Puzzle 34: Eliza Pseudonym of Puzzlania 1

No comment. :)

Rules of Eliza Pseudonym of Puzzlania

During the month of July, Eliza Pseudonym and her friends Anna, Barbra, Carla, and Delilah have celebrated their wedding anniversaries with their husbands (Andrew, Brad, Cliff, Dirk, and Ethan). Each anniversary was on a different day of the month (July 5, July 10, July 15, July 20, and July 25); furthermore, each couple has been married for a different number of years (5, 10, 15, 20, and 25). From the clues below, determine the husband and wife in each couple, the date of their anniversary, and how long they've been married.

1. No man has the same first initial as his wife. No couple has been married for the same number of years as the date of their anniversary.
2. Delilah's anniversary is on July 15.
3. One couple has been married for an even number of years, and has an anniversary on an even-numbered day of the month; this couple does not include Ethan.
4. Barbra has been married for exactly twice as many years as Dirk, but not for as long as Cliff (whose anniversary is July 25).
5. Carla's anniversary is later in the month than the anniversary of the couple who's been married for 15 years.
6. Andrew's anniversary and Anna's anniversary are separated by 10 or fewer days.

Rules -- Eliza Pseudonym of Puzzlania

Logic puzzles of the "read a bunch of sentences and use deduction to figure out who owns the zebra and who drinks water" variety have been around since the beginning of the universe. I shouldn't even have to make an example and write rules for this kind of puzzle, but I'm doing so for consistency with the other kinds of puzzles on this blog. (At least I don't have to go through the trouble of making an image for these. :) )

Example:
Eliza Pseudonym and her friends Anna, Barbra, and Carla are all fans of reality TV shows. Each one has a particular show they like (including Medium-Sized Brother), which airs on a different night of the week from Monday through Thursday. From the clues below, determine each woman's favorite reality show and the night it comes on.

1. Carla's favorite reality show is Coper.
2. Purgatory's Kitchen airs exactly two days after Barbra's favorite show (which isn't The Somewhat Thrilling Race).
3. Anna's favorite program airs on Tuesdays.

Solution:
Anna - The Somewhat Thrilling Race - Tuesdays
Barbra - Medium-Sized Brother - Mondays
Carla - Coper - Thursdays
Eliza - Purgatory's Kitchen - Wednesdays

Rules:
1. Read the puzzle and determine the information it asks for, using the clues it provides.

Puzzle 33: Fencing Match 3

No comment.

Rules of Fencing Match

Puzzle 32: Crowd Nine 4

I can't recall ever building Sudoku on two consecutive days before. XD

Rules of Crowd Nine

Puzzle 31: Crowd Nine 3

Crafted during a bout with insomnia.

Rules of Crowd Nine

Puzzle 30: Straight and Arrow 3

Here's another 20x36 puzzle, in case you haven't had enough big puzzles already. (And if that's not enough, Nikoli's Puzzle the Giants volume 21 has four Yajilin puzzles that are 31x45 in size! Puzzle 4 in particular demonstrates the amazing artistic possibilities that I hope to be able to achieve with more practice -- it has some of its givens arranged to form the letters Y, J, L, and N, and a giant arrow, as well as other interesting patterns.)

Rules of Straight and Arrow

Puzzle 29: Streaming Content 4

No comment.

Rules of Streaming Content

Puzzle 28: Polyominous 3

No comment.

Rules of Polyominous

Puzzle 27: Tetra Firma 5

No comment.

Rules of Tetra Firma

Puzzle 26: Tetra Firma 4

No comment.

Rules of Tetra Firma

Puzzle 25: Twincognito 2

Twincognito is interesting; since a single white cell on one side of the grid can easily cause another cell on the other side to become black, the logical possibilities are different from most puzzles. However, it can therefore require especially keen observation on the part of the solver, making the puzzle quite sadistic, especially at gigantic sizes (such as this specimen). Of course, even sadism can be somehow fun and appealing. I believe this 17x17 puzzle is an example of that. :)

Rules of Twincognito

Puzzle 24: Twincognito 1

No comment.

Rules of Twincognito

Rules -- Twincognito

Twincognito was invented by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli (under the name Hitori ni shite kure, meaning "let me alone"). It is one of several of their puzzles based on the unique rules governing the arrangement of black cells in Japanese crosswords.

