Passion For Puzzles

Cubespective is a flash puzzle cube game that much fun. See if you can find the cube set that matches the profiles.
Instructions: click on the cube that would create the front, side and top view in the goal column. The selected cube's profiles will show in the current column.
You can play Cubespective online via TheShockZone dot com.

Tags: Cubespective | Flash Puzzle

In Arctic Quest for Mac you are to use your quick wits to stop the coming of a new ice age. The malicious Snow King has chained tropical islands into a solid ice and you must not let him expand his ice kingdom. Find a way to his palace and break the mighty spell solving 60 absorbing inlay puzzles and bringing back the warmth to every island. You will enjoy the superb visuals and a variety of bonuses in a fascinating puzzle-solving entertainment. You can download Artic Quest for free at Apple.com

Tags: Artic Quest | Mac OS

The G3ODE is a mind-bending software-based puzzle with a 3D graphical interface.
The puzzle is a polyhedron with tiles covering all facets but one. Each tile has two distinctively coloured sides. Any of the 3 tiles adjacent to the empty facet can be flipped into that space.
In colour-only mode, the puzzle is solved when all tiles are flipped such that the surface of the puzzle is all one colour. In decal mode, similar to a jigsaw, the puzzle is solved when all tiles are arranged such that the image is reconstituted on the surface of the puzzle.
You can download G3ODE puzzle game via the G3ODE website [100k] and install on your computer (XP). It's a small but interesting puzzle with easy user interface. It got my busy for while ;-) [via su.doku.es]

Tags: G3ODE | Puzzle Game

No more Sudoku game computer, no more Sudoku books. Now you can play Sudoku on your fridge. This Magnetic Sudoku board enables you to play Sudoku on any metal surface (like your metal storage cabinets in your office). The Sudoku board will be delivered with a transparent grid. No more unreadable numbers, and if you make a mistake just replace the number. This magnetic Sudoku version cost Euro 16,50 / US$ 22.50 and is available via NonPlusUltra.nl (in Dutch only)

Tags: sudoku

Via Digg I found another addictive flash puzzle called Hyper Frame and is developed by Richard Smith. I already wrote about a similar Flash puzzle game called Crazy Cube before. Object is to connect two same colored markers without crossing lines. The game starts easy but later in the game more coloreds are added. I think the game play is very intuitive and the cube moves very natural while moving your mouse. Instructions for Hyper Frame are easy: Use the left mouse button to connect two same-colored markers. Happy Puzzling.

Tags: Hyper Frame | Crazy Cube | Flash Puzzle

Via Atomic Public Relations I found an article with Bram Cohen (co-founder/CEO of BitTorent) about Rubik's Cube. In the first video Bram explains why people always want to solve Rubik's Cube, while solving Rubik's Cube himself. In the second video Bram talks about his own large collection of Rubik’s Cubes and other twisty puzzles. Next to that he is developing a number of advanced puzzle designs. Well just wait until Bram's best puzzle is in the stores.

Tags: Rubik's Cube | Bram Cohen

The Inversion Puzzle I found via Puzzle Master is a variant of Peter's Black Hole. Difference is that the cubes in Peter's Black Hole are trapped in a frame in which there are 26 cubes. In the Inversion Puzzle there are three axis which keep the 19 cubes together.
The Inversion Puzzle will turn you upside down before you can turn it inside out. Each cube of the Inversion Puzzle consists of blue and red faces. By sliding one cube at a time, the player attempts to conceal the red faces while revealing the hidden blue face, ultimately changing INVERSION from one color to the other. The Inversion Puzzle is available via Puzzle Master for approximately US$ 13 / Euro 10.

Tags: Inversion Puzzle | Peter's Black Hole

At BoxNine you can download a daily printable Futoshiki puzzle for free. At the left side in the menu you can find the daily link to your Futoshiki puzzle called Daily Futoshiki. Firefox users should use the right mouse button, select "save link as.." and save the file with extention pdf.
For people unfamiliar with Futoshiki (also known as Hutoshiki), has been developed from the original Latin Squares puzzle. The numbers 1 to 5 can only be used once in each column or row, but you need to observe the greater than '>' and less than '<' symbols to solve the puzzle.

