I'm fairly new to variant sudoku and this was the most enjoyable challenge I'd had so far. It stretched my logic but didn't leave me baffled. Thank you!
That was a delightful puzzle 😍 - just as Simon said, a perfect blend of approachability and a voyage of discovery with lots of really fun moments as you move from one deduction to the next. At one point I was worried that I had broken it - initially I read the rules as being snake _egg_ rules and so was expecting to create one region of each size from 1 to, I don't know, probably 8, but then I boxed off my second 4-cell region, panicked, went back and read the rules again, stopped panicking and finished the solve!
"a perfect blend of approachability and a voyage of discovery with lots of really fun moments" Indeed! 22:18 for me for a nice relaxing change from the beasts we have had lately.
In case of interest: ‘thermohaline circulation’ means the very slow global water currents driven by differences in water density - the ‘conveyor belt’ of the world’s oceans!
We are the same Phoenix & Santiago from a few weeks back-- yes, Boston! I'm very excited you remembered, and to hear there is more Finkz in the future :)
I usually use dark grey for non-loop cells in this sort of puzzle. An unintended consequence is that my brain keeps expecting fog to clear when I enter digits. 😂 (Terrific puzzle, by the way!)
What a beautiful puzzle! The flow was quite nice, no really tricky spots but some wonderful deductions to make all along the solve! Completed in 20:26 (conflict checker off), many thanks to Shintaro for it!
I finished in 44:02 minutes. This was such a solid puzzle. Every Shintaro puzzle that I have done has been fantastic. I really liked the way the arrows worked in this puzzle. They felt very powerful and gave me a quick start and I was able to get several digits in just 4 minutes. I think my favorite part was the maneuver in the bottom right, where the loop had to cut off the bottom right non-loop from escaping. I look forward to more. Great Puzzle!
16:53 "My boot-scootin' baby is drivin' me crazy, my obsession from a western, my dancefloor date. My rodeo romeo, a cowboy god from head to toe, gonna make you mine, better get in line..."
Simon's refusal to do pencil marks and simple sudoku is just making life harder for him. At one point he stares for 30+ seconds and sees nothing, meanwhile there are several places in the puzzle where sudoku would have ruled out certain values and where pencil marks would have revealed solutions. And once he starts doing pencil marks and sudoku, suddenly a flow of solutions start, yet he learns nothing. At one point he does a bunch of solutions and says "and this rules out the 1 here" and I'm like "no, the 1 that you put in the column five minutes ago ruled that out, but you refused to do sudoku!" I'm amazed at how fast he starts putting in values once the puzzle breaks, and yet at other times he's too stubborn to just do simple sudoku and instead is looking for unsolved riddles.
Yeah, the sudoku is not what's fun for him. Doing variant sudoku every day for 6 years, it's clearly the variant parts that keep it fun. :) (And even still you can tell he wants to do more non-sudoku puzzles, but is struggling with how less effective those likely are at drawing in new viewers to the channel.)
@@EricMill Yes, and especially when he can find a reason to use colorage, which he leaves in place way after they have served their purpose, making the screen a complete mess.
A different way to get the 9 in r4c9 that I personally like better is to think about where 6 goes in the funny shaped 9-region. The two given 6s force it into row 4, eliminating 6 from r4c9, and that's available as soon as you finish the loop!
Simon's time was only 35 minutes. I really don't know why he doesn't restart the puzzles before beginning the solve as Mark always does, especially with such long introductions.
35:08 finish. I hit a bit of a wall and had to go back and re-read the rules early on. For some reason I was looking to make each non-loop region a different size. This, of course, quickly broke and I was able to backtrack. Fun fun fun!
26:37, was thinking about how little the thermo clues did at the end right before noticing I didn't finish using the thermo clue in the lower left corner and was able to disambiguate the puzzle because of it.
I completely agree with Simon's comment between 17:40 and 18:10. While I have an astounding amount of admiration for setters who devise difficult puzzles, I get no enjoyment from a lot of them because I can't solve them. Simon mentions puzzles that take about 40 minutes to solve, and this is a good description of ones that I like (although they take me twice as long!). But looking at a puzzle, thinking 'I know there's a clue that I will see eventually' is so different to looking at it and not having a clue, so giving up. I do read comments linked to some harder puzzles and it's clear that some people do enjoy those videos and puzzles, but I am glad the channel hasn't become a 'try to find the hardest puzzle and solve it' every day. You need to include puzzles with a range of difficulties to encourage new viewers.
The American band R.E.M. had a hit with a song in the early 90’s (1991?) called “Losing My Religion” (off the album Out Of Time). It contains the lyric “that’s me in the corner, that’s me in the spotlight losing my religion”. When filling in a sudoku Simon and Mark used to say “that’s three in the corner” which sounds like the lyric from the R.E.M. song. And it has sort of grown from that.
