As part of our low-tech gaming series, we present Quzzle. The Economist in a Dec 2nd 2004 article entitled “A hard, simple problem“, portrays Quzzle, as the world’s hardest simple sliding-block puzzle. Quzzle was developed by Jim Lewis, an inventor based in NJ. Its objective is to move one of the large tiles from one corner to another.
Quzzle’s claim was shattered a couple of weeks later, when it was determined to require ‘only’ 84 moves, and quickly superceded by Gil Dogon’s 138 move puzzle which he calls Super-Century.
The objective of Super-Century is to move piece A to the lower middle of the board.
And then there’s Simplicity, whose objective is to move the red piece to the upper-left corner…looks tough:
And, now, you too can become less productive by creating your own puzzles with the Sliding Block Puzzle Solver and then entering them in the Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition for 2005.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I really like these kinds of low-tech puzzles. They’re great for relaxing and sharpening up the old brain.
I don’t know if doing puzzles makes you less productive. If they strengthen your brain, maybe they make you more productive in the long run.
That’s a nice idea, BigTimeHockeyMom, but try telling that to my boss when he catches me playing puzzles at work!