Jerry Slocum's new book on ancient puzzle padlocks

Jerry Slocum and  Dic Sonneveld  just finished their new book that tells the story of the oldest secret-opening puzzles ever found, from the 2nd century BC to the 4th century AD. It shows high quality sets of photos of 156 Mask Padlocks that we found in Museums, Libraries and private collections. This is the first book about these incredible puzzles.

Interesting Links

https://eyemind.quora.com/Why-have-humans-loved-doing-puzzles-through-the-ages-What-social-psychological-function-do-they-serve

Fun With Hyperbolic Space Video from Vi Hart

Crossy Path Puzzle by ZhengTao Xing FREE

  

Crossy Path Puzzle comes from Zheng Tao Xing.  It's very similar to Hocus from Yunus Ayyildiz. (See link below.)

What's new: wormholes.

There are 48 levels and they go very fast.  The only issue: lots of ads. But they are not the 30 second variety. More like 5 seconds.  I did all 48 levels in about 20 minutes.


http://www.jianshu.com/p/f9f623136eaa
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/crossy-path-puzzle/id1202074023?mt=8

Similar games
Hocus The Original
Hocus Valley okay clone
Illusion Maze  nice graphics

0h n0 by Q42 B.V. FREE

  

0h n0 comes from Q42 B.V.  The goal is to fill the board completely with blue and red circles. A number in blue refers to how many blue dots it can see in the horizontal & vertical paths.  A red circle blocks the view of the blue circles beyond it.

  

This concept is not new. There was an old game from a Rubik's CD game that was similar called Lighthouse.

I've done 1 or 2 puzzles in each grid size. This game is fairly easy. But the graphics are good. And it's good for young puzzlers.

http://0hn0.com/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/0h-n0/id957191082?mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.q42.ohno

Puzzle Dots Game by Kejia Li FREE

  

Puzzle Dots Game comes from Kejia Li. It's one of those 'all the dots move in the same direction at the same time' type games where the object is to get the dots to their respective rings.

  

The graphics are excellent. The level of difficulty does not seem to vary very much.

I did the first 100 in about 10 minutes and part of those 10 minutes was used to fast forward through tv commercials.  I did the last 100 levels in about 20 minutes. Altogether there are 1200 puzzles.

If you like this genre, definitely try the harder games listed below.

https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1279626780
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.top.puzzledots

Similar games (this list is incomplete):

Movez  Pretty much the same as Block Mania but it has 1680 levels. I've solved 592 of them. That's probably enough.
Frozen Ice Cubes  What's different: there's a point of 'no return'.
Escapology, reviewed by Nicola Salmoria. He told me about this game ages ago. I played it and enjoyed it, but never blogged about it.
Block Mania Similar to Movez
Move Puzzle - A Funny Strategy Game, Matching Tiles Within Finite Moves 
Zink
Vubu What's different: the vubu men have different powers. Very sophisticated, very intelligent. Possibly the very best in this genre.
Move: A Brain Shifting Game
Unmind

English Country Tune by increpare $.99

English Country Tune came out in 2011 and I didn't learn about it until about a year ago.

The game is similar to sokoban.  The first series of of puzzles introduces a 3D field where the object is to push balls onto their targets.  Gravity is a factor, which means a ball can travel far. What makes it confusing is that gravity does not necessarily work in a consistent direction. It depends on the orientation of Your Man moving the individual balls.  I was stuck on one level forever. Until this weekend when I thought about finding a solution via a youtube walkthrough.

My favorite section of puzzles is the one depicted in the first image. Your Man does not push the actual cubes. Rather, Your Man pushes the horizontal & vertical light beams that emanate from those cubes. Fantastic concept and challenging and fun.

I slowed down considerably on the more advanced levels, primarily because of the 3D graphics.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/english-country-tune/id476962614?mt=8
http://www.englishcountrytune.com/
Not available for android devices.

YANKAI'S PEAK by Kenny Sun $2.99

  

YANKAI'S PEAK comes from Kenny Sun. At first I thought that it was merely a triangular version of Sokoban where the object is to push the triangles onto their targets.  It's much more.

  

The blue triangle is Your Man.  The first levels are fairly easy.  Then things get seemingly impossible until you discover an alternate way of pushing/moving.

