Blank Crossword Puzzle Template

by Nemo’s great uncle

Sudoku Puzzles are brain teasers that have also been called wordless crossword puzzles. Sudoku Puzzles are often solved through lateral thinking and have been making a large impact all across the world.

Also known as Number Place, Sudoku puzzles are actually logic-based placement puzzles. The object of the game is to enter a numerical digit from 1 through 9 in each cell that is found on a 9 x 9 grid which is sundivided into 3 x 3 subgrids or regions. Several digits are often given in some cells. These are referred as givens. Ideally, at the end of the game, every row, column, and region must contain only one instance of each numeral from 1 through 9. Patience and logic are two qualities needed in order to complete the game.

Number puzzles very much similar to the Sudoku Puzzles have already been in existence and have found publication in many newspapers for over a century now. For instance, Le Siecle, a daily newspaper based in France, featured, as early as 1892, a 9×9 grid with 3×3 sub-squares, but used only double-digit numbers instead of the current 1-9. Another French newspaper, La France, created a puzzle in 1895 that utilized the numbers 1-9 but had no 3×3 sub-squares, but the solution does carry 1-9 in each of the 3 x 3 areas where the sub-squares would be. These puzzles were regular features in several other newspapers, including L’Echo de Paris for about a decade, but it unfortunately disappeared with the advent of the first world war.

Howard Garns, a 74-year-old retired architect and freelance puzzle constructor, was considered the designer of the modern Sudoku Puzzles. His design was first published in 1979 in New York by Dell, through its magazine Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games under the heading Number Place. Garns’ creation was most likely inspired by the Latin square invention of Leonhard Euler, with a few modifications, basically, with the addition of a regional restriction and the presentation of the game as a puzzle, providing a partially-complete grid and requiring the solver to fill in the empty cells.

Sudoku Puzzles were then taken to Japan by the puzzle publishing company Nikoli. It introduced the game in its paper Monthly Nikoli sometime in April 1984. Nikoli president Maki Kaji gave it the name Sudoku, a name that the company holds trademark rights over; other Japanese publications which featured the puzzle have to settle for alternative names.

In 1989, Sudoku Puzzles entered the video games arena when it was published as DigitHunt on the Commodore 64. It was introduced by Loadstar/Softdisk Publishing. Since then, other computerized versions of the Sudoku Puzzles have been developed. For instance, Yoshimitsu Kanai made several computerized puzzle generator of the game under the name Single Number for the Apple Macintosh in 1995 both in English and in Japanese language; for the Palm (PDA) in 1996; and for Mac OS X in 2005.

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Technorati Tags: Brain, Called, Puzzles, Sudoku, Teaser

The digital age has spread around the world. More and more people are turning away from printed media like marketing print postcards and going digital with online advertising. With its cheaper costs, and interactive content, this kind of advertising has probably a long life ahead of it. But this does not mean postcard printing is dead. In fact this is an opportunity to innovate your view on postcard printing.

Since interactivity is the buzz nowadays, you can apply it to a lot of marketing strategies. So why not try it on print postcards? Discover the concept of the interactive postcard. They are basically postcards that require people to respond to them in some way. This makes postcard printing interesting; making people pay more attention on the design. Also, since it encourages people to “participate” in the design or customize it in some way people will not find it boring. They may even want to send more of these kinds of postcards.

So as you can see, this new kind of postcard printing strategy is a good way to change your direction in terms of postcard making or marketing. If you are interested in this promising idea then read on. We have a few examples of typical interactive postcards below, that you may find inspiration from.

The puzzle postcard One of the first interactive postcards that appeared on the market was the puzzle postcards. These were print postcards that have some kind of puzzle or problem that you needed to solve. In most cases, it was just a neat and trivial puzzle or problem like a crossword, or those “find the object or person” games. Others had mental problems and puzzles like “Sudoku”, the Japanese number puzzle. It did not take long for people to innovate and try out a few special puzzles. One of the best examples was a simple crossword that when completed, spelled out the postcard’s special greeting in one line. This gave the receiver of the print postcard a special thrill in finally answering the solution.

With that kind of interactivity, the puzzle postcards were far from boring. Added with some creative advertising phrases and images, it became a nice platform for marketing with an interactive touch. It provided more exposure that a normal postcard and it had “replay” value as people showed the postcard to others.

Holographic or 3D postcards Another kind of interactive postcard are the holographic or 3D postcards. These kinds of postcard printing can be a bit more expensive to produce, but they do have a very eye catching property. These cards are printed with holograms that capture a 3D object within the design. A variation of this form is the puzzle 3d postcard. This kind had those “3d” puzzles where you had to look for the object or image in 3D within a seemingly abstract design. These designs of course causes people to look at the postcard design more closely as they move the postcard from left to right, trying to see the object in 3D. Along with some helpful marketing phrases and images, it is again a good platform for marketing using postcards.

