Passion For Puzzles

Last weekend I received a birthday present although my birthday was already two weeks ago. The present is a wooden puzzle called Katamino Luxe. It consist of 12 different shapes of wood which are also made of different kinds of wood and therefore different colors. They are called Pentaminos. The puzzle is solid and looks very nice, this puzzle will last forever (which I can not say for my Sudoku Cube). The are you can use to play on the board game can be made bigger while you get from one level (called pentas) to another (this can be done by a so called slider). For each level the numbers of the puzzle pieces you can use are given and with those puzzle pieces you have to fill the area available on the board. The total number of solutions are more than 36.000 so this will keep me busy for a while. Katamino is already added to my puzzle collection and soon also solutions for Katamino will be added.

Tags: Katamino | Wooden Puzzle

Puzzle Floor™ is a premium quality hardwood floor which creates a special environment in every room you want and for sure it will surprise your visitors. The solid hardwood flooring components really are as they appear, pre-finished, precision fit puzzle pieces. Accordingng to Puzzle Floor™, the two individual patterns interlock quickly and easily to create a floor that's durable, easy to care for and fun and are available in 13 colors. More information about Puzzle Floor™ is available on the Puzzle Floor™ website.

Tags: Puzzle Floor™ | Hardwood Floor

This weekend I received an article from a Dutch newspaper about a new puzzle called Kaleidoscope Classic. It's a variant of Tangram and a jigsaw puzzle and developed by an Australian and Dutch professor. All you've got is a square chess board and 18 pieces of different size and shape. You have to form different shapes with the puzzle pieces like a flower or a dog. With the puzzle also a book is included which explains how to play the game and also gives you tips and tricks. You can play Kaleidoscope Classic alone but also with two or three persons. It will be on the Dutch market from the beginning of June and will cost around 25 Euro's. More information can be found on The Kaleidoscope Classic website. The puzzles is already successful in Australia, England and India

Tags: Kaleidoscope Classic

"Sin and Vengeance" is a book written by CJ West and offers you more than an normal book. Within the text two messages are hidden and the first person to decipher them will earn up to $ 1000.
You can follow the treasure hunt via on the 22 West Books Web site.
You must find subtle clues in the book that leads you to the starting place of each message. Then, you'll have to experiment to find the right interval between the letters of the message, bypassing most of the letters that make up the story. When you get it right, the hidden messages will be revealed.
The contest was created this way to foil computer experts who might try to crack the codes using computers. All that's needed to solve the puzzle is CJ West's book, "Sin and Vengeance" a pencil, and lots of determination.
Common-sense clues can be found on the on the 22 West Books Web site, at book signings, and occasionally via email and Web postings.
Sin and Vengeance is available at amazon.com

Tags: 22wb | Sin and Vengeance

Especially for kids of all ages there is now also Disoku, Disney's version of the worldwide puzzle craze Sudoku co-created by The Walt Disney Company's Disney Online and Buena Vista Games. Featuring in Disney's Disoku are beloved Disney Characters from 12 animated classics including Aladdin, Peter Pan, and Snow White. Disney's Disoku Apprentice and Disney's Disoku Master offer players a huge selection of puzzles, different grid sizes and skill levels, as well as unlockable exclusive character screensavers and other cool features. To try both Disoku's you can play Disney's Disoku for 30 minutes online for free only by using Internet Explorer and if you really like it download both Disoku's at www.disneygamedownloads.com and www.disneysgamecafe.com for $19.99 each.

Tags: Disoku | Sudoku | Disney

After the film release there is also the release of the Da Vinci Code Light Puzzle for your mobile phone published by Blaze Interactive and they will bring us four The Da Vinci Code mobile games before the year's out.

The first puzzle is called The Da Vinci Code: Light Puzzle. The objective of the Da Vinci Code: Light Puzzle is to direct beams of light into their respective colored crystals by moving mirrors around the Rosslyn Chapel to reflect the light where it is needed to go.

The first few levels are very easy if I may say so but afterwards it is getting more difficult because the maximum amount of moves and increasing number of obstacles.

Check a provider of mobile games in your country or your provider to download the Da Vinci Code Light Puzzle onto your mobile.

Tags: Mobile Puzzle

Just a quick link to a printable pdf version [2.1 MB] of 53 Sudoku's for all the family published by the TimesOnline.co.uk including solutions.

Tags: Sudoku

After Brainfood which offers "Puzzles For the Brain To Gnaw On" we now have something else also about food called The Unit Diet and is invented by Helen Thomas, which she claims, could rival Weight Watchers and Slimming World. In an article in the icNorthWales she explains how the diet works. The diet allows women 8-10 units a day and men 12-15, depending on how much weight there is to lose.

And if you just as I wondered why this article is called "Jigsaw solves the dieting puzzle than you have to read the article and you will be surprised !!!
Tags: Unit diet

The Ultimo Puzzle is an online web puzzle in which you must solve something to move on to the next level. You will need to change something in the url before ".html" to move to the next. Hints and tips are given in different kind of puzzles for each level. Be creative, think out of the box to continue to the next level. Enjoy this online puzzle which will keep you busy for hours.

