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 Specials: Sudoku 25×25 Volume 1
Feb 5th
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 added a purchase mechanism to SudokuXtra.com in fact!
I’ve decided that I’m going to make a series of similar books of particular requested puzzles, all of which will be branded as “Sudoku Xtra Specials”. In this way I can stay organised by keeping all of my download/printed content under the ‘Sudoku Xtra’ heading. It means that you’ll always be able to find all of my new content in one place, without searching around my various sites.
This book is probably the nicest collection of 25×25 puzzles you can find, if you’re a fan of such things. Every puzzle has really nice 8-way symmetry – having noticeable patterns in puzzles like this is pretty unusual, and it can help with the solve too. Just as in my magazines, I’ve thought about what’s sensible in a puzzle like this so they can all be solved without needing pencilmarks. How exactly would you go about making A-Y pencilmarks in each individual square anyway?!
If you get hold of it please do let me know any thoughts you have on it. In the same way as for Sudoku Xtra magazine, it’s designed to be printed at home on either an all-together or a page-by-page basis. And if you get a pre-printed version from Lulu or Amazon.com (already complete but waiting on listing now) then it’s on a large A4 (Lulu) or 8″x10″ (Amazon) page, so there’s plenty of room to write in the solutions.
If there are other books of puzzles you’d like to see, please let me know in the comments here or on the Sudoku Xtra forums – feel free to repeat any requests you’ve made before! Next up is 16×16 Sudoku but after that it’s all open. I was thinking of doing Inequality Sudoku third, but what do you think?
Barnes & Noble
Feb 4th
I was interested to spot that Barnes & Noble (in the US) are now selling one of my self-published books – Killer Sudoku: 100 easy to hard puzzles and how to solve them.
So if you’re in the US and fancy getting hold of a copy (they get really hard by the end!) then there’s now another way to buy it. You even get 10% off if you’re a member. 
Samurai Killer Calcudoku
Jan 28th
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 cages to fulfil the results at the top-left of each cage. The given operator when applied between all of the numbers must give the stated result, e.g. the solution to “5+” could be “2+1+2″. For subtraction and division start with the largest number, so for example “3-” could be “6-3″.
- Numbers can be repeated in Calcudoku cages, subject to the row, column and 3×3 box constraints.
Unlike my other puzzles I haven’t used any symmetry in this one, but I’m not sure it’s really that obvious on a puzzle like this one. It’s not especially hard, but with so many places to potentially go it might take you a little while.
Good luck!
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!
Outside Sudoku
Jan 14th
Here’s something new (for me at least) – an Outside Sudoku puzzle. This one’s 6×6, just to get the ball rolling, but I have some larger ones (including some Samurai ones) ready for Sudoku Xtra issue 3!
The numbers outside the grid reveal some, none or all of the numbers that go somewhere in that same row or column anywhere up to the first bold line encountered – in other words, they go in that row/column of the adjacent bold-lined region. If more than one number is given then the order need not necessarily be the same as that shown.
For example, look at the top-left. The 4 and the 1 both go somewhere in the first three squares of the top row, but not necessarily in that order. Below them the 6 goes in the first three squares of its row, and at the bottom-left of the puzzle the 4 and 5 go into the bottom two squares of the left-most column.
Then just follow through as a regular Sudoku until it is solved. Good luck!
Happy Christmas!
Dec 25th
Happy Christmas! Thanks for following my puzzle blog this year, and there’ll be many more puzzles in the year to come!
Gareth
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!
Futoshiki puzzles
Dec 19th
Futoshiki 7×7 puzzle
Futoshiki 6×6 puzzle
It’s been a little quiet here the past week or so due to circumstances beyond my control, but in preparation for the launch of Sudoku Xtra issue 2 tomorrow I thought it would be fun to post a couple of left-over puzzles here. These are nothing particularly unusual, I’m afraid – just some regular Futoshiki puzzles, in fact, but I don’t think I’ve posted any of these to this blog before so it was probably about time I did!
The rules of the puzzle are really simple – just place 1 to 6 or 1 to 7 into each row and column, whilst obeying the inequality signs (this means that the arrows should point at the lower number of each adjacent pair, where shown).
I’ve mixed up the already varied puzzle sizes a bit more in Sudoku Xtra issue 2, so several of the puzzle types that were all 9×9 in issue 1 are now at a range of sizes (mostly 6×6, 8×8, 9×9, 10×10). I’ve also tried to make sure the Skyscraper puzzles aren’t quite so tricky as last time round! In fact I’ve tried to make sure there’s a slightly wider range of difficulties on many of the types. This is something I’ll refine further over future issues, as I continue to find out what people think of the various puzzles.
I’m still putting the finishing touches to the issue, so I’d better get back to that now. Enjoy the Futoshiki!
Inequality Calcudoku
Dec 10th
Here’s a fun little puzzle – a Calcudoku Inequality puzzle.
Just place 1 to 6 into each row and column whilst obeying the bold-lined cages’ operator totals. These give the result of applying the stated operator between all numbers in that region, so for example the result of adding together all the squares in a ‘24+’ region must be 24. Similarly the squares in the 1728x region must all multiply to that total. Unlike in Killer Sudoku, you can repeat a value within a cage (but you must still obey the constraint to not repeat a number in a row or column).
There are also some inequalities marked. These show that the value of one square is lower than the value of a square next to it. The arrow always points to the smaller number.
Good luck!
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