Puzzles

I have tried out a number of puzzles in the logic family. Sudoku is the best known, but they are not my favorites. My favorite puzzle is… I don’t know what to call them. It seems like everyone has their own names for these puzzles. I have seen them referred to as Nonograms, Griddlers, Hanjie, Edel, Paint by Numbers, Paint by Sudoku, and Japanese Puzzles. I found a puzzle site that includes these puzzles along with pretty much everything else in the logic family. The site is in German, but you should be able to feel your way around the site.

http://www.janko.at/Raetsel/index.htm

The rules are simple. Each number indicates a series of consecutive shaded cells in its row or column. If you had a three and a two in a row like this…


…you would have to have three shaded cells followed by two shaded cells in that order separated by at least one space. Here is a possible solution for that row.


In these puzzles, compare the rows and columns to find a solution. When you are done, the puzzle will create a picture. How exactly do you solve the puzzles? I’m not going to tell you. If you really need help, there are numerous sites that you can turn to. I recommend avoiding those sites. The greatest mental value in these puzzles is in figuring out how to solve them.

If these are my favorite puzzles, why don’t I make some? Actually, I have. It has been about a year since my last puzzle was created, but I have recently converted existing puzzles to PDFs. They can be found at my SkyDrive address below.

http://cid-2e6efb80915ed5bd.skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?resid=2E6EFB80915ED5BD!3018