A revolution in newspaper puzzling has occurred, and I’m part of it…

I’m addicted to Su Doku. If you don’t read the Indy, Times, Telegraph or Mail, then this revolution may have passed you by, so catch up with the lovely article in today’s Indy: The Puzzle that Ate the World. And yes, I did buy the Indy in preference to the Grauniad today just to experience Britain’s first Super Du Doku. I’m making fair progress with it, but it’ll be a while till I’m done, I expect.

I also have the first Times Su Doku book (right), which seems slightly pointless given that I could have bought the program for only slightly more cash and have had an endless supply of the puzzles. But there’s something more satisfying about doing them from the book. I may well get the program, though, before long… I don’t know if I can resist! I’ve got the demo already…

If there’s one thing about the whole Su Doku saga that amuses me most, it’s that the readers of the Mail can’t cope with a puzzle with such a complicated name (!) - they, instead, are presented with Number Crunch Codenumber (see here). Poor peeps.

Anyway, if you want a go at some Su Soku Doku (who says I can’t spell?!), the Times have their puzzles online here, and the Torygraph have theirs here. You could also download the demo version of the program. Or buy the book.

But give it a go, and you will be addicted. Please don’t blame me!

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This isn’t really worthy of another post, so I thought I’d tag it onto here - I’m extremely pleased to have finished Britain’s first Super Su Doku, from Saturday’s independent - a 16×16 huge thing, using numbers 0-9 and letters A-F. The pride I feel for completing this is almost certainly disproportionate to the actual task itself, but I can tell you it feels good. I’ve even sent my completed solution in to enter the competition, which is something I wouldn’t normally bother doing. Ooh, I’m happy.

» This comment was received at 22:32 on 01 May 05

I said I didn’t know if I could resist buying the program - well now I have! And I’ve printed lots and lots of puzzles to be getting on with, in addition to the ones in the book (which I’m about a third of the way though).

» This comment was received at 01:53 on 08 May 05

Comment removed at author’s request - sjhoward on Friday, 27th May 2005 at 22:22

» This comment was received at 16:22 on 27 May 05

Or, of course, you could buy the Pappocom Su Doku program which would give you an unlimited supply of puzzles for less than the price of two issues of Rayzee’s magazine. But that’s your choice.

» This comment was received at 18:00 on 27 May 05

Comment removed at author’s request - sjhoward on Friday, 27th May 2005 at 22:22

» This comment was received at 21:47 on 27 May 05

SU Doku made easier (using an elimination method) - see http://www.urbanrim.org.uk/sudoku.htm

» This comment was received at 12:54 on 07 June 05

The number of Sudoku books now available has reached such a level that it’s impossible to appriase them all, but if you’d like to buy them through our affiliate links at Amazon’s reduced prices, a selection of current titles is provided below. Notable new ones at the time of writing include the Guardian books, which are compiled by hand instead of computer, and the Independent book of Super Sudokus. Buying through these links helps keep sjhoward.co.uk up and running, so I hope you’ll support us (for more information, see ‘About Reviews’ in the right-hand sidebar. Click here to view Amazon.co.uk’s current range of sudoku books.

» This comment was received at 16:44 on 23 June 05

Thanks to the emailer who pointed out that it’s ‘Codenumber’, not ‘Number Crunch’, in the Daily Mail. They’ve renamed it to ‘Sudoku’ now, though.

» This comment was received at 20:04 on 26 June 05

Hi,

Better than pencil and paper:

http://www.sudokumate.com

…a free online helper program for doing SuDoku.

It automatically generates possibles (but this can be switched off if desired)

» This comment was received at 13:04 on 27 July 05

This post has been referenced by another on this site:
sjhoward.co.uk » The Sudoku craze rumbles on

[...] The number puzzles Sudoku, first brought to Britain by The Times earlier this year, spawned something of a craze. A craze I covered in some detail. So it feels right to do some kind of six-months-on follow-up. [...]

» This pingback was received at 22:49 on 20 December 05

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