When explaining orthogonal: Everybody and their grandmother know what diagonal is, just explain othorgonal as "the opposite of diagonal: instead of cells sharing a point, theyshare an edge" and skip the drawing it out. Saves you the hassle of going all out three / four times a week and the time adds up (plus everybody that watches the channel more than once every three or so months, no longer has to skip through those 15 seconds of explaining something trivial).
2nd video in a row where I have a hard time hearing you speak. Had to install a youtube volume booster. Is it possible that the volume is lower than before?
There is a guy name Dallas that has a RUclips channel called Tekken realm I think, he ended up getting the world's record for rick-rolling the most celebrities in 24 hours I think, any way, he Rick-rolled Rick himself, and was in turn Rick-rolled by Rick. Seems he's a good sport about it :)
Thank you for the feature! I'm glad you enjoyed solving it, I certainly enjoyed setting it!
Thank you for the superb puzzle! The way the loop made column 6 interact with box 1 is a real pleasure, even a treasure.
I'm fairly new to variant sudoku and this was the most enjoyable challenge I'd had so far. It stretched my logic but didn't leave me baffled. Thank you!
That was a so fun to solve. Box 3 is really genius 😊
That is a *beautiful* puzzle
this puzzle difficulty level is my sweet spot. A good hour solve for me, not too hard, and just continuously has discovery as you go.
Much the same for me, I like this level of puzzle, with an interesting mechanic or two.
That was a delightful puzzle 😍 - just as Simon said, a perfect blend of approachability and a voyage of discovery with lots of really fun moments as you move from one deduction to the next.
At one point I was worried that I had broken it - initially I read the rules as being snake _egg_ rules and so was expecting to create one region of each size from 1 to, I don't know, probably 8, but then I boxed off my second 4-cell region, panicked, went back and read the rules again, stopped panicking and finished the solve!
"a perfect blend of approachability and a voyage of discovery with lots of really fun moments" Indeed! 22:18 for me for a nice relaxing change from the beasts we have had lately.
In case of interest: ‘thermohaline circulation’ means the very slow global water currents driven by differences in water density - the ‘conveyor belt’ of the world’s oceans!
Cool! Thanks for sharing your knowledge. ❤
Perfect title. The subtle constraints gently guide the loop into shape. I struggle with loop puzzles mostly, but this one is nothing to fear!
And differences in temperature too!
@@BobShowalter Did it make you salty, too?
We are the same Phoenix & Santiago from a few weeks back-- yes, Boston! I'm very excited you remembered, and to hear there is more Finkz in the future :)
I usually use dark grey for non-loop cells in this sort of puzzle. An unintended consequence is that my brain keeps expecting fog to clear when I enter digits. 😂 (Terrific puzzle, by the way!)
Sudoku Setters: I need to find a way to put a 3 in the corner; that way Simon will declare my puzzle to be a work of sublime genius!
Abnormal Sudoku Rules Apply. You must put the digit 3 in every cell. The secret, which I only tell my very best friends, is 27. Let's get cracking.
What a beautiful puzzle! The flow was quite nice, no really tricky spots but some wonderful deductions to make all along the solve! Completed in 20:26 (conflict checker off), many thanks to Shintaro for it!
Rules: 06:20
Let's Get Cracking: 11:54
Simon's time: 34m32s
Puzzle Solved: 46:26
What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?!
