Well done, and if you ask me that's pretty cheeky to ask for proof! (Which is pointless, since you could presumably easily fake that "proof" anyway if you were really trying to get a second copy for free from them). I hope you get a good response now, at least. At the moment there isn't a viable alternative to Lulu in the UK for the quantities Sudoku Xtra sells. Some of my books havby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I've made those easier Yajilins now, so they'll be in issue 5. Kuromasu - definitely, but whether they'll be in issue 5 I don't yet know...by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Not to help in any practical way, but it's great that you're a fan of Yajilin and Nurikabe - they're my favourites too! I'm on a (slow) mission to convert all the world into Yajilin lovers. It would help (as I might have mentioned before) to put some easier Yajilin in Sudoku Xtra too, to introduce people who aren't familiar. In fact, what a great idea for issue 5, due out in just a couple ofby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Anso, That is appalling that you had some misprinted copies. Just to be clear, they absolutely should not be like that. I'm so sorry you had problems there, and I'm glad you mentioned it! You should certainly complain to Lulu and ask for them to resend. I'm afraid I can't do this for you because I don't get any order tracking information from Lulu - it's a completely "closed box&quoby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Looks like a great puzzle from David - I particularly love the smiley in the middle! In fact you could have called it SSSSSSS: Size Six Skyscraper Samurai Star Smiley Sudoku And of course today is Sunday, so really it's SSSSSSSS: Sunday Size Six Skyscraper Samurai Star Smiley Sudoku And the solution is the catchily sibilant: SSSSSSSSS.... or S9, which kind of takes us back to Sudoby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Wow, thanks for that! I really hope you enjoy them (I'm sure you will). Sudoku Xtra is monthly, with each issue due out around the 25th of the month. The download version appears first, with the Lulu copy following within the next 24 hours and then the Amazon version can take up to a week more to appear (they take a while to update their database). The next issue will be dated April 2010, dueby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Glad to be of help! Just so you know, Lulu have printers around the world so if you order in the UK then for certain it will be printed and shipped from within the UK - that's why I use them for Sudoku Xtra. So definitely no customs charges. It's a pretty good service really (the print quality is better than almost every shop-bought book or magazine), and if they just had the option to use cheby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Hi Anso, Actually this site is based in the UK - it's just that we don't have the really great self-publishing system that Amazon.com offer in the US, so Lulu.com is the best alternative (at the low volume that Sudoku Xtra, being such a 'specialist' title, sells). I know the postage is significant, but Sudoku Xtra would need to sell 1000s of copies for it to be feasible for me to print it elseby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Okay, understood! Re Skyscraper (and Consecutive) puzzle books, I've put them on hold temporarily since I have a deadline on Monday plus some work to do on PuzzleMix, but hopefully in the next fortnight sometime...by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
As Dave said, congratulations! It actually is of real interest to me - I gauge what puzzles to put in (and at what size) based on people's feedback. Maybe it's time to rest that particular puzzle after 4 issues of it?by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Congratulations to Laurence of Vexus Puzzle Design - as of today, Monday, he has his puzzles published in The Times (UK) newspaper, which is a fantastic achievement! Lest we forget, it was The Times that first propelled Sudoku to its international popularity, albeit with more than a little help from Wayne Gould. Anyway, today's paper contained not just one but two of Laurence's Lexica word/logiby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
They're great puzzles, and I agree one of my favourites! I enjoyed the right-hand column the most, since I preferred not having all the shapes pre-drawn in. I'm very impatient and much prefer to have someone else already prune the puzzle to remove clues I don't need. Sorry about the typo in those solutions - I did check them but I tend not to check the bottom row of Sudoku-esque puzzles... Iby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Wow! I'm very impressed - congratulations on completing the Killer 15! Two hours or thereabouts isn't a bad time at all. You could try the prime number Killer Sudoku earlier on in the magazine next if you want a new Killer challenge.by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Sorry to hear about your flu! If you (or anyone else) manage to complete that Killer 15 puzzle then please do post here to let everyone know, and how you found it - it is a bit of an experiment, and I tried not to make it too difficult but with those somewhat larger sums it's definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea! I thought it would be interesting to experiment and replace the 20x20 aby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I'm delighted to announce that issue 4 is now available for download or in printed form from Lulu and Amazon.com. Subscribers should already have received their download links. This issue is stuffed to the gills with 128 puzzles, including (some how!) more variety than any previous issue! Here's just some of the puzzle types that are brand new for this issue! Samurai Star Killer Sudoku Pby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