Tags: Futoshiki | Hutoshiki

In several media you could already read the announcement about the Sudoku Championship 2007 in the US. The Philadelphia Inquirer announced it will hold the first national sudoku championship in the fall at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The championship, October 19-21, will be hosted by puzzle master Will Shortz and will be open to a national and international field of contestants for beginner, intermediate and advanced categories.
In addition to a spot on the U.S. World Sudoku Team, the advanced level winner will receive $10,000 plus expenses paid for travel and accommodations to the World Sudoku Championship in India. The intermediate winner will be awarded $5,000 and the beginner level winner will receive $3,000. There will also be trophies and $100 prizes awarded to players in a variety of categories such as age, area of residence and years of sudoku experience. The competition is open to people ages 10 years to over 80. For more info, visit www.philly.com/sudoku. [via delaware online]

Tags: Sudoku | Will Shortz

Looking on the Internet for new puzzle sites I passed by my previous domain name PuzzlePassion dot com. Passion for puzzles dot com as it's called now, started a few years ago as PuzzlePassion dot com, but due to an offer I could not resist I sold the domain to a Spanish puzzle company called Educa Borras which had a website called PuzzlePasion dot com(with one s).

Educa Borras asked Royce B. McClure to design the artwork that would be used for the world's largest commercially made jigsaw puzzle which is called "Life - The Great Challenge". Over the last 15 years Royce B. McClure had made over a hundred puzzles of his artwork. During this time Royce B. McClure had received a lot of feedback from puzzlers about what makes a good puzzle: challenging, but not impossible, lots of detail but still making a satisfying overall picture when completed. Most of all they have to be fun to do.

The world's largest jigsaw puzzle comes in four packets, breaking the art up into four vertical sections that join together to make "Life - The Great Challenge". Royce B. McClure tried to make each section different enough from the other sections so that you won't feel that you are doing the same puzzle over and over.

How long will it take to do the world's largest jigsaw puzzle? Let's find out. Time yourself then take a photo of the finished puzzle and let them know. They will put your time and photo up on their site and you can see how well you did in comparison with others.

The World's Largest Jigsaw Puzzle is available via Amazon.com.

If you like to read more about jigsaw puzzle please read our jigsaw puzzle page. Happy Puzzling!

Tags: Jigsaw Puzzle | Royce Art | Royce McClure | Educa

If your idea of fun is making brain-busting attempts at solving the New York Times crossword puzzle, you will appreciate the Chambers Crossword Pen. More than a mere writing instrument, it contains a 250,000 word database complete with spell-checker and the ability to find missing letters in common words or phrases. You should be aware, however, that the built-in dictionary adheres to U.K. spelling standards, which means "the purportedly true information that circulates via word of mouth" is a "rumour" not a "rumor." Available from amazon.co.uk for £24.99 [via wired.com]

Tags: Crossword | Pen

At NonPulsUltra dot nl they have a Karlsson Clock in their collection which is inspired as they say by Rubik's Cube. You can move all colored squares as you like so you will have an cheerful clock every day. This Karlsson Clock will cost you 45 Euro's (around US$ 60).

Tags: Karlsson | Clock

More Puzzle Clocks:
- Rubik's Cube Clock
- Mensa Puzzle Alarm
- Rubik's Alarm Clock
- Puzzle Clock
- Another Puzzle Alarm Clock
- Jigsaw Puzzle Clock

This is where art and puzzles come together. This piece of art called Puzzle Bottle is designed by Lilach Lotan(pronounced as Lilac Lotan) and designed a lot of art pieces inspired by the shape of a bottle. The stoneware bottle is unglazed, wood fired in Tozan Noborigama Kiln, dimensions: 6.25" x 6.25" x 25.5" and will cost you $1.200.00 CAD (around US$ 1100). More information can be found and requested via the Van Dop Gallery website.
More pieces of art inspired by puzzle can be found in these two articles called "Puzzle Woman" and "Puzzle for Print Purposes"

