The zoo has just bought a new lot of snakes which have to be tagged. Your task is to attach a red band to each snake's tail without getting bitten.
(Version 3.1; 13 randomized variants, 25 variants with fixed setups)
 
First click the board to create a random placement of snakes in the snakepit. Then click an empty board position to place your man.
A snake head moves one square orthogonally and all other segments follow.
You move orthogonally or diagonally one step at a time (click the target position). You can also click your man to stand still. You cannot stand still while you are at a snake's tail, however.
 
You mark a snake with a red band by moving to its tail.
You win when all snakes are marked.
You lose when a snake head moves to your position (because you get bitten). You also lose when you are stalemated.
Not all setups in the randomized variants may be solvable.
 
In some variants the snakes get longer after every second turn. A snake will lengthen only if the head can move, however. This creates a certain urgency for your moves, since the snakes will permanently block your moves after a while.
 
To resolve conflicts, snakes with their heads further to the top and further to the left move first (i.e. 'text-reading' order). There are black left-handed snakes and green right-handed snakes. This decides their preferred option when they turn.
In order of decreasing priority a snake's head will try to move forward to a vacant square, or turn 90 degrees in its preferred direction to a vacant square, or turn 90 degrees in the other direction to a vacant square.
A snake never moves its head to an occupied place (except when it bites the man). Rather it will stay still and wait for a legal move.
 
The variants of this game are:
- 2 random variants on the 10x10 board.
- 5 random variants on a 16x16 board with various amounts of snakes.
- 5 variants with fixed setups on the 10x10 board.
- 3 random variants on the 10x10 board; snakes lengthen after every second move.
- 3 random variants on the 16x16 board; snakes lengthen after every second move.
- 10 fixed variants on the 10x10 board; snakes lengthen after every second move.
- 10 fixed variants on the 16x16 board; snakes lengthen after every second move.
In the fixed setups you drop your man first to start the game.
 
 
Note that there is another game 'Snake Catcher II' included.
(Version 1.1; 13 randomized variants, 25 variants with fixed setups)
 
The game is very similar to the original 'Snake Catcher' game. However, here your man is allowed to move any distance in each move as long as the path between start position and end position is empty. As you will see, this small changes of rules leads to very different challenges.
 
Variants in this game:
- 4 randomized variants on the 10x10 board with an increasing number of snakes.
- 5 randomized variants on the 16x16 board with an increasing number of snakes.
- 4 randomized variants on the 10x10 board with lengthening snakes.
- 5 randomized variants on the 16x16 board with lengthening snakes.
 
For more details on the rules see the original game 'Snake Catcher' above.
Due to the randomizing not all setups are solvable.
 
 
More freeware as well as real games at puzzles at http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz.