Every 6 months or so, Mine offers up a bunch of puzzles that his Japanese
friends design (many of them appeared in the IPP design competition). The P3C
arrived and I set to work on it shortly after it arrived. Needless to say, I
failed! Again and again and again! It got to the point that I put it in my work
bag and would get it out every few weeks to try and yes, you guessed it, fail
again!
There's another one that shares that fate - the Turning Quarter Hole has been
in my bag for 5 years and still not been solved! OMG! I received it in March
2022 and still not solved it. Maybe I need to give up this puzzling hobby?
Interestingly, these two puzzles share the same 6 tetromino pieces and same
aim of packing them in a box that measure 24 voxels in volume but have
different dimensions (the P3C has a box that is 2x3x4 and the Turning
Quarter Hole box measures 4x4x2 with all 4 corners blocked by diagonal
walls. Obviously the entry holes are different and the latter puzzle has a
top lid that is captive but can rotate freely.
These two have accompanied for such a long time that I eventually got
desperate with one of them and decided to let Burrtools do a comprehensive
analysis for me. I was pretty certain that it would not be able to solve it
for me. The box has a nice 2x2 hole in the top and there are two single
voxel holes in the bottom. I did wonder whether the solution would be linear
with pieces needing to drop through the holes to allow others to pass over
the top. But... after nearly 2 years of trying I was fairly certain that the
holes in the bottom were just finger holes to allow manipulation and that
some kind of rotation might be needed.
I duly entered the puzzle entirely into that wonderful programme by Andreas
and, as expected, no solution popped out. It did give me all the possible
ways that the 6 tetrominoes could be assembled in the box. "All" that was
needed was to try them all out systematically and work out which could be
disassembled a reasonable amount through the hole in the top until there was
room for other pieces to achieve any required rotations. BT found that there
were 28 possible assembles and I started at number one. It didn't take much
to work out that all but 3 of them were absolutely impossible as solutions.
After this, I tried to be systematic on them and skipped past the solution
for several hours. It was right in front of me but I couldn't see it! Those
holes are not just finger holes - once you realise that there are a whole
lot more possible moves to think about. I had my Aha! moment and finally one
of Mine's creations can be put away. Yes, Burrtools to the rescue yet again.
I am not going to show the final packed solution because that is not allowed
with these puzzles from Mine. I don't think he has any left but I am sure
that you could find the shapes and print your own if you were allowed a 3D
printer in your house. Unlike me who daren't even think about it.
I still have the Turning Quarter Hole puzzle accompanying me everywhere
and I don't think that BT will help.
Actually, whilst I am focussing on Mine's puzzles that are always with me
there is an even "simpler" design of Koichi Miura's produced by Mine, the
Chiral 2&2 which has also completely stumped me because rotations are
going to be needed and BT won't help me:
Chiral 2&2 by Koichi Miura
This one has just 4 tetrominoes to be placed in a 3x3x2 box - yes, there are 4 spare voxels free inside so it should be easy peasy - but not for me. I have had this one and gotten absolutely nowhere. Sigh!
Finally, Tye Stahly sent me another Minima puzzle - this one, designed by Kyle Waszak and Ryan Sinatra, shares the 2x2x3 cavity of the usual Miinima box but has a slide on lid. As soon as I tipped the pieces out, something didn't look right. I had to put my maths head on and calculate that 2x2x3 equals 12 voxels. Then I counted on the digits of two hands and then a foot (having taken my shoes and socks off) there were 12⅓ voxels on the pieces to be packed. Huh! Well, that's odd. Is there a hidden dimension or a portal to somewhere else? I quickly made two vital discoveries but they didn't seem to help with this puzzles at all. BT definitely wasn't going to help with this one!
Damn you Tye! Is this another one that will be traveling with me for years to come? Sob!
If you want to try and succeed where I failed then it is still available from NothingYetDesigns.
Happy New Year fellow puzzle sufferers! I hope that this will be a happy healthy one with lots of fabulous challenges ahead.
