Last day on this, so thought I'd push this to the top of the list again! Issue 6 has been available on Lulu for over a week, and is on Amazon.com as of yesterday.by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Nikoli have recently started putting Yajilin on their puzzle website. Interestingly I seem to be one of the top Yajilin solvers, which surprises me because none of the puzzles are particularly hard and yet the time spread is enormous (e.g. one today I did in about 5 minutes, but 99% of solvers took more than double that). They may be tougher than the ones in their books, but I think they still haby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
It seems only a week or two ago that the previous issue of Sudoku Xtra was out, but it's time for issue 6 already. It's been sent out to subscribers and contributors and it's also available for download! Pre-printed copies from Lulu (for UK and most of the world) and Amazon.com (for the US) are also now available. Download Sudoku Xtra 6 now: www.sudokuxtra.com/magazines.php It's packedby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Great news if you're in the UK and want to get a printed copy of Sudoku Xtra magazine or one of the two specials. Just click the 'Lulu' links on the magazine and book pages on the site, then enter code FREEMAILUK305 at the checkout to take £2.99 off the total - resulting in free shipping for a single item. You can only use the code once per account, but I doubt there's anything stopping you cby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I've added a few things to PuzzleMix this week (including Killer Sudoku Pro!), but other than that I've been relatively quiet the past week or two - this is because I've been working on my HowToVote.co.uk 2010 general election website, which I've run at each general election since 2001 (so then and 2005 in other words). Since the party manifestos were finally published this week I've been workby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
So far as I know (and I only know this specifically from consulting the government's Companies House website) there is absolutely no connection between Accolade (who continue to trade through their Accolade Publishing company, which was apparently separate to Accolade Puzzles) and the new owners. I think they literally just bought the assets from the administrator.by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Well I have A-level, S-level and three degrees in maths-related subjects and I think it sounds like you're all better with the mental maths than me.by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Hmm... now I wonder how well Killer Sudoku Pro with negative numbers would work... hmm... Just added Killer Sudoku Pro to PuzzleMix, incidentally - only in the members' section to start with however.by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Nope, if you buy a back issue of Sudoku Pro I won't make a penny, and I was never paid for many of them in the first place... but it seems that in practice there's nothing I can do about this. Edit: And I should add, thank you very much to everyone who is supporting Sudoku Xtra, either by buying it or contributing - I really appreciate it! It's particularly rewarding that such a high percentagby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
For the avoidance of doubt, I am totally committed to Sudoku Xtra. I write lots of puzzle and brain-training books every year - the Rough Guide Book of Brain-Training was out recently, for example, and two miniature Solve This! books from Perseus Books are out later this year, plus I'm working on other books at the moment too. So whether I do Sudoku Pro again or not has no bearing on whether Iby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I knew nothing about this until I saw the email that was sent round, and have to say I was pretty surprised! However I spoke today to one of the directors of the company who now own the rights to the title and they really are planning to relaunch Sudoku Pro, as their email said. That's why I decided to remove my blog posting saying I knew nothing about it, because now I've spoken to them I do knby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I really thought this would catch people out, so I'm pretty impressed that (Sue) you've solved it and (Christine) you've got that far!by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
This is mildly interesting, although perhaps only to me! Amazon.co.uk are taking baby steps towards making titles self-published on Amazon.com available on the .co.uk site too. Here's Sudoku Xtra 5, which has shown up quite quickly (other titles took months) and is actually shown as available from Amazon.co.uk directly (as opposed to a very expensive Marketplace seller). http://www.amazon.by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
No, that's fair enough. What I mean to say is that whereas on their website puzzles they seem to be continually innovating with the logic so that you get new things to discover, in their Yajilin books I've found that once you've cracked a certain percentage of the hard ones in one book you've essentially solved them all. So perhaps I shouldn't say that they're not tricky, but rather that they reaby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
