Thursday, December 30, 2010
Proof of Quilt was invented by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli (under the name Shakashaka) in 2008.
1. Place black isosceles right triangles in some of the white cells in the grid. Each triangle must occupy exactly half of its cell, but may be in one of four orientations (◢, ◣, ◤, or ◥). A white cell may only contain one triangle.
2. Every contiguous region of white must be shaped like a rectangle (or a square).
3. A number in a black cell represents how many triangles share an edge with that cell.
2. Every contiguous region of white must be shaped like a rectangle (or a square).
3. A number in a black cell represents how many triangles share an edge with that cell.
Monday, December 27, 2010
In the Blackbarrier Jam puzzle on the left and in the Streaming Content puzzle on the right, the given numbers have been replaced by letters; all instances of a particular letter represent the same number, but two different letters must represent different numbers. (This applies whether the letters are in the same grid or not.) The rules are otherwise unchanged.
My most sincere apologies for today's Monday Mutant being late; I was debating whether to put the series on hold for the holidays, but decided against it a few hours ago.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Merry Christmas! (Well, in the Central time zone, at least. Those of you living west of that time zone still think it's Christmas Eve.)
On this holiday, Christians commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, who has been alternately portrayed as a generous feeder of the hungry and as kind of a jerk towards tall people. It is also a day when some Christians complain about how secular the holiday has become with its focus on materialism and Santa Claus rather than on Jesus, and demand that the "Christ" be put back in "Christmas". This large puzzle not only puts the "Christ" in "Christmas", but the "mas" as well, or more technically the "más" (the Spanish word for more). Oh, and for those non-Christians out there who are offended to see crosses in a logic puzzle, think of it this way: Christmas is about the birth of Christ, but crosses represent the death of Christ! As such, I'm really offending Christians just as much, if not more.
That paragraph aside, I hope you enjoy this Christmas present from me to logic puzzle fans everywhere.
On this holiday, Christians commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, who has been alternately portrayed as a generous feeder of the hungry and as kind of a jerk towards tall people. It is also a day when some Christians complain about how secular the holiday has become with its focus on materialism and Santa Claus rather than on Jesus, and demand that the "Christ" be put back in "Christmas". This large puzzle not only puts the "Christ" in "Christmas", but the "mas" as well, or more technically the "más" (the Spanish word for more). Oh, and for those non-Christians out there who are offended to see crosses in a logic puzzle, think of it this way: Christmas is about the birth of Christ, but crosses represent the death of Christ! As such, I'm really offending Christians just as much, if not more.
That paragraph aside, I hope you enjoy this Christmas present from me to logic puzzle fans everywhere.
(click to enlarge)
Fans of Chip's Challenge or of my puzzles will be excited to know that these two things have come together in what is known as Chip's Challenge Level Pack 3! From what I understand, this official sequel to Chip's Challenge Level Pack 2, which is in turn an unofficial sequel to the original 149 levels of Chip's Challenge, contains two levels that I created (levels 43 and 98) and 147 levels that other Chip's Challenge fans made. I am truly glad to have been a part of this.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
I suspect that all of my readers have been waiting with bated breath to see what kind of booby prize I decided to offer in the Four-Puzzle Derby. Having received confirmation of the booby prize's arrival in the appropriate recipient's mailbox, I will now reveal what it was to the whole world!
Warning: the images below were not made by a professional photographer with a decent camera, but by a logic puzzle blogger with an iPhone 4. Professional photographers are advised not to read any further. As usual, the images may be enlarged by clicking on them, but doing so will only further make it clear that a professional photographer wasn't involved.
The booby prize is. . . cards! And a letter explaining them!
And here's the envelope they were shipped in:
Congratulations again to Giovanni Pagano, the winner of this exciting prize!
Warning: the images below were not made by a professional photographer with a decent camera, but by a logic puzzle blogger with an iPhone 4. Professional photographers are advised not to read any further. As usual, the images may be enlarged by clicking on them, but doing so will only further make it clear that a professional photographer wasn't involved.
And here's the envelope they were shipped in:
Monday, December 20, 2010
In this Pearls of Wisdom puzzle, the loop must pass through every cell in the grid. The rules are otherwise unchanged.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
The deadline for Four-Puzzle Derby has now passed. Here are the results!
Warning: the following results contain spoilers (obviously)! If you wish to solve the contest puzzles yourself, please do so before reading on!
I received 42 entries, of which 40 contained the correct answer of 5, 1, 1, 3, 8 (see below; click to enlarge). With only two wrong entries, and a record number of correct entries, this was apparently my easiest contest ever. Have you guys caught on to my tricks more, or have I merely run out of tricks? :)
Before I reveal the winner, here are some of my favorite entries:
A penguin, Bobness McFluff, enters from gate 2. The bookies laugh and give him 5113:8 odds.
I honestly wasn't sure what to do with this one at first. While it was clear that 5113:8 was a reference to the correct answer, I was at first concerned that interpreting it as the entrant's answer when not labeled explicitly as such would be some kind of unfair advantage; I eventually decided that it could also be interpreted as me just being a butt and interpreting random digits as an answer, and if so, the entrant could always change the answer. Also, I figured that I'd do the same thing if the digits were obviously a close, but wrong, answer.
One entrant said:
It would help if I had the foggiest idea how many people read your blog. Instead, this contest was my first introduction to your puzzles. I followed a link from mellowmelon.
While I suppose this entrant can't be blamed for being new to my blog, all it would have taken is a simple click on the "contests" tag to see the results of the previous two contests (Attack of the Four Puzzles! had 23 correct answers out of 31 entries, and Attack of the Four Puzzles II! had 24 correct answers out of 27 entries). One could then attempt to extrapolate an estimate from there, although I suppose there's no guarantee that my blog hasn't suddenly spiked in popularity since the last contest, and this contest would have had a thousand entrants. (My decision to have 50 gates was based on such an extrapolation.)
