PuzzleNation Book Review: Tetris: The Games People Play

Posted on by
Reply

Welcome to another installment of PuzzleNation Book Reviews!

All of the books discussed and/or reviewed in PNBR articles are either directly or indirectly related to the world of puzzling, and hopefully you’ll find something to tickle your literary fancy in this entry or the entries to come.

Let’s get started!

The subject of today’s book review is Box Brown’s graphic novel Tetris: The Games People Play.

[Image courtesy of Macmillan.]

Tetris was a masterpiece right out of the gate. Simple, elegant, and infinitely replayable, it would go on to become one of the most beloved video games in history. And that popularity, that universal charm, sparked a bidding war unlike anything the video game world has ever seen. With secret meetings, dubious contracts, language barriers, and the involvement of the suffocating Soviet regime, it was a recipe for sitcom-style misunderstandings on a global scale.

Tetris: The Games People Play brings the whole ridiculous story to life with immense charm and style. From the creation of Alexey Pajitnov’s delightfully addictive brainchild to the globe-spanning race that ensued as production rights went international, this is a story as convoluted and madcap as it is epic.

Although the drawings accompanying the story are relatively simple, the large cast of characters — from executives and game designers to members of the Soviet government — never feels overwhelming or confusing.

[Image courtesy of DownTheTubes.net.]

Illustrator and author Box Brown brings the story to life with the same panache and colorful style that made his visual biography of Andre the Giant such a warm, enjoyable read. The rounded edges and busy frames help sell both the silliness and chaos of the story, and the mix of yellow, black, and white shading in each illustration harkens back to the earliest days of video games.

(The yellow feels especially inspired, given how easily the story could’ve bogged down in the omnipresent gray tones of Soviet society or the bureaucratic doubletalk that typifies business negotiations.)

Most importantly, Brown never allows readers to lose sight of Alexey’s role as creator and keeper of the faith, a man who, under one of the most oppressive regimes in history, brought to life a game that continues to delight generations of fans.

As entertaining as it is insightful, Tetris: The Games People Play is a fun, fascinating read.

[Tetris: The Games People Play is available in paperback wherever books are sold.]

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!

We Found Some Ancient Puzzly Graffiti!

Posted on by
Reply

[Image courtesy of Patheos.com.]

The other day, I was perusing Crossword Kathy’s daily news post, and I stumbled across an article with this provocative title: “Ancient crossword puzzle found in Smyrna”

Naturally, I clicked, being something of a puzzle historian. (I also looked up “Smyrna” because I wasn’t sure precisely where that is. Turns out it was an ancient Greek city, now known as Izmir, a city in Turkey.)

This puzzle was found on the wall of an old basilica in the marketplace (or agora, for the crossword fans in the audience), and dates back to somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 years old.

[Image courtesy of Patheos.com.]

According to the person in charge of the excavations, Akin Ersoy:

It looks like an acrostic. The same words are defined both top to bottom and left to right in five columns. The word ‘logos’ in the center is said to have been used by a Christian group to communicate with each other during times of oppression. We want to consider this as a puzzle because there are benches in front of these wall paintings. The lives of those who were working here are depicted in these paintings.

Unfortunately, calling this a crossword is a bit of a misnomer. The puzzle is a 5×5 grid where the entries read both across and down. This isn’t a crossword, it’s a word square.

[Pictured above is perhaps the most famous word square in history,
known as the Sator Square. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.]

The Smyrna word square consists of five words, and some researchers believe there’s a Christian message or some religious intent behind the square.

[The full text of the Smyrna square.
Image courtesy of Cryptotheology.wordpress.com.]

The middle word, Logos, for instance, is shaped in a cross, and is believed to represent the incarnation and work of Christ.

But whether this is a religious message or simply some impressive puzzling that has stood the test of time, it’s fascinating to turn up more examples that puzzles in some shape or form have been with us not only for centuries, but for millennia.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!

It’s Follow-Up Friday: Bogus Brain Health edition!

Posted on by
1

Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

By this time, you know the drill. Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and bring the PuzzleNation audience up to speed on all things puzzly.

And today, I’d like to return to the subject of brain health and puzzles.

The physicist Emerson Pugh once said that “if the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn’t.”

We’re still working hard to unravel the mysteries of how we learn, how we store information, and how puzzle-solving affects the brain in the short term and in the long term. There have been many MANY studies published touting all sorts of results, both positive and negative. And there have been numerous products of a puzzly nature that claim everything from improved memory to staving off Alzheimer’s, dementia, and other debilitating conditions.

