|
Nope, that's just a coincidence. But seriously,
|
# ? Jan 29, 2023 05:14 |
|
|
# ? May 27, 2024 02:50 |
|
Just discovered this thread; thought I'd drop a few puzzle recommendations. First, it's been mentioned a buncha times itt already but gonna reiterate that the many variant sudokus and similar puzzles featured on the Cracking the Cryptic youtube channel are fuckin great. If you're in this thread and you've somehow never heard the name Martin Gardner, he was a writer who had a legendary column for Scientific American called "Mathematical Games" that frequently featured interesting puzzles as well as other recreational math tidbits. I worked through a compilation of his puzzles that I got from a library a few years back and had a blast. There's probably a bunch available on the internet but idk where. You might have to check a library. And a few puzzle videogames from my Steam library:
|
# ? Feb 2, 2023 00:29 |
|
If anyone really likes the NYT crossword, I can say that buying into their monthly games subscription has been very worthwhile. They have a good crossword app interface and you get access to their archives, so I've been enjoying way too many Sunday puzzles for a while now. I just realized today that the archive somehow goes all the way back to late 1993, so you have an almost infinite amount of puzzles to access. Doing some of those older ones has been interesting, seeing what's the same and what's different, particularly in the cultural and technological references from 30 years ago. You still get some of the same answers showing up, like oboe, but you'll also get things like clues about '90s landline technology and more references to midcentury TV and such. And then you'll get things like: Clue: "Q: Who is the sole surviving ________? A: Chicken Teriyaki" Answer: KAMIKAZE PILOT Which is an old joke that I don't think would make it within sight of the editing room nowadays.
|
# ? Feb 2, 2023 23:35 |
|
Tokelau All Star posted:Going through the 101 Puzzles in Logic and Thought book posted a while back. I don't know where the hell to even begin with this one. DontMockMySmock posted:And a few puzzle videogames from my Steam library:
|
# ? Feb 4, 2023 11:14 |
|
Tiggum posted:I was very much enjoying The Talos Principle, until it started throwing too many timing-based puzzles at me. I get extremely frustrated when I know what to do but I fail at doing it quickly enough. The Talos Principle was pretty good, had a few clever bits, but it had a little too much boring repetition of puzzle ideas and a little too much bullshit for me to recommend it unqualified. I really enjoyed the storyline/writing though.
|
# ? Feb 4, 2023 16:14 |
|
DontMockMySmock posted:The Talos Principle was pretty good, had a few clever bits, but it had a little too much boring repetition of puzzle ideas and a little too much bullshit for me to recommend it unqualified. I really enjoyed the storyline/writing though. As soon as I realised I didn't need to activate or pay attention to the plot things (which was very early on) I ignored them completely. I have absolutely no idea what the game's story is about.
|
# ? Feb 4, 2023 17:16 |
|
In honor of that thing next week. Touch-device player and other versions, etc.
|
# ? Feb 8, 2023 23:38 |
|
I've been tinkering with another design I had in my head for a while, it's more of a gag than a puzzle but eh, someone may have some fun figuring it out.
|
# ? Feb 12, 2023 21:58 |
|
whoever recommended tametsi, thank you and also gently caress you
|
# ? Feb 13, 2023 04:51 |
|
Hey, crossword and particularly NYT crossword solvers! If you saw a clue reading 'Natural logarithm that equals one' with the answer LNE would you think: a) That's some good original cluing there! or b) That's horseshit, keep your math out of our word games?
|
# ? Feb 14, 2023 20:01 |
|
Unkempt posted:Hey, crossword and particularly NYT crossword solvers! If you saw a clue reading That's some good original cluing there, but I've also spent way too much time doing math to be trustworthy.
|
# ? Feb 14, 2023 20:08 |
|
Tiggum posted:If you like this kind of puzzle, the game Sherlock is just that but in visual form. There's also a bunch of other, similar puzzle games on that site. Seconding this recommendation - I bought a bundle of games from Kaser about 15 years ago and still play them regularly (Baker Street and Mrs Hudson mostly)
|
# ? Feb 14, 2023 20:18 |
|
Captain Hygiene posted:That's some good original cluing there, but I've also spent way too much time doing math to be trustworthy. Well, that's encouraging because I can't find another reasonable clue for that and it's buried deep in an otherwise finished Sunday effort. Think I'll leave it in and see what they say.
|
# ? Feb 14, 2023 20:34 |
|
... and crossword submitted. That's my 4th try and they haven't taken any yet so we'll see how that works out. Going to put my last effort here if anyone wants a go, and if you can guess what they objected to in this one you'll win a shiny Internet point because it sure as hell wasn't either of the clues I thought might be a bit crap.
