More Than Sudoku - 10 super puzzles

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10
  • Type of Site: Puzzles and Games
  • Subject: Puzzles
Nutshell: Conceptis provides weekly online and printable pencil puzzles. Most of them are number or logic based.
Review: I have been an avid reader of GAMES Magazine for many years. Their website is kinda mediocre, but the magazine rocks. They made popular a puzzle called Paint-By-Numbers in which users create an image on a grid using only a series of numbers in the sidebars to logically determine the placement of the various pixels in the image. Now that puzzle, along with 9 other different online puzzle games, including Sudoku, are available at a wonderful site called Conceptis Puzzles. If you love these kinds of puzzles, you simply must bookmark this site for a fantastic, weekly assortment of new puzzles.

You must sign up for a free membership to access the weekly offerings. Many of the puzzles are only available for download to print out and solve on paper, however, there are at least 5 different puzzles which can be played online. One of the great things about this site are the numerous video and text tutorials which demonstrate how to solve the puzzles and the various strategies involved.

Here’s a breakdown of all the types of puzzles you will find at Conceptis Puzzles:

Sudoku

sudokuEveryone should be familiar with this by now. Fill in the blanks with numbers from 1-9 so each row and column has one of each digit.

Battleships

battleshipsTo solve this puzzle, also made famous by Games Magazine, you use the numbers on the edges to determine the placement of several differently sized battleships.

Kakuro

kakuroThis crossword style puzzle uses numbers. Clues in the black squares give you the sum total of all digits in that row or column. You must determine the digits.

Hitori

hitoriThe object is to shade squares of numbers in a grid so that the same number doesn’t appear in a row or column more than once. Also no shaded area can touch another shaded area.

Slitherlink

slitherlinkConnect the dots surrounding each clue so that the number of lines equals the value of the clue and forms a continuous path with the other lines.

Link-a-Pix

Link-A-PixJoin pairs of numbers in a grid with a single unbroken line (often of a specific color). When you connect the right pairs of numbers a picture will form.

Pic-a-Pix

Pic-a-PixThis is based on the Paint-by-Numbers from Games Magazine. Use the number clues on the edges to determine where pixels are placed on the grid to form a picture.

Fill-a-Pix

Fill-a-PixEach number in the grid shows how many of the nine surrounding squares is filled in. Use the numbers and logic to create an image.

Maze-a-Pix

Maze-a-PixFind the true path from start to finish, like a traditional maze. Only your solution will form an image.

Dot-a-Pix

Dot-a-PixFor the younger folks, you solve these puzzles in a connect-the-dot fashion.

These puzzles are truly top notch and the online interfaces are really well-realized. New puzzles are added each week and the site provides a countdown to the day new puzzles are added at the bottom of the main page. And for almost all the puzzles you are rewarded for solving them because you get a nice little picture when you are done.

Addendum: Thanks to Leena (in the comments below) for pointing out where to access the weekly puzzles. I altered the original post to reflect that change. Check out Leena’s blog for a great pic-a-pix tutorial.

If you enjoy these types of puzzles, please consider purchasing items from Amazon.com through these links. You help out the Funhouse by shopping here.



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Two fun 3-D Games - 3D Tetrix and 3D Maze

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5
  • Type: Progressive Puzzler 3-D
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Replay Value: Fair
  • Controls: Arrow Keys & Space Bar
Object: Create and eliminate lines of blocks in a 3-D Tetris environment
Review: Fans of the classic game Tetris will no doubt have seen about a million different variations of the game pop up over the years. This one has an interesting twist which I haven’t seen before…3D.

The game plays just like Tetris. Use the arrow keys to move your piece right or left or drop it rapidly into place. And use your space bar to change the rotation of the pieces. Drop pieces into empty sections of the stack and try to form horizontal lines across the screen. When you do they are eliminated. Eliminate 4 lines together and you’ve formed a Tetris.

This game has all the appeal of the original Tetris with the addition of a 3-D playing environment. The direction of the playing field slants upward in a forced perspective. This complicates the game slightly because visually it’s more difficult to determine which column your piece is lined up in.

I had to dock the game a few points for a few reasons. The biggest being that the game doesn’t end when you’ve reached the top, it just sits there. You must refresh the browser to start a new game. Additionally the very repetitive techno loop gets completely annoying after about a minute. But this new take on an old classic deserves a little look see.

9
  • Type: Maze 3-D
  • Difficulty: Medium
  • Replay Value: Excellent
  • Controls: Arrow Keys & Space Bar
Object: Work your blue ball through a maze of three dimensional lines.
Review: I’m a big fan of mazes, so I really enjoy finding wonderful gems like this game. Using a simple graphical interface, this game creates hours of fun maze solving.

When you start you will be presented with a randomly generated cubical maze of white lines. You move a blue ball along the white lines trying to reach the red ball elsewhere in the maze. Use the arrow keys to rotate the cube in a way so when you press the space bar you move forward. You can only move forward, so the trick is getting the maze rotated in the correct direction to move.

