this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
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[Outdated, please look at pinned post] Casual Conversation

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Sudoku, towers, Star-battle, fillomino, Hybrids and one offs... ?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don’t play much any more but I used to love Picross

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I love these, but TIL that one can get a book to do them by pencil.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I haven't heard them by that name before. I like the cross the streams variant. Unfortunately I've played through them all. https://www.gmpuzzles.com/blog/category/shading/cross-the-streams/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh, I honestly didn’t know it had a different name. Perhaps Picross is just the name for the video game version

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Lots of names, most of the pencil puzzles do. The first name I associated with that type was pic-a-pix. I might have come across a few unnamed before that time though. The Wikipedia page has the name as nonogram. The cross the streams variant has some extra rules, 1 contiguous region and no 2x2 full.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hello everyone! I've just stumbled upon an unusual version of tic-tac-toe on a large board: Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe. I use to play here: https://tictactoefree.com/ultimate-tic-tac-toe

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

That's an interesting take on it. I wonder if that version is "solved". You reminded me of a 3d version on a really old version of windows. https://tcrf.net/TicTactics

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Cracking the Cryptic has shown me the wonders of variant sudoku. My personal favorite variant is thermo. Their GAS series is a good introduction, or jump right in at logic masters

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Cracking the cryptic is awesome! They opened my mind to the wonderful world of puzzles

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Simon's enthusiasm is infectious. I am up to the point I can do most of the puzzles that don't involve set theory or really heavy math. So much fun.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I used to just passively watch all their videos, but I recently started "having a go" if the video is less than 50 minutes. It always feels good when I can actually complete one.

Their android apps are awesome as well. Much more approachable than the puzzles on the YouTube channel.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It was probably a year after I started watching before I started attempting the puzzles myself. It started with Mark's videos that were under 45 min and Simon's that were under 30. Now I think my limit is under 90 minutes for Simon, except pencil puzzles, I'll try any of those. The video length can actually be a bad indicator of how difficult I find it. They both do math heavy puzzle really fast, and Simon has a knack with set theory.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They both do math heavy puzzle really fast, and Simon has a knack with set theory.

That's a good point. Simon seems to have every killer cage committed to memory lol. Set isn't too bad if it's the Phistomefel ring (and clearly signalled by the clues), but some of the other sets I've seen him spot are damn near impossible for me to see.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They both worked in banking, so the math makes sense. For the sums I have a feel for most of the extremes and common ones, the triangular numbers, the maximum numbers, the missing or extra "ones" (4 digits that add up to 14, 4 digits for 11...). I usually just use the killer calculator for the other ones. At least on the desktop site its under the advanced settings.
That too is about my limit for set, although I might see the expanded ones too. As soon as Simon highlighted the cells in yesterdays feature he immediately knew it was set. I don't know how he does it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To be fair he has done a LOT of set puzzles haha

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I don't know if Simon has played set https://www.setgame.com/set/puzzle . Sorry. But yes he has experience.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Word searches. I love word searches but I honestly can't find ones featuring numbers or license plates

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Decomposing the current time into prime factors. 24-hour-format, only one minute time, then the next one.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I can't remember the last time I played. Never really liked the aesthetics of the windows versions after 7. If I'm in the mood I use https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/js/mines.html That version never requires guessing. To give myself a challenge I try to do it without flagging the mines.
Edit: realized its the xp version I liked, 7 was ugly.