My favorite entry, though, was from Zotmeister, who e-mailed not only to inform me that he'd soon be updating his blog (he has posted two puzzles since his entry was sent), but to say the following:
You may be interested to know that I did indeed try to circumvent the puzzle relay as much as possible, even using such tidbits as "B + W = 10, B < 6", but I still failed - I had to solve all four puzzles to get unique answers, so well done on construction.
I was very happy that Zotmeister had appreciated this. As in the previous two contests, I purposefully aimed to construct the puzzles such that all four needed to be solved, and a wrong answer in one puzzle can lead to the next puzzle still having a unique, but wrong, solution. For instance, if (I, O) is set to (4, 4), then Part iii's solution will yield a value of 4 for i, and Part iv's solution will yield a value of 1 for a; one person made this mistake. If (B, W) is set to (2, 8), (4, 6), or (5, 5), then Part iii's solution gives ii a value of 4; this has a much more drastic effect on the final solution to Part iv, causing b to be 5 and e to be 1. I was disappointed that nobody made this mistake. However, one entrant made an apparent transcription error, sending in a solution of 5, 1, 3, 3, 8. Since the value of c wasn't supposed to be affected by errors in the previous puzzles, this entrant wins the Most Inaccurate Answer award. (There is no prize for this.)
And now the results!
Of the 40 qualifying horses, 9 finished the race. Gate 4 was the most popular, while nobody chose gate 7. If anybody had, the outcome of this race would have been slightly different!
First prize, consisting of Nikoli puzzle books imported from Japan, goes to Termital, the rider of der Kluge Hans!
The booby prize goes to Giovanni Pagano, the rider of Days in the Fire!
The winners have been e-mailed notifying them of their respective victorious accomplishments. Thanks for entering, everyone!
Warning: the following results contain spoilers (obviously)! If you wish to solve the contest puzzles yourself, please do so before reading on!
I received 42 entries, of which 40 contained the correct answer of 5, 1, 1, 3, 8 (see below; click to enlarge). With only two wrong entries, and a record number of correct entries, this was apparently my easiest contest ever. Have you guys caught on to my tricks more, or have I merely run out of tricks? :)
Before I reveal the winner, here are some of my favorite entries:
A penguin, Bobness McFluff, enters from gate 2. The bookies laugh and give him 5113:8 odds.
I honestly wasn't sure what to do with this one at first. While it was clear that 5113:8 was a reference to the correct answer, I was at first concerned that interpreting it as the entrant's answer when not labeled explicitly as such would be some kind of unfair advantage; I eventually decided that it could also be interpreted as me just being a butt and interpreting random digits as an answer, and if so, the entrant could always change the answer. Also, I figured that I'd do the same thing if the digits were obviously a close, but wrong, answer.
One entrant said:
It would help if I had the foggiest idea how many people read your blog. Instead, this contest was my first introduction to your puzzles. I followed a link from mellowmelon.
While I suppose this entrant can't be blamed for being new to my blog, all it would have taken is a simple click on the "contests" tag to see the results of the previous two contests (Attack of the Four Puzzles! had 23 correct answers out of 31 entries, and Attack of the Four Puzzles II! had 24 correct answers out of 27 entries). One could then attempt to extrapolate an estimate from there, although I suppose there's no guarantee that my blog hasn't suddenly spiked in popularity since the last contest, and this contest would have had a thousand entrants. (My decision to have 50 gates was based on such an extrapolation.)
My favorite entry, though, was from Zotmeister, who e-mailed not only to inform me that he'd soon be updating his blog (he has posted two puzzles since his entry was sent), but to say the following:
You may be interested to know that I did indeed try to circumvent the puzzle relay as much as possible, even using such tidbits as "B + W = 10, B < 6", but I still failed - I had to solve all four puzzles to get unique answers, so well done on construction.
I was very happy that Zotmeister had appreciated this. As in the previous two contests, I purposefully aimed to construct the puzzles such that all four needed to be solved, and a wrong answer in one puzzle can lead to the next puzzle still having a unique, but wrong, solution. For instance, if (I, O) is set to (4, 4), then Part iii's solution will yield a value of 4 for i, and Part iv's solution will yield a value of 1 for a; one person made this mistake. If (B, W) is set to (2, 8), (4, 6), or (5, 5), then Part iii's solution gives ii a value of 4; this has a much more drastic effect on the final solution to Part iv, causing b to be 5 and e to be 1. I was disappointed that nobody made this mistake. However, one entrant made an apparent transcription error, sending in a solution of 5, 1, 3, 3, 8. Since the value of c wasn't supposed to be affected by errors in the previous puzzles, this entrant wins the Most Inaccurate Answer award. (There is no prize for this.)
And now the results!
Gate 1: Captain Obvious, /dev/horse, Glue Stick, Up the Daddy
Gate 2: Bobness McFluff, Made of Win, Retuned Daddio, What
Gate 3: Aristides, Dye Sun’s Fear, FF Selector, Orange Lightning
Gate 4: Attack of the One Horse, Ferday Ferday Ferday, Hoof Hearted, Name That Eyebrow [DQ: 1, 1, 1, 3, 8], Sir Staightaway, Vicious Beauty
Gate 5: Das Ist Nümberwang!, muhorka
Gate 6: Horse, Knightmare, Paul Revere, Shunba, Tricera Narwhal
Gate 8: der Kluge Hans
Gate 9: Blitzen's Dirty Secret, Eman Esroh, Lady Ladybug [DQ: 5, 1, 3, 3, 8]
Gate 10: Omaha
Gate 12: Stumbler
Gate 13: Yellow Flash
Gate 14: Double Lucky, Ocean Cookie, Pegasus
Gate 17: Gary Oak
Gate 18: Pascagoula Puzzler, Sleipnir
Gate 21: Andor
Gate 27: Shantron
Gate 29: Days in the Fire
Gate 33: Dark Moon
Of the 40 qualifying horses, 9 finished the race. Gate 4 was the most popular, while nobody chose gate 7. If anybody had, the outcome of this race would have been slightly different!
