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Welcome to TopAccolades
TopAccolades Limited is a UK IT company and content provider, established in 2001 and now operated from Surbiton. Our principal activities are listed below.
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| Numipulator |
In 2024, TopAccolades released Numipulator (Creative Edition 1.0), an innovative declarative programming environment that allows programmers to produce games, puzzles and other apps with no conventional procedure- or function-writing, and no need to use quotes, round brackets (parentheses) or square brackets.
Some of the games that have been developed in Numipulator, and are included with the package, are: Alien Invasion (like Space Invaders), Falling Shapes (like Tetris), Triple Jewels (like Bejeweled), Emoji Pairs (a memory game), Fun Runner and Poker Pentad. The image below shows screen-captures of these. Many word and letter games have also been produced (e.g. Hangman and Word Ladder).
Full details can be found at www.numipulator.com. You can also try it out and download it from there. |
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| Apps | |
TopAccolades are app developers producing mainly entertainment apps, currently for Android devices. Most of our apps are for games and puzzles, including many original ones. Our original games and puzzles include:
- Linxem
- Linxem is a word game for 2-4 people. It is a game that requires two people to collaborate in solving a challenge. One, the setter, is presented with 30 words and must select 2 or more of them that are linked in some way. The setter must then give another word, the Linxem, to the solver intended to provide this linkage. The solver must then look at the same words and, based on the Linxem, try to determine which words the setter had selected. The basic wordplay is similar to, but distinctive from, that of the boardgame Codenames.
- Volcano
- Volcano is a block-falling game, best categorized as being in the Tetris family. Falling blocks must be captured and used to construct a shape that can be used to plug the crater of a volcano and thus prevent eruption.
- Who Killed Vic?
- This is a logic game/puzzle for one person that requires logic similar to that employed in Cluedo/Clue. Vic, the victim, has been killed and you must determine who killed Vic and determine the weapon and location, based on clues presented to you - mostly clues you request about a given suspect, weapon or location.
- Rummy 7
- This is a 7-card version of Rummy. it employs our own algorithm for playing the system, but may also be used by 2 players playing each other.
- Pentad
- Pentad is a simple letter/word game for 2-4 players, or for 1 player playing in practice mode.
- Numberskull
- Numberskull is a puzzle that requires you to place nine numbers in a grid, as well as 12 operators, to complete 6 equations, 3 horizontal and 3 vertical. Unlike many similar equation-solving puzzles, generally no operators are given and the numbers are not just 1-9.
- Turncoat
- This game for two involves turning pieces that are black on one side and white on the other, as found in Reversi (Othello). A novel approach is taken to avoid giving any player an advantage by making the first move.
- Kublitz Cube
- Similar to Rubik's Cube, this app has a great advantage over standard representations of the cube puzzle, as all 6 sides can effectively be seen from one view, as it consists of 27 cubelets that are separated from each other, allowing the back cubelets to be seen from the front, for example.
See below about notation.
- Peg Solitaire
- This classic puzzle involves a peg layout with a gap in the middle, in which a peg may jump over an adjacent peg to remove it. The objective is to end up with a single peg in the middle. The app also includes smaller puzzles, with fewer pegs in the hole, which should be much easier to solve.
In addition, we have a new algorithm for playing 4-in-a-line (like Connect 4), and implementations of many classic puzzles and games, including Yak (like Yahtzee), Word Ladder, Hangman, Beguile (like Boggle), and Code4x6 (like Mastermind).
Our free app Xword4x4 is a crossword game, like Scrabble, for 2-4 players playing in a physical location (no internet required). This game is highly configurable: the word values and numbers, bonuses and even the board layout.
Our free app Compact Fun contains 31 of our games and puzzles: word, number, logic, block-falling, and others.
Our free app BrainBoxFun is a set of brain-training exercises.
All these games and puzzles are either free or have trial versions that are free. They can be found at topaccolades.com/compactfun/. This gives more details of each game or puzzle and also provides an online version that can be played on most modern browsers and devices, including Windows laptops and devices, Macs, and iPad/other iOS devices.
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| Puzzle Notation | |
Our Director, Dr. David Wolstenholme, has developed new notations for two well-known puzzles. These are incorporated into two further apps.
- Rubik's Cube
- There is a widely-used notation for Rubik's Cube developed by David Singmaster. However, this notation is not easy to read or to remember. The Wolstenholme notation, in contrast, employs a notation in which cube and face turns are described in word-like text, such as RATI, ROTA, or FOTO, making them much easier to read and remember. This notation, and mnemonics to help you remember how to solve the cube, can be found in this document, and also in the app Kublitz Cube (found at topaccolades.com/compactfun/). The app, and also the document, make use of an original representation of a cube, whereby all 6 sides of the cube can effectively be 'seen' without the need to turn the cube (as seen in the first icon just above).
- Peg Solitaire
- As with Rubik's Cube, there is a widely-used notation for Peg Solitaire that is not easy to read or to remember. The Wolstenholme notation for Peg Solitaire, in contrast, expresses moves or move sequences needed to solve the puzzle as text that looks like words or names, such as HUT, COT, BUM, GO, DIC, BILL, JIM, GEF, and GAS, making them much easier to read and remember. This notation, and mnemonics to help you remember how to solve the puzzle, can be found in this document, and also in the app Peg Solitaire (found at topaccolades.com/compactfun/).
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