Published books
Sudoku Xtra 9 puzzle magazine now out!
Aug 12th
Issue 9 of my Sudoku Xtra magazine is now available for either download as a PDF, or pre-printed from Amazon.com (US) or Lulu.com (elsewhere). With an incredible 127 logic and number puzzles across over 50 types of puzzles, this month’s issue features a giant cover PivotPix picture logic puzzle (also known as Sym-a-Pix and Spiral Galaxies).
This issue has the biggest Community Puzzles section yet, with some truly astonishing puzzles contributed by the cream of the world’s puzzle authors. From Colorlink to a Hanjie-Nurikabe cross-over, and from Symmetric Heyawake to Lying Sum Sudoku, there’s something for everyone.
The rest of the magazine as always has some new variants and rearranged content in, including the interesting Killer Sudoku 1 3 5 7 9 -2 -4 -6 -8 (guaranteed to challenge even the best Killer solvers), Odd-Pairs S and more. With greater variety than any other puzzle publication, including a huge range of Sudoku variants, Sudoku Xtra really is incredible value.
Sudoku Xtra 7 magazine now out
May 26th
Sudoku Xtra issue 7 is now out! It’s available for download and also pre-printed from Lulu (for UK and most of the world), with the Amazon.com pre-printed version (for the US) due to follow in around a week or so (once they update their database).
Issue 7 of Sudoku Xtra contains even more large-page Japanese puzzle fun, with an incredible 116 varied logic and number puzzles. A special section in this issue is devoted to giant puzzles, with the 13 full-page puzzles including Hanjie, Nurikabe, Yajilin, Slitherlink, Hashi, Samurai Sudoku variants, Kakuro and more.
Sudoku Xtra offers greater variety than any other puzzle publication, with a huge range of Sudoku variants that include Jigsaw, Extra Region, Skyscraper, Consecutive and many more. Other featured puzzles include Calcudoku, Futoshiki, Hitori, Killer Sudoku and a range of variants, including Zero Killer Sudoku Inequality!
Designed to print on either A4 or Letter paper, or pre-printed on similarly large paper, Sudoku Xtra features puzzles at a range of difficulties, so is suitable for both logic puzzle fans and casual solvers alike. No matter what you like, you’re sure to find many puzzles to enjoy in Sudoku Xtra issue 7.
There’s also another great Puzzle Community section too, thanks to the generous contributors. Puzzles sent in for issue 7 include Navigrid, Mini Killer Sudoku, Knighted Sum Sudoku, Fillomino and more.
Get Sudoku Xtra 7 now.
Sudoku Xtra 6 available worldwide
May 3rd
I’m pleased to announce that Sudoku Xtra issue 6 is now out and available for the full triumvirate of download and self-print, pre-printed from Lulu (recommended for most of the world) and also free same-day posting from Amazon.com (recommended for US).
It’s packed with a frankly ridiculous 133 separate puzzles. The range of content includes:
- Light-up / Akari
- A large cover Nurikabe puzzle
- -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 Killer Sudoku – back by popular demand!
- A third Jigsaw 6×6 Variety Pack of miniature variants
- An extra-big Yajilin
- Killer Inequality Sudoku – lots of symbols on a grid!
- Dominoes - first time back since issue 1
- Plus all of the regular puzzles, from Skyscraper to Samurais to Calcudoku to Hashi to Hanjie to Kakuro and so on…
There’s a bumper-packed Puzzle Community section too, thanks to the generous contributors. Just look at some of the types that are in issue 6:
- Yin Yang Sudoku
- Sudoku Minus (a trickier version of Sudoku Times!)
- Hexagon 25
- Klump
- Modula
- and more!
So if you’d like a copy (and if not, why not?! 
) then just pick one of these links:
Download and self-print * Lulu * Amazon.com
Have fun!
Sudoku Xtra magazine issue 4
Feb 25th
Issue 4 of Sudoku Xtra magazine is now with us! I really think I might be putting too many puzzles into it, because typing up the list of content just knocked me out with how much is crammed into its 52 large-format pages! Is too much possible? I don’t know, but look at this enormous list:
128 puzzles in total, including several seriously giant ones. Brand new for this issue:
- Samurai Star Killer Sudoku Pro
- Number Link Samurai
- Odd Pair Sudoku
- Samurai Odd Pair Sudoku
- Sudoku Inequality Jigsaw
- Jigsaw Sudoku 6×6 Variety Pack (including toroidal, inequality, X, consecutive and killer)
- Killer Sudoku Pro Jigsaw
- Sudoku 15×15 and Sudoku 18×18
- Killer Sudoku 15×15
- Odd & Even Pair Sudoku
- Killer Sudoku Prime
Regulars from issue 3:
- Hanjie
- Masyu
- Calcudoku (three times as many as in previous issues!)
- Slitherlink
- Consecutive Sudoku
- Hitori
- Samurai Star
- Samurai Star Jigsaw
- Number Link
- Jigsaw Sudoku 8×8, 9×9 and 10×10
- Toroidal Sudoku and Toroidal Inequality
- Kakuro
- Futoshiki
- Killer Sudoku
- Skyscraper
- Skyscraper Sudoku
- Samurai Sudoku
- SSSS: Skyscraper Samurai Star Sudoku
- Sudoku Inequality
- Sudoku Extra Regions
- Jigsaw Sudoku Extra Regions
- Killer Sudoku Jigsaw
- SOS: Samurai Outside Sudoku
- Outside Sudoku
- Sudoku 8×8
- Sudoku 12×12 and 16×16
- Samurai Extra Regions
- Yajilin
- Nurikabe
Adding to that already exhausting list still further are the community puzzles:
- Heyawake
- King’s Journey (also known as Hidato[TM], Numbrix[TM] and many other names)
- Mosaic (Minesweeper picture puzzle)
- As Easy as ABC
- Knight’s Tour
- Shapely Skyscraper
- Isolate
- Klump
And all of this for just £3.99 or $5.99 – it really is fantastic value!
