What are some top logic/proof/puzzle games for puzzle enthusiasts?

[mattmns]

Hello everyone. Just curious about some of your favorite logic/proof/puzzle games. For example minesweeper is a great proof game imo. However, I have self proclaimed myself as being a king of minesweeper logic, and therefore am looking for a new game to master. All suggestions welcome.

 

[neurocomp2003]

haha what are your fastest minesweeper times for Int and exp. mine are 28-33(can't remmeber the exact number and 75

Bridge is a good logic game. mmm spades is also ok

oh and my favorite chinese mahjong-shanghai rules...not the mahjong as portrayed in windows or in most online versions...but the ones played in real life.
And i repeat hongkong/cantonese/western mahjong rules suck!. Taiwanese rules are ok its like a larger version of rummy.

 

[hypatia]

Mastermind

I play this one sometimes, its kind of fun...somewhere is a group mastermind game too.

 

[mattmns]

My minesweeper times for int: 27, exp: 92. Yes they are not the best, in fact they can hardly compare to the times at http://metanoodle.com/minesweeper/ However, I meant I have mastered the minesweeper logic as in proving every move, except for those damn 50/50 guesses, and a few other situations. I am terrible in how I play in the sense of time. I usually play to win rather than for fast times. Although I believe there is a ton of logic in playing for speed, I am terrible at following the rules: ie, I mark mines too much, rather than just when it will save clicks.

I have played a bit of spades, always wanted to try out bridge, I will check that out. I guess I should really continue practicing chess, but I seem to be terrible at it lol. I will check out Mastermind in a second, thanks both of you!

edit... I remember mastermind now

 

[neurocomp2003]

lol you mark the mines...yeah there is a lot more logic explored when your racing at a faster pace...because there is things you just see instantly but you would be like man if i was any slower i wouldn't have seen it.

Master mind is a good kids game =]...i wish had that to play with my niece and yes chess it a good game but i don't have the patience or tension span. p lus to be great oyu got to learn all those past games.

 

[neurocomp2003]

jesus there are some people with sub 50 on exp...must be a lot of time spent clicking for big areas. wish i new about this site when i was at the height of my minesweeper game...would be nice because its got better scores then some of the ones I've seen. HAHHA and some people have 1 on beginner what are they doing playing 320x280 screen size?

 

[mattmns]

Yeah I have tried no marking for expert but I just get lost after a while and end up being slower. Also, I think that certain things should be marked, because with the middle click you can take advantage. The problem is that once I mark one thing I end up marking everything. However, my best intermediate is one in where I did not flag.

edit... lol 1 on beginner is just asbolute luck, or click, f2, click, f2, click, f2, click, f2, click, f2, click, f2, click, f2, click, f2, click, f2, click, f2, ...


edit2... That site has videos too lol, I will admit that I have recorded a few of my games

 

[mattmns]

Hey I just beat expert w/o flagging, 171 seconds, a start though

 

[neurocomp2003]

=] try not to think so much and go around the borders of areas and clean them out. The faster you go the more assumptions/estimations you can make.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I enjoy chess and go, chess problems too. I also like crytograms.

 

[Yank]

Connect four counts, right? I love that game because it's simple and quick but can take a lot of thinking/planning.

 

[mattmns]

Go looks interesting, thanks for the suggestion!

Connect 4 is a good game. The one that comes with most linux distros, or I should say gnome, is very difficult to beat.

 

[whozum]

Bahaha, the resident minesweeper king has arrived.
Beginner: 2 seconds
Intermediate: 19 seconds
Expert: 74 seconds

Greatest game ever, I'm playing right now.

 

[mattmns]

Yeah, yeah. I am working on lowering my score. It would help if I was not so damn jumpy with the mouse.

 

[whozum]

The cool thing with minesweeper is not only does it take intelligence to figure out strategies, it also takes quickness and efficiency to solve it quicker. The first time I beat expert it took me 800 seconds. Now I beat it 10 times faster, since I know a lot more. A while ago I thought there was no way I could beat 150, I'm so proud of myself .

 

[mattmns]

Yeah I honestly thought I was the king of the game until I checked out that website. From there I started learning the logic behind the game. Playing it slow until I could solve each game with very few or no guesses at all, which is where I am at now. Also what has come from this is a bit of where to click logic which is important too. Personally I need to find a good mix of flagging and using the middle click and not flagging, because right now I am slow because I flag too much.

 

[whozum]

Yeah I honestly thought I was the king of the game until I checked out that website. From there I started learning the logic behind the game. Playing it slow until I could solve each game with very few or no guesses at all, which is where I am at now. Also what has come from this is a bit of where to click logic which is important too. Personally I need to find a good mix of flagging and using the middle click and not flagging, because right now I am slow because I flag too much.

