TesselManiac! & The Flipping Tile Game
Tessellation created in TesselManiac! by Alain Nicolas
2/16/2016 New Versions Posted!
A demo version of TesselManiac! is available for download. It is fun to use and it will let you create tessellations using eight tile types (the full version has thirty-six tile types). A subset of the The Flipping Tile Game is included, which is a new way to learn about the four isometries of the plane; translation, rotation, reflection, and glide-reflection. The demo version will not let you save files.
Tessellations.com is selling an educational version of TesselManiac! for $30 (with discounted lab packs). The educational version includes a series of classroom activities. The educational version also includes a serial number that will let you download free updates for at least the first year. If you have already purchased the CD version please email: webmaster (@) tesselmaniac.com with your serial number to get instructions on how to download updates.
The full version of TesselManaic! will let you save your files and export your designs as a picture (bitmap). The updated version (2/2016) will let you export your tile as a scalable vector graphic (SVG) file along with a number of other new features.
Once you have tried out the demo version you can purchase the full version ($30) by clicking on the buy now button. Within 24 hours of receiving your payment I will email you instructions, a license code and password that will allow you to download the full version (Macintosh or Windows). You will also be able to download updates for at least a year.
This demo download is provided for personal use only, strictly for evaluation purposes. You may not redistribute the program. There is no warranty, it is strictly use at your own risk. TesselManiac! is copyrighted by Sandpiper Software with all rights reserved.
The link below is for the Mac demo version, it requires OS 10.9 or higher. You may need to override the security permissons to run it, hold the control key and click once on the app, then select open and then open in the dialog box. Now you should be able to open it normally. Posted 1/4/2020
There is also a windows demo version. It is a compressed folder, to run the program extract the folder and then double click on TesselManiac.exe. You must run the executable from the extracted folder. If you run the application with out extracting the entire folder you will get a missing glut32.dll message. Posted 2/21/2017
Comments and/or bug reports about TesselManiac! are appreciated and can be sent to feedback@tesselmaniac.com
Acknowledgements:
Dr. Doris Schattschneider, Professor Emerita Moravian College, a first rate mathematician, and author of M. C. Escher:Visions of Symmetry, along with too many articles to list on math symmetry, has helped me for almost twenty years to get the math right.
You can blame tessellation expert and artist, Alain Nicolas, for the last and hardest screen in the flipping tile game. He played an earlier version of the game and noted a missing tile type that makes a challenging puzzle so he kindly provided his “Canards” tessellation. He has been providing very useful feedback on the program.
Seth Bareiss, webmaster at www.tessellations.org, has been also been generating lots of helpful suggestions and bug reports on the software. You can see several fun examples of tessellations he has created with Tesselmaniac! at his website.
Click on the artists link to find links to the other talented artists that have generously granted me permission to duplicate their tessellations in my software.
Craig Solomonson and Shari Zehm got me started on this tessellation obsession twenty years ago when they were working at MECC.
The sounds used in the game are from the soundbible web site.
Enjoy!
Kevin Lee