Tags: Puzzle | Art

Connexions is a simple Flash puzzle game. It is a combination between Gridgame and Tetris. You have to try to make connections between parts of tubes by clicking on the a piece of a tube. On each click the tube rotates 90 degrees (clockwise). The longer the connection, the more the points. Once you created a closed loop the tubes will disappear (like Tetris) and new parts of tube will enter the grid from the top. As said before, Connexions is a simple puzzle game but will keep you busy for a while.

Tags: Connexions | Flash Puzzle

The people from the world famous Wrigley's chewing gum and their online game website Candystand.com have leaped on the Sudoku with a casino twist. This Casino-style take on the classic brain teaser Sudoku with the same rules only a different lay-out (numbers, chips and suits), different difficulty levels and much more. Casino Sudoku has very nice graphics and lovely music.

Tags: Sudoku

Another puzzles added to my puzzle collection last week. This time it is once again a puzzle in the Executive range as they call them at Eureka Puzzle. The Globe puzzle consists of 72 metal pieces which rests on a magnetic base which when turned over is used as the start for removing a piece of the puzzle. The diameter of the Magnetic 3D Globe Jigsaw puzzle is 75mm (3") and the construction is made of stainless steel.

Tags: Globe | Puzzle | Magnet | Jigsaw

That furniture can be fun is proven by Ignacio Ruiz, a 20 year-old industrial designer and a student at Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM). He designed this puzzle chair made of flexible polymer. More information about size and price is unfortunately not available but the chair do really look great.

Tags: Puzzle | Chair | Ignacio Ruiz

ReallyEvilCanine is his blogname and he is blogging from Munich in Germany. At his blog called "A Day in a Life" he wrote a great article on how to solve Greater Than Sudoku's which you can find at Killer Sudoku Online. In almost 50 steps he will help you to solve Greater Than Sudoku's. Using a simple code and a lot of colored images to show you how he solves Greater Than Sudoku's. It most have take a lot of work to work this out but it will definitely help you with solving this variation of Sudoku.

Tags: sudoku

Via PR-GB.com I found an article about new Sudoku variants called Sudoku Extend Game. In this article they only mention that Sudoku Extend has different forms squares, that there are 28 various boards - actually 28 separate games and the game receives new quality due to the new form of squares. New algorithms for solution are necessary.
There is no reference in the Sudoku Extend article to any example of Sudoku Extend or any website (more information about can be read in the article). Maybe they are talking for example about Spring Sudoku, but I really don't know. If you have some information about New Sudoku Extend game please leave a comment or contact Passion for Puzzles.

Tags: Sudoku

At Flash Game Site dot com you can find a new addictive Flash puzzle game called Straight Dice. The rules of the game are simple, there are various colors of dice spread out on the board and if you click one, all the dice of that color will go up by one (six will become one). Your goal in straight dice is to create rows or diagonals of at least three with consecutive numbers, such as 1-2-3 or 3-4-5 for example.

Tags: Straight Dice | Flash puzzle

Rubik's Cube Delta Ball, is the latest in the Rubik's collection. The Spherical shaped puzzle consists of colored triangle shaped sliding pieces and as far I can see on some pictures I found on the internet each piece has also a number on it. According to Jumbo (a Dutch company who sells Rubik's Cube Delta Ball) there are different objectives, some for starters which are easy to solve and more difficult ones to solve. Rubik's Cube Delta Ball is invented by Marc Wittevrongel and his son from Belgium. Although the spherical design is not new, the different puzzles included are.
At this moment the Rubik's Cube Delta Ball is not even mentioned on the official Rubik's website and as far as I could find on the internet Rubik's Cube Delta Ball is only available in The Netherlands and Germany. Probably the rest of the world has to wait for the latest Rubik's Puzzle. Rubik's Cube Delta Ball will cost you Euro 13 in The Netherlands (around US$ 17.50).