A few years ago I had missed out on the late Eric Fuller's collaboration with
the amazing Frederic Boucher producing the beautiful Res Q sequential discovery
puzzle. A very trusting friend, Andrew Coles lent me his copy and it took me
months and months to solve it. In the meantime Frederic himself made me a
special edition which he called Visitor Q+ with an extra step just for me.
I loved it
(even if it took me an unbelievable amount of time to solve.
Needless to say, I recalled playing with the puzzles but had absolutely no
recollection of the solve process. I didn't even remember the first step! Mrs
S would view this as a reason to only own 4 or 5 puzzles and keep solving them
in rotation with no memory of when I did it the previous time. Tye Stahly of
NothingYetDesigns
had collaborated with Joshua Clouser to reproduce and expand the Res Q puzzle.
They offered a pre-order and having missed out on the original, I pitched in
without even thinking about it. The puzzle arrived a few weeks ago and I had
to put it aside whilst I worked every weekend for two months! In fact, I am
working again this weekend - no rest for the wicked! I finally decided to
start work on it on New Years Day! I had a day off and "she who must be
feared" did not have a list of chores for me to carry out. I had a whole day
to work on it.
Comprehensive instructions but no clues
The alien is trapped in the vortex
The puzzle has been beautifully 3D printed with a heavy infill and is quite
weighty as a result.
It comes with a page of instructions. The most important part at the
beginning is to retrieve the spaceship whilst avoiding rotations of the
vortex parts and also the ship itself.
That sounds great but in the start position nothing can move at all! Great!
I was stumped immediately. Sigh, not terribly bright.
There is a clue - the Guitar pick on the top. This had not been on any of
the original puzzles and I had to ask Tye whether the pick was removable as
it was held on the green lump quite hard. Having gotten permission to use a
bit of force to retrieve the pick, I had to work out what to do with
it.
You would think that I might have some recollection of one or two of the
moves from my previous experience but nope, I am completely blank! Just ask
Mrs S about what is in my head...I am a proper bloke and my head is
completely empty almost all the time. I have quite severe insomnia and the
ladies I work with always ask whether I lie awake thinking of "stuff" when I
wake in the middle of the night. They are literally amazed to hear that when
I am conscious, my head is completely devoid of anything resembling thought!
As a result of this emptiness, I had no idea what to do with my immovable
puzzle. I had a guitar pick and a few places to try and slide it so I guess
it's time to see what happens when I do.
I found a few places it would go and after a few minutes had my first Aha!
moment. I found something new and the possibility to retrieve a new item.
Nowhere for it to be used yet but progress was being made. At this point the
vortex was mobile, really, REALLY mobile! This thing anted to rotate but
care was needed to not allow rotations. The spaceship becomes visible and
can be moved around with the vortex spinning around it. The spaceship cannot
be removed easily as the holes are all too small or require an impossible
rotation to achieve. The exit is pretty obvious but needs a lot of moves to
be reached.
At some point, I must have inadvertently rotated a piece and then got stuck.
The rocket would not advance or return and I couldn't work out how to undo
the rotation. Aargh! Chest pain number 1 took a good while to settle as I
worked feverishly to return to the start. After about an hour of swearing
and clutching my chest, I was back at the beginning and determined not to do
that again! After a bit of a breather I started again with better
concentration and control. It only took me an hour or 3 to retrieve the
spaceship.
Colourful spaceship
The curved top of the rocket was part of the reason I struggled to control
rotations. IT almost insists on turning sideways in the vortex. I was hopeful
that the tool I had retrieved earlier could be used on the rocket. The tool
has a very tiny thread on it and there seems to be a hole for it on the side
of the rocket. I must have spent a good 30-45 minutes trying to get it to do
something with no success. The trouble with being a man of a certain age is
that you cannot see small things very easily. Using the magnifier on the phone
proved to be a dexterity issue as I didn't have enough hands and Mrs S was not
going to assist me in my madness. eventually I got a bright light, my phone on
a tripod with magnifier activated and still failed to get anything to happen.
At this point I had to conclude that I was attempting the wrong step with the
wrong tool in the wrong direction and using a non-functional bwain! sigh. Back
to the drawing board aka the vortex.
Time to fiddle with the vortex and peer inside. Another Aha! moment occurred.