As a puzzle guy, I wholeheartedly believe that puzzle-solving has its benefits, and I’m always on the lookout for any new data on the subject to share with you, my fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers.

As far back as 2013, I was digging through every brain health article I could find, trying to find something substantial about the role of puzzles in brain health. I was hoping for a solid yea or nay, but the scientific community inevitably served up a resounding “maybe?”

Heck, as recently as this past September, I mentioned the conflicting data out there regarding brain health and puzzle-based programs like those on the Lumosity website.

And a recent article on Gizmodo may have put the final nail in the coffin when it comes to all of these lofty brain-health promises.

Citing a paper from Psychological Science in the Public Interest, the article discusses a recent attempt to comb through the numerous previous studies and test them under more rigorous scientific conditions.

The end result? From the Gizmodo article:

“Based on our extensive review of the literature cited by brain-training companies in support of their claims, coupled with our review of related brain-training literatures that are not currently associated with a company or product, there does not yet appear to be sufficient evidence to justify the claim that brain training is an effective tool for enhancing real-world cognition,” conclude the authors in the study.

Not surprisingly, brain-training can improve performance on the particular task or puzzle that’s being trained for. But there was very little evidence to show that these brain-games extend beyond that. These programs simply don’t improve everyday cognitive performance.

While I doubt this will be the last we’ve heard of puzzles as the be-all end-all cure for brain health, it’s good to know that dedicated minds are hard at work exposing the snake oil amidst the real science.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!

PuzzleNation Product Review: Hoard

Posted on by
Reply

Stealing a dragon’s treasure is an iconic adventure trope, a classic test of a hero’s mettle or a thief’s craftiness. But do you have the skills and luck necessary to pilfer from a sleeping dragon and get away clean?

In the card game Hoard, you’ll get your chance to do exactly that as you and your fellow players maneuver around a sleeping dragon, trying to collect matching sets of treasure while defending yourself from or attacking your fellow plunderers, all with the ever-present threat of a slumbering fire-breathing beastie looming over you.

In fact, waking the dragon (or lulling it back to sleep) is a key part of the game play, since it could be to your advantage to wake the dragon after securing some treasure for yourself.

Hoard combines the resource management aspect of numerous other card games with the luck and wherewithal of Memory. As you move around the board, you have the choice to look at one of the dragon’s treasure cards. You can either take that card, or you can leave it (and hope you remember what you found there, in case you need it later). If you leave the card, you’ll instead draw a random card from the deck.

You might find helpful treasure, a sword to attack with, a shield to defend with, a way to wake the dragon, or a way to soothe the dragon. The variety of cards makes the relatively small playing area a rich field, rife with possibilities.

Wait a minute, why would you WANT to wake a dragon?

Simple. You play for several rounds, and each round can only end in one of three ways:
A.) The last card from the deck is pulled
B.) A player begins a turn with no cards in their hand
C.) The dragon wakes up

So, if you’ve secured a good bit of treasure and you think you’ll win that round, it’s to your advantage to wake the dragon and end the round before the other players can catch up.

Only the players with the top two point totals (amassed from making treasure sets and other related card patterns, similar to Go Fish) receive victory points at the end of the round.

The first player to five victory points wins the game.

The strategy involved is what makes this a terrific game for puzzle fans. You need to make sure that you keep finding matching sets of treasure (both by remembering what cards are around the dragon and seeing which cards you get from the deck), defend your treasure from the other players, and avoid getting outfoxed in manipulating the dragon.

The mechanics of the game are simple, but the sheer number of options available to the player — as well as the element of chance involved — make for a very replayable game experience. One round, the dragon could be your greatest ally, while another time, the dragon wakes at the worst possible moment for you and your meager treasure hoard.

A great game for families, casual players, and hardcore board gamers alike, Hoard is gorgeous, well-executed, and great fun.

Hoard is a Cheeky Parrot Games product, available online now!

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!

Piece of Cake Crosswords!

Posted on by
1

Crosswords are great. Here at PuzzleNation, we know that better than most.

But they can be daunting. All those interlocking words, crissing and crossing in a tight grid, and it always seems like there’s some obscure vocabulary, some archaic terms, some words that appear in crosswords and nowhere else.

What is a newcomer, or a casual solver, to do? How can they get into crosswords?

Well, guess what? Constructor Patrick Blindauer has got you covered.

He’s running a Kickstarter campaign called Piece of Cake Crosswords, and he’s turning his puzzle-making expertise toward making crosswords that will be accessible to new solvers! No tricky cluing, no out-of-date pop culture references, just great puzzles designed to be both easy and fair.