There are 130 levels and I've spent a lot of time solving maybe 50 puzzle levels.  Many levels require a lot of trial and error and discovery.

New elements are added in the second round including green triangles & orange triangles that have their own properties.

$2.99 is a bargain. The graphics are outstanding and the levels were created with devilish care.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/yankais-peak/id1139603153?mt=8

GyroCube - Time Attack by Anders Schou FREE

A few weeks ago I wrote about GyroCube and was just plain wrong.  I though that the cube could not be rotated and that in order to solve it, one must memorize the unseen portions.

The reason I thought that was the case was because I held my ipad in a stationary position. In fact, the ipad should be rotated in all dimensions to see everything.

I still haven't solved it, but marvel at the concept and implementation.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gyrocube-time-attack/id1236499766?mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trixxr.cube

Causality by Loju $1.99

Causality comes from Loju and was featured prominently by the App Store Editors.

The object is to get the astronauts to their portals.
* They mustn't bump into each other.
* Arrows must be rotated.
* There's a limited # of moves.
* Portals

What's most interesting is that there's a time-travel component.

There's a clunky element that's a bit annoying: every step of the journey must be swiped singly.

I can see people really getting into this game. But I'm not feeling it.

I've solved about 15 of the 60 levels.

Lojo made another game Transmission which I reviewed about 2 years ago.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/causality/id928945016?mt=8
https://loju.co.uk/

Doug Engel's Online Puzzles

My friend Doug Engel has created some very interesting puzzle apps, on his web page below. I've played 4 of them, and they're good!  Sorry, no James or descriptions today.  Back on Tuesday.

Mix N Match

Reverse Three

Gopher Cover

Rotate X

http://www.puzzleatomic.com/GAMES_1.htm

Big Cat Lion Free by Alexey Kuzmin

  

Alexey Kuzmin contacted me more than a year ago about his game Big Cat Lion Free.  I feel very guilty about not playing/reviewing his game in all that time.

Here's the deal: the game is an old concept where letters are substituted for numbers and your task is to figure it out.

Definitely good for kids who love math!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/big-cat-lion-free/id1124065560?mt=8
https://aakuzmin.wordpress.com/2016/06/15/bit-cat-lion-free/

Blokken by Teleformar / IdeaFactory FREE

  

Anytime I see an image similar to the ones here.....I run! I've done enough packing puzzles. I also was never a fan of Tetris.

Blokken surprised me though.  The object is to score points by completing rows & columns.

My high score is around 2500.  Over 13,000 people are on the Leaderboard. The highest score is over 37,000. Which means I've played this game too quickly.

Amusing: the game is officially called Blokken, but the title in the game itself is Blokke.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blokken/id997903486?mt=8

Piece Out by Kumobius FREE

  

Way back in 2010 I played a game called Gold Mine by Boaz Feldman and Alex Polonsky. It was great! Unfortunately, it's no longer available. I was very excited to see Piece Out.  It's very similar.

  

The object is to rotate the pieces, slide them when possible if there are arrows, and get Your Man/Men to the target/s.

The concept is great.
The graphics are very very good.
There are 744 puzzles. Plus a daily puzzle. That's probably too many.

I was happy to pay $.99 to skip the ads.

At the moment, Piece Out has over 125,000 players on the Leaderboard. That's because it was featured by the App Store.  I've solved about 280 levels. That places me at #16.  But that won't last.  Because there's a massive race to the finish line.  And I'm dropping out after 300. Two people have already crossed the 600 line.

The game was developed by brothers Tom & James Greenaway and Ivan Neeson. I contacted Ivan who informed me that the puzzles are generated by a computer program. But the guys went through them all to curate the good puzzles.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/piece-out/id1228004705?mt=8
http://www.pieceoutgame.com/

Gold Mine Read my review from 7 years ago.

GyroCube - Time Attack by Anders Schou FREE

GyroCube - Time Attack comes from Anders Schou. Imagine yourself locked inside a Rubik's Cube. Can you solve it inside/out?

Your perspective is completely fixed, so there's an element of blind-solving going on. You cannot rotate yourself within the cube.

I have not solved it. But once again, I am amazed and delighted by the creativity and ingeniousness of cubers who are finding innovate ways to keep the game fresh.

