Any other Paint-by-Numbers (Pic-a-Pix) puzzle fans here?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

In the US, Games Magazine calls them Paint-by-Numbers puzzles. I’ve heard that they have different names in other countries. (They were originally created in Japan.) I’m talking about the puzzles that have a grid with numbers on the top and left sides that indicate the groups of filled squares in each line. You can then logically determine which squares are filled in in each line, and you eventually make some sort of picture when you solve it.

I love these things. I’m becoming more and more addicted. Are there any other Dopers who like these puzzles (or even know what I’m talking about)?

I have to admit that my addiction really took off when I discovered the Conceptis website (Conceptis is the company that suppiles these puzzles to Games Magazine–they call the puzzles “Pic-a-Pix”, though.) If you sign up on their website, you are eligible to download a puzzle to solve and review each week! Once you fill out the review form, you are entered into a drawing for a free T-shirt (which I actually won about a month ago…haven’t got my shirt yet, though.) Recently, they’ve put up other puzzles that you can also download and solve each week. I just finished one that I printed last week–it was Spy vs. Spy! Very cool.

Do you like the “Link-a-Pix” Puzzles (Games calls these “Paint by Pairs”)? I do, but not as much as Pic-a-Pix. I’m not sure why. I think it’s because I tend to solve them by just drawing the lines and not filling in the full square, so, at the end, I have a lot of filling in to do, which is kind of boring. With Pic-a-Pix, you can fill it in as you solve it, so once you’ve solved it, the picture is right there. Also, if there are large white spaces in a Link-a-Pix, you tend to see what the picture is well before you’ve solved it. Games had one a few months ago that was an astronaut on a space walk, and I could see the astronaut in a completely unsolved puzzle!

Why isn’t there a magazine in the US that is devoted to these? I mean, I like Games and all, and I was originally attracted to their other puzzles (crosswords, etc.) but these are much better. I’m not going to get stuck on a Paint-by-Numbers puzzle because I don’t know that a water pitcher is a EWER or that there is a bird called an IBIS. I run out of Paint-by-Numbers too quickly! If Games put out a regular Paint-by-Numbers-only magazine, I’d be in heaven!

I even have the Game Boy game “Mario’s Picross” where you can solve these puzzles on a Game Boy. The puzzles don’t get any bigger than 15x15, though, so they are pretty easy. Helps pass the time, though.

2

Yes, I like them also. I assume you have the Games Magazine book of these puzzles, and the two books from Conceptis? (I can give you the ISBNs of these if you’d like.)

The London Daily Telegraph has at least one book of them, which I found in a store at the Madrid airport, of all places. When I was in London seven years ago I couldn’t find any, and I’ve never found them on Amazon. Anyone know if they are available?

Besides Games and Games World of Puzzles, I’ve not seen any other magazine that carries them. Thanks for the link!

3

I have the Games Magazine book (which I was not very impressed with–the Conceptis puzzles are much better!) I’d like to eventually get the Conceptis books. They’d probably be good summer “reading”.

My T-shirt just arrived today! It shows a filled-in puzzle of King Kong hanging off the Empire State Building. It also came with a pack of presharpened pencils bearing the Conceptis logo :D. Pencils are very, very important in this hobby! I’ve also already finished this week’s review puzzle, which is of a new type–“Fill-a-Pix”.

4

I got addicted to these things while in England. There was an entire magazine of them called ‘Tsunami Puzzles’. It was commonly available at any decent news agent - but I haven’t found it in the US and have switched to doing them online.

5

Pic-a-Pix are my favorite. I don’t like the Link-a-Pix very much, but Fill-a-Pix are fun, they remind me of Minesweeper. I ordered the book off the back of Games magazine, too, and I do those puzzles when I run out of the Conceptis puzzles. I didn’t know Conceptis had any books, thanks for the tip.

6

I really liked Paint by Numbers when they first appeared in Games. I even made some myself. I made one that was so hard (for me), I had to write a proof to convince myself that it was solvable. It’s a few years later now, and I tried to do them again in the current issue of Games. Have they gotten harder, or have I just gotten dumber? I messed up on four out of five that I tried. And when you mess up, it’s not easy to tell where. So I got one picture of a kid sailing a boat, and four grids of cellular haze.

7

If the ones in the first Games book are indicative of the puzzles they printed in the beginning, then, yes, I’d say they are getting harder. I ordered that book instead of the Conceptis books because the reviews on Amazon.com said that the Conceptis books were way more challenging, and I, thinking, well, I don’t like the really hard puzzles, anyway, so I’ll start with this easier book, ordered the Games book. I was amazed at how easy the puzzles were, having cut my teeth on the Conceptis puzzles in Games and on their website. The largest puzzles are 25x25, and the pictures are generally not as good. Things have come a long way.

Oh, and it is so hard to figure out where you’ve screwed up! Sometimes you can, but other times, it’s impossible. Link-a-Pix is a little better, especially if you don’t fill it in right away.

I like Link-a-Pix because it reminds me of the mazes I used to draw in my notebooks when I was in school. It amazes me that there is only one correct solution! However, the result is not always as satisfying, especially when you find that you’ve been drawing all these intricate little lines just to fill in a big block of color.

I had a weird dream last night. I was taking a trip by airplane, and I planned to take my puzzles with me, and I was worried that I would be unable to bring my pencil sharpener on the plane!

8

If you ever happen to find yourselves in possession of MAME (Multi Arcade Machine Emulator), and discover the games called Logic Pro and Logic Pro 2, you might find yourself pleasantly surprised. They are ‘arcade’ versions of the games you like. You have to complete a puzzle in a certain amount of time. Every square you mark correctly gets you time, every one you try to uncover that you shouldn’t costs you a LOT of time. You can sometimes find bonuses that can be used to uncover a row and column at the same time.

I play these things to death and have the phrase ‘doing doubly’ stuck in my head (the game says this when you are doing well for no good reason at all).