First prize, consisting of Nikoli puzzle books imported from Japan, goes to Termital, the rider of der Kluge Hans!
The booby prize goes to Giovanni Pagano, the rider of Days in the Fire!
The winners have been e-mailed notifying them of their respective victorious accomplishments. Thanks for entering, everyone!
If you're seeing this puzzle, that means the deadline for the Four-Puzzle Derby has passed, and no more entries will be accepted. A write-up of the results is forthcoming!
Monday, December 13, 2010
In this Polyominous puzzle, a number to the left or right of a row or above or below a column represents how many numbers in that row or column can be seen from that direction. A number is visible if and only if it is strictly greater than any other numbers in the row or column between that number and the edge (and is blocked from being seen if a number greater than or equal to it is in the way). The rules are otherwise unchanged.
This puzzle borrows some elements from Skyscrapers, probably one of the more well-known logic puzzle genres to have no real links to Japan. Normally, Skyscrapers doesn't involve polyominoes, but does involve a Latin square.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
I would like to promote three things whose only commonality is my involvement in each.
1. Four Puzzle Derby! It's a contest where you can win puzzle books imported from Japan! The deadline is less than a week away, so hurry up and enter.
2. Mega Micromusic! This awesome release by Dual Mode Records contains 8 songs created using the Record MakerMatic in WarioWare DIY, which can be basically described as a new generation of Mario Paint with much more interactivity. Track 3, the surreally titled "2120 Census", was composed by me.
3. 30s30d: A Month's Worth of Composing! While I didn't advertise it on my blog (until now), I spent the entire month of November writing one new song every day. Song 14, "Link and the King Get Logical", uses sound effects from the logic puzzle games by Everett Kaser, which some readers of this blog might recognize. There are also 10 WarioWare DIY tunes and 19 NES chiptunes.
Now that I've promoted those three things, solve this not-very-difficult puzzle.
1. Four Puzzle Derby! It's a contest where you can win puzzle books imported from Japan! The deadline is less than a week away, so hurry up and enter.
2. Mega Micromusic! This awesome release by Dual Mode Records contains 8 songs created using the Record MakerMatic in WarioWare DIY, which can be basically described as a new generation of Mario Paint with much more interactivity. Track 3, the surreally titled "2120 Census", was composed by me.
3. 30s30d: A Month's Worth of Composing! While I didn't advertise it on my blog (until now), I spent the entire month of November writing one new song every day. Song 14, "Link and the King Get Logical", uses sound effects from the logic puzzle games by Everett Kaser, which some readers of this blog might recognize. There are also 10 WarioWare DIY tunes and 19 NES chiptunes.
Now that I've promoted those three things, solve this not-very-difficult puzzle.
Monday, December 6, 2010
In this Polyominous puzzle, the given numbers have been replaced by letters; all instances of a particular letter represent the same number, but two different letters must represent different numbers. The rules are otherwise unchanged.
This puzzle is a tribute to one of my favorite Christmas movies (er, THE WINTER SOLSTICE movies) of recent time.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Note: this contest was delayed by eleven hours, because although I'd scheduled this post to go up automatically at 12:00 AM on 11/30/10, apparently Blogger thinks the day starts at 12:01 AM and ends at 12:00 AM. Stupid Blogger.
Do you want to win high-quality logic puzzles imported from Japan? The Four-Puzzle Derby contest might be your opportunity to do just that!
Some of you may recall my previous contests Attack of the Four Puzzles! and Attack of the Four Puzzles II!; this contest is similar, but I've decided to mix things up by adding in elements from the Nikoli Derby. The four short sections below explain all of the details.
How to enter:
This contest combines a four-part logic puzzle (below) with a horse race. To participate in the contest, simply send an e-mail to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Your entry should consist of the following:
a) the final answer to the four-part puzzle below, obtained from part iv;
b) the name of the horse you'll be entering in the race (this is just for fun and has no effect on the final outcome, so don't stress out over it too much);
c) the number of the gate your horse will start from (any integer between 1 and 50 inclusive).
Only one entry is allowed per person, but you may change your entry at any time before the deadline, 11:59 PM (Central time) on December 14, 2010.
How to win:
After the deadline has passed, the winner will be determined as follows:
a) Anyone who submits an incorrect answer to the four-part puzzle below will have his or her horse disqualified from the race.
b) If two or more qualifying horses start from the same gate number, then their riders will all fall off of their horses before finishing the race. (Heck if I know why.)
c) The remaining horses will all run the whole distance, and finish the race in order from the lowest-numbered gate through the highest-numbered gate.
Thus, to win, you must submit a correct answer to the four-part puzzle, and choose the lowest-numbered gate that nobody else with a correct answer has chosen.
In the event that none of the horses finish, the winner will be selected by random draw from all of the qualified entrants, without regard to the gates from which they started. If no horses even qualify (that is, nobody sends a correct answer), then no prize will be given.
In addition, a booby prize will be awarded to the entrant whose horse finishes in second-to-last place. If only two horses finish, then the booby prize will be awarded to the second place finisher. If only one horse finishes, or none do, then the booby prize will not be awarded.
Prize:
The winner will receive his or her choice of either 3 of Nikoli's Pencil Puzzle Books, or any 1 or 2 Nikoli books whose prices total at most 2100 yen (see this link for a list of all of the books Nikoli has available). Each Pencil Puzzle Book contains about 96 puzzles of one particular type, which is great if there's a certain puzzle type you particularly want to focus on; if you'd rather have a wider variety of puzzles available, books like the Penpas Mix series, the Puzzle Box series, and the Puzzle the Giants series will satisfy your needs perfectly. Either way, you win! :) When you win, provide me with your mailing address and which books you'd like; I'll pay Nikoli to ship them directly to you.