Anders - stunning achievement.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gyrocube-time-attack/id1236499766?mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trixxr.cube

Zen Cube by Umbrella Games LLC FREE

 

Zen Cube is a very casual slow moving dexterity game.  Your platform already has some holes. A shape descends slowly while your platform spins. Your task is to tap out other holes to match the shape that's falling down.

 

Over 15,000 players are on the Leaderboard playing Zen Cube. I've only played this game twice, with my high score being 33.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zen-cube/id1206655696?mt=8

Push It. Sokoban Edition. by Ruslan Goncharenko FREE

  

Push It. Sokoban Edition. comes from the amazingly prolific Ruslan Goncharenko.

  

It's a telescope Sokoban puzzle app game.  The object is to push the red and green octagons onto their targets.

1. The machines push all the way.
2. The machines can push other machines.
3. The machines which have multiple telescopes will push out all their telescopes at once.
4. There are 5000 levels in 4x4 through 8x8 grids.

What I especially appreciate: the solution is readily accessible.

I've started tackling the 8x8 Expert levels.  They're really great.  But as I've said before, there are too many levels!

I believe this is the only telescope sokoban game that utilizes multiple telescopes on one machine.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/push-it-sokoban-edition/id1187844400?mt=8
http://gruv-apps.com/index.php/en/

Other Telescope games
Pushing Machine - simply excellent
Dyson Telescope Game - the first game to utilize telescopes
Push It, Puzzle Edition Also by Ruslan Goncharenko

SnakekanS by Yuansheng Xu $.99

  

SnakekanS comes from Yuansheng Xu. It's an unusual snake game.  The object is for the snake to eat all the animals, and then get to the yin/yang exit.

  

1. Any time the snake eats, it grows by 1 unit. The first levels: the only animal to eat is mice.
2. Eating the frog, the snake's head & tail will swap places.
3. The Mantis must be eaten from the side or rear. The front is poisonous.
4. The Elephant: when the snake eats the elephant, it will just keep growing forever.
5. The Turtle: when the snake eats the turtle, the turtle will stay in its place on the grid.

There are 50 levels and at the moment I've been stuck on level 36 for about 10 days. There's a hint button (bottom left corner) that indicates which 5 or 6 items to eat first, but not the precise sequence. I'm a little annoyed that I can't just skip 36 and move on to the rest of the game.

There's an inconsistent rule that's been bothering me. When the snake eats an item, its head grows and the tail does not move. If the snake eats a turtle and it ends up coinciding with the end of the snake's tail, the snake dies.  So here's the part that bother's me: why should the snake die, with a turtle at its end tail, if there's food to be eaten next to the head? This is especially annoying when there's a frog next to the head which would then place the turtle in a good position on the snake.

SnakekanS is really an excellent game, despite my complaints. $.99 is a cheap price for at least 6 hours (so far) of fun.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snakekans/id1255422937?mt=8

Other Snake Puzzles: all winners.
Snaky Snake
Snakes Minimal Board Fill Puzzle
Snakebird
Eat A Way
Twisted Snake
Quetzalcoatl
Truepuzzle
Hyper Snake
Snake Slider
Wriggle

Beating Vegas at Roulette

http://nautil.us/issue/50/emergence/claude-shannon-the-las-vegas-cheat

I first heard this story about 10 years ago on tv. All of the participants were interviewed and it was great fun!

14 Puzzle Boxes

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ubumcwaLEnQ Mobile device link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&amp=&v=ubumcwaLEnQ&app=desktop Laptop link

I know 11 of the 14 puzzle box designers.  All great guys.

I got to play/solve one of them at the IPP. Another stumped me.

Here's the deal: the whole set will be auctioned off 3 times, not on eBay, but on a private site that only puzzlers get to see.  A similar auction occurred for the Apothecary Box Puzzle. I believe 2 sets were auctioned off for about $10,000 each.

Yes it's pricey, but it's more substantial than bitcoin, etherium or the hundreds of other forms of artificial money. It's a good investment. Seriously.

Count 60 - A 60 Seconds Game by Nexogen Private Limited Free

  

Count 60 - A 60 Seconds Game is a puzzle app game to test your reflexes. You are given 60 seconds to tap the numbers in order.  There is no time to study/memorize anything. This is hard!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/count-60-a-60-seconds-game/id1208023725?mt=8

Similar Games
One, Two Three 
1 to 25 Number Challenge