about 1 week ago - 1 comment
I wrote quite a lot yesterday about whether you “needed” the X in some Sudoku-X puzzles. I promised that I’d follow up with the result of analysing a stack of Killer Sudoku-X puzzles, and so here is that result.
I picked 64 Killer Sudoku-X puzzles (52 for the daily puzzlemix section plus 12 for the weekly More >
about 1 week ago - 1 comment
One of the perennial comments on PuzzleMix is that the diagonal ‘X’ regions aren’t needed in a particular Sudoku-X puzzle, or more commonly in Killer Sudoku X. Well, when I say “perennial” I mean to say that of the more than 400,000 puzzle plays that that comment has been made about 10 times. But an More >
about 1 week ago - 1 comment
Killer Sudoku Jigsaw puzzle
I’ve recently been working on refreshing the content for PuzzleMix.com, my play-online puzzle site, and one of the puzzle types I’ve been making is Killer Jigsaw Sudoku, where you not only have the jigsaw-shaped Killer regions but also jigsaw shapes instead of the regular 3×3 Sudoku boxes.
So I thought it would be a More >
about 1 week ago - 1 comment
Samurai-2 Odd Pair Sudoku puzzle
One of the brand new puzzles in Sudoku Xtra issue 4 is Odd-Pair Sudoku, which I wrote about last week here on my puzzle blog. As well as some regular 9×9 puzzles I also included a large 5-grid Odd-Pair Samurai puzzle, and to illustrate how the puzzle worked I included a More >
about 2 weeks ago - 2 comments
Samurai 8-grid Calcudoku puzzle
Here’s probably the largest Calcudoku puzzle you’ve ever seen! It’s made up of 8 underlying 9×9 grids, each of which must have 1 to 9 placed into each row and column, and then on top of this I’ve added the familiar Calcudoku regions.
For each Calcudoku region just place numbers such that the More >
about 2 weeks ago - 3 comments
Sudoku Odd Pairs puzzle
Now here’s something I can guarantee you won’t have seen before, because I just invented it! Well, I suppose with a world of people creating Sudoku variants it’s possible there’s been something similar before, but I’ve bought a lot of puzzle magazines and books and never come across it, so More >
about 2 weeks ago - No comments
Sudoku 36×36 puzzle
Giant Sudoku puzzles are one of those things that divide people. With 25×25 puzzles some love them, whilst others simply can’t understand why anyone could ever have the patience to do them. But whatever your personal opinion, they remain popular – even Nikoli (the people who named Sudoku ‘Sudoku’) make them regularly, More >
about 2 weeks ago - No comments
Sudoku 15×15 puzzle
Something plain but unusual – a Sudoku 15×15. I’m sure these must exist, but it occurred to me I’d never actually seen one. So I made one.
The rules are as you’d expect: place 1 to 9 and A to F into each row, column and 5×3 bold-lined box.
There’s no need to make More >
about 1 month ago - 1 comment
I’ve had many, many, many requests over the past years for a book of giant 25×25 Sudoku puzzles, so I have now finally made just such a book available!
Right at the moment it’s only available in printed form, but I’ll have download copies available in the next couple of days – as soon as I’ve More >
about 1 month ago - 2 comments
Samurai Killer Calcudoku puzzle
I haven’t posted much here recently because I’ve been spending my time on Sudoku Xtra, so here’s a large puzzle to fill the void a bit.
This is a five-grid Samurai Killer Calcudoku:
Place 1 to 9 into each row, column and 3×3 box of the five underlying 9×9 Sudoku grids
Place numbers into the Calcudoku dashed-line More >
about 10 months ago
With the samurai sky scraper do the numbers around the edge apply to a row of twelve(where applicable) or only the first nine in a given direction?
about 10 months ago
Hi Ricky, I am almost certain you treat the puzzle as two overlapping 9 x 9 grids and therefore the skycraper numbers would only go up to 9 (even in a row of 12 because the last 3 boxes are not part of that particular 9 x 9 grid, if that makes sense!) I hope that’s correct. I am new to skycraper puzzles and am working on this one too!
about 10 months ago
It doesn’t actually matter whether the skyscraper clues refer to the entire width/height of the puzzle or just the first grid encountered, which is why I didn’t mention this.
Because the first 9 squares are guaranteed to contain a ‘9′ at some point, and nothing past that square can possibly be higher than a ‘9′, then the skyscraper clues will be the same whether you count 12 squares (where possible) or just 9 squares every time.
Hope this helps!
about 10 months ago
I still haven’t managed to solve this one yet! I’ve got near to completion twice, but then realised I’ve gone wrong! Is it significanlty harder because of the overlapping grids which means you don’t get clues at either side of the 9×9 grids (if that makes sense) or is it just me?
about 10 months ago
I completed this one a while back. Something that might help is where you have the 12 length rows and columns, the first 3 digits will match the last 3 digits (they might not be in the same order).
As an example: If you are lucky enough to deduce a 9 in one of these areas, then you know another 9 must exist in the set of 3 at the opposite end.
about 10 months ago
I was aware of that strategy, but am still getting a bit stuck with this one. I find it relatively easy to place the 9s, 8s and even the 7s, it is the lower numbers which cause the problem! Anyway, nice to hear that someone has managed it Spittledung! I’m not prepared to give in yet so will give it one last try!
about 10 months ago
If you’d like a copy of the solution, just let me know!
You’re right that there are far less Skyscraper clues than in other puzzles I’ve published. Interestingly, a common thing to do in general (which I haven’t done yet) is to remove lots of the Skyscraper clues from a puzzle, just like removing givens from the Sudoku part – maybe I won’t try making puzzles like that as a top priority then.
about 10 months ago
I’m making a habit of this, but yes please! I always enjoy getting to grips with a new type of puzzle but am needing more practise with these! Thanks. I hate it when a puzzle gets the better of me!
about 9 months ago
Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!