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2013 Advent Calendar - 10 years ago

Hello all. I'm doing a new Sudoku Advent Calendar at The Griddle this year and wanted to invite you all to participate. It's not too late to start - so go grab the grid and the first piece of the puzzle at http://thegriddle.net/tags/advent2013

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Paranormal Puzzle Pack Book - 12 years ago

Hey everyone. I'm working on a new puzzle book project featuring a variety of puzzle types, including Area 51 (a combination of corral, slitherlink, masyu, and similar clue types). It's going to be called the Paranormal Puzzle Pack and will have a paranormal theme and a ton of brand new logic puzzles to solve. If you're interested, I'm trying to fund the project via Kickstarter, and you can ma

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: solve this puzzle and help me find the next number - 12 years ago

Try looking at your options for where to put the 2 in the top row. For example, if you place the two next to the 9, what options are left for other 2s in the puzzle? What about if it's next to the 7?

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Sudoku Xtra Community Section - 12 years ago

Hello everyone! I'm posting to let you all know that I'm stepping down from the position of community section editor. Over the last few issues, I've had to take a step back and focus more on my health. At this point, to continue calling myself the community section editor would be a disservice to the effort Gareth has put forth during my downtime. I'm parting on good terms with Gareth, and

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: Puzzle Advent Calendar - 12 years ago

Thanks for the kind comments Gareth and Christine! Kropki is fairly new to me and sometimes when composing and test-solving, I confuse those clues with Gareth's odd-sum pair clues. My use of it came about after making some puzzles where the theme was just mashing together as many of the World Sudoku Championship clue types as possible in 3 8x8 grids. I'll be posting the 9th grid soon, and hope ev

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: Sudoku Xtra 17 - 12 years ago

I'm not sure where Gareth stands with the main body of content for issue 17, but he and I have both been working to contact some of the community section contributors from past issues to see who is interested in contributing once again. Since Gareth compiles the final edition of the magazine, I cannot speak to a timetable for the issue's release. Personally, though, I hope to have all community s

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: Sudoku Xtra 17 - 12 years ago

Best of luck Gareth! In addition to Gareth attending, I know for certain that community contributor Palmer Mebane will be attending for the U.S. team (he is the U.S. Puzzle Champion this year). There may be other contributors that are attending that I'm not aware of, but good luck to everyone involved nonetheless. Also, apologies for my hand in the delays, everyone. Over the last few months

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: Issue 16 - 13 years ago

QuoteVexusPD Issue 16 looks fantastic! Once everyone has made their way through the incredible number of puzzles on offer, can I take the opportunity to ask for feedback on Tiktaka? This is the first place where the puzzle has been published so I am really interested in how people found the instructions, if they enjoyed the puzzle and whether they have any alternative name suggestions. Perso

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: Issue 16??? - 13 years ago

Hello everyone! Nikki is correct in that we plan to issue the magazine bi-monthly now, but Gareth's other works and some personal problems on my end have resulted in a bit more of a gap than we'd ideally like. Gareth and I are still working hard on issue 16 and hoping to have it out before too long. All that's left from the community section is a bit of additional author info, some redrawin

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: Tiger in the Woods (Issue 12, p46) - Glitches - 13 years ago

Hi Mathimagics, Upon speaking with Deb Mohanty regarding your comments, we realized that the rules as given in issue 12 were not explicit enough. These are the amendments we plan to add based on Deb's intended rules for the puzzle: The line may not cross itself on the starting or ending square. The line only comes to a stop when reaching the a black square or the edge of the grid. A valid sol

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: Issue 12 - Labyrinth #1 error - 13 years ago

Yes, that appears to be the case. I just double checked the original image file that I had to transcribe from and there was indeed a 2 missing in our redrawing of it. My sincere apologies for that, especially to anyone who had tried the puzzle and gave up when unable to find a valid solution. I'll contact Gareth about fixing the PDF edition of the magazine again and getting the fixed puzzle out t

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: Errors in Issue 12 - 13 years ago

Hello ZM and all. ZM - I agree with many of your comments both here and by e-mail, and I'm sorry you had a negative experience with Sudoku Xtra. My role as an editor extends only to the community section, so I'm afraid I cannot speak to the multiple-solutions issue with the Hitori puzzle that you found. I can, however, address the Chess Sum Sudoku puzzle problems. There are no great excuses

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: Labyrinth puzzles/Four squared puzzles - 13 years ago

Glad you enjoyed the Four Squared puzzles eventually Christine! Debbie originally shared some of those puzzles with me several years ago, and a few were posted on The Griddle, but condensed to the notation x^n for each prime (2 x 2 x 2 x 3 x3 x3 written as 2^3 x 3^3, etc.) and it really made it harder to keep track of what prime pieces were already used. If one was short on space, I suppose the p

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: FLIP Puzzle Competition - 13 years ago

For anyone interested in just checking out the puzzles now that the competition is over, you may find the new Special Booklet of interest. It's the combined Instruction Booklet and Test Booklet with author notes, test facts and figures, additional bonus puzzles, and a full answer key. You may download it from http://logicmastersindia.com/lmitests/dl.asp?attachmentid=86 David

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

FLIP Puzzle Competition - 13 years ago

Hello everyone. As Gareth mentioned in the Sudoku Xtra 12 announcement, I've authored another LMI test. This one is a themed test called "FLIP". It uses many familiar puzzle types as well as a few new ones that should be fairly easy to understand. You can see the test information and download the instruction booklet at http://logicmastersindia.com/M201011P/ We would love to see

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: 19th World Puzzle Championship - 13 years ago

Hey everyone. Quick update - results are being posted at http://wpc2010.com/results for anyone interested.