Three In the Corner: 3x (38:13, 38:46, 42:04)
Maverick: 1x (09:52)
And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
Brilliant: 13x (01:00, 01:16, 03:43, 04:47, 05:54, 11:51, 21:54, 38:18, 38:18, 38:53, 46:32, 46:56, 46:57)
Touch Itself: 12x (06:35, 06:38, 06:50, 06:54, 06:59, 08:17, 12:22, 13:42, 13:53, 23:04, 24:13, 34:59)
Sorry: 10x (02:10, 02:20, 09:19, 14:13, 19:29, 19:29, 19:29, 19:43, 24:50, 42:23)
Beautiful: 9x (15:57, 17:42, 18:03, 22:47, 22:47, 36:22, 36:24, 43:30, 46:35)
By Sudoku: 9x (22:05, 25:01, 28:41, 29:07, 30:23, 33:08, 43:02, 44:52, 44:58)
Hang On: 9x (08:07, 08:17, 09:17, 09:23, 14:09, 19:25, 36:07, 45:12)
Ah: 5x (09:30, 17:31, 19:29, 21:37, 28:29)
Cake!: 5x (03:47, 04:09, 04:26, 04:50, 05:42)
Lovely: 4x (15:59, 15:59, 30:31, 43:07)
Nonsense: 3x (07:59, 33:56, 39:36)
Surely: 3x (28:48, 34:51, 36:02)
In Fact: 3x (14:53, 14:53, 32:42)
Whoopsie: 3x (42:23, 42:23, 42:23)
What Does This Mean?: 3x (06:40, 07:03, 33:51)
Pencil Mark/mark: 3x (32:04, 41:35, 42:25)
Naked Single: 2x (40:08, 44:52)
Clever: 2x (29:56, 29:59)
Obviously: 2x (12:47, 20:10)
Wow: 2x (38:36, 40:28)
Nature: 2x (12:21, 37:19)
Goodness: 1x (36:29)
Bother: 1x (25:43)
The Answer is: 1x (36:55)
Naughty: 1x (17:24)
In the Spotlight: 1x (38:49)
I Have no Clue: 1x (36:57)
Stuck: 1x (25:52)
Gorgeous: 1x (38:36)
Take a Bow: 1x (47:04)
Shouting: 1x (03:19)
Alexa: 1x (20:51)
Let's Take Stock: 1x (25:11)
That's Huge: 1x (42:55)
Have a Think: 1x (46:15)
Unique: 1x (00:49)
Weird: 1x (34:12)
Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video:
Ten (6 mentions)
One (63 mentions)
Green (30 mentions)
Antithesis Battles:
Even (6) - Odd (0)
Higher (4) - Lower (2)
Outside (2) - Inside (0)
Row (9) - Column (8)
FAQ:
Q1: You missed something!
A1: That could very well be the case! Human speech can be hard to understand for computers like me! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn!
Q2: Can you do this for another channel?
A2: I've been thinking about that and wrote some code to make that possible. Let me know which channel you think would be a good fit!
I finished in 44:02 minutes. This was such a solid puzzle. Every Shintaro puzzle that I have done has been fantastic. I really liked the way the arrows worked in this puzzle. They felt very powerful and gave me a quick start and I was able to get several digits in just 4 minutes. I think my favorite part was the maneuver in the bottom right, where the loop had to cut off the bottom right non-loop from escaping. I look forward to more. Great Puzzle!
I like when Simon tried to rule 9 out of row 4 column 9 instead of easily ruling out the 6 by the exact same logic!
16:53 "My boot-scootin' baby is drivin' me crazy, my obsession from a western, my dancefloor date. My rodeo romeo, a cowboy god from head to toe, gonna make you mine, better get in line..."
Simon's refusal to do pencil marks and simple sudoku is just making life harder for him.
At one point he stares for 30+ seconds and sees nothing, meanwhile there are several places in the puzzle where sudoku would have ruled out certain values and where pencil marks would have revealed solutions. And once he starts doing pencil marks and sudoku, suddenly a flow of solutions start, yet he learns nothing. At one point he does a bunch of solutions and says "and this rules out the 1 here" and I'm like "no, the 1 that you put in the column five minutes ago ruled that out, but you refused to do sudoku!"
I'm amazed at how fast he starts putting in values once the puzzle breaks, and yet at other times he's too stubborn to just do simple sudoku and instead is looking for unsolved riddles.
It's because he keeps making this joke about 'not having to do Sudoku'. He actually doesn't want to do it.
Yeah, the sudoku is not what's fun for him. Doing variant sudoku every day for 6 years, it's clearly the variant parts that keep it fun. :) (And even still you can tell he wants to do more non-sudoku puzzles, but is struggling with how less effective those likely are at drawing in new viewers to the channel.)
@@EricMill Yes, and especially when he can find a reason to use colorage, which he leaves in place way after they have served their purpose, making the screen a complete mess.
45:31 - What a fabulous puzzle - I really like the logic of loops and snakes and this one was very enjoyable.
Being this early to a video after just rediscovering my need for sudoku from one of your videos a day before is incredible
Lovely puzzle.. had a lot of time solving it.. especially spotting the 34 constraint in column 1 and getting the 3 in the corner to complete the loop!
38 minutes! A lovely puzzle for me with very logical constraints
Good puzzle, thanks. Interesting how the loop resolves itself with so few clues and without the need to look ahead very far.
Do not apologise. It was my second favourite time I’ve ever been Rickrolled.
Never apologise for a good joke 😂 loved it
Brilliant and very exciting puzzle and not as difficult as I thought at the beginning.
A different way to get the 9 in r4c9 that I personally like better is to think about where 6 goes in the funny shaped 9-region. The two given 6s force it into row 4, eliminating 6 from r4c9, and that's available as soon as you finish the loop!
Simon's time was only 35 minutes. I really don't know why he doesn't restart the puzzles before beginning the solve as Mark always does, especially with such long introductions.
