Loop puzzles...

Re : Loop puzzles

I've fairly recently got interested in loop puzzles and have been doing masyu, slitherlink and yajilin for a while now and revcently came across a lovely little puzzle called Loopfinder. The idea being to construct a single loop using every cell in the grid. A few lines are given and then you have to use logic to finish the loop. Just done a few simple ones of these and really enjoyed them but haven't been able to find many. Has anyone else come across any of these?

Re : Loop puzzles

Hi Christine

I don't think I've come across Loopfinder puzzles before, but it sounds like it could be interesting.

Do you have a link to an example anywhere?

Re : Loop puzzles

Here's a link.
http://rohanrao.blogspot.com/search/label/Loop%20Finder

I am not particularly computer literate so not sure if the link will work but if if it doesn't if you Google rohanrao blogspot you will find the site. If you scroll down the page quite a bit you will see an alphabetical list of puzzles and Loopfinder is down there with several examples. As loop puzzles go it seems (well from those examples anyway) to be a bit easier than some of the other loop puzzles.

Re : Loop puzzles

Thanks for the link

I've taken a look and printed off a couple of them to try. They look like they could be fun!

In a sense it looks like the most basic form of loop puzzle, in that the only element is to form a loop without any of the rules such as counters in masyu to control the way the loop moves, or the arrows and black cells in yajilin or the numbers in slitherlink.

I'll post again once I've tried a few: my initial thought is whether the puzzles will either have to be very easy, or alternatively require guessing through trying several different paths. However perhaps there is a midway logic inbetween so it'll be interesting to see!

Re : Loop puzzles

I've just taken a look at the loop finder puzzle too... I have done a couple and quite enjoyed them. Thanks for posting the link!

Re : Loop puzzles

I've done quite a few loop finders now, and I wondered if you had any tips Christine on how you solve them?

Apart from a couple of obvious little things I think on the harder ones I am pretty much just guessing and maybe using a little bit of intuition, how do you solve them if you don't mind me asking?

Re : Loop puzzles

Stacey

You can apply a few strategies from the other loop puzzle types to the loop finder puzzle... if you take a look at the strategy pages for those on this site hopefully a few of those tips will be applicable!

Re : Loop puzzles

This puzzle appeared as a guest puzzle in that Takegake puzzler magazine the other month, although I believe someone else appeared to have claimed to come up with it (been around decades)

Re : Loop puzzles

I like loop puzzles too. It is disappointing that they are pretty hard to find in any publication in the UK at least... the only exception being that one mentioned above.

A tip on that - my local WHS at least has the old issues from about six months ago: if you buy those, then they always seem to come up as half price at the till, so worth buying those in preference to the new issues!!

Will be interesting to see if that magazine stays publishing as so few people must be 'aware' of loop puzzles I can't imagine the subscription is that high.