The booby prize will not be revealed until the outcome of the contest is decided, but it is worth far less, and far less puzzle-related, than the Nikoli puzzle books. It will be shipped from Abilene, TX (where this blog is headquartered).
Terms:
By entering the contest, you agree to the following terms:
a) You agree not to discuss your entry with any other entrants or potential entrants until the contest is over.
b) You agree to provide me with a mailing address in the event that you win. (In return, I agree not to use your mailing address for any malicious purposes, such as sending junk mail or other undesired things.)
c) You agree to wait patiently for your prize to arrive, without moaning or kvetching, especially if it's being shipped from a different country than where you live (such as winning the Nikoli books if you don't live in Japan, or the booby prize if you don't live in the United States).
Now that you're done reading all that, here is the four-part contest puzzle. Good luck! :)
Part i. Room and Reason
Solve the Room and Reason puzzle below (rules of Room and Reason).
How many black cells and how many white cells are there in the indicated row? These are the respective values of B and W in Part iii below.
Part ii. Fencing Match
Solve the Fencing Match puzzle below (rules of Fencing Match).
How many 0's are inside the loop, and how many 0's are outside it? These are the respective values of I and O in Part iii below.
Part iii. Quad-Wrangle
Using the values for B, W, I, and O derived in Parts i and ii, solve the Quad-Wrangle puzzle below (rules of Quad-Wrangle).
What are the sizes of the rectangles containing i, ii, iii, and iv? These are the respective values of i, ii, iii, and iv in Part iv below.
Part iv. Polyominous
Using the values for i, ii, iii, and iv derived in Part iii, solve the Polyominous puzzle below (rules of Polyominous).
The five numbers in the lettered cells, taken in reading order (a, b, c, d, e), form the final answer. Send this final answer, as well as your horse's name and starting gate, to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com to enter the Four-Puzzle Derby contest.
Do you want to win high-quality logic puzzles imported from Japan? The Four-Puzzle Derby contest might be your opportunity to do just that!
Some of you may recall my previous contests Attack of the Four Puzzles! and Attack of the Four Puzzles II!; this contest is similar, but I've decided to mix things up by adding in elements from the Nikoli Derby. The four short sections below explain all of the details.
How to enter:
This contest combines a four-part logic puzzle (below) with a horse race. To participate in the contest, simply send an e-mail to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Your entry should consist of the following:
a) the final answer to the four-part puzzle below, obtained from part iv;
b) the name of the horse you'll be entering in the race (this is just for fun and has no effect on the final outcome, so don't stress out over it too much);
c) the number of the gate your horse will start from (any integer between 1 and 50 inclusive).
Only one entry is allowed per person, but you may change your entry at any time before the deadline, 11:59 PM (Central time) on December 14, 2010.
How to win:
After the deadline has passed, the winner will be determined as follows:
a) Anyone who submits an incorrect answer to the four-part puzzle below will have his or her horse disqualified from the race.
b) If two or more qualifying horses start from the same gate number, then their riders will all fall off of their horses before finishing the race. (Heck if I know why.)
c) The remaining horses will all run the whole distance, and finish the race in order from the lowest-numbered gate through the highest-numbered gate.
Thus, to win, you must submit a correct answer to the four-part puzzle, and choose the lowest-numbered gate that nobody else with a correct answer has chosen.
In the event that none of the horses finish, the winner will be selected by random draw from all of the qualified entrants, without regard to the gates from which they started. If no horses even qualify (that is, nobody sends a correct answer), then no prize will be given.
In addition, a booby prize will be awarded to the entrant whose horse finishes in second-to-last place. If only two horses finish, then the booby prize will be awarded to the second place finisher. If only one horse finishes, or none do, then the booby prize will not be awarded.
Prize:
The winner will receive his or her choice of either 3 of Nikoli's Pencil Puzzle Books, or any 1 or 2 Nikoli books whose prices total at most 2100 yen (see this link for a list of all of the books Nikoli has available). Each Pencil Puzzle Book contains about 96 puzzles of one particular type, which is great if there's a certain puzzle type you particularly want to focus on; if you'd rather have a wider variety of puzzles available, books like the Penpas Mix series, the Puzzle Box series, and the Puzzle the Giants series will satisfy your needs perfectly. Either way, you win! :) When you win, provide me with your mailing address and which books you'd like; I'll pay Nikoli to ship them directly to you.
The booby prize will not be revealed until the outcome of the contest is decided, but it is worth far less, and far less puzzle-related, than the Nikoli puzzle books. It will be shipped from Abilene, TX (where this blog is headquartered).
Terms:
By entering the contest, you agree to the following terms:
a) You agree not to discuss your entry with any other entrants or potential entrants until the contest is over.
b) You agree to provide me with a mailing address in the event that you win. (In return, I agree not to use your mailing address for any malicious purposes, such as sending junk mail or other undesired things.)
c) You agree to wait patiently for your prize to arrive, without moaning or kvetching, especially if it's being shipped from a different country than where you live (such as winning the Nikoli books if you don't live in Japan, or the booby prize if you don't live in the United States).
Now that you're done reading all that, here is the four-part contest puzzle. Good luck! :)
Part i. Room and Reason
Solve the Room and Reason puzzle below (rules of Room and Reason).
Part ii. Fencing Match
Solve the Fencing Match puzzle below (rules of Fencing Match).
Part iii. Quad-Wrangle
Using the values for B, W, I, and O derived in Parts i and ii, solve the Quad-Wrangle puzzle below (rules of Quad-Wrangle).
Part iv. Polyominous
Using the values for i, ii, iii, and iv derived in Part iii, solve the Polyominous puzzle below (rules of Polyominous).