Because the white lines are so thin and the angle of the cube is the only thing that provides visual clues regarding depth, you must turn the cube several times to discover the proper pathway to take. At first I found the controls a little confusing. It felt like the cube doesn’t exactly turn the direction you expect it to when you hit an arrow key. However, I quickly noticed that if you just tap the key in the direction you next want to head, the cube will rotate so you can move that direction even though it doesn’t always look like it. Also trying to turn a corner at an intersection can get difficult if you don’t align right on the corner. So I suggest tapping the space bar lightly, inching forward, until you are able to turn.

The simple look of the mazes is definitely misleading. It takes a good deal of investigation to get through the maze. Each game is timed, so work your way through quickly to try and beat your previous times. How fast can you get through?



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3 Invisible Games That Will Wreck Your Day

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Game Review


Now you see me…Now you don’t. We’ve got 3 fun games today which all feature invisibility. All three games require you to maneuver or shoot with an invisible cursor. So Mr. or Ms. Invisible…it’s time to unwrap your bandages and disappear from view!



Cursor Invisible - Break Plates

Cursor InvisibleYou get three seconds to locate your cursor and remember its position. Then it turns invisible. You then have to smash as many gray plates as you can by clicking on them. You will be given 3-5 plates at a time, scattered about the playing field. The plates will overlap sometimes as well.

Speed becomes important in this game because if you wait longer than about 3 seconds to hit the next plate, the game will end. If you click anywhere other than on a plate, your game will end. Needless to say, your game will probably end soon as it becomes extremely difficult to discover where your invisible cursor lies.

The game does give you a small visual clue in the form of a tiny red explosion each time you successfully smash a plate, so once you’ve got the hang of it, you should be able to get a good string of smashes in before eventually dying. The game compels players to try one more time to beat their last score.

  • Cursor Invisible
  • Collecting Game with Invisibility
  • Easy to learn
  • Tricky to master
  • Click and Smash game-play
  • Spatial Memory and Speed involved
  • Strong replay value
  • Newish Concept
  • Simple, but fluid graphics
  • Crashes and hip music Audio
  • Smashing Fun
  • Score 7
  • Today’s Rank 2nd Place



Invisibility - Harder Than It Looks

InvisibilityThis very basic game doesn’t give you much help at all. Your cursor is completely invisible the entire game. Each level of this multi-level obstacle course starts off with a ‘Go’ button. Place your cursor on it and click. Then a maze will appear and you must move your cursor through the course to the ‘Stop’ button. If you hit a wall or an obstacle you have to start again.

This game becomes maddening after about the second level. With no visual hints as to how fast your cursor moves, you will quickly lose track of it. I found it best to just try to speed through and use your intuition. But that becomes difficult when you start getting moving obstacles which you have to maneuver around.

I challenge anyone to make it past level 5. I’ve tried several times and I’m still working on it. The game provides a fun challenge, but I imagine most gamers will give up out of frustration after a few tries. Although some people may really want to see if they can do it. At some point in the game you should get a password to save your progress, but I haven’t yet reached that point.

  • Invisibility
  • Invisible Obstacle Course
  • Easy to learn
  • Almost Impossible to master
  • Move your cursor game-play
  • Intuition and Sense Memory involved
  • Good replay value
  • Fun Concept which needs a little work
  • simple gray scale graphics
  • No Audio
  • Moderate, but Frustrating Fun
  • Score 5
  • Today’s Rank 3rd Place



The Invisible Quest - Follow the Eyeballs

The Invisible QuestThis invisible cursor game has the same concept as the previous game, but it plays a lot better due to the visual clues the game provides you with. However, it is still extremely difficult to play at times.

When you click the button to start, your cursor will be placed at the ‘Start’ button for the next maze. You must move the invisible cursor through the maze to the ‘Finish’ button. The first thing you will notice is that you don’t need to actually click the start button, you just start moving as soon as the maze appears. The other thing you will notice is all the helpful red eyeballs scattered around the perimeter of each maze. They eyeballs follow the movement of your cursor, so you have a general idea of where it sits on the screen.

The eyeballs only provide so much information and it still gets really hard to remember exactly how far along you have moved. This is one of the few games I actually recommend controlling using a laptop track-pad. When you use your mouse, it’s easy to reach the end of the mouse pad and you have to pick up your mouse and reset it to continue. A graphics pen seems too touchy. But having the ability to lift and replace your finger on a track pad works great.

  • The Invisible Quest
  • Invisible Obstacle Course
  • Easy to learn
  • Difficult to master
  • Move your cursor game-play
  • Spatial Sense and Steady Hand involved
  • Good replay value
  • New Twist Concept
  • Simple graphics
  • no Audio
  • Moderate Fun
  • Score 8
  • Today’s Rank Game of the Day





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