Sorry to dominate the thread. Does anybody remember the last puzzle craze from Japan (Yes, I know that Soduko started in the US and came back with a new name), but in these there would be a grid with numbers along the tops of the columns and the left side of the rows with hints on how many of the squares you colored in. You had to use logic to solve it, but when it was filled in it made a picture. Those were really neat.
cricetus - that’s called “paint by numbers” or “pic-a-pix”. Here’s the company that does them for Games magazine (free registration required for weekly puzzles): http://www.conceptistech.com/. Other puzzles they have I’ve found interesting are link-a-pix and fill-a-pix.
The Times of London has daily Sudoku puzzles. They also have a new variation they call their “killer” puzzles. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,18209,00.html
I use this site a lot: http://www.sudokuhints.com/. Free daily puzzles with archive, automatic tracking of possibilities, 2 levels of hints, solve step with details on how it was solved, easy saving and importing of puzzles with the “position link”.
Since there’s only one correct answer anyway, it’s interesting that they’d make “killer puzzles” where outlined areas have to add up to certain numbers. That would theoretically make the puzzle easier, since it can be used to work out clues to what number goes in a square. I say “theoretically,” because it’s probably the case that the puzzles are otherwise unsolvable. So I stand corrected that sudoku can’t be inovative the way crosswords are.
I’ve been modestly addicted to Sudoku since it suddenly began appearing in our local paper. But I agree with **Cricetus ** – the inherent limits in the puzzle mean I’m going to burn out quickly. Shirley, by the way, are you the one who got me started on Bounce Out?
I’m pretty sure I’ve never even heard of Bounce Out.
Linkie?
<----------------------retarded
I bought this one ($14.95), and like it a lot. I’ll go play one now…
It’s been in Dell’s math/logic books for well over a decade.
And never been one of my favorite puzzles there. But, more people doing logic-y puzzles cannot be a problem.
Ok, how do I do the Atlantic Monthly puzzlers? I’ve looked at them off and on for years, and never gotten anywhere. Not a single letter. Ever. What’s wrong with me?
The NY Times ran one a few Sundays ago (when they were talking about the phenomenon). I did the puzzle and enjoyed it, though I had to start over a couple times due to stupid mistakes. I was at Border’s last week and saw several books of puzzles and was thisclose to buying one.
With you, nothing. What the hell is wrong us?
Every clue can be broken into two parts, each of which leads to the same answer. You have to figure out where the break is between the two parts. One part is usually a direct reference like an ordinary crossword clue. The other can be some sort of wordplay. From last month’s:
Machine for making material appear large (4 letters)
[spoiler]LOOM
A “machine for making material” is a loom. To “appear large” is to loom. They’re not usually so direct.[/spoiler]
Two others I remember:
I complain about one of the Judds (5 letters)
[spoiler]NAOMI
Another word for “complain” is “moan”. “I complain” becomes “I moan.” “About” means to turn that around. And “one of the Judds” is also Naomi.[/spoiler]
Picasso beginning to paint a blue lake orange (5 letters)
[spoiler]PABLO
Picasso’s first name. Also the “beginning” (take the first letters of) “paint a blue lake orange”.[/spoiler]
And there’s always some trick in the construction of the puzzle. The one I gave the hint to above said that 11 answers would be missing something when entered in the grid, and that would correspond to 11 other answers that had no clues at all.
One answer was GROZNY, but the grid space for that only had room for 4 letters. Once you fill in some of the crossing words, the letters are GROY. You have to leave out ZN. ZN is the atomic symbol for zinc. One of the 4-letter answers in the grid with no clue is ZINC.
I’m glad this is a monthly. It usually takes me about that long.
What the hell is wrong with us.
The magazine has a bit at the bottom of each puzzle with an address you can mail for instructions. What’s even better is to buy this book, which has instructions and beginner puzzles and 25 or so of the real thing. It’s a great value. I carried that book around for years. I well remember the day I completed the last puzzle in the book (I did them in order). I was on jury duty at the time and in the considerable down time did the last 3 or 4 in the book.
I’ve been solving the “Number Place” problems in Dell magazines for over a decade. As others have mentioned, their Math & Logic Problems, published a few times a year, is a great source for these Saduko challenges. Warning: The jumbo “Letter Place” puzzles are a nightmare. Add to that the difficult Cross Sums puzzles, and there’s not a better number puzzle/logic magazine on the market.
Oh and cryptics,* Harper’s* has a monthly puzzle that rivals the *Atlantic *in difficulty and cleverness. The first night after either of those magazines arrives in the mail…no one better bother me!
Harpers is inconsistent with their own system, and it trips me up. For example, Cox and Rathvon (Atlantic) NEVER have extra words in the clues. Harpers will if they feel like it. It can really mess you up.
Hey, the Nationals in Atlanta this summer were awesome. Thousands of bridge players were there playing cards into the wee hours of the morning for 10 days straight. Bridge may not have the following it once did, but there are still hardcore fans and, damn it, it’s a great game!
(and not to brag, but I’m ahead in the master points race for Club Master of the year for my area…as long I do well in Lexington next month and the Blue Ribbon Pairs event later this fall.)
Another name for those is griddlers. Here’s a free site with loads and loads of them, however you like them. Black and white, multi-coloured, 3-D. A perfect time-waster.
Yeah, but it is sooo rewarding to solve these things. An extra word’s okay, provided it can be read to be as part of the wordplay or definition. It increases the challenge to worry whether “large” is just a descriptive word or an “l”.
Heck, it ain’t a great puzzle unless it takes more than one day to solve!
Thanks for the link, but… um… if you webster my username, you’ll understand why your username makes me nervous.
They actually invented the puzzle back in the 70s. Yet another wikipedia link. I’d like to be snobby and say I’ve been doing them for nearly 20 years but I honestly can’t remember them when I bought those books back in the mid 80s. Back then I loved doing word searches and shading in the letters that were used to see what letters weren’t used. The fact that it’s getting famous with an exotic name does bug me. Although I think that’s mostly because I hate when things I enjoy become popular. I can be quite the contrarian.
As for the puzzle itself I do indeed I like it but it suffers from the same problems as word search puzzles. Once you get good at it, it stops being puzzly and it becomes busy work. Paint by number is the best puzzle out there. It just has so much character yet it still requires no localized knowledged. Anyone on earth can do one if they know how which is probably why Number Place is gaining in pupularity too. What I’d like to see them do is get away from always having a rectangular grid. And the 2 color variations, black, red & white, weren’t nearly as much fun as I thought they’d be. GAMES’ Battleships is another good one. The puzzles are so small yet I’ve only made it to Admiral a few times.
Wow, those griddlers people have really run far with the concept. Thanks for the link.
Okay, someone else on the board gets the blame here. Anyway, here it is: Bounce Out
It’s mindless but addicting, and you’ll hate yourself in the morning.