I’ve also added a link on the right sidebar to an archive of all of my Lost Bridges puzzles.  Just click on the Lost Bridges logo on the right.  And here’s the latest puzzle.

pdf solution

About a month ago, The Guardian announced that they were going to publish a new puzzle called Futoshiki. Yes, it seemed like yet another attempt to find the next puzzle to make a big splash like sudoku, but I like puzzles so I was interested.

The puzzles aren’t published in the online version of The Guardian, but a helpful blogger scanned some of the early puzzles, so that others can try them out. Apparently there’s been some problems early on with puzzles having multiple solutions and such. Also, the puzzle seems a bit like a simplified skyscrapers puzzle. Still, it’s worth a note.

Most Americans probably don’t know what Cryptic Crosswords are, though they are very popular in the UK and other countries.  In a Cryptic Crossword, each clue is a word puzzle in itself.  I first learned about them because I had a high school english teacher who loved them and often made up clues to challenge students.

Why do I bring this up?  Because I found a site with helpful tips for solving Cryptic Crosswords.  And after you’re done going over the tips, you can practice with these puzzles.

Puzzle Ratings has a post about the 7th 24 Hours Puzzle Championship that takes place anually in Hungary.  The contest consists of 13 rounds one after the other, each 100 minutes in length.  Factor in a few 5 minute breaks, and that’s 24 straight hours of puzzling.  Some may think this sounds like fun, others might think it sounds like torture.  But why bring this up for those who don’t live anywhere near Hungary?  Glad you asked, the post also has a sample round from last year with some fun puzzles on it.  There are the ones you’d expect (sudoku, battleships, etc.) and a few other unusual ones.

San Jose Semaphore is a permanent public artwork by artist Ben Rubin that sits atop Adobe Headquarters in San Jose (thanks to basement.org for the link.) It looks like four flathead screws that rotate every 7.2 seconds. There’s also a soundtrack on a low power radio broadcast that can be picked up within a few blocks of the tower on AM 1680.

Apperently, this is some kind of coded message which the public is encouraged to try to crack. For those who don’t live near San Jose, there’s also an online simulcast which should provide all that you need to break the code.

Mind Candy, makers of the Perplex City game, announced today that they received a $7 Million investment from Accel Partners, Index Ventures, and NewMedia Spark. What does this mean for puzzle lovers? It means plenty of new puzzle games, including one aimed at younger audiences. Mind Candy has already created a Perplex City boardgame, but there also seems to be plans for books, video games and more in the future.

Passion For Puzzles has a post about a flash puzzle game called Stained Glass. It’s a recreation of a puzzle game called TetraVex that appeared in an old Windows Entertainment Pack and is also available for Linux systems. The major difference is that the numbers are replaced with colors, so that it looks a bit like stained glass.

The post also points to a site called gamedesign.jp which has a number of little flash games on it, including some puzzle games.

This post marks a return of original puzzles to puzzlinks.com.  A new Lost Bridges puzzle.  I’ve updated the puzzle so that symbols are no longer used.  The number of bridges connected to each island is indicated by the shape and orientation of the island.  This allows the solver to fill in the number corresponding to a particular shape and orientation.  So that a new Lost Bridges puzzle looks something like this:

And a correct solution looks like this.

As always, I have a pdf version of the puzzle.

I’m planning to bring back more original puzzles in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out.

I’ve read about the new puzzle, Isis, in a number of places now, most notably Passion for Puzzles and Top Gadgets. It’s hard to tell from descriptions what the puzzle is, but it seems to be some kind of ball with hieroglyphics on it. The goal is to open the ball which presumably happens when the hieroglyphics are properly alligned.

Inside Isis is a key to one of several pyramids hidden in the UK containing about £1000 worth of Gold and Silver coins. Of course, Isis itself will run you about £100. We’re told that this is the first of many puzzles that will lead to a final prize worth five figures.

It appears that Hollywood is becoming more interested in cruciverbalists… at least, in an odd sort of way.  According to the site Cinematical, Fox 2000 will be making a movie called All About Steve starring Sandra Bullock.  The one sentence plot description is as follows:

Written by Kim Barker, the broad comedy revolves around a “brilliant but eccentric crossword-puzzler” who stalks a TV cameraman across the country.

Hmmm… not exactly Wordplay 2.

This has popped up a number of places, most notably Joystiq.  A recent Fox Trot comic strip featured a Sudoku puzzle where the numbers were replaced by equations.  It’s pretty funny.  On Joystiq, they’ve solved all of the equations and turned it into a normal Sudoku.  If you want to be hard core about solving it, you might want to check out the strip first.

WPC 2006 is over and the individual winner is Ulrich Voigt of Germany who won for the second straight year and for the fifth time over all.  The competition is only in its 15th year, which means Ulrich Voigt has won one third or all World Puzzle Championships.

Team USA took the team championship, it’s ninth.  Three of the four team USA members finished in the top 5 for individual rankings.

There’s plenty of good info about the event at the WPC 2006 site and the Team USA site.

A post over at Puzzle Ratings has reminded me that the World Puzzle Championship started this weekend in Bulgaria and will be continuing until Oct. 12.  Partial results are already available and it looks like Thomas Snyder has taken the early lead, with team USA leading all countries.

There’s a new site dedicated to Perplex City: The Boardgame and it gives a much clearer picture of what the game is actually like.  The  general  structure seems to be identical to trivial pursuit.  The board is made up of multiple colored squares.  Each color corresponds to a different category and each puzzle card has a question for each of the six categories.  The categories are: Number Trivia, Anagrams, Pot Luck, Odd One Out (pick the thing that doesn’t belong), Word Play (the example looked like a rebus of sorts), and Visual.  The goal is to collect a stone (much like a pie wedge) for each category.

In general, of course, the puzzles are easier than they are on many of the cards, as most are designed to be answered in less than a minute.  There’s even a timer to hold you to it.

From the blog Diary of a Crossword Fiend, the print edition of the popular satirical newspaper The Onion will contain a crossword puzzle this week.  Unfortuinately, there’s a select list of cities where the print edition is available.  But Orange also directs us to an email list that will be providing the puzzles for any others who want to play.