Back where I began! After 100 posts!

Gold and Orange Revomazes

It all began with revomazes and now we have two more!!!

This is my hundredth post!! That is a hell of a milestone to have reached in such a short time! I began this blog to describe my journey through the puzzling world of mechanical puzzles and within a year I have had 100 posts and more than 27,000 page hits! I never expected anyone really to read it - well maybe a few of the crazy people out there (you know who you are!) but from the comments I have received to various posts and via my contact form, quite a lot of you are, well, NORMAL!!!

I have really enjoyed myself and have been in contact with many very interesting people. The puzzlers themselves are great and always willing to provide suggestions to help solve something or to point me towards something else I might like to torture myself with. I have been in touch with many fine craftsmen too - all are uniformly proud of their work and the apparent joy we take in solving their contraptions. Most are more interested in the craftsmanship and joy than the actual financial gains that can be made. Some have even sent me puzzles to play with and told me I could pay at a later date when my finances allowed. You wouldn't find such trust amongst very many other groups of people - puzzle people are pretty unique.

This whole thing started when a very stressful event at work (life and death - more death really!) caused me to need a diversion. I found that every time I stopped working and sat quietly, I began to have some very disturbing flashbacks and struggled to relax or even sleep. Believe me when I say that this was very new to me - in my particular sub-specialty I am very used to dealing with the critically ill and dying. But this really caught me by surprise. So I began my puzzling journey...

It all started out with the blue Revomaze - I had seen this (and met Chris Pitt, the designer and MD) at the Gadget Show Live in April 2010 but did not buy at the time because of the cost and the dirty looks from Mrs S. But, when I really needed something to take my mind away from everything this rather beautiful and very well made puzzle was just what I needed. From here on, I was completely hooked and have worked my way through all 4 of the metal Revomazes that were routinely available. I completed the silver at the end of last year and Mrs S had ordered the Gold as last year's Christmas present. Unfortunately due to manufacturing problems there were some rather prolonged delays - I am really pleased to say that it has finally arrived and I am about to start all over again! Next to the gold is the orange, a special limited edition puzzle designed by Mark, one of the amazing group of Revo puzzlers on their forums. Now I really don't know what to do first!!!

So, I would like to say to you all, dear readers:

Have a very Merry Christmas and a

truly puzzling New year.

Good health to you all!

I would like to thank all the wonderful people who have helped me on my journey:
(I apologise if I have missed anyone!)

Puzzle makers and designers:	Fellow puzzle bloggers:	MPP people:
Wil Strijbos	Neil Hutchison	Allard & Jill
Chris Pitt (Revomaze)	Brian Pletcher	Chris & Helen
Václav Obšivač (Vinco)	Gabriel Fernandes	Oli
Jerry McFarland	Jeff Chiou	Ali
Eric Fuller (Cubic dissection)	Jerry Loo	Nigel
Bill Cutler	Mike Vodovoz	Karl
John Devost	Rob Stegmann	Louis
Tom Lensch	Roxanne Wong	Graham
Leon Stein (Puzzlemaster)		Shaun
Brian Menold (Wood wonders)
Bernhard Schweitzer
Richard Gain (Microcubology)
Brian and Sue Young (Mr Puzzle)
George Bell
Richard Whiting
Guillaume Largounez
Maurice Vigouroux
John Rausch
Gregory Benedetti
Dave Janelle (Creative Crafthouse)
Ben Meldrum (Puzzleguru)
Frank Gregory (Livewire puzzles)
Stephen Chin
Dan Feldman
Oskar van Deventer
Andreas Röver

The mother of all puzzles! The silver revomaze

So far I have described my progress through the first 3 revomazes. The 4th in the series should be a tough challenge but just a progression in my puzzle solving skills. Or so I thought! Oh my goodness, how wrong could I have been! This puzzle can only be described as a BASTARD! It is an order of magnitude harder than the already very tough bronze. The website claims that, so far, this is probably the hardest puzzle in the world. I suspect this is correct. They state that the average time to solve it is 160 hours - I'm not sure this is correct because out of the several hundred they have sold only 35 people have actually successfully opened the maze and registered the fact with the forums. I was number 34!

I personally took over 330 hours to do it! Other better puzzlers than I have described their exploits and experiences solving it - one of the best descriptions is by Brian Pletcher and also by Allard on his blog

The bronze revomaze

The bronze is the 3rd in the series and now they are getting serious!!

