Issue 3 Samurai Outside Sudoku

I have come across this variation before but never as a samurai version! It took a while but got there in the end. It brings to mind another variation - frame sudoku - where the sum of the first three digits of the corresponding rows and columns are placed around the sides of the grid.

That one sounds interesting Christine. I may try making some of those, but only as 6x6 versions to start out.

ETA: Here are some that I made last night. I'd love to hear what forum-goers think of them!

http://thegriddle.net/p433



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2010 05:59PM by davmillar.

It's a good idea. I've thought about making them before but dismissed them as 'Killer Sudoku lite' (it is after all Killer Sudoku clues in certain squares), but I think I may have dismissed it too soon because of course the clues do overlap, unlike in Killer Sudoku. So I will add these to my virtual list, and try them at some point!

I'm definitely at least aiming to have a new variant in each issue of Sudoku Xtra, so I probably won't go with that for the next issue but maybe the one after instead!

I haven't tried Dave's examples yet, but they look like fun!

Dave, it didn't take you long to make those puzzles! I've done them already and they were really good fun. Not too diffiicult but great for those times when you don't want anything too taxing but still make you think a little. I would definitely do some more. Now how about those 9 x 9s?!!!

By the way, I've only done one of the Shotgun slitherlinks in Issue 3 so far, and that was great - tricky little things aren't they (but I've only come to masyu quite recently so it would be interesting to see what others think!)

Dave:

The URL http://thegriddle.net/p433 does not work??

When I try calling this page up, the page cannot be displayed.

Jeff

@Jeff: It may have been a temporary outage on my site, so please do try again. The link works fine at the moment. If it doesn't work for you or if you can't get to it from http://thegriddle.net/puzzles/433 either, let me know and I can e-mail you the PDF.

@Christine: Glad you enjoyed them! I'll see about making some 9x9 next. In the meantime, I'll be posting some other sudoku variants this afternoon!

All's okay, Dave.

Jeff

I haven't come across Outside Sudoku before. I'm enjoying the standard ones but haven't attempted the Samurai yet.

This reminds me a little bit of a puzzle in a Japanese magazine called "Area Appoint Number Place". Clues are given by way of some cells being divided into 3 or 4 numbered sections. The number would go somewhere in the direction it is facing, between it's section and the next divided cell. The puzzles were never too difficult, but quite charming!

Area Appoint Number Place sounds very interesting! I think I understand what you're saying. So it was similar but the clues were inside the grid rather than all outside. I quite enjoyed a Sudoku variant a few years back which had groups of numbers written on joins between squares, and you had to place them into the square somewhere. I guess that's essentially the same except that the regions the numbers can go in are defined differently. I've thought of making some of these at some point because they're fairly straightforward - when it comes down to it all these variations are doing is 'pre-filling' some known-to-be-accurate pencil marks into the grid!

I like puzzles that aren't too difficult myself, so perhaps in future Sudoku Xtras I'll focus on more of a single variant but put a wider range of difficulties in for some types - e.g. 8 or 12 of a puzzle rather than three different lots of 4 each.