Comments for Dr Gareth Moore

Comment on Samurai Killer Calcudoku by Gareth Moore

Gareth Moore — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:40:04 +0000

Welcome back! Hope your house move went well!

Comment on Sudoku Xtra Specials: Sudoku 25×25 Volume 1 by Gareth Moore

Gareth Moore — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:39:34 +0000

That’s a good idea [a Calcudoku book] – and evidence suggests that this would be a popular one with other people too, looking at sales figures on Amazon. (I’m talking relative to many other puzzle types)

Skyscrapers is already on the cards – I want to make some puzzles without “every” row/column number written in first, however. And Futoshiki – don’t get much demand for that, but my Mum really likes it so maybe I’ll do it for that reason too! What size Futoshiki? I personally prefer 5×5 and then 6×6…

Comment on Samurai Odd-Pair Sudoku by Gareth Moore

Gareth Moore — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:36:36 +0000

Thanks very much for the feedback on this one – it’s extremely useful because now I know that these larger ones aren’t as enjoyable, so I will avoid them in future. This particular puzzle had some quad sets in I think, but I don’t really remember now.

Interesting point to compare it to Two-away or Consecutive Sudoku – all these “relationship X between two squares” puzzles (and there are lots of other variants) work on similar lines of course. The secret (as a creator) is to find the sweet-spot where the extra information rewards rather than creates extra work – in this puzzle it obviously went too far towards the latter.

The only other implication of the 4/5 break-down I was inferring is simply that in all the ones I solved myself I found that I ended up with lots of pairs, triples and quads, but much more clearly signalled than in a regular puzzle.

Comment on Sudoku-X and the diagonal challenge by Gareth Moore

Gareth Moore — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:30:31 +0000

Out of interest, have you noticed if the Dell ‘X’ puzzles always ‘require’ the X?

Comment on Crazy Calcudoku! by Gareth Moore

Gareth Moore — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:29:13 +0000

I agree. This is something I used to do (mark the row/column boundaries), but when I re-wrote my PDF creation code for a new library I didn’t put that back in – however I should. It is particularly confusing if you switch from Samurai Star to ‘regular’ Samurai puzzles!

Comment on Killer Sudoku-X by Spittledung

Spittledung — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:42:33 +0000

Yum Yum! Fun!

I did the puzzle without needing the X, but I did use the unique rectangle advanced technique with the 8-sum domino cages in the middle.

Killer Sudoku and CalcuDoku/KenKen are my favourite types of puzzles because the clues given in the puzzle unlock a plethora of other clues which crack the puzzle. And it is fun to find more than one way to come to the same unique solution.

And the maths helps as well!

Comment on Sudoku-X and the diagonal challenge by Spittledung

Spittledung — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:09:43 +0000

***
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
***

Well you definitely need the X for THIS one!

I am curious about the way people started solving this puzzle. Hands up how many people immediately found the 7 in the middle region and started solving the 7s?

I like the X-factor because it adds new ways to solve a puzzle even if you don’t need the X. I enjoyed finding the Y-wing made of 8s in the X section and that wouldn’t have happened without the X constraint. Also, the X made a few X-wings in the lower regions that were fun to find,

I usually don’t get DELL puzzle books (although I like their cross sums / kakuro), but I did pick up an Extreme Sudoku book and do the X-factor sudokus in it when I feel the desire.

Comment on Jigsaw Killer Sudoku by Spittledung

Spittledung — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:40:31 +0000

Fun as always.

Took me a bit to shift back into “non repeating cages” after doing that 8-part Mega Samurai CalcuDoku.

Comment on Crazy Calcudoku! by Spittledung

Spittledung — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:18:18 +0000

I saved that puzzle for dessert!

That was muy mucho fun! It took some time but considering that you are doing 8 9×9 CalcuDokus (sans 3×3 regions) it was a fun wrestle.

My suggestion would be to make it clearer where each row/column ends. There were a couple of times I almost flubbed it thinking an overlapping region couldn’t have a number but checking again I saw that it was 1 square out of range.

