About

his version is looks like a normal Lights Out played on a 4×4 square. The main difference is that the board has no edges - the left and right columns are considered to be adjacent, as are the top and bottom rows. Every light therefore has exactly 4 neighbours, and so every move changes exactly 5 lights. For example, pressing the top-left button changes its own light, the light below, the light to the right, the light to the 'left' (the top right corner), and the light 'above' (the bottom left corner). This mathematics of this variant is exactly the same, though light chasing is not really possible. The Mini Lights Out also has a second type of game, the Lit-only game. This is just the same as the normal games, except that you are only allowed to press buttons that are lit. Pressing an unlit button has no effect. This restriction makes it somewhat more difficult. The number of positions: This game has no quiet patterns, which means that each light can be changed without affecting the others. Therefore all 216 light patterns are solvable. Solution to the Mini Lights Out: This is an easy puzzle once you know the following two facts: 1. To change an individual light, press it and its four neighbours. 2. To know whether you need to press a button or not, check its own light and the neighbouring lights. If an odd number of these 5 lights are switched on, then the button needs to be pressed, otherwise it does not. The following solution then suggests itself: a. Use fact 2 above on all the buttons in the middle two rows. b. For each light that is on in row 2, press the button above it in row 1. c. For each light that is on in row 3, press the button below it in row 4. Lit Only games: The lit-only game is solved in nearly the same manner as the normal game. Simply figure out whether any of the lit buttons need to be pressed, and then press them. If any unlit button needs to be pressed, you will need to delay pressing it until other button presses have lit it. Occasionally all buttons that remain in the solution are unlit, so then some lit button has to be pressed first to allow you to move on. Later that same button will have to be pressed again, since it wouldn't have been part of the solution if you hadn't been forced to press it the first time. This situation can usually be avoided. I have proved that any position that is solvable in a normal variation of the lights-out is also solvable as the lit-only game. The proof of this is given on the Lights Out Mathematics page. If your browser has JavaScript, then you can play the Mini Lights Out game: