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If you like these puzzles, consider giving Nikoli some money, as they are a relatively small Japanese puzzle magazine and invented many of them. I find their ha

by rjh29 4y ago

If you like these puzzles, consider giving Nikoli some money, as they are a relatively small Japanese puzzle magazine and invented many of them. I find their handmade puzzles a lot more fun than the autogenerated ones this program makes. https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/ https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/ https://nikolibookshop.stores.jp/ https://nikolibookshop.stores.jp/ I recommend 'The Pencil Puzzle 2022' (and other years) which has puzzles from their entire range. English instructions are included. My absolute favourite is Slitherlink. I've never been more addicted to a puzzle game than the DS version: https://www.eurogamer.net/puzzle-series-vol-5-slitherlink-review https://www.eurogamer.net/puzzle-series-vol-5-slitherlink-re...

blueblimp 4y ago
I'm also a fan of Nikoli-style puzzles. (My favorite is Nurikabe.) Nikoli themselves used to offer an iPhone app with lots of good ones, but it's sadly unavailable now. https://puzz.link/db/ https://puzz.link/db/ is a great source of community-made puzzles in this style that are playable in a browser. Also worth a look is https://www.gmpuzzles.com/blog/ https://www.gmpuzzles.com/blog/ if printing and playing on paper is okay. I agree with you that human-made puzzles are much more interesting. The generated ones become boring quickly.
- bertman 4y ago
  >playing on paper Printing is no longer necessary! GMPuzzles have been providing Penpa+ (a Javascript puzzle tool) links for all new puzzles for a while now and are in the process of backporting all their backlog puzzles for digital solving, too. It's really awesome :)
  - blueblimp 4y ago
    Thanks, it's been a while since the last time I played GMPuzzles... clearly I should do it again.
noSyncCloud 4y ago
> Slitherlink One of the best mobile puzzle games ever https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ejelta.slitherlink.full https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ejelta.sli...
mdp2021 4y ago
I just checked Nikoli, and now I am getting a definite desire to play Shakashaka ( https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/shakashaka/ https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/shakashaka/ ). Which is not in Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection. Guess I will have to code it one day. Edit: or just use web implementations - there are many...
- blueblimp 4y ago
  Most implementations probably use algorithmically generated puzzles, which are less fun than human-created puzzles.
- Beldin 4y ago
  There's Slant in the collection, which seems similar... haven't played Shakashaka though, might be mistaking.
jchin 4y ago
I've been a fan of Nikoli puzzles since discovering them through the US Puzzle Championship exam years ago. I always wanted more practice but had a hard time finding paper puzzle books to work with. Especially if I didn't want a book with Sudoku. Anyhow, just a few months ago, I discovered two puzzles books at Barnes and Noble! https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/iq-puzzles-1-nikoli/1131029335?ean=9781454937272 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/iq-puzzles-1-nikoli/1131029... https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/iq-puzzles-2-nikoli/1131029336?ean=9781454937289&aug=1 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/iq-puzzles-2-nikoli/1131029...
sph 4y ago
Here's Slitherlink and a ton of other puzzles playable on the browser: https://www.puzzle-loop.com/ https://www.puzzle-loop.com/ I enjoy this collection, they all have a similar and consistent UI. I enjoy their Nonograms, Star Battle, Tents, Hashi and I've just tried their new Mosaic puzzle, seems fun enough.
ZeroGravitas 4y ago
Note that you can encode hand made (or other externally generated) puzzles in a format that Simon Tanthams app accepts, and share them. I'm not aware of anyone actually doing this for most puzzles, but the crossword world often lets you download puzzles in a generic format to play in different apps, and the apps often have ways of regularly downloading new puzzles from the web. I believe there's also apps that can prefill a soduko grid from a photograph of a grid, so maybe a translator could be built to pass those to the Puzzles app in the appropriate format.

by rjh29 4y ago

blueblimp 4y ago

I'm also a fan of Nikoli-style puzzles. (My favorite is Nurikabe.) Nikoli themselves used to offer an iPhone app with lots of good ones, but it's sadly unavailable now. https://puzz.link/db/ https://puzz.link/db/ is a great source of community-made puzzles in this style that are playable in a browser. Also worth a look is https://www.gmpuzzles.com/blog/ https://www.gmpuzzles.com/blog/ if printing and playing on paper is okay. I agree with you that human-made puzzles are much more interesting. The generated ones become boring quickly.

bertman 4y ago
>playing on paper Printing is no longer necessary! GMPuzzles have been providing Penpa+ (a Javascript puzzle tool) links for all new puzzles for a while now and are in the process of backporting all their backlog puzzles for digital solving, too. It's really awesome :)
- blueblimp 4y ago
  Thanks, it's been a while since the last time I played GMPuzzles... clearly I should do it again.

noSyncCloud 4y ago

> Slitherlink One of the best mobile puzzle games ever https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ejelta.slitherlink.full https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ejelta.sli...

mdp2021 4y ago

I just checked Nikoli, and now I am getting a definite desire to play Shakashaka ( https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/shakashaka/ https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/shakashaka/ ). Which is not in Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection. Guess I will have to code it one day. Edit: or just use web implementations - there are many...

blueblimp 4y ago
Most implementations probably use algorithmically generated puzzles, which are less fun than human-created puzzles.
Beldin 4y ago
There's Slant in the collection, which seems similar... haven't played Shakashaka though, might be mistaking.

jchin 4y ago

I've been a fan of Nikoli puzzles since discovering them through the US Puzzle Championship exam years ago. I always wanted more practice but had a hard time finding paper puzzle books to work with. Especially if I didn't want a book with Sudoku. Anyhow, just a few months ago, I discovered two puzzles books at Barnes and Noble! https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/iq-puzzles-1-nikoli/1131029335?ean=9781454937272 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/iq-puzzles-1-nikoli/1131029... https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/iq-puzzles-2-nikoli/1131029336?ean=9781454937289&aug=1 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/iq-puzzles-2-nikoli/1131029...

sph 4y ago

Here's Slitherlink and a ton of other puzzles playable on the browser: https://www.puzzle-loop.com/ https://www.puzzle-loop.com/ I enjoy this collection, they all have a similar and consistent UI. I enjoy their Nonograms, Star Battle, Tents, Hashi and I've just tried their new Mosaic puzzle, seems fun enough.

ZeroGravitas 4y ago

Note that you can encode hand made (or other externally generated) puzzles in a format that Simon Tanthams app accepts, and share them. I'm not aware of anyone actually doing this for most puzzles, but the crossword world often lets you download puzzles in a generic format to play in different apps, and the apps often have ways of regularly downloading new puzzles from the web. I believe there's also apps that can prefill a soduko grid from a photograph of a grid, so maybe a translator could be built to pass those to the Puzzles app in the appropriate format.