Origins of Popular Puzzle Games

Origins of Popular Puzzle Games by Riz Davis

Pictured: Games Workshop, Warhammer 40K Game

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.

About the Author

Riz Davis, 26, is the Internet Marketing Associate of Gadget Epoint LTD. An internet savvy and geek by heart, she enjoys browsing the net for unusual gadgets and novelty items.

Sudoku - Mind Games At Their Best?

Pictured: Subbuteo Table Soccer

by Gabriel Adams

Sudoku is a logic based puzzle, somewhat similar to a crossword puzzle, except it uses digits instead of words. The name Sudoku is an abbreviation of a Japanese phrase which means "the digits must remain single". It is also sometimes called Number Place or Nampure.

The history of Sudoku

You can find predecessors of Sudoku as early as 1895, when an early version or variant of Sudoku appeared in a French newspaper.

The game now known as Sudoku was not invented until 1979, however, and was actually invented in Indianapolis, not Japan. Sudoku became widely popular in 1986, when the Japanese puzzle publisher Nikoli found and published the puzzle.

The game of Sudoku

Sudoku is based on a graph of squares, nine squares by nine squares. This graph is sub-divided into 9 3x3 squares or regions. The board looks much like 9 tic tac toe games all together.

The game is played by placing digits (1-9) in the squares on the game. Easy enough. The tough part is that each region (3x3 square, each diagonal row, each horizontal row, and each vertical row of squares must contain one of each of the nine digits, but may not have duplicates.

Each Sudoku game has some of the fields pre populated with numerals, called givens or clues. The difficulty is not necessarily related to how many fields are populated, though.

Difficulty

Sudoku is a very simple game in it's construction, but it can require some serious brain effort and skill to solve. Publishers often rank games according to difficulty, using 4-5 levels to organize games by their difficulty.

Accessibility

Sudoku puzzles are published in many newspapers and magazines around the world. They are also available in print form, and as computer games. Probably the easiest way to get them, though, is from a website that features free Sudoku puzzles. Many websites can also generate custom puzzles for free.
About the Author

Visit http://www.sudoku-puzzles.net for free sudoku puzzles and more.