Simon spends so much time explaining things to viewers that his solve time is never a good reflection of his ability or form.
35:08 finish. I hit a bit of a wall and had to go back and re-read the rules early on. For some reason I was looking to make each non-loop region a different size. This, of course, quickly broke and I was able to backtrack. Fun fun fun!
00:35:47 for me. Yay, got it done before the live stream with 5 minutes to spare. (Great puzzle as well!) Kind comment.
Loop puzzles are my favourite, this was very satisfying to attempt
27:19 fantastic puzzle all through
Row 1 column 1 is the finest cell in this puzzle.
It was a beautiful rickrolling, truly. 😁
I've never been this early to a video before!! I'm definitely pausing everything to do this sudoku!
I didn't get to it right away because I had to parent. But I just finished, and my time was 33:06! Very nice!
following the snake "loop" was fun
Fabulous puzzle
Always a pleasure
Thank you, Sir
Nice to know that I'm not the only one who kept forgetting that the arrows are supposed to indicate thernos 😅
Never apologize for a Rick Roll 🤣
37:09 great puzzle, loop logic is simple but nontrivial
26:37, was thinking about how little the thermo clues did at the end right before noticing I didn't finish using the thermo clue in the lower left corner and was able to disambiguate the puzzle because of it.
22:15 ... I fared better on this one than yesterday's 'Simon' sudoku
Nice puzzle!
14:23 for me. Very fun puzzle!!
26:22 for me, really satisfying puzzle
Forgot about the rule that digits should increase as seen by arrow in the loop,it was a good solve after that
21:03 for me, I messed pretty badly at the very beginning, but besides that it was smooth sailing
Have you tried Clover's Spiky? I managed it in less than a minute. I was stunned. So much fun!
24:23 for me. That was a fun one!
Lovely puzzly puzzle. Perfect amount of difficulty for me :)
Where do you find these?
53:50. Pretty chuffed.
Great fun! Solved in 37 min.
I completely agree with Simon's comment between 17:40 and 18:10. While I have an astounding amount of admiration for setters who devise difficult puzzles, I get no enjoyment from a lot of them because I can't solve them. Simon mentions puzzles that take about 40 minutes to solve, and this is a good description of ones that I like (although they take me twice as long!). But looking at a puzzle, thinking 'I know there's a clue that I will see eventually' is so different to looking at it and not having a clue, so giving up. I do read comments linked to some harder puzzles and it's clear that some people do enjoy those videos and puzzles, but I am glad the channel hasn't become a 'try to find the hardest puzzle and solve it' every day. You need to include puzzles with a range of difficulties to encourage new viewers.
Love your videos. Just stumbled upon them. But I dont quite get the "3 in the corner" thing ^^ can someone explain it to me?
The American band R.E.M. had a hit with a song in the early 90’s (1991?) called “Losing My Religion” (off the album Out Of Time). It contains the lyric “that’s me in the corner, that’s me in the spotlight losing my religion”.
When filling in a sudoku Simon and Mark used to say “that’s three in the corner” which sounds like the lyric from the R.E.M. song. And it has sort of grown from that.
This is the song.
ruclips.net/video/xwtdhWltSIg/видео.htmlsi=zc1zUTXop0F75pmG
Solved in 20:27 !
When explaining orthogonal: Everybody and their grandmother know what diagonal is, just explain othorgonal as "the opposite of diagonal: instead of cells sharing a point, theyshare an edge" and skip the drawing it out. Saves you the hassle of going all out three / four times a week and the time adds up (plus everybody that watches the channel more than once every three or so months, no longer has to skip through those 15 seconds of explaining something trivial).
32:04, quite a nice little puzzle.
36:19 for me
nice puzzle
Thiis was ood, not too hard, still fun to watch.
2nd video in a row where I have a hard time hearing you speak. Had to install a youtube volume booster. Is it possible that the volume is lower than before?
It sounds like the regular volume here, not too quiet at all.
What a fun puzzle!
Excellent puzzle
17:20 for me. not that hard, despite my awful start.
Awesome puzzle!
19:17 for me
I'm not seeing how 8 is eliminated from r4c9…
It's because the 8 had to be in row 3 of that box.
30:30 for me.
solved in 77:37!!
Cool. 31:56
39:59 for me and solver #2798.
Génial!!!!
I cannot do the puzzles you solve Simon, but my god, your scanning is terrible!
There is a guy name Dallas that has a RUclips channel called Tekken realm I think, he ended up getting the world's record for rick-rolling the most celebrities in 24 hours I think, any way, he Rick-rolled Rick himself, and was in turn Rick-rolled by Rick. Seems he's a good sport about it :)
20:44 for me