Puzzle 48: Seeking Syren

[zotmeister]

See Puzzle 14 for instructions. The astute may have noticed that the file names for my previous two Seeking Syren puzzles seemed to skip a number. This is the one that was missing. It was constructed primarily to challenge my greatest critic - ralphmerridew, who apparently finds my puzzles so easy that he tries to re-solve them with fewer rules. (Why neither e nor glmathgrant participates in the USPC is beyond me.) The groundwork for the puzzle was primarily constructed during a series of lunch breaks at Burger King, a practice I no longer employ due to the incredible mess this puzzle originally turned out to be. I built it in an entirely wrong fashion, and had multiple solutions up the yin-yang. Eventually I tried to revisit it and get something solvable while still keeping the main theme going; I lack the inclination to test this puzzle missing a rule at this point, but I do really like how Syren is revealed in this one, so I feel it's a good puzzle regardless. As usual, email me your solutions, and while you're at it, tell me your favorite eighties video game. - ZM

Comments

[ralphmerridew.livejournal.com]

Actually, my comments on not using restrictions stem from an accident; when I first discovered Syren, I didn't notice some of the restrictions. Despite that, the puzzles all ended up being solvable. It wasn't until mathgrant ran the puzzles and I thought "Hey, he added a restriction." that I found that I'd been doing it without a rule.

[ralphmerridew.livejournal.com]

And this puzzle again has a unique solution under the "ralphmerridew hard" rules.

[zotmeister]

Hmph. - ZM