Contest 3: Four-Puzzle Derby

Note: this contest was delayed by eleven hours, because although I'd scheduled this post to go up automatically at 12:00 AM on 11/30/10, apparently Blogger thinks the day starts at 12:01 AM and ends at 12:00 AM. Stupid Blogger.

Do you want to win high-quality logic puzzles imported from Japan? The Four-Puzzle Derby contest might be your opportunity to do just that!
Some of you may recall my previous contests Attack of the Four Puzzles! and Attack of the Four Puzzles II!; this contest is similar, but I've decided to mix things up by adding in elements from the Nikoli Derby. The four short sections below explain all of the details.

How to enter:
This contest combines a four-part logic puzzle (below) with a horse race. To participate in the contest, simply send an e-mail to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Your entry should consist of the following:
a) the final answer to the four-part puzzle below, obtained from part iv;
b) the name of the horse you'll be entering in the race (this is just for fun and has no effect on the final outcome, so don't stress out over it too much);
c) the number of the gate your horse will start from (any integer between 1 and 50 inclusive).

Only one entry is allowed per person, but you may change your entry at any time before the deadline, 11:59 PM (Central time) on December 14, 2010.

How to win:
After the deadline has passed, the winner will be determined as follows:

a) Anyone who submits an incorrect answer to the four-part puzzle below will have his or her horse disqualified from the race.
b) If two or more qualifying horses start from the same gate number, then their riders will all fall off of their horses before finishing the race. (Heck if I know why.)
c) The remaining horses will all run the whole distance, and finish the race in order from the lowest-numbered gate through the highest-numbered gate.

Thus, to win, you must submit a correct answer to the four-part puzzle, and choose the lowest-numbered gate that nobody else with a correct answer has chosen.

In the event that none of the horses finish, the winner will be selected by random draw from all of the qualified entrants, without regard to the gates from which they started. If no horses even qualify (that is, nobody sends a correct answer), then no prize will be given.

In addition, a booby prize will be awarded to the entrant whose horse finishes in second-to-last place. If only two horses finish, then the booby prize will be awarded to the second place finisher. If only one horse finishes, or none do, then the booby prize will not be awarded.

Prize:
The winner will receive his or her choice of either 3 of Nikoli's Pencil Puzzle Books, or any 1 or 2 Nikoli books whose prices total at most 2100 yen (see this link for a list of all of the books Nikoli has available). Each Pencil Puzzle Book contains about 96 puzzles of one particular type, which is great if there's a certain puzzle type you particularly want to focus on; if you'd rather have a wider variety of puzzles available, books like the Penpas Mix series, the Puzzle Box series, and the Puzzle the Giants series will satisfy your needs perfectly. Either way, you win! :) When you win, provide me with your mailing address and which books you'd like; I'll pay Nikoli to ship them directly to you.

The booby prize will not be revealed until the outcome of the contest is decided, but it is worth far less, and far less puzzle-related, than the Nikoli puzzle books. It will be shipped from Abilene, TX (where this blog is headquartered).

Terms:
By entering the contest, you agree to the following terms:
a) You agree not to discuss your entry with any other entrants or potential entrants until the contest is over.
b) You agree to provide me with a mailing address in the event that you win. (In return, I agree not to use your mailing address for any malicious purposes, such as sending junk mail or other undesired things.)
c) You agree to wait patiently for your prize to arrive, without moaning or kvetching, especially if it's being shipped from a different country than where you live (such as winning the Nikoli books if you don't live in Japan, or the booby prize if you don't live in the United States).

Now that you're done reading all that, here is the four-part contest puzzle. Good luck! :)

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Part i. Room and Reason

Solve the Room and Reason puzzle below (rules of Room and Reason).

How many black cells and how many white cells are there in the indicated row? These are the respective values of B and W in Part iii below.

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Part ii. Fencing Match

Solve the Fencing Match puzzle below (rules of Fencing Match).

How many 0's are inside the loop, and how many 0's are outside it? These are the respective values of I and O in Part iii below.

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Part iii. Quad-Wrangle

Using the values for B, W, I, and O derived in Parts i and ii, solve the Quad-Wrangle puzzle below (rules of Quad-Wrangle).