|
# ? Feb 18, 2023 00:06 |
|
They didn't like 1 and 21 across? ps AND 17/47 with the same clue (and same answer?)?
|
# ? Feb 18, 2023 00:57 |
|
Unkempt posted:... and crossword submitted. That's my 4th try and they haven't taken any yet so we'll see how that works out. Going to put my last effort here if anyone wants a go, and if you can guess what they objected to in this one you'll win a shiny Internet point because it sure as hell wasn't either of the clues I thought might be a bit crap. That's awesome. I'll give it a try if I can figure out a doable way since I don't have printer ink at the moment. I've been doing a ton of crosswords lately and have been thinking about puzzle design. Is this all manual creation? I have no idea how people put these things together, especially once you start getting into more complex grids and things like the cleverer NYT Sunday puzzles that mess with the format.
|
# ? Feb 18, 2023 01:06 |
|
PhantomOfTheCopier posted:They didn't like 1 and 21 across? They all have different answers, but it was actually 47 they objected to. I think they like stuff like using the same or related clues for different answers, it turns up quite often in late-week NYT puzzles. Captain Hygiene posted:That's awesome. I'll give it a try if I can figure out a doable way since I don't have printer ink at the moment. https://www.jmviz.dev/Phil/ is the one I've been using, it does default weekday/sunday NYT crossword grids with the usual symmetry, it has a dictionary that gives you suggestions for blank entries and it pumps out a properly formatted pdf for submissions when you're done. All very handy and the right price.
|
# ? Feb 18, 2023 01:26 |
|
Unkempt posted:They all have different answers, but it was actually 47 they objected to. I think they like stuff like using the same or related clues for different answers, it turns up quite often in late-week NYT puzzles. What's objectionable about that? It made perfect sense to me. But I do have an objection to its partner, 17 across; it should be lower-case c.
|
# ? Feb 18, 2023 02:01 |
|
DontMockMySmock posted:What's objectionable about that? It made perfect sense to me. quote:We're sorry to say that this puzzle wasn't one of the few selected for publication. It's solid work overall, but the bar for themeless puzzles is extremely high these days due to our large backlog of submissions. Themeless entries should be familiar as standalone words and phrases, so answers like ROMAN ONE HUNDRED, while inferable and cleverly clued, wouldn't be accepted. Got to say I don't really get it. quote:But I do have an objection to its partner, 17 across; it should be lower-case c. Oh my god you're completely right
|
# ? Feb 18, 2023 02:19 |
|
Unkempt posted:They all have different answers, but it was actually 47 they objected to. I think they like stuff like using the same or related clues for different answers, it turns up quite often in late-week NYT puzzles. Interesting, thanks! And yeah, I'm not surprised it wasn't those ones, they sure like their clue pairs.
|
# ? Feb 18, 2023 04:04 |
|
I posted a big thing about it upthread, lemme see if I can find it Edit found it! Phil is great BTW. Unkempt, hope it gets accepted! I need to start building again. sephiRoth IRA posted:Making crosswords is fun! There's actually a pretty neat series the NYT put out on how to create crossword puzzles. I've also linked a specific article on tools which I found was helpful. sephiRoth IRA has a new favorite as of 06:27 on Feb 18, 2023 |
# ? Feb 18, 2023 06:25 |
|
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0004370276900199 I remember crossword generator source code in C going back at least 20 years; I certainly used it for newsletters in 2007 though I can't claim to remember using it before then for others. Based on the cross references, I'm sure it was a fun programming exercise by the 80s. I'll have to check with my Algol friend. Mathematics research likely is from the 40s or 50s but would take some digging. Primary choices are a fixed grid versus optimizing placements on an open grid. Classic generators would obviously start with a much smaller word list.
|
# ? Feb 18, 2023 14:00 |
|
Unkempt posted:... and crossword submitted. That's my 4th try and they haven't taken any yet so we'll see how that works out. Going to put my last effort here if anyone wants a go, and if you can guess what they objected to in this one you'll win a shiny Internet point because it sure as hell wasn't either of the clues I thought might be a bit crap. I think I got it. Apologies for the janky lettering, typing manually in a separate photoshop layer was the best I could come up with. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Overall, it was a good level of doable without being frustrating. It took me about 40 minutes, I think, and there were just a couple stumpers I had to look up at the end to get the last couple words in. A few particular thoughts: - 17a/47a: I liked those. I see what they mean that the latter is a descriptor rather than a known phrase, but personally I don't care about that. - 37d/43a: These ones got filled in on their own. I don't know the mythology at all for the former, and for the latter I had too many made-up sounds that could fit the middle letters that I couldn't guess it. - Where I got stuck: I filled in 12d last with BIGLAPSE, where the two bold letters were the missing ones, and I couldn't think of anything else that fit. This got 21a wrong LEW instead of PEW and 27a JAPNE instead of JAUNE. They were obviously incorrect, but I couldn't think of anything else so I looked up 27a, which turned out to be a word I'm surprised doesn't seem familiar. Anyway, I had fun and got most of the way there on my own, thanks for posting it!