Monday, November 29, 2010
In this Pearls of Wisdom puzzle, there are no clues inside the grid. Instead, you are to both draw a loop and place black pearls and white pearls in every cell that could legally contain one. Pearls to the left of a row or above a column represent all of the pearls which are in that row or column, in order from left to right or from top to bottom. A question mark (?) represents a pearl whose color is unknown; an asterisk (*) represents any number of pearls of unknown colors, including none at all.
This puzzle is one part Total Masyu, one part Griddlers/Hanjie/Nonograms/
Paint by Numbers/Pic-a-Pix/Picross, and one part kind of difficult. Be forewarned. Also, ralphmerridew wants me to publicize that he was responsible for catching an error in this puzzle before I posted it here. Thanks, ralphmerridew!
This puzzle is one part Total Masyu, one part Griddlers/Hanjie/Nonograms/
Paint by Numbers/Pic-a-Pix/Picross, and one part kind of difficult. Be forewarned. Also, ralphmerridew wants me to publicize that he was responsible for catching an error in this puzzle before I posted it here. Thanks, ralphmerridew!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Today is Thanksgiving, at least in the United States (I can't speak for other countries). I had originally intended to save this puzzle for 475, but I felt like I should post a giant puzzle on this special holiday. Fans of this type of puzzle will be glad to know that there are two 31x45 Suraromu puzzles in Puzzle the Giants 23 (including one which spells the puzzle's name in katakana using the black cells), and Puzzle Communication Nikoli 129 has a 64x50 Suraromu with 170 gates! It is truly a wonderful puzzle.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Shade in some cells black such that the black cells are all connected to each other through their edges, and no 2x2 cell area within the grid contains all black cells. Numbers to the left of a row or above a column represent the groups of consecutive black cells which are in that row or column. For example, a clue of "3" means the row or column has three consecutive black cells, and a clue of "3 1" means that the row or column has a group of three consecutive black cells followed by a single black cell, separated by at least one white cell. A question mark (?) represents a group of consecutive black cells whose size is unknown; an asterisk (*) represents any number of unknown groups of black cells, including none at all.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
In this Spirits of Serpentine puzzle, most of the given numbers have been replaced by letters; all instances of a particular letter represent the same number, but two different letters must represent different numbers. The rules are otherwise unchanged.
The two given numbers look very similar to the letters S and O; if you find yourself confused, just remember that the only letters in this puzzle are the ones in the word BANKER.
This is Monday Mutant 52. In other 52-related news, I recently paid Rick Griffin of Housepets! to draw this picture, which happened to be number 52 out of 100 in the Iron Artist series he's doing. Don't worry, folks; I plan on keeping the Monday Mutants series alive past 100. :)
This is Monday Mutant 52. In other 52-related news, I recently paid Rick Griffin of Housepets! to draw this picture, which happened to be number 52 out of 100 in the Iron Artist series he's doing. Don't worry, folks; I plan on keeping the Monday Mutants series alive past 100. :)
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
In this Straight and Arrow puzzle, a number followed by a question mark represents how many black cells are in at least one of the four orthogonal directions (that is, the question mark can be replaced by an up arrow, a down arrow, a left arrow, or a right arrow, and be a normal Straight and Arrow clue). A number followed by an x means that none of the four orthogonal directions contain that many black cells. (Note that for the purposes of a 0? or a 0x on an edge or in a corner, any orthogonal direction which would point off of the grid is excluded.) A number followed by a plus sign represents the total number of black cells in all four orthogonal directions. The rules are otherwise unchanged.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
In a remarkable proof that turnabout is fair play, David Millar spotted an error in this puzzle before I posted it here. Because I was smart enough to let someone else see it first, though, it doesn't count against me for the purposes of how many times I've been wrong according to my blog's banner. (Gwa ha ha!)
Monday, November 1, 2010
In this Straight and Arrow puzzle, a number followed by a plus sign represents the total number of black cells in all four orthogonal directions. The rules are otherwise unchanged.
It would not appear that MellowMelon has ever made an Indirect Yajilin with nothing but plus sign clues.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Spirits of Serpentine was invented by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli (under the name Hebi-Ichigo) in early 2009.
1. Locate several snakes in the white cells of the grid. Each snake consists of five cells, numbered 1 (the head) through 5 (the tail). Consecutively numbered cells within a snake must share an edge.
2. No two snakes may overlap or share an edge.
3. No snake may see another snake. A snake's eyes are on the side of its head opposite the number 2 cell. It can only see in that direction, in a straight line, up to the edge of the grid or the nearest black cell (whichever is closer). (See this illustrated example.)
4. A cell containing a number and an arrow represents the first number encountered in the row or column pointed at by the arrow, up to the edge of the grid or the nearest black cell (whichever is closer). A 0 means that no snake is encountered in this area.
2. No two snakes may overlap or share an edge.
3. No snake may see another snake. A snake's eyes are on the side of its head opposite the number 2 cell. It can only see in that direction, in a straight line, up to the edge of the grid or the nearest black cell (whichever is closer). (See this illustrated example.)
4. A cell containing a number and an arrow represents the first number encountered in the row or column pointed at by the arrow, up to the edge of the grid or the nearest black cell (whichever is closer). A 0 means that no snake is encountered in this area.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
In this Streaming Content puzzle, only the number 3 is shown. A question mark represents a number that isn't 3. The rules are otherwise unchanged.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Ten ships (as indicated below the grid: one four-cell ship, two three-cell ships, three two-cell ships, and four one-cell ships) are hidden in the grid. The ships may be rotated from the orientations shown (without changing the numbers), but may not overlap or occupy cells which share a corner or an edge. A number 3 to the right of a row or below a column indicates that three cells in that row or column are occupied by ships; the number of occupied cells in a row or column without a number must not be 3. Find the ships.
Note to solvers (courtesy of Jonah): read the rules, not just the title.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
I'm sorry to post this on a Monday and risk taking attention away from today's Monday Mutant, but I felt it was necessary.