I had seen something that might be useful. Time to manipulate the vortex and
get to use my tool. Erm! That was the theory. Nothing would allow the vortex
to reach the correct state to allow the next step. I had to contact Tye at
some point to ask about rotations. he said they were required but could not
remember which ones - that is helpful! At least I had permission to spin stuff
but I recalled the earlier chest pain/heart attack caused by spinning a piece
and not being able to undo it. I decided to take notes on what I had done in
which direction.
Suddenly, I had a specific goal and the ability to move things however I
wanted. It took a while but I was able to retrieve the first of the antenna
rods to release another tool and then using this, the second antenna rod. I
now had another tool. From here on it was a matter of gradually releasing
tools from various parts of the vortex. It needed the vortex to be manipulated
appropriately. Almost all of the tools are magnetic and snap together with a
satisfying but rather alarming click. At one point, I had inserted one tool
into a hole where it stuck to the next and then wouldn't come out. Time for my
third episode of chest tightness (no radiation to arm or jaw luckily) and some
more thought. That was painful too.
I knew where it was, I could achieve it using an illegal move and I knew how
to achieve it the "correct" way but I could not get my external magnet close
enough to achieve what was required. I spent about 3-4 hours trying every
rotation of the vortex pieces I could find with no progress. Nothing I could
find would allow the vortex to get to a position that was useful. New Years
Day was over with a headache and chest pain not caused by booze. I was having
a "fun" time.......I think!
The following evening after work I got back to it - desperation was setting in
as I had nothing else for the blog and I am working on Sunday. I HAD to solve
it on Friday or Saturday. I had learned a lot with all the manipulations I had
carried out and luckily had kept good notes of what I had moved. At this point
I thought "in the box" and used both light source and fingers to
investigate.
OMG! That is really sneaky - why did I have no recollection of it?
I now knew what was required but needed to make a LOT of room to achieve it.
Again, this sequence nearly gave me a heart attack as I could only ever get
two pieces of the vortex into position at any time and each time I tried to
backtrack, I would get stuck. After another few hours, I finally worked it
out, manipulated the vortex in 4 dimensions and was able to use a combination
of multiple tools at once to rescue the alien and find my number. OMG what a
relief.
Two antenna rods, silver fuel disk, gold rector orb and radioactive
fuel My number is my age - 43 🤣
Now, having admired what I had, I could take my photos. There were a lot of
pieces and I actually couldn't remember where they all had come from or where
they all went. I also only had a vague idea how to undo all my vortex moves to
return to the beginning. Luckily the reset is only a small subset of the moves
to solve it. Most pieces can be returned to their places without complex
manipulations once you have worked out where they should be. The hardest part
is undoing the vortex moves. I was slightly horrified to realise that my notes
were quite good for repeating the solution at a future date but absolutely
awful in helping undo the moves to return to the beginning. I had to work it
all out all over again in reverse.
If you cannot work out how to reset the vortex then Josh has designed this
with an easy cheat. There are two very fine hex screws on the top which allow
the memory challenged puzzler to unscrew the lid and reset from above:
Two screws make an easy reset
Needless to say, I am a sucker for punishment and have started to enjoy the
chest pain so I worked on solving the puzzle in reverse. It took another ½ hour
but I was able to startle Mrs S and the kitties with my shout of final
completion. I did prove to myself that my notes worked for a forward solve as I
repeated it again straight away. I took a photo of all the pieces which is not an easy thing to do as the strong magnets all want to snap together.
It is a tiny
bit of a spoiler which I have hidden behind a button - you don't have to look at
unless you really want to.
OMG! Look at all of those pieces. The position of the vortex at the
end is shown too.
OMG! It is soooooo good! My first puzzle of 2026 is straight in as a candidate for my top ten(ish) of 2026. Unbelievable! It's not wood but it has been beautiful made and doesn't feel plastic/flimsy in any way. I hope the year continues like this. Don't tell Mrs S but there might be a few puzzles on order already.
If you get the chance to play with, or even better, buy this puzzle then don't hesitate. This is probably an essential purchase for any serious collector or puzzler. Thank you Frederic, Josh and Tye for a great start to the year even if it did cause 3 small myocardial infarctions!
