Puzzle 50: Quantum Quadrum Quandary

[zotmeister]

Someway, somehow, I'd let over three years pass since I'd last posted a puzzle here - made particularly an asshole move given that I'd stopped at number 49. I had several things I was wanting to do with this journal around the time of Puzzle 50, and I ended up putting them off... for over three years, apparently. Well, I'm finally getting around to doing them, and so here's their harbinger; the puzzle itself is something of an homage to the way things were here, a final hurrah before pressing forward into the future.

A quick note before I get into the instructions here: despite the dearth of puzzle content here as of late, I never really stopped making puzzles - I just wasn't posting them here. I've had puzzles in the last four United States Puzzle Championships, including a Sudoku variant with no givens whatsoever and no special markings in the grid either (the region shapes alone define a unique solution - I was going for the Ripple Effect effect), which I believe is a world first and is regardless the best puzzle I've yet made. If for some unfortunate reason you missed it, it's in my gallery: Sukazu

And now for something completely opposite: a Sudoku variant with a given in EVERY cell.

A partial given, mind you, but a given nonetheless. As perhaps you've noticed, I've been using my own custom "font" for the numbers in my puzzles, drawing them the same way every time from Puzzle 1 to now. To wit:



There have been a wide variety of comments regarding this. Some love the retro appeal; some find it an eyesore. But the comment that really got to me was noting that the '3' and the '8' are distinguished by only a single pixel, which (especially in a Cross Sums) I agree is a problem. But of course, it also gave me the idea for the puzzle below, so I decided Puzzle 50 would be the five-by-five-pixel swan song, and from there I'd move on to something else - I mean, even Strong Bad upgrades his computer every now and then. As for what to upgrade my graphics to, well - I have an idea in mind, but I'd like to hear what my readers would like to see, so comment away.

There are going to be several other changes here soon as well. For starters, this will be the last puzzle I will be soliciting emailed solutions or providing a prize for. Sucks, I know, but I'm also hoping to make up for this by offering more contests. I should note, however, that I'm still not expecting to have a source of income until next month, so don't hold your breath. (Donations to my PayPal account would accelerate the process and, quite frankly, make me feel very appreciated and happy. Having half a face is still a downer. But I digress.) For this puzzle, however, feel free to email me your answer, and while you're at it, tell me if you own a Nintendo DS or not.

So, without further ado: what lies below is a Sudoku puzzle where I've given you one pixel of each solution digit, with the numbers as drawn above; as usual, each digit (in this case from ZERO to nine - I figured, why should zero be left out of the final 5x5 puzzle?) must appear exactly once in each row, column, and region. Note that the red and green regions are disjoint - those are both still ten-cell regions, the smaller segments connected through cell corners in a checkered pattern - but this doesn't change the rules one bit. [In retrospect, I probably should have used a different pair of colors for those...]



As noted earlier, I have lots of other puzzles already composed that were waiting for this one to come out. Now that it has, expect a steady flow of them to follow - again, my goal is to reach one hundred by the time I'm eligible for the United States presidency. There will be some other varied content as well, the vast majority of it (hopefully...) being creative exploits. So welcome back, glad to be back, and let's have some fun, shall we? - ZM

Comments

[mellowmelon (from livejournal.com)]

Oh man, you're finally back, both posting puzzles here and on nikoli.com. This was the first place I had seen original, handmade logic puzzles posted in blog form, which inspired my own, and nikoli.com had the link that led me here. Maybe I should drop my own inactivity to commemorate this... although I have the same excuse that I've been constructing for other things.

I'll comment on the puzzle later, if I find the time to solve it. Unfortunately, Sudoku isn't a big hit with me, so it might be a bit.

[zotmeister]

"...which inspired my own..."

It never ceases to amaze me how often I've heard that! You know, I originally just put puzzles up here to break up the tedium of my catharses philosophizing; I didn't see anyone else doing it at the time, but I never expected that I'd end up generating such a following for it, much less enticing others to follow suit. (And I'd never DREAMED it would result in my making puzzles for the USPC!)

Well, as it happens, it was your blog that inspired me to pull out the paddles and resuscitate my own - you have done some absolutely incredible things on there, and at such a pace as well! If you really want to commemorate my return, please, DON'T do it by starting that up again; it's bad enough I'm so far behind in solving Grant's works, that if I have to keep pace with solving yours as well, I'll never get another puzzle posted :) (As it is, I'm solving the nikoli.com puzzles right before they expire...) With that said, I certainly wouldn't want to stifle your creativity, so if you otherwise would want to share more puzzles, then by all means.

No offense if you just skip this one - honestly, despite having become Sudoku Variant Boy [shakes head in disbelief], I'm no big fan either. I just felt this one needed to exist, is all. But if you do get around to it, I'm always open to criticism. - ZM

[mathgrant.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

I originally just put puzzles up here to break up the tedium of my catharses philosophizing; . . . I never expected that I'd end up. . . enticing others to follow suit. (And I'd never DREAMED it would result in my making puzzles for the USPC!)

Hey, if your blog hadn't been such an inspiration to MellowMelon and me, we probably wouldn't have linked to your blog even while it was dead. (Also, I really would love to make puzzles for the USPC! Some others in the puzzle community may find this surprising, but I find the prospect of making USPC puzzles more enticing than participating in the USPC.)

[I]t's bad enough I'm so far behind in solving Grant's works, that if I have to keep pace with solving yours as well, I'll never get another puzzle posted :)

Be warned: I plan on posting ten more puzzles (plus Monday Mutants) between now and Christmas! To make matters worse, the Christmas puzzle won't be politically correct!

[david bindley (from livejournal.com)]

Niiiice.

To be honest, though, it's the blur effect that's far more irritating when solving than the five-by-five pixel numbers.