Not too long ago, I got the following e-mail:
Hi,
I’m an incurable puzzler but found that Sudoku was getting too easy. So I wrote a new puzzle app for iPhone, [name redacted], which is available in the iPhone store for the first time today. ([link redacted])
The easiest level is kid friendly. The hardest level (with almost 4 quadrillion, quadrillion, quadrillion possible answers) is “Insane”. The game is called [name redacted] and, like Sudoku, it challenges us to place a set of numbers in the correct positions on a square grid. In this case, “correct” means that once placed, the numbers add up to the sums shown for each row, column and diagonal.
A 3 x 3 grid isn’t much of a challenge. A 6 x 6 grid is incredibly challenging. (Yes, hints are available)
I would love it if you would review the puzzle in your blog. I would be happy to send you a promo code to download and test it.
I've never considered myself an expert at constructive criticism, but I think I'll make an exception for this app and try my hand at reviewing it. In fact, looking at the iTunes store, I see that you have since released a second puzzle game app, and I will throw in a review of that one as a free bonus! Unfortunately, Mr. Incurable Puzzler, as you might have already surmised from that fact that I have redacted your name and your apps' names, it's not going to be a positive one.
My first criticism of the game is that fact that there is no free demo version of either app. The "try it before you buy it" business model popularized by many shareware computer games of the 90's has proven to be very successful. Why do car dealerships let you test-drive their cars before buying them? Why do grocery stores offer free samples of certain food items? It's to give the potential buyer a better idea of what's being offered for sale. For example, Nikoli has a line of iPhone apps, including Akari Free, a free app containing ten Akari puzzles, and several Akari apps which cost $2.99 and contain fifty puzzles each. Imagine being someone who has never solved an Akari puzzle before. Wouldn't you be reluctant to spend money on this app? You don't know whether Akari puzzles are very interesting. You don't know whether this particular app's interface is pleasant enough to make the puzzles fun to play (because if the puzzles are otherwise well-designed, but the interface is designed poorly, the app as a whole will be very unpleasant to play). The free app gives you a better idea of what you're buying, and whether you'll enjoy it or not. I know that I personally would not have payed for Nikoli's $2.99 apps were it not for the availability of the free apps. My suggestion to fix this: offer a free version of each app with maybe 5 puzzles in each size, and add a version with unlimited puzzles as an in-app purchase.
Before I continue my review, I should probably add that I have not actually downloaded either app, despite having an iPhone on which I could easily do so, and without having downloaded the apps, all I can really judge are their screenshots and their descriptions. While the author has expressed willingness to give me a promo code for one of the apps, I don't have the heart to get his hopes up by asking for said promo code, and then demonstrate my gratitude by posting a negative review. (I do, however, apparently have the heart to post a negative review in the first place. . . .) So without further ado, here are the screenshots! (These screenshots and the puzzles therein are © 2010 "Mr. Incurable Puzzler"; I believe the use of these screenshots for review purposes qualifies as fair use.)
In both puzzles, the objective is to fill each cell with a distinct number from 1 through 9. In the puzzle on the left, the sum of the numbers in each row, column, and one of the diagonals is given; in the puzzle on the right, the sum of the numbers in each 2x2 block is given. Some of the numbers are given in each puzzle.
The puzzle on the left can be solved algebraically, without the need to use the rule that every integer from 1 through 9 appears exactly once. This is because we have a system of seven linear equations with six variables:
a+2+b=11 [i]
c+d+1=13 [ii]
5+e+f=21 [iii]
a+c+5=16 [iv]
2+d+e=15 [v]
b+a+f=14 [vi]
a+d+f=14 [vii]
Note, however, that the sum of the row totals must be the same as the sum of the column totals, which means that any one of the first six equations is redundant, as it is implied by the others. Thus, we really have a system of six equations over six variables, which is still solvable.
Subtract [iv] from [ii] to get:
c+d+1-a-c-5=13-16 ⇒ d-1=a
Similarly, subtracting [iii] from [v] yields this:
2+d+e-5-e-f=15-21 ⇒ d+3=f
Taking equation [vii] and substituting d-1 for a and d+3 for f produces:
d-1+d+d+3=14 ⇒ 3d+2=14 ⇒ d=4
From here, the rest is trivial:
In the puzzle on the right, we have only four sums given, resulting in a system of four linear equations over six variables; we have no choice but to use fact that every integer from 1 through 9 appears once. The upper-right corner has 6, 9, and two other numbers that add up to 8 to make up a total of 23, and the only numbers available are 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 8; these numbers must be {1, 7} or {3, 5} in some order. The lower-left corner has 4, 6, and two other numbers that add up to 8 to make up a total of 18, so these numbers must also be {1, 7} or {3, 5} in some order. Thus we have 8 possibilities:
- 1 9 - 1 9 - 3 9 - 3 9
3 6 7 5 6 7 1 6 5 7 6 5
4 5 - 4 3 - 4 7 - 4 1 -
- 5 9 - 5 9 - 7 9 - 7 9
1 6 3 7 6 3 3 6 1 5 6 1
4 7 - 4 1 - 4 5 - 4 3 -
The upper-left corner has a sum of 18, and the lower-right corner has a sum of 20, so the remaining two spaces can be filled in:
8 1 9 6 1 9* 8 3 9 2 3 9
3 6 7 5 6 7 1 6 5 7 6 5
4 5 2 4 3 4 4 7 2 4 1 8
6 5 9* 0 5 9* 2 7 9 0 7 9*
1 6 3 7 6 3 3 6 1 5 6 1
4 7 4 4 1 10 4 5 8 4 3 10
The possibilities marked with asterisks can be eliminated because they either repeat a number or use the illegal numbers 0 and 10, leaving us with four solutions.
Wait a minute. Four solutions?
