Don’t Sleep On This One – InsomniAC1

Wow!  Just Wow!  What a ball buster!

Given the way the title is presented and the fact that this puzzle is not a lock, you figure there is a good chance that this puzzle was designed by Andrew Crowell.  And you would be right.  And being designed by Andrew Crowell, you know it’s going to be great.

InsomniAC1 was Yacine Boucef’s exchange puzzle for IPP41.  It is an apparent cube (or squat cube in this case) packing puzzle where all the openings need to be filled.  The woods are not provided on the packaging but I would guess that the pieces are made with Wenge, Padauk, and Mahogany with a Maple box.

I found the assembly early on but that was the easy part.  I’ve learned with these types of puzzles that if it looks like a good assembly and has a couple of good moves, it’s probably the one you are looking for.  All you need to do now is discover the sneaky moves that are required to complete the insertion sequence.

This one was tough.  Not only was the solution a challenge to find but the required rotations, were not simple to perform.  This was exacerbated by the diminutive size of the puzzle.  It’s not easy to manipulate the pieces through the opening and of course the pieces conspire against you by getting in each other’s way.  And no, this is not one of those puzzles where when it’s solved, the first piece drops right out.  Far from it.

Usually, I store these puzzles in the solved state so they take less room but for this one, I’m a little concerned that I may forget how to get the pieces out.  I may store this one in an alternate configuration.

I recommend getting one if it becomes available.   And if you have the opportunity to acquire a larger one – go for it!

Gratitude For Those Who Work Up Through The – Eleventh Hour

Having just returned from this year’s International Puzzle Party (IPP41), I’m extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to reconnect with friends that I haven’t seen since before the pandemic.  After a long hiatus, being immersed back in the community has helped rekindle that puzzling spirit and revitalize the pursuit of designing and solving new puzzles.

Note that I didn’t start to talk about puzzles.  The puzzles are a means – the friendships are the ends.  It’s about meeting and spending time with like-minded people that share a common interest.  Of course, this is not to say that I didn’t come back home with a suitcase full of new puzzles.

To successfully pull off such a large undertaking as IPP requires a dedicated host, committee members, and a cadre of volunteers.  All these people work extremely hard to establish a welcoming environment for everyone to enjoy.  Many of these people have invested years of effort to provide a smoothly run event lasting only a few days.  They work so hard and make it look so effortless.

On the last day, it is customary to honor these people that created, managed, and upheld the support structure of IPP.  And what better way than to award each with a puzzle.  Apropos for the volunteers who worked so hard to the very end, this year’s puzzle was: Eleventh Hour.

Eleventh Hour was designed by Goh Pit Khiam and was materialized in Maple by Tom Lensch.  The puzzle is a classic 4x4x4 cube consisting of 4 pieces and as you would expect from a puzzle made by Tom, the fit is excellent.  My copy came unsolved, and I found the solve to be straight-forward without any twists (i.e. there are no rotations; this is not a Turning Interlocking Cube (TIC)).  Having designed a volunteer gift in the past, I know that one of the design goals is to avoid providing a puzzle with a difficult solution.  I won’t tell you how many moves it takes to remove the first piece when it’s assembled but if every move takes an hour, there is a clue on how long it will take.

I’m certain that the volunteers will cherish this token of the hard work that they dedicated to make this IPP a success and it will bring back fond memories of the good times that they had.

Ménage à Trois – Two Guys & a Gal (Free Me 9)

With a name like Two Guys & a Gal, you know that the situation will be complicated and you’re in for a protracted fight.  As the name suggests, this puzzle houses a lady flanked by 2 Johns.  More specifically, Lady Liberty and 2 John F. Kennedy’s.  I’m sure every puzzler’s favorite part will be Lady Liberty’s backside featuring a nice selection of gears symbolizing American Innovation.

Two Guys & a Gal was designed and made by Joe Turner.  This is the 9th puzzle in Joe’s Free Me series.  It is a sequential discovery (SD) puzzle concealing several imaginative and tricky mechanisms that need to be overcome to release the 3 trapped coins.  The puzzle was made with Cherry, Maple, Coins, and assorted hidden attractive and unattractive metal bits.  The attention to details like ensuring that the grain flows across piece boundaries makes the puzzle a work of art.

The puzzle houses an amazing 3-part journey to release the coins from their resting place.  This SD adventure uses several tools discovered along the way allowing you to continue the journey along the solution path until you finally arrive at the destination.  Of course in the beginning, it’s just you and the puzzle.  Just keep repeating to yourself: I’m just a tool.

This puzzle was so good, I couldn’t put it down.  Once I started, I didn’t stop until I had freed each of the coins and then reassembled it.  When I initially reset it, it seamed right but didn’t quite seem right.  One of the coins appeared too loose and I thought that maybe I had worn out one of the mechanisms.  After analyzing the associated mechanisms closer, I realized that I failed to properly reset it.  Once properly reset, it was back to the state that it arrived in.  So if it looks like you’re done but it’s loose, you’re not done.