Tags: Rubik's Cube | Delta Ball | Puzzle | Jumbo

Thanks to an email of Fred Vonk you can play 80 levels of Rush Hour online for free. This is an online version of the famous puzzle game Rush Hour by Thinkfun (formally known as Binary Arts).

Your object is to free the red car from the grid by moving the other cars and trucks out of the way. This online version of Rush Hour has eighty different games implemented from the original card sets 1 & 2. The best thing about this online puzzle game is that you can select a card set and a game level (Intermediate, Advanced, Expert and Grand Master) in the overview at the bottom and solve the level you want. Also the minimum required moves per game are indicated together with your score and total. Enjoy Rush Hour, this is much better than being in real life rush hour. Happy Puzzling!

Update : There are two Rush Hour versions available via Apple's App Store. Rush Hour FREE has 80 challenges to solve, and Rush Hour 99CENT has a pulse-pounding 2,500 challenges, from EASY to EXPERT. Happy Puzzling!

Tags: Rush Hour | Puzzle Game

Play Sudoku with the features that the most serious Sudoku puzzlers demand. The New York Times Touch Sudoku features 835 puzzles by The New York Times Crossword Puzzle Editor Will Shortz.
- Touch-screen technology and lightweight stylus make it easy to use anywhere.
- Custom puzzle feature lets you input puzzles from books, newspapers, or magazines.
- The puzzles herein have not appeared in The New York Times.
The New York Times Touch Sudoku is available for US $19.95.

Tags: Sudoku | NYT

Logic puzzle fans of Minesweeper and Slither Link will enjoy Count Out, the latest Flash puzzle design from Wouter Visser, author of PLANned.
The rules of Count Out are simple to understand: derive the locations of all the golden squares on the board from the numbers given. The number on a square represents the count of how many golden squares are adjacent to that square, horizontally and/or vertically only.
Click on a square to turn it gold; click again to minimize it indicating that it cannot be a golden square. By turning all the correct squares gold and minimizing all others, the game will automatically tell you if the puzzle has been solved. If you get no such indication, then keep trying.

Choose between 6x6, 8x8, and 10x10 puzzle sizes depending on how ambitious you're feeling. Every puzzle is randomly generated with each one offering a fresh new challenge. [via Jay is Games]

Tags: Count Out | Flash Puzzle

The perfect way for children to learn the states – and where to put them on the map! This soft cloth USA map has removable Velcro states, each embroidered with the state abbreviation. The map zips up and has convenient carrying handles to tote anywhere on the Continent. Open map measures 25” L (including handles) x 16” W. Available via Spoon Sisters for US$ 45.00.

Tags: Puzzle | USA map

The Times Online has a special again with a lot of different Sudoku Puzzles (Classic, Children, Super Fiendish and Killer Sudoku's). On the front is a special Sudoku puzzles, that the teams in the World Sudoku Championships were solving. To solve this variant of Sudoku you have to place a digit from 1 to 9 into each triangular cell, so that it appears once in each outlined shape, and in one horizontal and two diagonal directions (jumping any gaps). You can find more information and a link to download the Spring Sudoku Special (pfd format) at the Games & Puzzles page of Times Online.

Tags: Sudoku

Capsules is a Flash Puzzle game with 240 levels (updated). All the levels are designed by the collaborative work of pepere.org members. The puzzles can be quite frustrating, sometimes hard to solve or time consuming. Luckely there are tips available if you can not solve a level. The rules are simple : The rules are simple : grab all the blue capsules and avoid the red ones.
Enjoy Capsules.

