Interesting puzzle

[AlecWest]

Because the instructions are in Japanese, here are the rules:

Objective: Everybody has to cross the river.

The following rules apply:

Only two persons on the raft at a time.
The father cannot stay with any of the daughters without their mother's presence.
The mother cannot stay with any of the sons without their father's presence.
The thief (striped shirt) cannot stay with any family member if the policeman is not there.
Only the father, the mother and the policeman know how to operate the raft.

To start, click on the BIG BLUE CIRCLE on the right.
To move the people, click on them.
To move the raft, click on the pole on the opposite side of the river.

And the link to the puzzle is here:

http://freeweb.siol.net/danej/riverIQGame.swf

[beavereater]

I've tried this a million times before and can't do it...I'm dumb. Can you PM me the answer so I can make fun of my friends for not being able to figure it out?

[mrtristan]

This reminds me of that other very similar puzzle, with just three people. The conditions are similar.

[beavereater]

Never mind...I can't believe I just did it by accident now.

[mrtristan]

I figured it out in about three minutes, then came back and read your post. I tried to do it again and I've been stuck for 10 minutes. If I can manage to get them all across the river again, I'll post a possible solution, with a spoiler alert.

I'm beginning to hate this thing. I finally figured it out again, but didn't write anything down, because I just kept trying, until something happened. Now I'm stuck again.

[waheed]

Easy, solved it in 3 minutes. (By trail and error)

[MackemX]

Squirreldip got me playing with this just recently but I gave up after 5 minutes due to short attention span

answer below for the giveruppers (like me) in very small text
.................................................. .................................
.................................................. .................................
.................................................. .................................
.................................................. .................................
.................................................. .................................
.................................................. .................................
.................................................. .................................
.................................................. .................................
.................................................. .................................
.................................................. .................................
Cop & Thief -->
<-- Cop
Cop & Girl -->
<-- Cop & Thief
Mother & Girl -->
<-- Mother
Mother & Father -->
<-- Father
Cop & Thief -->
<-- Mother
Mother & Father -->
<-- Father
Father & Boy -->
<-- Cop & Thief
Cop & Boy -->
<-- Cop
Cop & Thief -->

[MackemX]

http://freeweb.siol.net/danej/index_1.htm

cool mouse cursor also 8)

have you seen what else is on the index page? This one is funny and has a few alternatives

http://www.e7.pl/~casha/swf/poke_penguin.swf

shake this guy off

http://freeweb.siol.net/danej/Zajcek.swf

the old volare karaoke

http://freeweb.siol.net/danej/volare-karaoke.swf

[Faustus]

I played with it for like 5 min. Then was filled with such and urge to break something I decided to stop. I suck at puzzles like this.

[TooLFooL]

i did it!

[offline]

Cheers, AlecWest. Fun game. There are several ways to complete the game - I did two and there are at least another two. The variable actions are the gender of the first child across (boy or girl) and the way you pair the cop near the end (parent or child). Took me 12 minutes for the 1st solution.

[lordsmurf]

I had to cheat. **** it.

[Supreme2k]

The original is
fox
chicken
bag of seed

I like it this way better because (almost) no explanation is necessary

[mrtristan]

I thought the original was the man, wolf, and goat? This one has the same basic conditions, just with more variables.

[lordsmurf]

fox
chicken
bag of seed

Same here.