From start to finish, the tools and mechanisms never ceased to amaze and delight me.  I can’t wait to get my hands on Free Me 10 next year! {insert seed of rumor here - done}

 

PPing in the Big Apple - NYPP 2024

After a long hiatus, I’ve finally gotten back to PPing.  And what better way to start than with the 2024 New York Puzzle Party (NYPP).  There’s nothing like a good PP to brighten your day.  The best part is reconnecting with all the other puzzlers you haven’t seen in ages.

The NYPP used to be held in February to align with the World’s Toy Fair, but has now been moved to the end of April to celebrate the end of tax season.  No more sloshing through wet snowy drifts in the middle of the Big Apple, but no one is complaining.

The best part of NYPP is seeing all the puzzle displays and getting the opportunity to play with new puzzles.  There is always a nice variety of puzzles and puzzly things to fiddle with.

NYPP 2024 was held on 20 April.  My goal this year was to ensure that nobody bought one of the Completely Broken Soma copies that I brought, and I’m proud to say that I successfully accomplished my mission even though the best part of NYPP is the opportunity to buy/sell/trade puzzles.  That reminds me that I need to post another Completely Broken Soma warning update.

Of course the best part of NYPP is the schedule of presentations.  This year’s speakers covered a variety of topics:

Giving Puzzly Gifts – Josh Rosenfeld, ODES UNBOXED: Josh shared the story of his journey in developing personalized puzzles tailored to the recipient.  A journey starting with a birthday puzzle adventure through hundreds of gifts later as a business.  Josh’s presentation centered on his approach to developing these gifts and highlighted 5 stages:

1. Identifying what you want the gift to convey.
2. Crafting the giving of the gift.
3. Building a world for the recipient to inhabit.
4. Shaping the puzzles around what a person loves.
5. Revealing meaningful rewards.

Geared Mechanisms – Henry Segerman: Henry started with an update on his work with Holonomy and its application to puzzles.  He started with the pursuit of complexiturizing the flat 15 puzzle until it morphed into “something that you don’t want to play with”.  Several holonomy examples were shown, demonstrating that a moving piece following a complete circuit will have a different orientation at the end of the circuit from when it started.  Examples included the Dodecahedral Holonomy Maze and the Continental Drift Puzzle.  Henry did confess that the next generation 3D rotational holonomy puzzles are not fun to play with.  Sounds exactly how I market my puzzle designs.  After the holonomy update, the main portion of the talk was on geared mechanisms.  Best of all, Henry had table full of examples on display that could be played with.

Games Magazine Archive – Michael Cahill: Mike picked up where he left off at the last NYPP that I attended (back in 2020) with some more game show trivia.  This year, Mike gave an overview of:

1. The Devil’s Plan – Korean game show featuring a reality competition based on strategy games.
2. The Floor – Time based trivia show.
3. Generation Gap – Cute game with a psychologically damaging endgame.  Mike pointed out that this game scarred family relationships for life.

The main portion of the discussion focused on contests that went awry and one in particular that was put out by Games Magazine.   Mike researched this by going through old issues of Games Magazine on archive.org after seeing a news reference to a large contest payout due to an error in the execution of the contest.

Waffle Puzzle – Glenn Iba: I believe that the title of this discussion was Cuyler Cannon but my faulty memory failed to produce a reason why.  The discussion centered on the process of creating a program that could solve the daily Waffle Puzzle.  Glenn provided a step by step approach on how such a program is constructed.

The Soma Renaissance – Haym Hirsh: Haym provided an overview of the multitudinousation of the Soma cube developed by Piet Hein in the 30’s that has spawned and continues to spawn Soma variants with no end in sight.  Haym fessed up to contributing to this pandemic but cast blame on others as well including Theo Geerinck, Oskar van Deventer, Lucie Pauwels, Frans de Vreugd, Brian Young, Rick Eason, Martin Watson, Volker Latussek, Andreas Röver, and even that Soma mangler, Ken Irvine.  As fascinating as the Soma history review was, it was overshadowed by Haym’s mastery of hand puppetry.

Still Amazing, The Windy Windy Twisty Route – Dick Esterle:  Dick presented some material that he had shown at G4G.  The presentation provided a Glimpse of the geometry that Dick uses to create puzzles as well as the Amazing Geometry Machine. 

I must confess that at one point I was that annoying audience member making those clack, clack, clackity, clack sounds during one of the presentations as I tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to cram 3 simple (but oh so complex) pieces into a box.  One of those, looks simple but not possible, puzzles.  The fact that the 3 pieces, Curvy, Bendy, and Wavy were not too steady on their feet caused them to tumble down in a rather noisy fashion.  Undeterred by venomous stares, I continued to clack away.  At least I assumed that there were venomous stares since I sat in the back and could only see the back of everyone’s heads.  However, I did manage to get most everything back in the box.