Uploaded November 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Paul Lewandowski was in high school when he wrote Puzzler, which was published by Atari Program Exchange and won the Atari Star Award in fall 1983: first prize in the learning category.
Puzzler is a game that shows you a picture on the screen, chops it into equally sized squares, and scrambles them. Then, the player uses the joystick to try to put the picture back together - like one of those plastic puzzles where you slide numbers around to put them in order. Puzzler had three difficulty levels: 4x4 was easy, 8x8 was hard, and 10x10 was “insane”.
This interview took place on December 9, 2015
Teaser quote:
“The whole thing was such a great idea ... having users write programs. It was so ahead of its time.”
Links
APX catalog featuring Puzzler: archive.org/stream/Atari_Program_Exchange_catalog_Fall_1983#page/n10/mode/1up
Puzzler download at AtariArchives.org: atariarchives.org/APX/showinfo.php?cat=20230
Paul on Twitter: twitter.com/prlski
Paul Lewandowski was in high school when he wrote Puzzler, which was published by Atari Program Exchange and won the Atari Star Award in fall 1983: first prize in the learning category.
Puzzler is a game that shows you a picture on the screen, chops it into equally sized squares, and scrambles them. Then, the player uses the joystick to try to put the picture back together - like one of those plastic puzzles where you slide numbers around to put them in order. Puzzler had three difficulty levels: 4x4 was easy, 8x8 was hard, and 10x10 was “insane”.
This interview took place on December 9, 2015
Teaser quote:
“The whole thing was such a great idea ... having users write programs. It was so ahead of its time.”
Links
APX catalog featuring Puzzler: archive.org/stream/Atari_Program_Exchange_catalog_Fall_1983#page/n10/mode/1up
Puzzler download at AtariArchives.org: atariarchives.org/APX/showinfo.php?cat=20230
Paul on Twitter: twitter.com/prlski