1. Determine which cells are black and which ones are white according to the following rules.
2. No two white cells with the same number may be in the same row or column.
3. No two black cells may share an edge. All of the white cells must be connected to each other through their edges.

Puzzle 23: Tetra Firma 3

No comment.

Rules of Tetra Firma

Puzzle 22: Tetra Firma 2

No comment.

Rules of Tetra Firma

Puzzle 21: Tetra Firma 1

No comment.

Rules of Tetra Firma

Rules -- Tetra Firma

Tetra Firma was invented by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli (under the name LITS, FKA Nuruomino).

1. Shade in a single tetromino within every region of the grid.
2. No two congruent tetrominoes may share an edge, even if they are rotated or reflected versions of each other.
3. The black cells must all be connected to each other through their edges. No 2x2 cell area within the grid can contain all black cells.

Puzzle 20: Straight and Arrow 2

No comment.

Rules of Straight and Arrow

Puzzle 19: Straight and Arrow 1

There's nothing to this puzzle.

Rules of Straight and Arrow

Rules -- Straight and Arrow

Straight and Arrow was invented by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli (under the name Yajilin).

1. Draw a single loop that connects the centers of the grid cells. The loop may not pass through any cells which contain arrows. The loop may only travel horizontally or vertically, and never diagonally (so all turns are of 90 degrees). The loop may only turn at the centers of the grid cells. The loop may not cross itself or branch off. In other words, the interior of the loop will be a single polygon.
2. Any cell that does not have an arrow and which is not part of the loop must be shaded in black. No other cells may be black. No two black cells may share an edge.
3. A cell containing a number and an arrow represents how many black cells are in the row or column pointed at by the arrow.

Puzzle 18: Pearls of Wisdom 3

Just as in Puzzle 1, I happen to remember exactly where I was when I constructed this puzzle -- at home, watching Nancy Grace utterly lambaste local self-proclaimed prophet Yisrayl Hawkins. As a resident of Abilene, Texas, I was utterly excited about all the attention our city was getting, even if it was negative -- it made me feel like something important was going on where I lived. The next day, my mother told me that Shepard Smith had been even less polite to Hawkins, even going so far as to call his teachings "crap". Ah, the hilarious memories. XD

*ahem* But, yeah. Aside from that long story, I like this puzzle a lot.

Rules of Pearls of Wisdom

Puzzle 17: Pearls of Wisdom 2

No comment.

Rules of Pearls of Wisdom

Puzzle 16: Pearls of Wisdom 1

A nice and simple one.

Rules of Pearls of Wisdom

Rules -- Pearls of Wisdom

Pearls of Wisdom was invented by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli (under the name Masyu).

1. Draw a single loop that connects the grid cells. The loop may only travel horizontally or vertically, and never diagonally (so all turns are of 90 degrees). The loop may only turn at the centers of grid cells. The loop may not cross itself or branch off; in other words, the interior of the loop will be a single polygon.
2. The loop must pass through every pearl (circle) on the grid.
3. The loop MAY NOT turn at a white pearl, but MUST turn at ONE or BOTH of the adjacent cells in the loop.
4. The loop MUST turn at a black pearl, but MAY NOT turn at EITHER of the adjacent cells in the loop.

Puzzle 15: Room and Reason 4

I think one's pretty neat.

Rules of Room and Reason

Puzzle 14: Process of Illumination 2

This is a rather pretty specimen, I'd say.

Rules of Process of Illumination

Puzzle 13: Process of Illumination 1

Trivia: If you read the givens in this puzzle from left to right, top to bottom, you get an approximation of 1/9, accurate to 20 significant digits. Woooow.

Rules of Process of Illumination

Rules -- Process of Illumination

Process of Illumination was invented by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli (under the name Akari, FKA Light Up).

1. Place light bulbs on the white cells according to the following rules.
2. Every white cell must be illuminated by at least one light bulb. A light bulb illuminates its own cell, plus all other cells in an uninterrupted horizontal or vertical line, up to the perimeter of the puzzle, or a black cell (whichever is closer).
3. No two light bulbs may illuminate each other.
4. A number on a black cell represents how many light bulbs are on cells which share an edge with that cell.

Puzzle 12: Polyominous 2

Don't let the small size of this puzzle deceive you -- I consider it one of my tougher nuts to crack. No wimps allowed!