For what it's worth, I've had no problems with the site recently, although I did have an issue a while back (over a month now) where it randomly just wouldn't load (in both IE and Chrome), and this seemed not to be a general internet problem. I figured there was a DNS configuration issue, but if so it isn't there any more since I just checked all three listed nameservers and they all return the sby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Okay, so it seemed people had trouble finding the yellow 'Forum' button at the top-right of the main site, so I've moved it back into a text link on the top bar.by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Here are the official rules for Nurikabe, in so much as they are written by the people who invented the puzzle (Nikoli): You cannot fill in cells containing numbers. A number tells the number of continuous white cells. Each area of white cells contains only one number in it and they are separated by black cells. The black cells are linked to be a continuous wall. Black cells cannot be linkby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Interesting idea about the h headings - you're right, I should do that. It doesn't hurt to change it in any case. In fact I'm not really a fan of span at all, and I guess it would look a lot better in Lynx! (or other text browsers). So that's a second good reason to change it. I know I can use jQuery, but jQuery (UI) is one of those things that works - up to a point. Whenever I've tested itby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
You're absolutely right of course. To be honest I haven't quite decided what to do with that area yet. I started off doing a single row of images just to fill the page up, and then I decided to add another row... then I added another... etc. But then I decided I needed some puzzle names to get indexed by search engines (and it was too big to just be a 'dead' image anyway) so I put in the puzzlby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Thanks Jeff! For anyone still puzzling and has bookmarked the forum separately, the way here from the main pages is now via the yellow button at the top-right.by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
A whole page of ABC puzzles is a great idea - I've been meaning to write some ABCs of my own for a long while. It's really not a million miles away from Sudoku, particularly if you consider the multiple gaps as a repeated digit Sudoku. So then you just have a variant where you either have the repeated element or the marked letter first in a row/column, in a broadly similar way to Outside Sudoku.by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
If you're one of the many people who requested a book of just 25x25 or 16x16 Sudoku then you're now in luck! I've just made two such books available. You can choose to download them and print them yourself, or you can get pre-printed copies from either Lulu or Amazon.com. Click here for the relevant links. More books are coming very soon! Next up will be Consecutive Sudoku, as per populby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Well this is what I've been working on this week - a new site design for Sudoku Xtra. (if you have come straight to the forum, try the 'main Sudoku Xtra site' link above!) It isn't finished yet, because I still plan to add a much nicer ordering process than a set of 'buy' buttons that take you straight to PayPal. In fact that was what I started out to do, but then I ended up spending all my timby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Yes, Puzzler are probably the world's largest puzzle company. I think we've all heard of them. A few years ago they were bought for £85 million ($135 million) and no doubt are worth more now. They've got over 60 full-time staff, but I still make a better magazine than their Beyond Sudoku - and I'm not biased at all! I'd need to sell about 5 million copies of Sudoku Xtra (assuming mostly dby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
It's interesting that that's another vote for Extra Regions - and of course there are many different possible arrangements for Extra Regions, so I guess I could make into an entire book. Consecutive and Skyscraper will be books three and four, probably in that order too. The 16x16 book is essentially finished, so I'll do these very soon - in the next week, at any rate. Book sizes are an inby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
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 regionsby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Great! Yes, the trouble with putting so many puzzles in is that if you want to complete them all it will take you months, and you'll never be ready for the next issue! I am thinking I will need to make each issue more 'themed', so there'll be a stronger reason to buy multiple issues for those who are more casual in their puzzle solving enthusiasm. That said, I've already done that a bit by haviby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Logidoku is essentially another name for a Jigsaw Sudoku, one of the most common variants of all, and invented long before someone first called them Logidoku. I have examples of this type of puzzle going back long before anyone in the West knew what Sudoku was - even in the 1990s in the UK it was commonly published at particular sizes under names such as "Logi-5" for example.by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Talking of which, Sudoku Xtra Specials: Sudoku 25x25 Volume 1 is now available on Amazon.com.by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Sudoku Xtra ©Gareth Moore 2009 - email gareth@sudokuxtra.com - get puzzles for your own publication