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

19th World Puzzle Championship - 13 years ago

For those who don't know, the 19th annual World Puzzle Championship takes place next week. Just a couple of the many participants include community puzzle contributor Palmer Mebane (US) and the man behind Sudoku Xtra himself, Gareth (UK). Best luck to both next week!

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: Xtra 11 - 13 years ago

I'm glad to hear everyone is enjoying issue 11 - especially the community puzzles! I haven't had a chance to go through the main part of the issue a whole bunch yet, but I'm loving Gareth's Heyawake. (Funny side note - I had to look up the name because I'm so used to Grant Fikes calling that puzzle "Room and Reason"! Shame on me... )

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Personal Pages on The Griddle - 14 years ago

Hey SX Community! I'm working on a new Personal Pages feature over at The Griddle. It's open for beta now if you want to try it! The plan is, you set up a public profile on The Griddle. Then, there are a few main features: You can save your favorite puzzles on The Griddle that will show up on your public page. You can earn badges displayed on your public profile for doing puzzle-related

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: US, UK and other world puzzle championship qualifications Saturday 21st August - 14 years ago

Well, the main issue wasn't so much needing a reminder as needing access. I don't have internet access at home and it's incredibly tough to get anywhere since my bus route doesn't run on weekends either. Had the competition been on a weekday I may have been better prepared for it.

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: US, UK and other world puzzle championship qualifications Saturday 21st August - 14 years ago

On Saturday I literally realized that the USPC was going on when there were only 20 minutes left to submit answers. Boo Next year, I suppose.

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: Hitori - 14 years ago

I don't mind Hitori. Actually, Hanjie is my least favorite puzzle. It's just so boring to me! The only Hanjie-like puzzles I can tolerate are Grant's "Cross the Streams" variant which are actually really fun, but plain Hanjie is just not my thing.

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: Competition: "Sampler Platter" - 14 years ago

That bottom 6x6 is definitely a toughy. It takes some thought to get this revelation, but (SPOILERS!) highlight here to begin: The bottom left section has a string of 4 consecutive digits and 2 digits that are non-adjacent - so the leftovers MUST be 1 and 6, then a string of 2-5 in some direction. In the bottom right box, you can now place 1 and 6. The 3rd digit in that half-row must be

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: Competition: "Sampler Platter" - 14 years ago

Glad to hear you both enjoyed the puzzles! I think the timer and the mix of clue types throws everyone off a bit. I tried adding lots of examples to the instructions book and on The Griddle to help with practicing and familiarizing with the clue types, but I'm not sure it was enough. Still glad you enjoyed the puzzles and hope that trying them at your leisure will lead to a more fun experie

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: Competition: "Sampler Platter" - 14 years ago

Hey Christine, When the actual competition starts, a full PDF will be available for solving offline. However, you will have to enter the digits into the Flash component to officially enter. I know that the organizers have a provision for offline solvers but I'm not entirely sure how it works. As for champions, there's nothing official, but they provide rankings on their site for 1st-3rd wor

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: Help me choose...? - 14 years ago

While I'm resisting the urge to say "get both", I think it would at least serve you well to pick up a back issue of Sudoku Xtra just to see what it's all about and possibly make a better personal decision if you can't have both. That being said, I can't be of much help since I'm not at all familiar with Sudoku Pro, but it looks like other forum-goers might have a better answer for yo

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Competition: "Sampler Platter" - 14 years ago

Hey everyone! How many of you are quick solvers? Ever want to enter a sudoku competition? On 7th and 8th August, Logic Masters India will be having their August Sudoku Test. Augusts test will feature sudoku variants created by me that have up to 6 clue types per puzzle. If you're interested, head to their site and grab the Instruction Booklet to prepare for this test! http://logicmast

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Re: Community Puzzles Issue 8 - 14 years ago

Glad to hear the feedback Christine, and thank you for posting a bit of help Gareth! I've actually just posted some new Slithery Sum Sudoku today, all 6x6, but might make some smaller and simpler ones soon as well. I'm glad to hear that you like the alleys & skyscrapers puzzles Christine, and will make more for a later issue and for The Griddle. As for issue 9, I've created a sudoku varian

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Issue 9 Teaser - 14 years ago

What do an avid Ultimate Frisbee player, a melon, the mayor of the North Pole, and someone who has only been wrong five times have in common? They're just four of the many contributors to the Community Puzzles section in Issue 9 of Sudoku Xtra! With that, I'll leave you to ponder who they are.

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum

Community Puzzles Editor - 14 years ago

Hello everyone! As of issue 9, I'll be helping Gareth as the brand new Community Puzzles editor for Sudoku Xtra! What does this mean exactly? It means Gareth will have a bit more free time to work on puzzles for SX and the Community Puzzles section will continue to grow! If anyone has any questions at all, feel free to reply below and I'll do my best to answer them.

by davmillar - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum