Some of my Puzzles

Nurikabe Puzzles

Late breaking news! You don't paper and pencil to work these Nurikable puzzles anymore. I've implemented then on Javascript boards:

  1. New   #22a, smallish but not easy
  2. New   #22b, much easier variation on #22a
  3. New   #22c, another variation on #22a
  4. Recommended   An interactive board on which to play the Wikipedia example.
  5. Very Recommended   An interactive board on which to play #1.
    #1, the very first Nurikabe I constructed, is also my favorite. While far from easy, it is quite do-able. Very early you will be able to locate the entire 14-chain. You will also be able to see white fences and constrained white regions that dictate the general paths of some black chains. (Click here for a little more on this hint.)
  6. Very Recommended   An interactive board on which to play #12.
  7. Recommended   An interactive board on which to play #11.
  8. Recommended   An interactive board on which to play #8.
  9. Funny-looking but valid and do-able   An interactive board on which to play #21.
  10. Slightly Recommended   An interactive board on which to play #10.
  11. Slightly Recommended   An interactive board on which to play #5.
  12. Slightly Recommended   An interactive board on which to play #18.
  13. Slightly Recommended   An interactive board on which to play #17.
  14. Slightly Recommended   An interactive board on which to play #20.
  15. Slightly Recommended   An interactive board on which to play #9.
  16. Recommended with hint   An interactive board on which to play #7.
  17. An interactive board on which to play #15.
  18. An interactive board on which to play #19.
  19. An interactive board on which to play #14.
  20. An interactive board on which to play #13.
  21. An interactive board on which to play #2.
    #2 is VERY difficult, but may still be quite fun to work on. Most of the board can be filled in with deductions of modest difficulty, and much progress can be made with OWFU deductions -- "Assuming X is white, then if Y works so does Z but the puzzle must obly a SINGLE solution to be valid; therefore X is NOT white."
    But you're still likely to get stuck with the '7' in lower left growing to only six instead of seven. Good luck!
    I've prepared a write-up solving #2 with OWFU dedictions.
  22. An interactive board on which to play #3.
  23. An interactive board on which to play #4.
  24. An interactive board on which to play #6.
  25. An interactive board on which to play #16.

I've started to construct Nurikabe puzzles. These are fun to solve! And fun to construct!

Since the large Nurikabes tended to be much too difficult, I started making smaller ones. #16 is my first 9x9 ... yet it seems to be as ridiculously difficult as some of the 13x13's!

I've numbered them in the order I created them, not by difficulty. It seems easier for me to construct hard ones than easy ones, so most of these are just too darned difficult to be fun. :-( (I dropped this project for four years, then did the Nurikabe Javascript and decided to make more puzzles, somewhat easier than before. #12 is the first of these new puzzles. For these I provide only the Nurikabe board, which will inform you when you have a correct solution. (If you give up and insist on knowing the solution, e-mail me.)

Each of these puzzles has exactly one solution. If you regard this fact as a given, you may be able to make certain special inferences (OWFU's, or only-way-for-uniqueness). Puzzle #11 is one where OWFU's might speed up the solution process.

Rather difficult but requiring no trial and error:

Very challenging, perhaps requiring deductions that could be classified as trial-and-error, but still fun and doable by expert nurikaber's:

Too Difficult, brutal trial and error seems to be required:

Dominoes Puzzles

Other Puzzles

Generating Battleship Puzzles

On my site you can find software to generate battleship puzzles automatically. Here's one:
 q
3		r
3		s
2		t
3		u
3		v
1		w
0		x
1		y
2		z
2
A   7                                        
B   2                                        
C   0                                        
D   3                                        
E   2                                S    
F   1                                        
G   0                                        
H   0                                        
I   2                                        
J   3                                        

Here's the solution:
 q
3		r
3		s
2		t
3		u
3		v
1		w
0		x
1		y
2		z
2
A   7D    BBBB    S    D
B   2D                                D
C   0                                        
D   3    C    DD                    
E   2    C                        C    
F   1    C                                
G   0                                        
H   0                                        
I   2S                            S    
J   3        CCC                    

 

Here's another Battleship Puzzle:
 q
7		r
2		s
1		t
1		u
1		v
3		w
2		x
0		y
1		z
2
A   3                                        
B   1                                        
C   1                                        
D   1                                        
E   3                                S    
F   1                                        
G   5                                        
H   2                                        
I   2                                        
J   1                                        

Solution:
 q
7		r
2		s
1		t
1		u
1		v
3		w
2		x
0		y
1		z
2
A   3X            X    X            
B   1X                                    
C   1X                                    
D   1                        X            
E   3XX                        X    
F   1                    X                
G   5XXXX    X                
H   2                    X            X
I   2X                                X
J   1X