Tags: Flash Puzzle

After more than 500 posts it's time to celebrate this with a link to a Sudoku e-book in pfd-format you can download for free. In this Mega Sudoku Puzzle book there are 500 Sudoku puzzles, 100 Sudoku puzzles for each of the five level (easy, medium, hard, insane and very-very-hard). Solutions for all Sudoku puzzles are included [note: follow the link and click on the download button on the bottom of the page]. This Sudoku book will keep you busy for a long time!
If you need some guidelines on how to solve Sudoku puzzles you can go to Passion For Puzzles.
http://www.passionforpuzzles.com/solution/sudoku.php

Tags: Sudoku

Stop playing with your food! Royal VKB has a puzzle dinner tray for children designed by Wendy Boudewijns which has a Red Dot Design Award. Eating becomes a fun activity for children with this puzzle dinner tray. At Royal VKB, they like children to become familiar with the correct table setting as early as possible. The Puzzle Tray allows them to learn this in an enjoyable and amusing way via a puzzle. The Puzzle Dinner Tray is made of melamine and includes a large spoon, fork, knife, small spoon, cup, plate, and a tray with non-slip feet.

Tags: Puzzle | Dinner Tray

When it comes to Lego puzzles, Maarten Steurbaut is one of the famous persons building puzzles using Lego bricks. Next to his working version of Rubik's Cube completely built with Lego, Maarten has also built other puzzles with Lego. Like a Lego version of a wooden Cube, wooden Sphere, wooden Knot, Japanese Crystal. Next to this Maarten also create Lego mosaics and Logo with Lego. Most pictures on his website of Lego puzzles are created with special CAD program called, ML CAD, for creating Lego like building instructions of your own models.

Tags: Puzzles | Lego

For the upcoming release of the movie Evan Almighty two games are added to the website. The first one is Arketris (a wooden variant of Tetris) where you have to help Evan Almighty with the Ark! The goal of the game is to clear all of the wood pieces from the screen. As they tumble down to the wood pile, arrange them in stacks to collect them for Evan’s Ark.
The second one is Animal Sudoku - straight from the animal kingdom! In this version of Sudoku you have to follow the way of the footprints. Instead of numbers you have to use nine different footprints of different animals. Your score gets lower as time runs out, so think fast! The game has three game modes and hundreds of puzzles to play. Animal Sudoku and Arketris can be play online or downloaded for Windows and Macintosh PC's.

Tags: Evan Almighty | Animal Sudoku | Arketris

What do you do when there is a competition for baking a cake and you are a fan of Rubik's Cube? You bake a Rubik's Cake, that's what James Kemp did. But it isn't that easy, as the prize would be awarded on presentation, creativity and taste you have to do more than just bake a cake. Each layer or Rubik's cake has to be perfectly square, for best presentation Rubik's cube should be show in action and how to make colored tiles. The complete recipe including pictures of making Rubik's Cake can be found at Pimp That Snack.
James Kemp won the competition beating 11 other cakes. At the end they were all auctioned off for charity and someone bought Rubik's Cake for £20 (Euro 30 / US$ 40) and then shared out to everyone in the pub.

Tags: Rubik's Cube | Cake

Yesterday I received an email from Mike Reilly who invents puzzles. The latest one is called Number Maze and can be found via his website at a special Number Maze website. As Mike calls it, Number Maze is a Sudoku-like maze puzzle that uses the number pattern from a clock face, one through twelve. Players must link these numbers in either direction – clockwise or counter clockwise – through the maze to solve the puzzle according to the rules.

RULES
1. Place any number, from 1 to 12, in each square of the maze.
2. Numbers must run in some sequence from 1 to 12 or 12 to 1, like on a clock face.
3. Each number's 'neighbor' — any square above or below, to left or to right, NOT separated by a maze wall (diagonals are not neighbors) — must be one of the two numbers nearest on a clock. For instance, a 6 can only be next to a 7 or a 5. The number 12 can have either an 11 or a 1 as neighbors, and a 1 can only have a 12 or a 2 next to it.
4. In a 12x12 maze, you must use twelve of each of the numbers to complete the puzzle. In other words, you must us a total count of twelve 'sets' of 1 through 12. However, they do not have to be in twelve continuous 'runs' of 1 through 12.
5. In each maze, the grid size determines the solution requirements, as all mazes are multiples of twelve. For instance, in a 6x6 maze (36 squares), you would have to use three of each of the twelve numbers of 1 through 12 (12x3=36) to solve that puzzle. Again, they do not have to be in three continuous 'runs’ of 1 through 12.