FOUR SOLUTIONS?!?!?
Both apps' descriptions say, "All [app's name] puzzles can be solved with logic so there’s no need to guess. Which is just as well because there are over 300,000 possible answers to the Beginner puzzle and only one is right." Yet one of the screenshots of the latter app shows a 3x3 Beginner puzzle with FOUR SOLUTIONS! How am I, as a logic puzzle connoisseur, supposed to respond to such an atrocity? Actually, let me rephrase that: how am I, as a logic puzzle connoisseur who wishes to keep his blog PG-rated, supposed to respond to such an atrocity? There is no appropriate invective-free response to this kind of horror. You simply do not bill something as a logic puzzle with only one solution, and have it actually have four solutions.
Now let's look at a pair of 6x6 Insane puzzles:
I think it's pretty obvious what's going on here: the program merely randomly permutes the numbers (there are 36! ways to do this), randomly gives you one number per row and per column (there are 6! ways to do this), gives you the sums, and says "Solve it!" "Created by an expert Sudoku player tired of repetitive game boards and short challenges", my eye! Thomas Snyder is an expert Sudoku player, and has the World Sudoku Championship victories to prove it, so I know what kind of puzzle an expert Sudoku player creates. This is more like created by someone who solved five Sudoku puzzles and realized that puzzles make money, so he slapped some programming code together as quickly as possible and called it a puzzle. It reminds me of when I was younger, and I thought I could make a Battleships puzzle by randomly placing the ships, randomly picking some shots, and putting the numbers everywhere. I didn't realize the most important step: make sure there's only one solution.
I see no obvious logical way to start either one of these 6x6 puzzles except to do what I did earlier and list every possible case I find until one of them works. But frankly, after arriving at four solutions earlier, I'd rather play an expert grid in Minesweeper in real life while people are constantly throwing durians at me until I either clear the board and win or trigger a landmine and lose. (And that's just the PG version of what I'd rather do.) If anyone out there is willing to punish themselves by solving these puzzles, or to write a computer program to do so, I will gladly edit this review to reflect how many solutions they have. (Edit: According to ralphmerridew, the puzzle on the left has at least three hundred solutions – a far cry from one! – and the one on the right has just one.)
Final verdict: these apps are abominations! You can't review an app on iTunes unless you've actually downloaded it, but were I able to do so, I'd rate them each one star with absolutely no regret. (A one-star rating is especially in order for the first app – it has a five-star rating from someone whose review does nothing to explain the rationale behind the rating except to refer to the app's creator as "padre".) Nikoli's Kakuro puzzles are fun. Nikoli's Sudoku puzzles are fun. These puzzles, in contrast, are not fun, but frustrating beyond measure! Also, remember when I said you should make a free demo version of the app available? I take that back – don't make a free version of this app. If you're lucky, you'll make a buck or two off of people who don't know how terrible the game is because they haven't tried it and don't follow my blog. Make the game good, or at the very minimum passable, and then offer a free demo!
Moral of the story: don't ever ask me to review your iPhone app. Because I just might. . . and mock you mercilessly. In fact, "ask me to link to or review your stuff on my blog" is now officially on my "YOU MAY NOT" list on my sidebar, thanks to these two games.
Update (October 15, 2010): as of now, version 1.1 of the former game, [name redacted], is available. What's new about version 1.1? "Correct an incorrect logo image". That's it. Clearly Mr. Incurable Puzzler hasn't read my review, or doesn't care.
Not too long ago, I got the following e-mail:
Hi,
I’m an incurable puzzler but found that Sudoku was getting too easy. So I wrote a new puzzle app for iPhone, [name redacted], which is available in the iPhone store for the first time today. ([link redacted])
The easiest level is kid friendly. The hardest level (with almost 4 quadrillion, quadrillion, quadrillion possible answers) is “Insane”. The game is called [name redacted] and, like Sudoku, it challenges us to place a set of numbers in the correct positions on a square grid. In this case, “correct” means that once placed, the numbers add up to the sums shown for each row, column and diagonal.
A 3 x 3 grid isn’t much of a challenge. A 6 x 6 grid is incredibly challenging. (Yes, hints are available)
I would love it if you would review the puzzle in your blog. I would be happy to send you a promo code to download and test it.
I've never considered myself an expert at constructive criticism, but I think I'll make an exception for this app and try my hand at reviewing it. In fact, looking at the iTunes store, I see that you have since released a second puzzle game app, and I will throw in a review of that one as a free bonus! Unfortunately, Mr. Incurable Puzzler, as you might have already surmised from that fact that I have redacted your name and your apps' names, it's not going to be a positive one.
My first criticism of the game is that fact that there is no free demo version of either app. The "try it before you buy it" business model popularized by many shareware computer games of the 90's has proven to be very successful. Why do car dealerships let you test-drive their cars before buying them? Why do grocery stores offer free samples of certain food items? It's to give the potential buyer a better idea of what's being offered for sale. For example, Nikoli has a line of iPhone apps, including Akari Free, a free app containing ten Akari puzzles, and several Akari apps which cost $2.99 and contain fifty puzzles each. Imagine being someone who has never solved an Akari puzzle before. Wouldn't you be reluctant to spend money on this app? You don't know whether Akari puzzles are very interesting. You don't know whether this particular app's interface is pleasant enough to make the puzzles fun to play (because if the puzzles are otherwise well-designed, but the interface is designed poorly, the app as a whole will be very unpleasant to play). The free app gives you a better idea of what you're buying, and whether you'll enjoy it or not. I know that I personally would not have payed for Nikoli's $2.99 apps were it not for the availability of the free apps. My suggestion to fix this: offer a free version of each app with maybe 5 puzzles in each size, and add a version with unlimited puzzles as an in-app purchase.