What are the sizes of the rectangles containing i, ii, iii, and iv? These are the respective values of i, ii, iii, and iv in Part iv below.

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Part iv. Polyominous

Using the values for i, ii, iii, and iv derived in Part iii, solve the Polyominous puzzle below (rules of Polyominous).

The five numbers in the lettered cells, taken in reading order (a, b, c, d, e), form the final answer. Send this final answer, as well as your horse's name and starting gate, to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com to enter the Four-Puzzle Derby contest.

Monday Mutant 54: Pearls of Wisdom (total / outside clues)

In this Pearls of Wisdom puzzle, there are no clues inside the grid. Instead, you are to both draw a loop and place black pearls and white pearls in every cell that could legally contain one. Pearls to the left of a row or above a column represent all of the pearls which are in that row or column, in order from left to right or from top to bottom. A question mark (?) represents a pearl whose color is unknown; an asterisk (*) represents any number of pearls of unknown colors, including none at all.

This puzzle is one part Total Masyu, one part Griddlers/Hanjie/Nonograms/
Paint by Numbers/Pic-a-Pix/Picross, and one part kind of difficult. Be forewarned. Also, ralphmerridew wants me to publicize that he was responsible for catching an error in this puzzle before I posted it here. Thanks, ralphmerridew!

Puzzle 463: Streaming Content 33

All I said was that I wanted to post a giant puzzle for Thanksgiving. I never said anything about posting only one giant puzzle.

Rules of Streaming Content 

(click to enlarge)

Puzzle 462: Circumnavi-Gates 16

Today is Thanksgiving, at least in the United States (I can't speak for other countries). I had originally intended to save this puzzle for 475, but I felt like I should post a giant puzzle on this special holiday. Fans of this type of puzzle will be glad to know that there are two 31x45 Suraromu puzzles in Puzzle the Giants 23 (including one which spells the puzzle's name in katakana using the black cells), and Puzzle Communication Nikoli 129 has a 64x50 Suraromu with 170 gates! It is truly a wonderful puzzle.

Rules of Circumnavi-Gates
(click to enlarge)

Monday Mutant 53: Cross the Streams

Shade in some cells black such that the black cells are all connected to each other through their edges, and no 2x2 cell area within the grid contains all black cells. Numbers to the left of a row or above a column represent the groups of consecutive black cells which are in that row or column. For example, a clue of "3" means the row or column has three consecutive black cells, and a clue of "3 1" means that the row or column has a group of three consecutive black cells followed by a single black cell, separated by at least one white cell. A question mark (?) represents a group of consecutive black cells whose size is unknown; an asterisk (*) represents any number of unknown groups of black cells, including none at all.

Puzzle 461: The Inner Limits 4

A new contest will be starting on November 30! What does this puzzle have to do with it? Nothing.

Rules of The Inner Limits

Monday Mutant 52: Spirits of Serpentine (cipher)

In this Spirits of Serpentine puzzle, most of the given numbers have been replaced by letters; all instances of a particular letter represent the same number, but two different letters must represent different numbers. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

The two given numbers look very similar to the letters S and O; if you find yourself confused, just remember that the only letters in this puzzle are the ones in the word BANKER.

Puzzle 460: Streaming Content 32

No comment.

Rules of Streaming Content 

Monday Mutant 51: Straight and Arrow (indirect)

In this Straight and Arrow puzzle, a number followed by a question mark represents how many black cells are in at least one of the four orthogonal directions (that is, the question mark can be replaced by an up arrow, a down arrow, a left arrow, or a right arrow, and be a normal Straight and Arrow clue). A number followed by an x means that none of the four orthogonal directions contain that many black cells. (Note that for the purposes of a 0? or a 0x on an edge or in a corner, any orthogonal direction which would point off of the grid is excluded.) A number followed by a plus sign represents the total number of black cells in all four orthogonal directions. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

Puzzle 459: Spirits of Serpentine 3

No comment.

Rules of Spirits of Serpentine

Monday Mutant 50: Straight and Arrow (indirect)

In this Straight and Arrow puzzle, a number followed by a plus sign represents the total number of black cells in all four orthogonal directions. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

 It would not appear that MellowMelon has ever made an Indirect Yajilin with nothing but plus sign clues.