Tags: ultimo puzzle

Scramble Squares by B.Dazzle Inc. are easy to play but hard to solve puzzles. The puzzle consist of 9 square puzzle pieces and they call it "perhaps the World's Most Challenging Puzzle". B-Dazzle Inc. offers you the opportuninty to play and solve Scramble Squares online. Don't forget you can not only re-arrange the puzzle pieces but also rotate them by clicking on them. Scramble Squares is more than a sliding puzzle.
For me this puzzle is not really new I already have a more difficult and large version of this sort puzzles called Magic Triangle in my puzzle collection consisting of 24 triangles. But it is always nice to try something out before you buy it. I think not only adults but also children would love this puzzle.

Tags: Scramble Squares
Tags: flash puzzle

At a personal webpage called Lightforce I found a very nice flash puzzle called Plinx and as they say: "A puzzle for your mind". And at lightforce they are right. Plinx is a Flash version of the old DOS puzzle called Pinx. It got 20 mind breaking levels. They objective is to place the boxes to their corresponding shapes in the bar at the bottom. Happy puzzling !!!

Tags: plinx

Today I added Sudoku 3D to the puzzle collection. To be honest it is just a puzzle for the collection, nothing more and nothing less it's rubbish. The name of the puzzle made me buy the puzzle but basically it has nothing to do with Sudoku. It is just another Rubik's replica with the numbers one to nine on each side. No colors just boring grey with numbers. The puzzle is from Bananafactory although I wouldn't call them designers but I will come back on that one later. They just made the link between Rubiks Cube and the nine numbers of the Sudoku Puzzle. Sudoku 3D looks boring and is really made of very poor materials. I even wonder if there is a rotating mechanism inside, although it seems to be from Germany. The Sudoku 3D I bought can be hardly rotated and the numbers already fall of when I got the puzzle out of the package. This is not a toy for children and not even for adults if you want to use it. A few tips for Banana Factory : If you are so called designers then make toys you can play with. A grey puzzle with white numbers I would not called designed. I Think Sudoku 3D is just rubbish !!!

Tags: Sudoku 3D

For the real sudoku lovers and smarties (as the creator's of Kokonotsu call them) there is a website at kokonotsu with every day a new online Super Sudoku Puzzle. They call the Super Sudoku "Kokonotsu" which is a 9-letter word and meaning "nine" in Japanese. The difference between Kokonotsu and a normal Sudoku is that there is a fourth and fifth dimensions added to the normal Sudoku. Next to the normal numerals 1 through 9 you have to place in each row, column and 3x3 square. Kokonotsu adds the two major diagonals. Also, there is a Magic Puzzle Heart which enables clever players to solve the puzzles more quickly, plus a unique four-number solution code to quickly check if the puzzle has been correctly solved. All these extra features add elements of challenge and discovery that are missing in ordinary sudoku.

Tags: kokonotsu

First of all I have to say that I don't understand one word, but it is so magical.

Update : Video has been removed, please find your favorite Rubik's Magic video at YouTube


Tags: rubik magic

One of my favorite website for mobile puzzle games is GetJar. They have tons of Java games and puzzles you can play on your mobile phone or any other mobile device. Solitaire is a simple but nice puzzle especially for kids. Just download the files and upload them to your mobile.

Tags: Solitaire

For people working on visualizing puzzles and creating user interfaces for puzzles I found a very well explained document (pdf version) written by Kozo Sugiyama, Seok-Hee Hong and Atsuhiko Maeda and published on their website of the School of Information Technologies, University of Sydney in Australia. They described two abstract models of puzzles called permutation puzzles and cyclic puzzles, which can be modeled as puzzle graphs. They also discuss a method for constructing symmetric layouts of puzzles, as symmetry is the most important aesthetic criteria for the puzzle layout.

Tags: Puzzle Layout Problem

At Passion for Puzzles Virtual Cube pages you can find different kind of puzzles you can play and solve online. One of them is Top Spin which I wrote myself in Java a few years ago. When there is enough interest I can develop it further but for now I think it works fine. If you have comments please send them to me to help improve Topspin.
The objective of Topspin is to unscramble the 20 numbered tokens by sliding them around the track and flipping them by using the turntable to rearrange their order. Everything is fairly easy, until it comes to the last number. Press left or right to move the loop. And click on the turntable to turn it around.

Tags: Topspin

Today I received a comment for Puzzler on a previous post about SlitherLink puzzles with a few more links to play online Slitherlink. And because the post is from March 2005 I think you will enjoy the links. Puzzler recently got also hooked on the puzzle SlitherLink and would like to share his collection of links for online versions of the game:

Puzzle Loop has a huge collection of various sizes and two difficulty levels.
Hirofumi Fujiwara's has a very nice set of puzzles. Unfortunately there are only 38 puzzles total here.
Kwon-tom loop - great very difficult puzzles
Janko.at is a German site with several puzzles.
Puzzle Japan/Nikoli. Mostly easy puzzles, good for an introduction.

You can also buy slithelink puzzle books online.

Tags: Slitherlink