The rules are not as short as the rules for Slitherlink or Sudoku, but the are easy to use and also hints and a so called path strategy are available on the website. Free sample puzzles are available and if you like Number Maze you can also buy a Number Maze puzzle book. To be honest, Number Maze is not really my cup of tea, but maybe it is yours!

Tags: Number Maze

Via Jay Is Games I found a link to a Flash version of Slitherlink (Slitherlink is also known as Loop The Loop, Fences and Dotty Dilemma). A long time ago I wrote already about one of my favorite puzzles and how I got my first Slitherlink puzzle book in Japanese and even without any write instructions (ok in Japanese) and some visual instructions I managed to solve the puzzles. The rules of Slitherlink are simple:
1. Connect dots with vertical / horizontal line and make ONE loop.
2. Numbers are the hints to know how many lines can be drawn around it. There may be any number of lines around cells without number.
3. Lines cannot be crossed or branch off.
In Luke Harrison's version of slitherlink you can solve 75 Slitherlink puzzles in three different levels (easy, normal and hard). You can place a line by clicking with your left mouse button, and you may place crosses to mark segments with the combination [space] + left mouse click.
To help you solve Slitherlink puzzles you can also find some strategies at Passion for Puzzles to solve Slitherlink puzzles and Puzzler also added in the comments of a previous post about Slitherlink some links to other websites where you can play Slitherlink online.

Tags: Slitherlink | Flash Puzzle

Daniele Benedettelli is back again with his latest Lego Mindstorm Rubik's Cube Solver called LRU (Lego Rubik Utopy). Since the previous version of his Rubik's Cube solver things have changed significantly.
Danny studied the situation and improved by having now a more powerful hardware and self-made software that solves the cube optimally (the solution, if found, is the shortest possible). You can notice that LRU quite inspired by JP Brown's robot. Even if it misses an arm, it can grab, rotate the cube and a single face. The overall impression is about a cool streamlined robot. It uses 2 NXT bricks (communicating via Bluetooth), 4 servomotors and 2 light sensors.
You can read the latest information in his article called "Lego Rubik Utopy - NXT Rubik's cube solver" and don't forget to add his website to your favorites because more information, software updates and video's are coming up!

Tags: Rubik's Cube | Lego Mindstorm | LRU

Crystal Clear is a simple but very addictive flash puzzle game. All you have to do is match five crystals of one color to clear them. If you match more crystals you will get more points You can do this by clicking with your mouse on the crystal you want to move and the location where you want to move it to.
The only thing is that there need to be a free path for the crystal to move from the begin to the end location and each click will add more crystals to the grid. Watch out for crystals you can not move and also exploding crystals! Enjoy Crystal Clear!!

Tags: Crystal Clear | Flash Puzzle

Via YouTube I found a how to solve rubik's cube video by using your webcam. A C++ application called CVRubik.exe is used that solves a 3x3 Rubik's cube. It uses a webcam to "look" at a Rubik's cube and generate a step by step solution in 3D graphics on your computer. CV Rubik draws on knowledge from different fields of computer science such as Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence and 3D Graphics. The following steps are performed by the program at runtime:
1. The user holds a scrambled 3x3 Rubik's Cube in front of the webcam.
2. Using the OpenCV library, the live video feed is processed to locate the cube in the input image and determine the 9 colors of the frontal face.
3. The user rotates the cube 5 times for the software to capture all the other faces.
4. Using OpenGL, a 3D cube that matches the original one is created and displayed on the screen.
5. The cube is solved one step at a time using the solution published in 1981 in the DER SPIEGEL magazine.
Note: If no webcam or cube are available, the software gives the option to generate a random cube.
More information can be found at cvrubik.tk.

Tags: Rubik's Cube