Have a go at the latest puzzle from Jane Street! It's called Bug Byte and it's rather nifty!
https://www.janestreet.com/bug-byte/
Rules:
Fill in the square edge weights in the graph below with the numbers 1 through 24, using each number exactly once. The sum of all weights directly connect...
2024-05-06 19:33:27 +0000 UTC View PostHello Patreons! Thank you so much for supporting the channel!
We are delighted to bring you this month's reward - a collection of puzzles themed on "snake-egg" sudoku, by Philipp Blume, aka Glum_hippo.
Philipp's pack carefully teaches you all you need to know about snake-egg patterns and sudoku, as they appear in these puzzles, and by the end of the pack you will be able to rate you...
2024-05-01 15:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostSimon had an absolute blast with this brilliant mash-up of sudoku and Dungeons & Diagrams from sunnyjum. The rules are fine IF you're familiar with Dungeons & Diagrams logic game. (They are implemented perfectly in this puzzle).
Play the puzzle at the link below:
https://sudokupad.app/b2xfct9d35
<... 2024-04-26 20:34:19 +0000 UTC View PostThis is epic. If you know the game Dungeons & Diagrams (or you've watched our recent streams where we've played it) then you must try this wonderful puzzle by sunnyjum. (He is the man behind Can Of Wormholes, the popular video game - link below). Simon's solve of this wonderful puzzle is available NOW for our Patreon followers.
Play the puzzle at the link below:
Mark recently took on the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament final puzzle, on the channel. You might think that cryptic clues are more his speciality, but this puzzle makes that look questionable!
It's the Times Monthly Club Special, an absolute beast of a cryptic, and this one is no. 272 from March, by Richard Rogan, the Times Crossword editor.
You can see it here: 2024-04-17 09:40:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Here is a fantastic gift to the sudoku community from Sandra & Nala! A brand new pack of Fog Of War sudokus themed on the coming of Spring called Joyful Moments!
You can download the pack using the link below!
Simon & Mark
2024-04-09 19:33:09 +0000 UTC View PostSimon managed to get a couple of hours this week to continue his playthrough of Islands Of Insight. He discovered the "sounds" area and some others too. Let us know if you want to carry on watching these!
You can watch the third video (which is actually the fifth instalment of the playthrough after counting the two streams) here:
Mark has done a video on the channel about Rodolfo Kurchan's One Up puzzles and website, in which he solves puzzle #11,an 8x8 One Up.
He also had a go at puzzle #13, a 6x6, and the ten practice puzzles on the site which are all 5x5.
You can see this video here: https://youtu.be/UGlh6ONZ3nQ
The original video...
2024-04-05 09:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostHi Patreons!
Thank you so much for sponsoring our channel - we are very grateful for your support. And we are delighted to bring you the April monthly reward - a sudoku pack called Dangerous to Know.
Some sinister characters have been sending us emails recently, along with one useful message from an agent in the field – you will have to combine the solutions to the puzzles to figu...
2024-04-01 15:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostSimon managed to get a couple of hours this weekend to continue his playthrough of Islands Of Insight. Definite strengths and weaknesses are emerging and he's very concerned there seems to be a world themed around sounds!
He'll carry on playing it from time to time and recording his progress!
You can watch the second video here:
Simon has already worked through today's Times Cryptic Crossword no 28,871 on the channel, but here's a chance to watch Mark attack this DIFFICULT puzzle at his unusual speed: https://youtu.be/V1WweYenhO8
There is a link to SImon's olve in the description field of the video, and that is where to go to see full explanatio...
2024-03-22 14:25:42 +0000 UTC View PostWe've had a great time streaming Islands Of Insight these last couple of weeks but it has become clear that it would take years to make any substantial progress in the game if we only play it 2 hours/week! So Simon will carry on playing it from time to time and recording his progress!
You can watch his first video here:
Every month, the Times releases the Monthly CLub Special to its club members - and this is the most extraordinary cryptic that exists. The vocabulary is so cruel and so recherche that nobody could expect to solve it without one or two dictionaries open - but Mark tries to do exactly that!
This month's (Feb) is by Roger Phillips - see it here:
As promised, here is a ridiculously long video in which Simon does battle with a truly astonishing creation: Region Geometry by Emre Kolotoglu. It's a puzzle that we've been aware of for a while but we've been afraid of trying because Emre himself wrote to us and told us it wouldn't be suitable for a video as it would take too long to solve!!
If you take a look at the grid, you'll s...
2024-03-05 10:55:48 +0000 UTC View PostLast weekend Simon solved The Sunday Times Prize Crossword, which was compiled by Dean Mayer. Simon's always been a fan of Dean's clues but this puzzle was really something else. There are so many incredible clues with 2dn ranking surely as one of the most brilliant ever.
Anyway Simon wanted to just talk about this puzzle so he's made a short video which will hopefully be of i...
2024-03-03 00:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostHi Patreons!
Well, that was predictable - I jinxed the reward by saying I expected there to be no more corrections. Well, of course I was wrong. Many many apologies.
This email has the correct puzzles - the latest change (and indeed the only significant first change) were to Puzzle 4 (Disco Ball) and the total D arising from it.
