Tag Archives: Penny/Dell Puzzles

Collection 10 now available for the Penny Dell Crosswords App!

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Hello puzzlers and PuzzleNationers! Happy Monday!

That’s right, it’s a bonus blog post today because we’ve got some exciting news!

Our latest puzzle set for the Penny Dell Crosswords App just launched in the App Store, and it’s one of our best yet!

Say hello to Collection 10! Just in time for autumn!

Collection 10 offers 150 puzzles for your solving pleasure!

Get the Value bundle, including all 150 puzzles at a special low price, or choose from 5 30-puzzle packs — Penny Press Easy, Penny Press Medium, Penny Press Hard, Dell Easy, and Dell Medium!

Five flavors of crosswords in one package! Plus you don’t have to rake any of those colorful leaves! How can you go wrong?

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Penny Dell Crosswords App Update: Now Available!

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It’s a PuzzleNation News exclusive! (If only we had James Earl Jones introducing our PNN broadcasts…)

I love announcing new puzzle sets for the Penny Dell Crosswords app, because I’m immensely proud of the quality puzzles available to the PuzzleNation audience.

But today, I’m not only announcing a new puzzle set… I’m announcing a new update for the Penny Dell Crosswords app itself!

Not only does the app now offer a brand-new animated home screen tutorial to walk you through the solving experience, but there’s an animated screen tour for our daily puzzle and new animations in our in-app store!

Heck, even the October Deluxe puzzle set has an animated cover!

But that’s not all! We’re also introducing Mega Pack Plus collections! Just look for the + sign in the App Store, and you’ll find these awesome new collections, complete with alternate clues for all puzzles!

PuzzleNation is dedicated to bringing you the best mobile puzzle experience available today, and our new app updates and Mega Pack Plus collections are two more terrific reasons to download the app and check it out today!

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: And a One And a Clue edition!

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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 #PennyDellPuzzleBands hashtag game!

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

For the last few months, we’ve been collaborating on puzzle-themed hashtag games with our pals at Penny Dell Puzzles, and this month’s hook was Penny Dell Puzzle Bands, mashing up Penny Dell puzzles and favorite bands or musicians!

Examples might be The Beat-the-Clock-les, Brick by Brick Astley, or Kris Krossword.

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

The Rolling Stepping Stones / Stepping Stones Temple Pilots / Steppin’ Stones Wolf

Fill-In Collins (singing Su-Su-Sudoku) / Fill-In Sync

Spinwheel Doctors

The Who’s Calling? / The Guess Who’s Calling? / The Who’s Who

Radioheadings

Men at Framework

Kenkenny Rogers (or Loggins or G) / KenKen Chesney

Kenny Chess Words

Paul Simon Says / Simon Le Bon Says / Simon Says Garfunkel

Paul Simon and Art Garfield’s Word Seeks

ZZ Top to Bottom / Top to Soggy Bottom Boys

Zigzag Top / Jay Zig Zag / Zigzag Marley

Missing Persons List / Missing Persons Trios

Cryptogram Parsons / Patchwork QuotaGram Parsons

Letterboxes Zeppelin / Letterboxes to Cleo

Led Zeppelin and Around

Tina Turnabout / Tina Turn a Phrase / Tossing and Tina Turner

U2 of a Kind / U2 by Two / U2 for One

Three Doors Down of a Kind / 3 Doors Ups and Downs

Three Doors Across and Down / Across and Three Doors Down

Big Brother and the Three’s Company

Three from Nine Inch Nails

Third Bull’s-Eye Blind

Never Mind the Bull’s-Eye Spiral…Here Come the Sex Pistols!

The Four-Most Tops / The Four Tops to Bottom

Four Square Blondes / Tears Four Square

Gang of Foursomes

The Crackerjackson 5

The Jackson Fancy Fives / Maroon Fancy Five / The Fancy Dave Clark Fives

Black 47-Up

Seven Mary Three’s Company

The Jesus and Mary Chain Words

Alice in Chain Words

Square North of Nines

Thirteenth Floor Escalators

Mix and Matchbox Twenty / Match-Up Twenty

Talking Heads & Tails / Radioheads and Tails (singing Creepto-Families)