This is a real test. This is not a simple straight line path from beginning to end like the previous two - it adds to the experience with curves (even the traps are curved!). It also has traps which have no apparent means of resetting (known as the pool and the jacuzzi!!). This means that your previous ability to map and plan based on straight lines, 90º turns and traps you can easily restart from is not always helpful in this puzzle. It takes a while to work out the secret of the "swimming areas" - in fact after a while you realise that it is possible to stay dry completely (although this is quite difficult to accomplish!). The next shock you are in for is that paths seem to end nowhere - the result of which is that you are TRAPPED. It appears impossible to get out of the first section of the maze!

The next instalment - the green revomaze

I managed to avoid starting the next revomaze for.... at least 24 hours!! My these are addictive! The info on the website states that most people who have done the blue will manage the green in about 3-4 hours. I am obviously not particularly bright because it took me another 10 hours!! Blush!

The aim is the same - so getting started was easy. Understanding the first traps came naturally. I started with a line map from the outset and very quickly this proved to be inadequate. The reason is that the green maze is not linear - whilst the blue has a single pathway through with some detours off to blind ends or traps, the green has a pathway that winds around in intersecting paths and you can find yourself back at a place you have been before without realising it. Hence the requirement for an accurate map. After about 2 hours of wandering around and plotting paths and traps I couldn't find any further places to go.

The puzzling begins - a blue Revomaze

After breakfast it was time to start on the blue.

The first difficulty is really working out what is required, especially when you hit the first trap - it takes a little while to realise that you are in a trap and have to reset to the beginning! Once understood it then took me about 20 or 30 minutes to get past that trap (it requires a certain very delicate touch). The blue is a great starter because progression is nice and steady with a number of little challenges. Some people who have solved it managed to do so without recourse to drawing a map but my mind doesn't work that way - I started drawing a map fairly early on when I kept reaching traps unexpectedly. I started with a simple squiggly line diagram and then later redrew it with more accuracy and then later still with pinpoint accuracy which was required when I got stuck (more about that later). I had also registered with the Revomaze forums and gotten access to the forums for all 4 mazes. After a little reading it became obvious that for the harder mazes it would be vital to draw an accurate map - so practice early on was vital. So I considered my blue map to be practise for later!

In the beginning.... The arrival of the Revomaze

A collection of revomazes!!

The order arrived containing 4 (yes I know it's a bit excessive! But I couldn't help myself!) revomazes quite early on a Saturday morning. I rushed out of bed and downstairs with minimal clothing on and frightened the postman. The box was surprisingly heavy - at 700g each I suppose I should have expected it! It was cold so I dashed back to bed with the box and proceeded to unpack and have an investigatory play about and chattered incessantly about quality and weight (much to the sleepy disgust of my wife).

Starting out...

This is my first ever blog post so please excuse me if I appear very amateurish!
I have enjoyed logic puzzles for years, doing sudoku, kakuro and nonograms on paper, computer and iPhone for years. Alright I admit it - I even did them on an old windows mobile 5 device!!!

More recently I have discovered the wonderful world of mechanical puzzles. I don't mean those bent nail puzzles you find in Xmas crackers, I am talking about high quality, often handmade, puzzles which can take from 15 minutes to several months to solve. The aim of this blog is to describe these puzzles and how much pleasure can be derived from them and maybe give solution hints if needed.

I did have a Rubik's cube and revenge (4x4x4) as a kid and could do them both in under 2 minutes. In the years since then I did not give puzzles a second thought....
Until visiting the Gadget Show Live in April 2010!! Whilst there I came across many items of interest to men in their 40s who "should know better" and amongst them I saw the Revomaze. These puzzles fascinated me but at the time I didn't purchase - I could not justify the cost (these are not cheap) and the terrible burning from the laser gaze of my wife put me off!!

Several months later after a phenomenally stressful day at work, I found I needed something to concentrate on to avoid dwelling on various events. At this point, I remembered the Revomaze and soon bought the first 3 in the series from their website. The owner, Chris Pitt, was very responsive and when I changed my order, there was no problem. The puzzles arrived about 10 days later and it all deteriorated from there!!!

Next post.. The blue revomaze.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Home!