Tiles and Tribulations is an action arcade game for the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system environment. The game is composed of 50 challenging levels, smooth animation, digitized sound effects, a customizable MIDI sound track, and an endless supply of rotating, falling tiles.
The goal of Tiles and Tribulations is to catch falling tiles with a keyboard-controlled paddle, and then drop the tiles into the tile bin at the bottom of the screen. The paddle can hold up to five tiles, and the tile bin is a 5x5 matrix that will hold 25 tiles. The player is given a total of three lives at the start of the game, and whenever a falling tile is not caught, one life is deducted from this total (additional lives can be earned every 100,000 points). Points are awarded based on the player's ability to create vertical, horizontal, and diagonal patterns of same-colored tiles in the tile bin. When a pattern is built, the tiles in the pattern disappear to free up room for more patterns. If tiles are dropped into the tile bin in a random fashion, the tile bin will fill up and the game will end. Each level has a unique goal that must be solved before the player can advance to higher levels. Typical goals include requiring the player to accumulate points, catch 50 tiles, or build vertical lines of same-colored tiles.