Florida Georgia Line ‘Em Up / End of the Florida Georgia Line

Drop-outs Kick Murphys

NickelThrowbacks

Wall Flower Powers / The Flower Power Kings

ColdWordPlay

ColdPlaces, Please / The Black Eyed Places Please

Jefferson Starspellship / Ringo Starrspell

Ringo Starr Words / Mazzy Star Words

Thompson Twin Crosswords

Pairs in LeAnn Rimes

Eric Clapboard

New Kids on the Blockbuilders / New Kids on the Crossblocks

Around the New Kids on the Block / New Kids Around the Block

ABBAcus (singing Take a Letter Chance On Me and Waterloose Tile)

Bobby Vee-Words

The Partridge Family Ties

Missing Fats Dominoes

Morris Day & the Rhyme Time

Right of Waylon Jennings

KC and the Sum-Doku band / K.C. and the Sunrays Band

Sunrays & Cher-A-Letter

Motley Crueptograms

Janis Joplinkwords

Alphaville Soup / Bowling for Alphabet Soup

The Smashing Pumpkin-Patchwords

Junior Walker & the All Stars and Arrows

Stars and Aerosmith

Sudoku & the Banshees

Sudokool & the Gang / Kool and the Changelings

Mirror Imagine Dragons

Kelly Picker-Upper

Blackout Sabbath

They Might Be Puzzler’s Giants

Sweet Honeycomb in the Rock

Busta Rhyme Time

A to Z Maze featuring Frankie Beverly / A to Jay-Z Maze

Beat the Strawberry Alarm Clock

Foreigner ‘n’ Aft

Metallicancelations

Frank Zip It

Patsy Cline ‘Em Up

Golden Earringmaster

Add One Direction

Jethro Full Circle / Jethro Tiles

The Point the Way Sisters

Santanagrams

Marcy Word Playground

Mariah Carey-Overs / Carry-Overs Underwood

The Black Keywords

Neil Diamond Mine / Nine of Neil Diamonds / Neil Diamond Rings

What’s Left Eye Lopes

Face to Faces / The Small Face to Faces

Split and Splice Girls

Word Player

Quotefall Out Boy

Word Mazey Gray

B-U-S METRO STATION

Simply Grand Funk Railroad!

“C” the Spice Girls and “C” the Beastie Boys

Little Mix at a Time

Anagram Magic! Square

The Associations

Fats Domino Theory

The Washington Jigsaw Squares

Linkwords Park

Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Occupancy

Scoremaster Flash

ABeeGee’s

John Mayall’s Codebreakers

Nat King Collective Crossword

Dave Match-Up’s Band

Jane’s Letter Addition

Counting Cross Sums

Fleetwood Mac & Logic Problems / Flinkwords Mac

Crostics Stills & Nash

Maxi-Score Priest

Drummerman-heim Steamroller / Drummerman-fred Mann

A Trigons Called Quest

Sir Mixmaster-A-Lot

Weird Al Wacky Words Yankovic

Uncle Crackers

The Marshall Mind Tickler Band

Banana Word-A Rama

Ashford & Simpson Says

The CultureWords Club

Earth Wind and Fill-Ins

The Mamas and the Papas Grand Tour

Ringer’s Eleven

Public Double Trouble Enemy

Guns ‘n’ Rows Garden

Those bands would be sure to win plenty of AnaGrammy and QuotaGrammy Awards!

Our fellow puzzlers on Twitter also offered up some terrific entries themselves!

@EmilBurp was “torn between the obvious ‘A-Dell’ or the semi-obvious ‘Anacro-Styx'” — two very clever entries! And @_PaulSurf offered up several choice entries, including “Panic at the DisCodewords,” “ZZ Top Choice Sudoku,” and “CryptoGraham Parker and the Rumour.”

Have you come up with any Penny Dell Puzzle Bands 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!

A PuzzleNation First Look: Will Sudoku

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Sudoku puzzles haven’t been around all that long, especially when compared to the hundred-plus years of longevity that the crossword puzzle brings to the table. Nonetheless, Sudoku puzzles remain one of the most popular puzzles these days, whether solved with pen and paper or in app form.

I’ve written about some of the many Sudoku variants before, but today’s post is something different. It’s the debut of a brand-new type of Sudoku. That’s right! I have the distinct pleasure of introducing you to Will Sudoku, the creation of topnotch puzzler Bassey Godwin.

This is a standard Will Sudoku grid. (Not to be confused with the Will Shortz’s Sudoku magazine.)

Named in honor of puzzle master and New York Times Crossword editor Will Shortz, Will Sudoku offers a challenge that your average Sudoku puzzle cannot match.

Instead of placing the numbers 1-9 in a 9×9 grid so that each row, column, and 3×3 box features all nine numbers without repeats, Will Sudoku tasks you with filling in the grid in such a way that the numbers 1-8 appear only once in each of the rows and columns as well as the 4×4 boxes.

