One day I will finish one of these things!!!!
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
The traumatic brain injury incurred by bashing your head against walls makes that increasingly unlikely.
Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :
I suggest changing the number already in place. And the rules. And possibly the siz of the square.
*promptly checkmates opponent in 2x2 chess match*
Posted by Raia (Member # 4700) on :
I've finished one. It was a major accomplishment.
You can do it!
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
123 456 789 456 789 123 789 123 456
234 567 891 567 891 234 891 234 567
345 678 912 678 912 345 912 345 67_
Try this one. Its a bit easy but at least you can say you finished it.
Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :
I don't understand whence this fad has come. I mean, I've been doing Number Places for years! My mother and I have nearly gotten into fisticuffs on airplanes to see who gets to do them in the large puzzle books! And all of a sudden we're ahead of the times? What is this?
I love them and I can almost always finish them.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
I don't understand what we are talking about. What is a sudoku, or whatever?
Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on :
Web Sudoku, for example.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
I don't want to think about that sort of thing right now, but it looks like fun for anyone who likes logic-y puzzles.
Posted by Jeni (Member # 1454) on :
I am hooked. I have been playing at the site Mike linked to for the last hour, and have successfully solved puzzles at the easy through hard levels. I'm trying my hand at evil now, but it's not going so smoothly.
Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on :
Yikes, I didn't mean to create another addict.
I've been doing the medium difficulty trying for time. Easy is too easy. And hard takes too long. I haven't really tried evil yet.
Posted by dean (Member # 167) on :
I've got like eight books, and I've been creating addicts left and right. But one of the books has something called bridge-puzzles, where you're given various numbers in a circle, which is referred to as an island, and the number in the island indicates how many vertical or horizontal bridges that island has to another island with a maximum of two bridges between the same island. I canNOT figure those ones out. Does anyone have any tips?
Posted by human_2.0 (Member # 6006) on :
You could count me as another addict.
Posted by Jeni (Member # 1454) on :
I eventually finished the evil puzzle, but I needed a little help in the beginning from the "how am I doing" button. Now I'm just having fun with the medium ones.
I must get myself a book of these, they are such a great time passer.
Posted by human_2.0 (Member # 6006) on :
Ouch... so if I had to use the help button on easy... I must not be very good...
What were your times? I was doing easy in 10 minutes average.
Posted by Jeni (Member # 1454) on :
I don't really know, I've been multitasking while playing.
Posted by Mr.Funny (Member # 4467) on :
I solved an easy puzzle in 4 minutes, 43 seconds. Yay. Go me.
Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
Holy Cow, I solved an easy on my 3rd try. It took me that many times to get my plan of attack formulated. Now I think I'll be faster...
Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
Ha. 11 minutes. (I'm still on easy, but I don't feel like such a dunce now.)
Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :
Medium in 6:30.
But now I needs must go to bed.
Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
I must be going about it all wrong. I hate you people for getting me started. grrrr.
Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :
Would any of you like a couple of tips to make them easier?
Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :
OMG, I passed my 1000th post and didn't even notice!
Posted by Narnia (Member # 1071) on :
It's still takes me about 11 minutes per puzzle. I improve my system every time though. I'll be here for a while.
Posted by DavidR (Member # 7473) on :
I got hooked on these about a month ago. I can usually do an easy puzzle in about the 3:20 -- 3:40 timeframe and a medium in about the 6 to 8 minute timeframe, but with the hard and evil level puzzles I am usually well over 30 minutes and often over 50 minutes. I've been reading up on the math involved and I am attempting to write a sudoku solver in Mathematica just to see if I can do it. I really should get a book of these before the next trip that I take.
Posted by kojabu (Member # 8042) on :
In one of my classes that I don't really have to pay attention in my friend and I do Sudokus. I print out a few every class. We can generally get through 2 mediums and 1-2 hards in 50 minutes. But we're always interuppted by having to take notes.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
Heh, I should write a sudoku-solver in prolog. The "dumb" method might take a decent bit of computer time -- even a few seconds -- but I bet there's a way to make it a pretty darn smart solver.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
If anyone gets "Games" magazine, they teach you how to create your own Suduko this month. (The Holiday issue)
Posted by human_2.0 (Member # 6006) on :
Dumb method?
Right off the way I would do it is make an 2d array of all the slots. Fill the known numbers. Then iterate through each slot and figure out the numbers that are possible for the slot. The possible numbers fill the 2nd d. When the 2nd d only has 1 value, then that slot is solved.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
human: prolog is a logic language. I wouldn't need to make any sort of array, I'd just tell it the victory conditions and current layout. Prolog, just by how it works, would keep trying all possible combinations until it fulfilled the victory conditions (and due to how prolog and sudoku both work, this would happen along a somewhat efficient path). However, there are more efficient ways.
I suspect there are better ways than your way, as well.
Posted by human_2.0 (Member # 6006) on :
![[Wall Bash]](graemlins/wallbash.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)