Sunday Surprise #2 – Dalek Invasion
This past week, another doctor made the mistake of appearing here. It seems trouble follows him everywhere, as puzzle creator Craig Kasper reveals here.
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools)
Theme: Dalek Invasion
Rules: Standard Sudoku rules except that instead of the numbers 1-9 this puzzle uses the letters in “END MATRIX”. Also, clues in the grid represent typical “Seek and Spell/Kanaore” clues; specifically, it must be possible to read each of the words/phrases listed below the grid by starting at the indicated number, moving one cell in the direction indicated by the arrow, and then continuing to move one cell at a time up, down, left, or right to complete the word/phrase. No cell may be used more than once in a single path, but the same cell can appear in the paths of different words/phrases.
Answer String: Enter the 2nd row from left to right, followed by a comma, followed by the 6th row from left to right. Use all capital letters.
Solution: PDF
That. Is. Funny.
Fun solve too. I liked how the middle EXTERMINATEs played with each other, and how placing the Es early on allowed you to figure out each word’s final destination even you didn’t have much of the middle.
Awesome puzzle, awesome theme. So glad to have seen this. 🙂
Now, to derail the topic. I have a rather large stack of Games magazine back issues, and I’m trying to figure out what to do with them. It was a few months ago that I set out on a quest to start just solving everything in them that I felt like, but it was soon thereafter that I started finding and getting involved with sites like this and LMI. So, more than half the time now, I have puzzles I’ve printed from the Internet to work in bed, and the Games magazines continue to collect dust.
So what should I do? I see a few options: Keep on storing them, in hopes I might someday get around to the backlog (probably over 200 issues, including World of Puzzles); cut the bindings and scan them so I can go back and read/print things if I feel like it (which could include rebinding the puzzle sections without the surrounding magazine; or just toss all but the last few years’ worth, figuring that any crosswords will be too topical to be good now, and any logic puzzles can be sufficiently replaced by what I find online now.
Any thoughts? (Again, sorry for the derail, and if the good Doctor would rather delete the post, please feel free.)
I’d offer to take them off your hands if you wanted – I haven’t seen it in Australian stores for years (no, thank YOU, glut of Sudoku books) – but the postage costs would be ridiculous. 🙁
I don’t know. I have a bunch of Nikoli magazine collecting dust myself as well, and they are becoming a bit too easy for my taste.
Anyways, to echo Scott, I love how the words interplay as well.
P.S. Do any of you doctors have a prescription for “unsound deduction dIsease”? I have been botching solves more often than I like, eventhough this time it was repairable.
Very nice use of the Dalek theme. Great synergy between the concept and the solving logic. Also, a lot trickier for me than Grant’s earlier Dr Who puzzle. Good to see Craig Kasper making an appearance on the blog.
Agreed about the increase in difficulty – this one really called for EXTRA MIND.
First puzzle I’ve faved without even starting to solve it.
I’m not a Whovian (yet) but this kind of puzzles make me think I should watch this ! Fave !!
So the Matrix reference made me think of this…
I guess it’s no problem that the route for the 2nd exterminate is not unique.