If you’d like to get hold of it just pop on over to the Sudoku Xtra website!
Sudoku 16×16 Volume 1 – Sudoku Xtra Specials
Feb 15th
A book of just 16×16 Sudoku is now available both for download or in pre-printed form from Lulu.com or Amazon.com (with free delivery in some cases).
I’ve had lots of requests for a book like this over the past couple of years, so I hope if you’re one of the people who’ve wanted something like this that the book meets your expectations! All of the puzzles have nice symmetry, and the difficulty level is set such that you won’t need to make lots of fiddly pencil marks in the grid (or indeed any pencil marks at all, if you don’t want to).
It’s printed on large paper (A4 at Lulu, 8″x10″ at Amazon), with just one puzzle per page, so you’re getting the puzzles at a comfortable size for solving. Full solutions are included, and with 50 puzzles it’s going to take you a long time to solve them all!
Please feel free to post any comments here, or head over to Sudoku Xtra and take a browse on the discussion forums – and maybe join in!
Sudoku Xtra issue 3 now available!
Jan 25th
I’m really pleased to announce that issue 3 of Sudoku Xtra magazine is now available for download!
This issue is packed full of all sorts of puzzles, including SOS (Samurai Outside Sudoku!), Toroidal Inequalities and many more. Community puzzles include picture puzzle Mosaic from Clarity Media, and some fantastic Slitherlink-Masyu cross-over puzzles called Shotgun Slitherlink from David Millar of The Griddle. There’s also some brilliant Klump and Navigrid puzzles from Vexus Puzzle Design.
With 121 puzzles it will almost certainly take you far more than the month until issue 4 to complete, so you’d better get hold of it as soon as possible!
Pre-printed versions will be available in the next couple of days, but you can download and print it yourself immediately!
Sudoku Xtra issue 2 now available
Dec 23rd
I’m very pleased to announce that as of 24 hours ago Sudoku Xtra issue 2 is available for download or ordering in printed form.
It contains a staggering 121 puzzles, with only just a few of each type so there is a huge range of variety. At just £2.95/$4.95 it really is great value, but if you’re still not sure take a look at the sample part of issue 1 still available on the Sudoku Xtra site.
New puzzles for this issue include some crazy Sudoku variants, such as Samurai Killer Calcudoku Inequality, and a whole load of novel community-supplied puzzles, including Puzzle L and Knight’s Tour.
With so many different puzzles you’re sure to find not just one but lots of puzzles you’ll enjoy, so check out Sudoku Xtra today!
Sudoku Xtra ‘community’ puzzles
Nov 20th
Sudoku Xtra issue 1 is only just on sale and I’m already starting work on issue 2!
If you’ve read issue 1 then you’ll know that I’ve proposed a ‘community’ puzzle section at the back, where people get to send in their own puzzles and I will include a selection in a special section. The idea is to try and build up the kind of puzzle community that some of the Japanese-language publications have, but which we haven’t yet seen in an English-language magazine. Hopefully it will lead to a virtuous spiral, with on the one hand people who contribute puzzles getting a larger audience for their own work whilst similarly on the other hand encouraging more people to read the magazine for the novel puzzles – and hopefully all the while encouraging more feedback too, which will help everyone.
In time for the second issue I’m not realistically expecting very many submissions – after all, it won’t be long before I need to start finalising content for issue 2, and that doesn’t give people much time to buy the magazine, think about puzzles, draw them up and submit them. So in order to help things get going I’ve approached a few people who regularly create top-quality puzzles of their own and asked them if they’d be happy to contribute a puzzle or two to issue 2. Therefore I’m very pleased to announce that David Millar of The Griddle has agreed to provide a couple of his excellent designs for issue 2. If you take a look at his site you’ll see that he regularly posts a huge variety of different puzzle types, and it will be fantastic to have some of this content to help launch the community section of Sudoku Xtra issue 2.
Website feature-ready
Nov 18th
I’m happy with where the Sudoku Xtra website has got to now, with another update today pushing on all the material I wanted. It will I’m sure need further work when there are multiple issues available, but for now it’s more than good enough I think.
As mentioned yesterday, the most exciting feature (other than being able to view and buy and read about the magazine!) is the new discussion forum. It’s a pity Sudoku Pro never had one, because the old BBC MindGames one (which incidentally featured a large number of my puzzles too) was always great. It would be brilliant if we could make the Sudoku Xtra forums just as good! Here’s hoping…
If you’ve got issue 1 (or even if you haven’t!) please feel free to let people know about it – building up a readership is of course an important part of launching a new magazine, particularly one that won’t be on shop shelves any time soon!
Discussion forums for Sudoku Xtra
Nov 16th
Thanks very much to everyone who’s bought Sudoku Xtra issue 1 so far – I really appreciate it, and thanks also for your great feedback!
I’m still working on adding content to the main Sudoku Xtra site, which of course it was more important to get up and running at all in the first place rather than waiting until it was ‘finished’ to launch, and so today’s big addition is a discussion forum!
Please feel free to continue posting here about Sudoku Xtra if you would prefer, but if there’s anything you’d like to open up for discussion – or just want to chat about a particular puzzle (or even ask for help solving one!) – then the forums are probably the best place to do it.
You don’t need to register on the Sudoku Xtra site in order to post to the forums, but if you don’t you’ll be asked to type in one of those anti-spam image things each time you post – but I’ve made sure they’re very legible, so conversely fingers-crossed there won’t be any nasty problems with spam! (You should see just how much gets caught in the anti-spam message filters for this site alone – it’s quite astonishing!)
Thanks again!
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