Before I continue my review, I should probably add that I have not actually downloaded either app, despite having an iPhone on which I could easily do so, and without having downloaded the apps, all I can really judge are their screenshots and their descriptions. While the author has expressed willingness to give me a promo code for one of the apps, I don't have the heart to get his hopes up by asking for said promo code, and then demonstrate my gratitude by posting a negative review. (I do, however, apparently have the heart to post a negative review in the first place. . . .) So without further ado, here are the screenshots! (These screenshots and the puzzles therein are © 2010 "Mr. Incurable Puzzler"; I believe the use of these screenshots for review purposes qualifies as fair use.)
(click to enlarge)
The puzzle on the left can be solved algebraically, without the need to use the rule that every integer from 1 through 9 appears exactly once. This is because we have a system of seven linear equations with six variables:
a+2+b=11 [i]
c+d+1=13 [ii]
5+e+f=21 [iii]
a+c+5=16 [iv]
2+d+e=15 [v]
b+a+f=14 [vi]
a+d+f=14 [vii]
Note, however, that the sum of the row totals must be the same as the sum of the column totals, which means that any one of the first six equations is redundant, as it is implied by the others. Thus, we really have a system of six equations over six variables, which is still solvable.
Subtract [iv] from [ii] to get:
c+d+1-a-c-5=13-16 ⇒ d-1=a
Similarly, subtracting [iii] from [v] yields this:
2+d+e-5-e-f=15-21 ⇒ d+3=f
Taking equation [vii] and substituting d-1 for a and d+3 for f produces:
d-1+d+d+3=14 ⇒ 3d+2=14 ⇒ d=4
From here, the rest is trivial:
3 2 6
8 4 1
5 9 7
I could have observed that the bottom row must have a permutation of 7 and 9 and figured out which permutation works, but why use logic when mere algebra is sufficient?In the puzzle on the right, we have only four sums given, resulting in a system of four linear equations over six variables; we have no choice but to use fact that every integer from 1 through 9 appears once. The upper-right corner has 6, 9, and two other numbers that add up to 8 to make up a total of 23, and the only numbers available are 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 8; these numbers must be {1, 7} or {3, 5} in some order. The lower-left corner has 4, 6, and two other numbers that add up to 8 to make up a total of 18, so these numbers must also be {1, 7} or {3, 5} in some order. Thus we have 8 possibilities:
- 1 9 - 1 9 - 3 9 - 3 9
3 6 7 5 6 7 1 6 5 7 6 5
4 5 - 4 3 - 4 7 - 4 1 -
- 5 9 - 5 9 - 7 9 - 7 9
1 6 3 7 6 3 3 6 1 5 6 1
4 7 - 4 1 - 4 5 - 4 3 -
The upper-left corner has a sum of 18, and the lower-right corner has a sum of 20, so the remaining two spaces can be filled in:
8 1 9 6 1 9* 8 3 9 2 3 9
3 6 7 5 6 7 1 6 5 7 6 5
4 5 2 4 3 4 4 7 2 4 1 8
6 5 9* 0 5 9* 2 7 9 0 7 9*
1 6 3 7 6 3 3 6 1 5 6 1
4 7 4 4 1 10 4 5 8 4 3 10
The possibilities marked with asterisks can be eliminated because they either repeat a number or use the illegal numbers 0 and 10, leaving us with four solutions.
Wait a minute. Four solutions?
FOUR SOLUTIONS?!?!?
Both apps' descriptions say, "All [app's name] puzzles can be solved with logic so there’s no need to guess. Which is just as well because there are over 300,000 possible answers to the Beginner puzzle and only one is right." Yet one of the screenshots of the latter app shows a 3x3 Beginner puzzle with FOUR SOLUTIONS! How am I, as a logic puzzle connoisseur, supposed to respond to such an atrocity? Actually, let me rephrase that: how am I, as a logic puzzle connoisseur who wishes to keep his blog PG-rated, supposed to respond to such an atrocity? There is no appropriate invective-free response to this kind of horror. You simply do not bill something as a logic puzzle with only one solution, and have it actually have four solutions.
Now let's look at a pair of 6x6 Insane puzzles:
I see no obvious logical way to start either one of these 6x6 puzzles except to do what I did earlier and list every possible case I find until one of them works. But frankly, after arriving at four solutions earlier, I'd rather play an expert grid in Minesweeper in real life while people are constantly throwing durians at me until I either clear the board and win or trigger a landmine and lose. (And that's just the PG version of what I'd rather do.) If anyone out there is willing to punish themselves by solving these puzzles, or to write a computer program to do so, I will gladly edit this review to reflect how many solutions they have. (Edit: According to ralphmerridew, the puzzle on the left has at least three hundred solutions – a far cry from one! – and the one on the right has just one.)
Final verdict: these apps are abominations! You can't review an app on iTunes unless you've actually downloaded it, but were I able to do so, I'd rate them each one star with absolutely no regret. (A one-star rating is especially in order for the first app – it has a five-star rating from someone whose review does nothing to explain the rationale behind the rating except to refer to the app's creator as "padre".) Nikoli's Kakuro puzzles are fun. Nikoli's Sudoku puzzles are fun. These puzzles, in contrast, are not fun, but frustrating beyond measure! Also, remember when I said you should make a free demo version of the app available? I take that back – don't make a free version of this app. If you're lucky, you'll make a buck or two off of people who don't know how terrible the game is because they haven't tried it and don't follow my blog. Make the game good, or at the very minimum passable, and then offer a free demo!
Moral of the story: don't ever ask me to review your iPhone app. Because I just might. . . and mock you mercilessly. In fact, "ask me to link to or review your stuff on my blog" is now officially on my "YOU MAY NOT" list on my sidebar, thanks to these two games.
Update (October 15, 2010): as of now, version 1.1 of the former game, [name redacted], is available. What's new about version 1.1? "Correct an incorrect logo image". That's it. Clearly Mr. Incurable Puzzler hasn't read my review, or doesn't care.
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