, something like "paths" or "tracks" (I later found out the game was named Psyche-Paths). I did remember the format of the puzzle pieces - hexagons containing different combinations of three segments, each segment connecting two sides of the hexagon. I never forgot these unique puzzle pieces and resolved to develop a computer game based on them. I eventually (2001) developed a screen saver program that would tile the screen with these pieces. I dubbed the tiles with the "Serpentiles" (serpentine tiles) moniker.
I always had the desire to track down the origins of this game and over the years made many attempts to find references to this game on the internet. In early 2006 my search yielded a game using pieces very similar to serpentiles, Tantrix. In exploring the Tantrix web site I found an online version of the game and many sources to buy one of the various Tantrix game sets. I promptly ordered a set and also played several games online. In December 2006 I finally found references to the original game I played in the 1970's - Psyche-Paths. I found a Psyche-Paths set on eBay, and bought it. This game came with puzzle pieces made of cardboard and was developed in 1969. It eventually evolved into another game called Kaliko. Kaliko can still be found - originally the Kaliko pieces were made of clear Lucite, but in the current version the pieces are composed of wooden tiles.
Examples of Psyche-Paths, Tantrix, and Kaliko are shown below:
| Psyche-Paths |
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| Tantrix |
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| Kaliko (Wood) |
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| Kaliko (Lucite) |
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| Psyche-Paths Box |
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| Tantrix Pouch |
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| Kaliko Box |
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Jaap's Puzzle Page - Tantrix - An interesting Tantrix related page. Features a background of Tantrix tiles with commentary on how he came up with the tiling solution. The background used for this page was adapted from one of Jaap's images (Thanks Jaap).