We’re talking one 15×15 crossword per week for an entire year! 52 crosswords, all designed and clued by a top-flight puzzler. And the pledge tiers for a one-year subscription start at only $29! That’s almost 50 cents a puzzle! What a deal.

Higher pledges include extras like puzzlefests (themed puzzle sets created by Blindauer), video lectures on crossword creation, and even custom puzzles made especially for you!

You can check out all the details on Kickstarter here!

(Sorry, though — there’s no actual cake.)

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!

It’s Follow-Up Friday: Spooky Puzzling edition!

Posted on by
Reply

Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

By this time, you know the drill. Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and bring the PuzzleNation audience up to speed on all things puzzly.

And today, I’m posting the results of our #PennyDellSpookyPuzzles hashtag game!

cugj5dewyaamqdm

You may be familiar with the board game Schmovie, hashtag games on Twitter, or @midnight’s Hashtag Wars segment on Comedy Central.

For over a year now, we’ve been collaborating on puzzle-themed hashtag games with our pals at Penny Dell Puzzles, and this month’s hook was #PennyDellSpookyPuzzles, mashing up Penny Dell puzzles and anything and everything having to do with Halloween, horror movies and TV, costumes, Octobers, anything spooky!

Examples include Trick by Brick, Halloweaver Words, & Stepping Tombstones.

So, without further ado, check out what the puzzlers at PuzzleNation and Penny Dell Puzzles came up with!

Spooky Puzzles!

Boodoku

Zombie ZigZags

Anagram Magic Scare

Creepy Crawler Crosswords

Wicked Witch Word Seeks

Fang-Tastic Fill-Ins

Scaremaster

Sprite of Way

Four-Ghost

Crypto-Zoo-mbies

Exchange Ouija Boards

Skull-a-crostics

Tombworms

Pumpkins, Please

Guess Boo!

Witch Way Words

Missing Howls

Jigsaw Scares

Word Shriek

Heads & Tails & Arms & Teeth & Feet & Brains & Ears & . . .

Four Coroners

Gore-Master / Grand Gore / Lucky Gore

Jeepers Creepers Word Seekers

Who’s Lurking in the Shadows

Skull and Crossbone Word Game Puzzles

Frameworked for Murder

Missing Body Vowels

Tortured Soulocrostics

Sunday Bloody Sunday Crosswords

Wherewolf Are They Now?

Mummystery Word

Crazy for Ghosts

Double Trouble, toil and trouble

Crackerjack-o’-lantern

Black Cat-egories

Spooky Movie and TV Puzzles!

Tales from the Cryptograms / Tales from the Crypto-Zoo

The Nightmare Before-’n’-Aft Christmas

Frankenstein’s Mon-Star Words

Frankenine of Diamonds

Frame-kenstein

Cujo-ku / SudoCujo

Salem’s Lottery / Salem’s Lotto

Carrie-Overs

Pet Sum-etary

Dash-IT / Zip IT

Criss-Crosstine

The Texas Changaword Massacre / The Texas Chain Words Massacre

An Anagram Werewolf in London / An Anagram Here & There-wolf in London

The Rocky Horror Picture This Show / The Rocky Horror Picture Sleuth

“Let’s do the Timed Framework again.”

Ghostpuzzlers

Alfred Hitchcock’s…..The Bird Words

“Mirror Mirror on the wall, who’s the best Extreme Sudoku player of them all?”

Scream Talk

Eight Heads and Tails in a Duffle Bag

Heads and Tails-Less Horseman

Polterguess Who?

“They’re Here and There.”

Countdown Dracula

Hotel Transyllacrostic

The Addams Family Ties

Elvira: Missing List of the Dark

Crackerjacks Skellington

Zombie ApocalBlips

“I saw a werewolf drinking a Pine Cone Colada at Trade-Off Vic’s. His hair was Perfect Fit.”

Chips, the Friendly Ghost

The Legend of Spellbound Hollow

The All Mixed Up Family

“It’s the Guess Who Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!”

Halloween III: Season of the Witch Way Words

Anagram-ville Horror / Amityville Scorewords

Rows Garden’s Baby

Pumpkinheads & Tails

“Let’s play a Word Game!”

It’s just a framework…framework night…it’ll get you so Tangled…you won’t know What’s Left when the Shadows come to fright…

“Ooooo who knows other than Vincent Price will turn back the clock… “Tick Tock” “Tick Tock” time to Wordseek, before the wicked Queen Ellery strikes…

Have you come up with any Penny Dell Spooky Puzzles entries of your own? Let us know! We’d love to see them!

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on everything PuzzleNation!

You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website!