I accept full responsibility if your time has b...
2024-03-01 19:10:13 +0000 UTC View PostHi Patreons! Please use this pack instead of the last, especially in respect of Disco Ball and The Zodiac.
It seems a month cannot go by without a very minor correction or two being made to our Patreon pack! Thanks to Davide and also Mark Tattersall who pointed out a rules omission, and a slight required adjustment to the number D in the pack!
It's still the case that to...
2024-03-01 17:47:42 +0000 UTC View PostHi Patreons!
Thank you so much for supporting our channel - we are very grateful for your encouragement. And we are delighted to bring you here the March monthly reward - a sudoku pack called Evening Attractions.
There are seven puzzles in the pdf, which includes links to play them in our software - please be aware that there is a negative constraint in each puzzle, meaning that whe...
2024-03-01 16:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostSimon is continuing his series of trying to solve a "monster" puzzle every month as exclusive content for all of you who support us here on Patreon. Today he attempts Jesper Josefsson's Circle Sums - which many of you have recommended/requested. As we've come to expect from this author, it is a masterpiece. (And quite hard! The video is over 2 hours I'm afraid!!)
Play the puzz...
2024-02-11 20:46:11 +0000 UTC View PostEvery month Mark takes on the Times Monthly Club Special, a deliberately arcane cryptic that goes into the depths of the dictionary for its answers, and also features fiendish wordplay to slow down the best solvers in the world.
What's more, Mark tries to tackle it without consulting the dictionary! Last month he claimed the puzzle was by Richard Rogan, when it was actually compiled by Ro...
2024-02-09 11:18:50 +0000 UTC View PostThank you for sponsoring the channel! As February's monthly reward, we are thrilled to bring you a set of 8 puzzles created by Riffclown. “Interactions” uses multiple lines in particular geometric shapes, and each puzzle explores the interactions between the different types of line in use. Please see the attached pdf for the puzzles, links to solve them on, and instructions.
As mentioned last week and in today's video, we thought it would be an interesting experiment (especially for newcomers to the puzzle) to give you the chance to try a cryptic crossword KNOWING the definitions for each clue.
So we've prepared a version of yesterday's puzzle with the definitions highlighted in yellow.
(Having done this we're now convinced that this is still VER...
2024-01-26 12:27:14 +0000 UTC View PostThis cryptic crossword puzzle is the Times Monthly Club Special from the Times Crossword Club, and is by (correction) Roger Phillips. It comes with our normal warning about fiendish clues, wilful obscurity and difficulty levels off the scale! And yet Mark tackles it without opening the dictionary ...
Watch Mark take it on here: 2024-01-20 10:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
We've been delighted to share some very long solves of difficult puzzles with you over the last couple of months and we thought we'd continue the series tonight with Simon's solve of Roller Coaster Nurikabe by the_cogito!
This is a bonkers construction - hence the incredibly long video length. Hats off to the_cogito for having the wit and sheer brain power to create this brutaliser ...
2024-01-06 18:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostDear Patreons,
With sincere apologies, we present a correction to the puzzle Tunnel of Love (the blue 3x3 box has moved!). Quite a lot of people have already solved the hunt, by making an assumption about pentomino shapes, and what counts as different. The intention of the rule wording was that any pentomino shape is the same as another even if it has been rotated and/or reflected. Apolog...
2024-01-02 08:42:57 +0000 UTC View PostThank you for sponsoring the channel! As January's monthly reward, we are delighted to bring you All the Fun of the Fair, a series of 5 fairground-themed sudokus.
The first four puzzles are independent, stand-alone sudoku puzzles, in which the first two are meant to be a bit easier than the last two, and the fifth puzzle requires information from the first four to be completed (but is the...
2024-01-01 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostThanks so much to Skunkworks for constructing our December reward pack of 100 (yes, 100) 4x4 sudokus! It was an incredibly popular pack, and here you can watch Simon solve the whole thing from start to finish.
We know, it's a three-and-a-half hour video, but we think you'll have a lot of fun along the way, just as you did if you solved the reward pack. At some point we will release a Roll...
2023-12-23 08:54:48 +0000 UTC View PostA slightly longer version of the intro to tonight's video for anyone who enjoys the guitar intros.
Love Story is a film that means a lot to Simon for family reasons and its hauntingly beautiful music from Francis Lai is absolutely wonderful.
2023-12-09 17:24:49 +0000 UTC View PostMark has a go each month at The Times Monthly Club Special. Perhaps foolishly, he tries to tackle it without a dictionary, relying on his extensive vocabulary, and wordplay skills, to untangle the extraordinary words and phrases that make up the puzzle.
Watch how he gets on against November's puzzle, by Richard Rogan, here: ...
2023-12-08 15:02:48 +0000 UTC View PostContinuing the series where Simon attempts requested "brutal" puzzles, he turns his mind to Broken Secrets by TotallyNormalCat. Although it's over 2 years old, it has had only had two handfuls of solves. And it is challenging but it's also incredibly beautiful. The preamble below is TotallyNormalCat's original wording, we have not augmented one dot or comma!!
Play Broken Secre...
2023-12-02 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post