As you can see, each row and column is split into two tracks, inside and outside. Horizontal lines are indicated by the similar triangular cells in the corresponding boxes in a row. For instance, horizontal line 1 contains 45238761; horizontal line 2 contains 23816457, as shown above.

The vertical lines work the same way, with outside and inside tracks within each column. This tight arrangement means a LOT of information is available to a keen-eyed solver, but there are also more spots to place your numbers.

There are numerous variations included in this puzzle bundle:

  • Will Triangular Box Sudoku: Instead of 4×4 squares, the grid is divided into large triangles that contain all 8 numbers
  • Will Horizontal Bar Sudoku and Will Vertical Bar Sudoku: Instead of the 4×4 squares, the grid is divided into vertical or horizontal bars that contain all 8 numbers
  • Will Variable Boxes Sudoku: A mix of 4×4 squares, vertical and horizontal bars, and triangles appear in a single grid

In addition to these variations, Bassey experiments with the form and offers a few new twists on his established template.

  • Will Sudoku Word Search: Instead of the numbers 1-8, eight letters appear in a grid, and once you’ve finished placing them all, you search the grid Word Seek-style to find an 8-letter word reading out in some direction
  • Will Trigonal Sudoku: A Will Sudoku grid is divided diagonally, leaving you half a grid to solve. Cleverly enough, each of the three sides of the triangle also adhere to standard Will Sudoku rules, with all 8 digits appearing once each.
  • Finally, and most challengingly, there is Will Samurai Sudoku, where you confront five interconnected Will Sudoku grids in one monster puzzle.

This debut collection of Will Sudoku offers 150 puzzles for $10!

As a solver, I was very impressed with how many different solving styles emerged from the Will Sudoku template. And going from nine numbers to eight certainly didn’t decrease the puzzle’s difficulty! (The new inside and outside tracks in each column and row certainly took a little getting used to.)

The puzzles marked “average” will keep you on your toes, and some of the ones marked “tough” will really test your deduction and logic skills. But for the price, you simply can’t go wrong.

Thank you to Bassey Godwin for giving PuzzleNation Blog the exclusive first look at Will Sudoku and allowing us to share this clever new Sudoku variant with our fellow PuzzleNationers and the online puzzle community at large!

But before I go, I want to leave you with one last surprise: a video of Bassey himself solving a Sudoku puzzle blindfolded! It’s mind-blowing stuff, and the perfect sendoff for this post. Take it away, Bassey!

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!

A brand-new puzzle set for the Penny Dell Crosswords app!

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Just in time for all the spooks, tricks, and treats for Halloween, we’re back with a new puzzle set for Penny Dell Crosswords App.

Yup, just weeks after launching Dell Collection Nine, our latest 150-puzzle pack, we’re excited to announce our newest downloadable content for the Penny Dell Crosswords app, the October Deluxe set, is now available through the App Store!

That’s right, it’s almost All Hallows Eve, and our October Deluxe set offers 35 terrific themed puzzles. Not only do you get 30 easy, medium, and hard puzzles, but there are 5 bonus puzzles you can unlock as you solve!

We are dedicated to providing PuzzleNationers with the best puzzle games on the market today, and with this new deluxe set of puzzles, we’ve continued that proud tradition. Terrific crosswords right in your pocket! What more could you ask for?

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!

View a Clue: Common Crossword Words!

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Welcome to a brand-new feature on PuzzleNation Blog: the View a Clue game!

I talk about crosswords a lot here, and rightfully so. Crosswords are the most famous pen-and-paper puzzles in the world, and here at PuzzleNation, you can always find terrific, fresh puzzle content for our Penny Dell Crosswords App!

And although I love running our daily Crossword Clue Challenge on Facebook and Twitter, I wanted to try something different today.

I’ve selected ten words that commonly show up in crossword grids — some crosswordese, some not — and I want to see if the PuzzleNation readership can identify them from pictures. It’s a visual puzzle I call View a Clue!

Let’s give it a shot!

#1 (4 letters)

#2 (4 letters)

#3 (4 letters)

#4 (4 letters)

#5 (4 letters)

#6 (4 letters)

#7 (3 letters)

#8 (4 letters)

#9 (4 letters)

#10 (4 letters)

How many did you get? Let me know in the comments below! And if you’d like to see another View a Clue game (maybe about common names in crosswords or crosswordy animals!), tell us below!

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!