Comment on Samurai Odd-Pair Sudoku by Spittledung

Spittledung — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:54:03 +0000

Finally got it … but did NOT enjoy this one.

I don’t see how you could say “It eliminates lots of possibilities from squares relatively quickly, so you’re left with more deductive logic and less pencil-mark housekeeping.” … I had to eventually use a loop technique to crack it. Of course I probably missed something as usual … but it was very frustrating. Makes me not look forward to the one in Issue 4.

I was also frustrated with 2-away consecutive sudokus as well. In those the adjacent numbers paired up into EVEN/EVEN or ODD/ODD (rather than ODD/EVEN), but at least you knew the range of numbers given one of the digits.

So going on from what you have told us:

1. The only way for the sum to be odd is if one of the numbers next to the O is odd and the other is even.

2. There are 5 odd numbers and 4 even numbers per row/column/region. (As usual)

….is there something else I am missing that might help me solve these?

Comment on Sudoku Odd Pairs – a new variant! by Spittledung

Spittledung — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:42:13 +0000

Interesting idea Gareth. The rules remind of the classic dice game “Can’t Stop”.

So going on from what you have told us:

1. The only way for the sum to be odd is if one of the numbers next to the O is odd and the other is even.

2. There are 5 odd numbers and 4 even numbers per row/column/region. (As usual)

This 9×9 was enjoyable. Any bigger and it gets tedious for me (see other message )

Comment on Sudoku Xtra Specials: Sudoku 25×25 Volume 1 by Spittledung

Spittledung — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:25:01 +0000

Good on ya for making Xtra speciality puzzle books.

I would really like to see a book devoted to CalcuDoku puzzles. I am starving for decent KenKen type puzzles in Australia. I usually complete the daily one in the Sydney Morning Herald (rated “Challenging”) in about 2 minutes on average.

I would also like to see a book devoted to Skyscrapers. … and Futoshiki while we are asking for things.

Comment on Samurai Killer Calcudoku by Spittledung

Spittledung — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:11:34 +0000

Yummy! Always enjoy a CalcuDoku.

Comment on Sudoku Odd Pairs – a new variant! by Samurai Odd-Pair Sudoku « Dr Gareth Moore

Samurai Odd-Pair Sudoku « Dr Gareth Moore — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:16:56 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

Comment on Crazy Calcudoku! by Christine

Christine — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:38:00 +0000

Well that was a bit of a marathon but I’ve finally completed it. When I first started it and saw the large number of givens I mistakenly thought it might be easy!! In the event it’s taken me quite some time, but hugely enjoyable

Comment on Sudoku Odd Pairs – a new variant! by David Millar

David Millar — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:18:58 +0000

Very cool puzzle Gareth! I’ll give it a try shortly. I may have to try my hand at including this variant in one of my trickle-down sudoku sheets next time I make one…

Comment on Some new paint by David Millar

David Millar — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:38:37 +0000

I love the new look! Very clean, very polished, and very full of fun puzzles – a winning trio!

Comment on Sudoku Xtra – a brand new magazine by Gareth Moore

Gareth Moore — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:23:13 +0000

Thanks for the kind words, Glenda, and don't forget to post on the Sudoku Xtra forums to let me know what you think of the magazine!

Comment on Sudoku Xtra – a brand new magazine by Glenda

Glenda — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 01:47:51 +0000

Hi Gareth,

Being so far from the UK, I’ve only now, after searching the magazine racks for weeks, discovered that Sudoku Pro is no more. I love the variety and the range of skill and time required – no other magazine I’ve seen comes close. I will be signing up for Sudoku Xtra.
Wishing you every success.
Glenda (Melbourne, Australia)

Comment on Samurai Killer Calcudoku by Christine

Christine — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:39:43 +0000

Have taken a break from the Sudoku Xtra puzzles to do this one! I always enjoy calcudoku and this was no exception. It was, as you say, quite time consuming, but with just the right amount of difficulty to make it interesting, but at the same time manageable.