The Coffee House

I'm sure we all know about the little mental puzzles that appear in the backs of newspapers, magazines, and the like. These word- and number-based puzzles come in a range of different forms: for example, crosswords (which test players' general knowledge skills by requiring them to solve cryptic clues to complete a grid of words reading across and down), and sudoku (which tests players' logic skills by requiring them to complete a 9x9 grid of numbers, so that each row, each column, and each 3x3 sub-grid contains the numbers 1 to 9). Do you enjoy these kinds of puzzles, and if so, what are your favourites? 

Myself, I quite like crosswords, although I often end up solving a few clues and then looking up the rest . I personally prefer codewords, which look similar to crosswords, but test different skills: here, you're given a grid of numbered squares, where each number corresponds to a letter, and you have to figure out which letters correspond to which numbers (here is an example of one of these puzzles). Often, getting started is the hard part, and they become easier once you've solved a few letters. 

As for sudoku, I like those a lot too, and about 10 years ago I got an electronic sudoku game for Christmas. I spent quite a while on it, and got to the point where I could solve the harder ones in under 10 minutes (although, along the way, I did experience the immense frustration of filling in most of the grid, only to discover that one of the numbers I filled in earlier was wrong !)

What about you?

i love sudoku.

I remember when I was younger we got the sunday paper and it came with a special sudoku called 'hi-five' which was 5 sudoku puzzles in one, idk why I liked to solve them but its something i'll do in a long car ride

(01-20-2019, 01:25 PM)Pokemon73 Wrote: [ -> ]i love sudoku.

I remember when I was younger we got the sunday paper and it came with a special sudoku called 'hi-five' which was 5 sudoku puzzles in one, idk why I liked to solve them but its something i'll do in a long car ride

Yeah, I've seen one or two of those 'hi-five' versions. I've never attempted one myself, because even I don't have the patience for something like that; however, I guess it is a good thing to do on a long car journey when there's not much else to do .

Crosswords are great fun, but sudokus are likely to give you a headache in less than two minutes. I remember my Maths teacher trying to get us all into it

(01-20-2019, 02:06 PM)BrynStevens Wrote: [ -> ]I remember my Maths teacher trying to get us all into it

Yeah, that never works. Unless he/she was an excellent and popular teacher, that'd just make everyone even more likely to rebel against it!

I sometimes liked word searches. Honestly not much for puzzles, but probably should do them more.

Yeah, word searches are fun, although most of the time they're a bit easy. I think I need some kind of variant to make it harder . 

I'm getting back into these codewords, though. I just solved the Independent's codeword for today in 2 minutes and 18 seconds, putting me 37th on today's leaderboard. I'm quite pleased with myself for that !

(01-20-2019, 11:16 PM)Megan Wrote: [ -> ]I sometimes liked word searches. Honestly not much for puzzles, but probably should do them more.

Same here. Word searches are better than puzzles. I’ve tried crosswords and sudoku before though.

(01-23-2019, 01:33 AM)Shiny Star Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-20-2019, 11:16 PM)Megan Wrote: [ -> ]I sometimes liked word searches. Honestly not much for puzzles, but probably should do them more.

Same here. Word searches are better than puzzles. I’ve tried crosswords and sudoku before though. 

Same. Not good at the latter two, especially sudoku.

I tried sudoku very briefly and didn't really get it. So avoided that. XD