Rules of Polyominous

Puzzle 11: Fencing Match 2

No comment.

Rules of Fencing Match

Puzzle 10: Fencing Match 1

This is one of my favorite creations. It wasn't entirely easy creating one of these puzzles without any givens on the perimeter.

Rules of Fencing Match

Rules -- Fencing Match

Fencing Match was invented by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli (under the name Slitherlink).

1. Draw a single loop that connects the dots on the grid. The loop may only travel horizontally or vertically, and never diagonally (so all turns are of 90 degrees). The loop may only turn at the dots. The loop may not cross itself or branch off; in other words, the interior of the loop will be a single polygon.
2. All numbers inside the grid indicate how many of the four edges of the imaginary square surrounding the number are in the loop.

Puzzle 9: Crowd Nine 2

No comment.

Rules of Crowd Nine

Puzzle 8: Crowd Nine 1

This was puzzle 97 on my old blog. Despite (or maybe because of) its ease, I believe this puzzle illustrates very well why I prefer handmade puzzles over computer-generated ones.

Rules of Crowd Nine

Rules -- Crowd Nine

This puzzle, also known as Sudoku, is often thought of as a Japanese puzzle craze; however, the puzzle was actually invented by Dell Magazines (under the name Number Place), an American company, and was adopted by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli later.

1. Place a single digit from 1 through 9 in every empty cell so that every row, column, and outlined box consisting of nine cells each contains every digit from 1 through 9 exactly once.

Puzzle 7: Streaming Content 3

Are you getting bored with composite numbers? Then this puzzle's guaranteed to satisfy!

Rules of Streaming Content

Puzzle 6: Streaming Content 2

This one's also fairly basic.

Rules of Streaming Content

Puzzle 5: Streaming Content 1

This one's fairly basic. It has a few interesting tricks, though.

Rules of Streaming Content

Rules -- Streaming Content

Streaming Content was invented by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli (under the name Nurikabe). In Japanese folklore, a nurikabe is a spirit that manifests itself as a wall and impedes walking travelers at night.

1. Determine whether each cell is white or black according to the following rules.
2. The black cells must all be connected to each other through their edges. No 2x2 cell area within the grid can contain all black cells.
3. Cells with numbers in them cannot be black.
4. Every cell with a number in it must be part of a polyomino-shaped "island" containing that number of white cells. No two islands may be adjacent horizontally or vertically. Every island must contain exactly one number. Every white cell must be part of exactly one island.

Puzzle 4: Room and Reason 3

This puzzle was brought to you by the number 2.

Rules of Room and Reason

Puzzle 3: Room and Reason 2

No comment.

Rules of Room and Reason

Puzzle 2: Room and Reason 1

No comment.

Rules of Room and Reason

Rules -- Room and Reason

Room and Reason was invented by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli (under the name Heyawake, meaning "divided rooms"). It is one of several of their puzzles based on the unique rules regarding the placement of black cells in Japanese crosswords.

1. Determine whether each cell is white or black according to the following rules.
2. The grid shown is divided into rectangular "rooms". Some rooms have numbers in their corners; these numbers indicate how many black cells that room contains. An unnumbered room may contain any number of black cells in it.
3. The white cells may not span more than two consecutive rooms in an uninterrupted horizontal or vertical line.
4. No two black cells may share an edge. All of the white cells must be connected to each other through their edges.

Puzzle 1: Polyominous 1

This puzzle is number 79 on my old blog. I still believe it is one of the prettiest Polyominous puzzles I've ever constructed. (On a random note, I was at Long John Silver's when I built this puzzle. Why do I remember that? Who knows.)

Rules of Polyominous

Rules -- Polyominous

Polyominous was invented by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli (under the name Fillomino). The name Polyominous is shamelessly swiped from Zotmeister (although he doesn't seem to mind).

1. Divide the grid into polyominoes that satisfy the following rules.
2. Every number in the grid must be contained in a polyomino containing that quantity of squares.
3. No two polyominoes containing the same quantity of squares may share an edge. (If every square were numbered according to the quantity of squares in its corresponding polyomino, no two identical numbers will ever be on opposite sides of an edge.)
4. A polyomino may contain one, more than one, or none of the numbers originally given.