Archive for July, 2009
Two-away Sudoku
Jul 8th
I just noticed that Monday marked my 50th post to garethmoore.co.uk, so to celebrate I thought I’d try a (slightly) new variation today: Two-away Sudoku. As its appearance might suggest, it is a close relative of Consecutive Sudoku. In fact it’s pretty much the same, except that the shaded grey bars indicate that the difference between neighbouring squares is 2 (not 1, as in Consecutive Sudoku). As in Consecutive Sudoku, all grey bars are drawn – so if one is absent then the difference is not 2.
For example, if you see a grey bar next to a square with ‘1′ in it then the neighbouring square must be ‘3′. However if you have a square with ‘1′ in and there is no grey bar between it and a neighbouring square then that square cannot contain ‘3′. It’s pretty simple really.
So – just place 1 to 9 into each row, column and 3×3 box whilst obeying the grey two-away markers!
Good luck! 
Wrap-around Consecutive Samurai Star
Jul 6th
Wrap-around Consecutive Samurai Star puzzle
I seem to be posting more infrequently than I intend, so I thought I’d compensate with a puzzle that would take somewhat longer to complete! Here, then, is a wrap-around consecutive samurai star. All squares with consecutive values (a difference of 1) are marked with white bars, including those at opposite ends of rows and columns – wherever there isn’t a bar, the values are not consecutive.
The Sudoku logic takes a few twists here and there – in fact at one point near the end you will need to spot a particularly nasty hidden set in one region.
To solve the puzzle place 1 to 9 into each row, column and 3×3 box of each of the underlying 5 Sudoku grids (including the one in the centre). You’re only given 4 givens to get going, but with the consecutive information that’s all you need to find a unique solution.
Good luck!
Puzzle Packs/Books for download
Jul 1st
I’ve had several requests by email, and a few in comments, about directly selling books or packs of puzzles online – in fact over the past few years I’ve had lots via email from puzzlemix users who want books of particular puzzle types too.
So my question to you is, what format would you expect if you were to buy a collection of puzzles? There’s no commitment to buy if you comment of course – I’m just trying to gauge what people would expect. The options I have in mind are:
- Standard book format, with colour cover and available to print or order a printed copy of. For example see the two books I put online at lulu a couple of months ago (click through to each title and you can flick through pages of a preview which will give you a good idea of what I mean – they are fully laid-out, ‘real’ books)
- A simple A4 or Letter-size book format, with one or two puzzles per page and no real page design other than puzzle and/or page numbers, available for online download only.
- A zip archive file with lots of separate PDF files, just as you might download individual PDF puzzles from this site.
Also I’m wondering what size of collection would interest you? I’ve always tended to put 100 of a puzzle together before, but perhaps 50 would be a better quantity and then I could also create regular updates for popular packs with new puzzles every month or two, depending on demand?
Recent Comments