The trouble with Nikoli's hard Yajilin is they're not actually very hard. Certainly easier than some of mine. I find their pencil puzzle books disappointingly easy - I don't have the Sterling one (Puzzlewright) talked about above so don't know what that's like, but usually their website puzzles are a lot trickier than those in their printed books, however, so I'm hoping those examples are misleaby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Well I've just finished making a 14x20 Yajilin for the next issue, so now you're able to do them perhaps that won't intimidate you too much. It's actually not particularly tricky - easier than some of the ones I've made before for sure! The givens are made up of a smiley face, an unhappy face and an indifferent face, which adds nothing to the puzzle solve but made it very frustrating to make sby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Welcome (partially-) back - I saw your comments on garethmoore.co.uk a few weeks back and then silence since! Just how big is the house you've moved into?!by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Until April 6th UK customers can get 20% off Lulu orders by using code EASTER at the checkout. This means there's never been a better time to get a pre-printed copy of Sudoku Xtra magazine. This code might well work in other countries, but I don't know - you can sign up on the Lulu site to get their occasional marketing emails (creating an account suffices, although perhaps there's an even eaby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7541455/Ferrets-key-to-bridging-the-digital-divide-between-cities-and-rural-areas.htmlby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I'm definitely going to keep them in as a variant, but I just think the Samurai was pushing it a bit too far. I think with this sort of constraint puzzle it's important to use it lots - perhaps the ones in this issue were a bit better in that respect because I didn't prune them so heavily, maybe. So thanks for the feedback!by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I'm glad you like them! I think they're brilliant fun too (the puzzle in general, I mean). They're certainly easier than other types as you say, although in fact they do have one flaw which is that you can usually use 'uniqueness' to solve them instead of the cleverer logic (hopefully) required to make them! So long as you deliberately avoid that tactic they're great!by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I'm delighted to announce that Sudoku Xtra issue 5 has been emailed to subscribers and contributors and is now available for download! Pre-printed copies from Amazon.com (recommended for the US) and from Lulu (recommended for the rest of the world) are also available. Download it now: www.sudokuxtra.com/magazines.php It's packed with a frankly-unbelievable 131 separate puzzles, with morby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
It's now in final checking... solutions all done... 131 puzzles is the final count!by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
It actually appears instantly on Lulu once I upload it. However I need to reformat it first to fit the page size and create the colour cover, so sometimes I do it the next day. It's ready for order from Lulu within 24 hours of the download appearing, usually. I'm very glad they delivered the fixed versions to you quickly and this time correctly! Thanks for letting me know.by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Yes, thanks to comments here and on my blog I've decided these are too hard when made large so I don't think we'll be seeing any more Samurai versions of this - but there are four more 9x9 ones in issue 5!by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I think I put easier ones in issue 4 too? The 6x6 ones are much easier than the 7x7 ones, and I made sure the first 6x6 and to an extent the second 6x6 in issue 5 are easy enough too... I hope.by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
Yes - the Marketplace sellers use scripts to auto-generate the prices based on random variations on other prices for the item. However their pricing goes wrong for items they can't find on sale - one of my books (worth £5) was over £2500.00 from all five sellers a week ago until I complained to Amazon! The Marketplace system only works for items that are sold regularly - the prices on other itemsby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
See my announcement about issue 5.by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I'm just putting the finishing touches to Sudoku Xtra issue 5 (the solutions, to be precise!), and so I can tell you about some of the content that is literally packed into this bulging issue: Suraromu - the latest loop puzzle from Japan PivotPix (a.k.a. Tentai Show / Sym-a-Pix) -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 Killer Sudoku! Another Jigsaw 6x6 Variety Pack of miniature variants More Sudoku at more siby gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
I spoke too soon! Sudoku Xtra magazines 2-4 have now shown up on Amazon.co.uk - but at £16.97 I don't think they'll be much in demand...!!!by gareth - Sudoku Xtra Discussion Forum
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