Anyone Up for Some Sudoku?
I was just reminded of a Sudoku game I was working on a couple of years ago as a fun project during my last semester in school. It's what I'd like to think is a pretty decent Sudoku game for the PC. (Sorry Mac users.)
There are over 4.2 billion puzzle possibilities numbered from 1 on up so you can try the same one multiple times if you'd like. You can just click the "random" button to let the computer select a random puzzle number for you.
There are five difficulty possibilities: easy, medium, hard, extreme, insane. I doubt anyone would be able to solve on insane.
Once you start a game a timer starts so you can track how long it's taking you to win (or lose). You can pause the game while playing, but if you do the puzzle will be hidden so you can't cheat.
You can enter up to 6 possible/placeholder values into a cell when you're unsure which it might be. To decide on a single one, just enter it by itself and hit the enter key. You can also use the arrow keys to move around from cell to cell.
Every five moves you can hit the "Progress" button which will tell you how many of your entries are incorrect, if any. If you're desperate for some help you can use the "Hint" button to allow the computer to randomly fill in a blank cell with the correct value, but doing so will add a 1 minute penalty to your time.
If you give up you can click "Solve It" to allow the computer to fill in the puzzle with all the correct values. Or you can use "End Game" to just quit where you are.
If you're in the middle of a game and just close the game, when you reopen it, it will pick up where you left off, so you can continue as if you never left.
There's also a statistics window that shows the history of all games you've played, including puzzle number, play time, and win/loss.
I'd love it if any of you Sudoku fanatics would give my game a shot and tell me what you think. No one except me has ever played it before, and the last time was 2 years ago.
Download: Rommel's Sudoku and just unzip it anywhere.
There are over 4.2 billion puzzle possibilities numbered from 1 on up so you can try the same one multiple times if you'd like. You can just click the "random" button to let the computer select a random puzzle number for you.
There are five difficulty possibilities: easy, medium, hard, extreme, insane. I doubt anyone would be able to solve on insane.
Once you start a game a timer starts so you can track how long it's taking you to win (or lose). You can pause the game while playing, but if you do the puzzle will be hidden so you can't cheat.
You can enter up to 6 possible/placeholder values into a cell when you're unsure which it might be. To decide on a single one, just enter it by itself and hit the enter key. You can also use the arrow keys to move around from cell to cell.
Every five moves you can hit the "Progress" button which will tell you how many of your entries are incorrect, if any. If you're desperate for some help you can use the "Hint" button to allow the computer to randomly fill in a blank cell with the correct value, but doing so will add a 1 minute penalty to your time.
If you give up you can click "Solve It" to allow the computer to fill in the puzzle with all the correct values. Or you can use "End Game" to just quit where you are.
If you're in the middle of a game and just close the game, when you reopen it, it will pick up where you left off, so you can continue as if you never left.
There's also a statistics window that shows the history of all games you've played, including puzzle number, play time, and win/loss.
I'd love it if any of you Sudoku fanatics would give my game a shot and tell me what you think. No one except me has ever played it before, and the last time was 2 years ago.
Download: Rommel's Sudoku and just unzip it anywhere.
8 Comments
berticusHey, that's really cool lucky! I'm not really a 'fanatic' but I don't mind doing Sudoku when I'm a bit bored. I crashed it by clicking "Hint" after all cells were filled with placeholder values. If you plan on taking it any further could I suggest mouse controls, maybe something similar to how the MSN sudoku functions?
lucky760Thanks a lot for checking it out! And thanks for the bug testing and suggestions.
(I'm actually not at all familiar with how any other sudoku software works. I've only played it on paper.)
I'll likely want to fix any problems like that and improve its functionality. Can you describe for me the mouse controls MSN's sudoku uses? I've never played or even seen it before. If you have any other suggestions, please lay them on me.
FYI, I wrote another game that's great to play called Go Moku and it's network and chat enabled so two friends can play with one another over the intertubes. That also was not fully completed and the AI totally sucks, but a 2-human player game works swell. If anyone would be interested in that, let me know.
rottenseedI've honestly never played this game. I have the tendency to stay away from fads that spread like wildfire—it's a social dysfunction of sorts. I am kind of curious though, maybe I'll give it a shot.
berticusThe MSN one is a 2 player variant. Each player takes timed turns to fill in as much as they can. You can switch between "pen" mode and "pencil" mode. It's completely mouse controlled. In pencil mode each sudoku square has all 9 numbers grayed out in it:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
and you just click on a number to toggle it as a placeholder.
In pen mode, you click and hold inside the square and move the mouse upward to scroll up through values 5 to 9 and downward to scroll down through values 5 to 1. Whatever you release on is what it will place in the square.
I have to say the pen mode in the MSN game is kinda weird, but you get used to it. I really like the pencil mode though. I realise your one already has a pencil mode, it would just be cool to have it with a mouse feature and the spacing like the above.
If you can, check out the MSN one (I keep saying MSN, I'm not sure if that's right... I mean the one you can play by using Windows Messenger or whatever it's called now...). I'm sure you'll get some ideas from it for UI etc.
berticusOh, and I'd probably be interested in Go Moku.. what kinda game is it? I had fun playing this too.
lucky760That looks interesting.
GoMoku, like sudoku, is a Japanese game. The full name is gomoku narabe which means "5 stones in a row" and at first is usually simply thought of as a 5-in-a-row version of tic-tac-toe, but once you play a bit, you realize it's much more like chess and requires deep concentration and serious strategy. The "real" version is a wood board with white and black stones placed on gridlines, but when you play on paper it's usually X's and O's within the grid.
I'll post my version of gomoku soon, but in the mean time you can read about it at wikipedia. Also here's a link to a Java version on Sourceforge that I just tried momentarily, and seems to have pretty decent AI.
[edit]
Forget that java version. Here's an extremely simple and apparently very intelligent JavaScript version for your browser.
berticusOh, yes, I've played that before.
oxdottirI love sudoku. I usually play on my iphone though. Gimme iphone love, lucky!
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