|
# ? Feb 18, 2023 21:29 |
|
A redditor created an open-source/self-hosted crossword creation tool as well, Exet, which I look forward to trying out soon in addition to the options posted above
|
# ? Feb 20, 2023 23:48 |
|
I did it, I finally created my very first crossword puzzle
|
# ? Feb 21, 2023 01:05 |
|
Captain Hygiene posted:I did it, I finally created my very first crossword puzzle now I can finally tell people I've completed a crossword puzzle in under 5 seconds
|
# ? Feb 21, 2023 01:33 |
|
Yes, the forums really are a FART ORB if you think about it
|
# ? Feb 21, 2023 05:07 |
|
NOT COOL
|
# ? Feb 21, 2023 05:21 |
|
I hate crossword puzzles.
|
# ? Feb 21, 2023 07:36 |
|
ah yes, MOD KNOW
|
# ? Feb 21, 2023 10:03 |
|
GOON POO
|
# ? Feb 21, 2023 12:34 |
|
burexas.irom posted:I've been tinkering with another design I had in my head for a while, it's more of a gag than a puzzle but eh, someone may have some fun figuring it out. Sorry to bump my own post but I would really like to know if this was so obvious that nobody bothered replying or is it unsolved? I'm asking because I made it as a t-shirt design, but most of the feedback I got from friends/other designers is "too obscure" but I figured since the actual target audience is smartypants nerds this would be the ideal place to test it. I would really appreciate the feedback, thanks.
|
# ? Feb 21, 2023 13:11 |
|
I have no idea what it is. I briefly looked at it, but there were too many possibilities to explore and no clue to pick a direction. I don't know if it means a word, a phrase, a number, or something else. If it's a pop-culture reference, or a science reference, or literature, or whatever. If the red dot important because it's red, or just because it's colored differently. I'm sure it'll be head-slappingly obvious in hindsight, but then it always is.
|
# ? Feb 21, 2023 15:11 |
|
Thanks, this is the first version that I (likely wrongly) thoguht was too obvious. In any case, it's the topological equivalent of "I ❤️ TOPOLOGY".
|
# ? Feb 21, 2023 15:32 |
|
burexas.irom posted:Thanks, this is the first version that I (likely wrongly) thoguht was too obvious. If those are standard symbols in topology, then maybe? Otherwise I don't think there's a person on the planet who'd get that without some sort of clue.
|
# ? Feb 21, 2023 17:45 |
|
I could've maybe recognized the "I ♥️ something" layout from the original, but with no idea what it was referencing.
|
# ? Feb 21, 2023 17:51 |
|
an alternate design where it starts out with regular I <3 and then gradually becomes circles/holes might work (although no longer a riddle i guess)
|
# ? Feb 21, 2023 18:00 |
|
I get the solution now that you've said it, but only because i've watched the topology video from VSauce like twice. I think most people won't even know how that riddle relates to topology (or what that is) unless you explain it to them, much less suspect it has anything to do with topology at all unless it's presented in some kind of context with it.
|
# ? Feb 21, 2023 18:06 |
|
Carthag Tuek posted:Yeah I did a couple on paper but they're a pain to type even on a computer lol. I know this is from ages ago but to not leave this puzzle unjustly maligned, this solution provides the names too: We know Brown swapped Davis' book to Adams, and the text tells us that the poet is reading a play, making Adams the poet and Davis the playwright. Brown's reading a novel so Clark must be the novelist, leaving Brown as the historian. Edit: Nevermind actually, I got caught up on trying to figure out if there's actually no solution to the latter part of the riddle that my awful working memory somehow thought that Adams being the poet was somehow a known quantity and not just known from OP posting the answer from the book, I'm a dumbass Blunt Instrument has a new favorite as of 00:17 on Feb 22, 2023 |
# ? Feb 21, 2023 22:42 |
|
|
# ? May 27, 2024 02:50 |
|
minato posted:I have no idea what it is. I briefly looked at it, but there were too many possibilities to explore Yes wearing it in a math dept might work, but absent doughnuts and coffee cups the audience will be limited. * Rather I came up with too many things. ps Just start gang tagging it all over the whiteboards and see if it spreads enough for it to become a thing. PhantomOfTheCopier has a new favorite as of 23:28 on Feb 21, 2023 |
# ? Feb 21, 2023 23:25 |