So are you inspired to make interactive postcards? They are a promising medium to print for marketing. Explore the limits of your imagination and maybe you can think of another kind of interactive postcard that will promise you exposure in your target market.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit: Print Postcards

Technorati Tags: Interactive, People, Postcard, Postcards, Respond

Over the past few years I’d seen my friend’s kids work on these Sudoku games but initially never put too much stock into finding out about them. Kids stuff is pretty much what I thought. However I was very impressed that this didn’t have them sitting in front of the TV. In fact, this young lady was sitting outside in a chair on the deck working away in silence. No phone, no TV, no Video game involve?! Well, I have to find out what this is all about now.

Number puzzles didn’t really evolve until the late 19th century. In fact the recent popularity of the Sudoku game was a result of a New Zealander named Wayne Gould who came across a partially finished puzzle in a Japanese bookstore. He worked for six years to find a way to quickly and easily create games from a computer program. He then took this number puzzle to The Times in Britain. Like North America’s New York Time this publication is well know for its challenging crossword puzzles. The Times launched the new puzzle in their paper in November of 2004. People grabbed hold of this new challenge and the game took off! Whether it’s the satisfaction of completing a relatively easy puzzle quickly, or laboring over a difficult puzzle to distract you on the subway or in the evening, people are finding great satisfaction from the Sudoku game. You can now purchase a wooden Sudoku game board and create your own games and play over and over.

There are some countries that have game shows on TV that revolve around the premise of Sudoku. Not too long ago, I was watching a comedy show. They had all the comic strip characters sitting around discussing how to save the newspaper. With almost all the information being available online most people are skipping their stop at the newsstand. These characters all feared losing their jobs. Then in came Sudoku to save the paper! Archie, Veronica, Peppermint Patty and Charlie Brown all cheered.
So after doing some reading and research I did what any smart adult would do, I finally asked the kids to explain it to me. Now, when I travel I am always disappointed when I find the in flight magazine has it completed all ready. Picking up a paper that’s been around the house for a few hours – done again! It’s turned into a race to get to it. Much like the crosswords, we make it our personal mission to sit and complete. It’s a nice feeling to do something that you have to use your head and think and being successful in completing it offers some reward.

Technorati Tags: board, Game, Sudoku, Wooden

by erichhh

Question by Joey: Do Japanese people do crossword puzzles?
would the idea of a crossword puzzle work the same with the Japanese language as the English language or is it impossible to create a crossword in Japanese?
not sudoku. i’m talking about language. not numbers.

Best answer:

Answer by Ayane S
That is a good question….

Give your answer to this question below!

Technorati Tags: crossword, Japanese, People, Puzzles

by Nemo’s great uncle

Puzzle games are widely enjoyed by many for two main reasons. They are engaging, making for ideal pastimes. At the same time, they call for logical thinking and stimulate the mind. Kids and adults alike can appreciate puzzle games – it’s no wonder that several have become classics throughout the years. The following is a look at these popular puzzle games and where they came from.

Jigsaw puzzles. The inventor of the jigsaw puzzle was Englishman John Spilsbury, an engraver and mapmaker. He created the first jigsaw puzzle in 1767, when he attached a map of the world to a piece of wood and cut out each country. Teachers used Spilsbury’s puzzles to teach geography – students would learn by putting the world maps back together. The name “jigsaw puzzle” was not given until 1880, although puzzles were cut by a fretsaw and not a jigsaw.

Rubik’s Cube. This mechanical puzzle was invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Erno Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube, the first test batches of the product were produced in late 1977 and released to Budapest toy shops. In early 1980, the puzzle made its international debut at toy fairs. The Ideal Toy Company renamed it “Rubik’s Cube” in 1980. The Rubik’s Cube is said to be the world’s best-selling toy.

Crossword puzzles. The first crossword puzzle was a “word-cross” puzzle published in the New York World on December 21, 1913, by Liverpool journalist Arthur Wynne. The name of the puzzle was later changed to “crossword”, and it became a regular weekly feature in the New York World. The first book of crossword puzzles appeared in 1924, which became an instant hit. Crossword puzzles were the craze of 1924.

Sudoku. In the 18th century, Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler developed the concept of Latin squares, where numbers in a grid appear exactly once in each row and exactly once in each column. In the late 1970s, Dell Magazines in the US began publishing Sudoku puzzles using Euler’s concept with a 9 by 9 square grid. The puzzle was called Number Place then, and it was developed by Howard Garnes. In the mid-1980s, Japanese puzzle company Nikoli, Inc. published a version of the puzzle, which became very popular in Japan. It was also Nikoli that gave Sudoku its current name. British and US newspapers began publishing their own Sudoku puzzles in 2005.

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Technorati Tags: Games, Origins, Popular, puzzle