@puzzlegal, or anybody who knows, how the heck do you work a Colombian Sudoku? I don’t understand the instructions.
The dots outside the board on the right indicate how many cells in the corresponding column or row of that board contain precisely the same digit as is to be found in the same cell on the board on the left.
In the linked example, the number 6 appears in the left grid 2 rows down, 2 columns across. The right grid has the number 5 in the same place. It has 3 dots above and 3 dots to the right. Does that mean there’s 3 columns and 3 rows that contain the number 6? That’s contrary to regular Sudoku rules, where every cell in 6’s row and column have to be different numbers. What does the number 5 mean, if anything?
I haven’t played, but the left seems to be regular 1-6 sudoku and the right extra info to help you solve it.
If there are two dots above a column, two of the squares in that column will match in the left and right grids exactly. If there are three dots next to a row, three of the squares will match in that row in the left and right grids exactly. And so forth
I haven’t played, either. The “puzzle” in my name refers to mechanical puzzles, like the one in my avatar.
But i agree with Folly. It’s just sudoku. But instead of using 1-9, it uses 1-6. And instead of having 3x3 boxes provide an extra constraint, it has a grid to the side that provides a constraint.
This month’s issue of GAMES magazine has these puzzles. I remembered that puzzlegal works/ed for them, so that’s why I pinged her. Thanks for the help!
In terms of how to solve it, I would probably start with the rows and columns that have no dots, since you can eliminate all of those possibilities from the puzzle on the left.
Then also note that the second column from the right (4,5,3,2,1,6) has three correct numbers we know that the 2 and 6 are wrong, since all of the numbers in those two rows are wrong. Also the 5 is wrong, because we can see from the number filled on of the left puzzle, there is a 6 where that should be. So we know that the 4, 3, and 1 must be right.
Oh, right, also,
[Moderating]
Since this is talking about the game, not playing it here in the thread itself, this goes in the Game Room, not Thread Games. Moving.
This was a fun puzzle. But I had to solve it with paper and pencil. (How twentieth century.) Does anyone know of an interactive version that you can play directly on your computer?