Questions about Sudokube puzzle

The Game Room
1

Have you encountered this fiend yet? Well, the thing comes in one solved position and then you mix it up, a la Rubik’s Cube, and attempt to solve it with one correctly solved Sudoku puzzle on each of the six faces. The geometry of the puzzle leads me to the following questions:

[ol][li]How many unique solutions are there, allowing for the numerals to be oriented in any direction?[/li][li]How many unique solutios are there, allowing only for the numerals on each face to be oriented in the same direction as all other numerals on that face?[/li][li]Is this puzzle easier or harder than the standard 3x3 Rubik’s Cube?[/ol][/li]
If someone can explain how to post rotated text here, I’ll post the starting (original solved) position of the cube I have.

2

I have one but mine is color coded like a regular Rubik’s cube. I got it for a dollar and haven’t even broken it out of it’s package when I grabbed it on a lark about six months ago. So I’m kind of interested in the responses posted here.

There is a book sealed in the plastic that says “How to solve!” so I may break it open and look (though it’s still closed because I was thinking of giving it to someone).

FWIW, here’s this cube’s original configuration:



      +-----+
      |5-3-7|
      |8-9-2|
      |6-4-1|
+-----+-----+-----+-----+
|8-5-2|3-1-4|7-6-9|4-1-3|
|7-3-6|9-2-8|1-4-5|8-2-9|
|9-4-1|7-6-5|2-8-3|5-6-7|
+-----+-----+-----+-----+
      |1-5-3|
      |2-7-6|
      |4-8-9|
      +-----+

Thati s with colors mixed; I suppose I could work out the solution with the colors straightened out but it would be faster for me to open it and solve it as a Rubik’s cube than to sort out that square.

3

I forgot to mention a 4th question:
[list][li]Is it possible to have six unique sudokus on the cube when solved?[/li][/quote]

The little book I got with mine and also what I’ve found on the net say it’s not necessary to have different sudokus, the thing is that the cube needs each face to be solved.

I’m still curious about the effect of orientation of the numbers. I suppose I should also mention that each of the six faces has a 5 in the center position.

4

There is only one solution. What they’re done is substituted coloured sides for solved sudoku grids.
Essentially they’ve added a step before you can solve the cube, albeit a larger task to solve all 6 suduko sides simultaneously. The logic is different instead of matching colours you are keeping same number on different faces but in the end there is only one correct orientation for all the blocks.
Remember the cube is still 6 fixes centres with 20 moveable blocks around them.
The standard “moves” to solve it all still apply no matter what the stickers or numbers colours are. Solutions always refer to the blocks by their orientation on the cube. i.e. top left front (TLF) or bottom left (BL) not green or red.

Solving the first side seems like it could be a challenge but after that I think the rest would have to fall in place.