I've noticed if I play a cuople games of intermediate without flagging, I finish in the upper 20s lower 30s. Then if I switch to expert and alternate flagging/nonflagging I get through the game much quicker ( I usually die before finishing )

 

[darkar]

Go(aka iGo) is really a nice game. It has a history of thousands years ago. It needs logical thinking and strategies. Besides, u will be trained to be patient. If u have some time, it will be really worth trying.

 

[neurocomp2003]

flaggin? you don't need to flag...the maps aren't very huge. What resolution size do you guys play at/and height of desk...i find these to be the most importnat ppt while playing mindsweeper it easier to play at 800x600 but i didn't like to change my resolution size. My desk is now to high and kills my wrist/and i can't move faster...i should lower it but I got 2 monitors stacked on and its going to fall.

Not a big fan of GO...i prefer chinese chess and connect 5. BTW i hat ethe horse in western chess. horse rules in chinese chess are much better...

 

[whozum]

I play on 1280x1024. I usually end up not flagginga bout 30 mines out of the 99, but I'm tryin to get it closer to half and half. I've won entire games without flagging usually in the 90 second range, but some (that I've lost) were close to the 60s.

 

[mattmns]

I play on 1280 x 1024 too. I just recently changed my mouse speed to see if it helps. No major difference so far.

 

[mattmns]

Just found a video of an int 31 I did. You all can see how slow I am and how I make numerous mistakes

http://img222.echo.cx/my.php?image=minesweeper31test10pl.swf

edit... after watching it a few times, I think I need to definitely stop moving the mouse to middle click for just a single square.

 

[neurocomp2003]

don't middle click...tap both mouse buttons...same effect...i find middle clicking is unnatural to my brain...
try playing at 800x600...i go really fast because my mouse movements are more precise because of the larger boxes

 

[neurocomp2003]

gj...now only if you can do that on exp..i get about 31 on int..thogh my best before was 25..i hate formatting it ruins all the nice scores.

 

[mattmns]

Ha, tapping both is unnatural to my brain

You are right though, I really need to re work how I actually play (mouse-wise) altogether.

 

[Persefone]

gj...now only if you can do that on exp..i get about 31 on int..thogh my best before was 25..i hate formatting it ruins all the nice scores.

that's really good judgments neuralcomp2003 :thumsup:

 

[whozum]

I have videos of myself beating expert in the 70s, when I watch them they look really slow, I guess its in the heat-of-the-moment while playing things seem to be going really f ast. I find relaxing while playing and not paying too much attention to the game helps. I'll upload them later, or better yet take newer videos, as those are bout a year old and I've learned a lot since then


http://www.public.asu.edu/~hyousif/minesweeper.avi"

You'll notice I miss a lot of clicks or accidentally flag the wrong square.. that's probably my biggest problem. I usually don't do it this much but this isn't my computer and the mouse movement is different.

http://www.metanoodle.com/minesweeper/TSCC.exe"

 

[neurocomp2003]

how do you record?

 

[mattmns]

I record with Camtasia: http://www.techsmith.com/products/studio/default.asp


whozum how many times do you middle, or double, click? You seem to play almost exactly how I play, except you are much quicker

 

[whozum]

I record with Camtasia: http://www.techsmith.com/products/studio/default.asp


whozum how many times do you middle, or double, click? You seem to play almost exactly how I play, except you are much quicker

I'm flagging and double clicking a lot more on this computer since I have a harder time controlling the mouse, I usually average about 30 mines unflagged by the end of the game, in the one I posted above I had only 18.

 

[whozum]

Look at http://www.public.asu.edu/~hyousif/dsss.avi" disappointment I just had

 

[mattmns]

OUCH!

here is an almost 28 I had a second ago, this was actually quite clean with only a few mistakes, still too many though

http://img137.echo.cx/my.php?image=28nope1ag.swf

 

[whozum]

Not bad at all, the only thing I notice is that you don't look ahead of what your doing. Try to think a couple clicks in advance, and try to predict what will come. For example if I flag and double click, I double click the square that's about to open if its probable that its a 1, this saves a lot of time and also opens up more possibilities.

You're thinking is impressive though.

 

[neurocomp2003]

i blame you gyus for getting me into minesweeper...score 84 on exp today wee and 32 in int

 

[neurocomp2003]

nooo i hit the resest button...ARGGH don't they ask if your sure to reset!

 

[neurocomp2003]

woot 28 on int.

 

[neurocomp2003]

woohoo sorry for posting so many but i just topped another 26 on int.. noiw my wrist hurts...and whozum and mattsn its all your fault =] i'll goback to exp now.

 

[neurocomp2003]

exp 79 sec..now i stop...what a waste of 2 hours =]

 

[whozum]

Minesweeper is extremely addictive. But I have trouble believing that you beat expert in under 100 seconds afer playing for just 2 hours. It took me about a year to get to the 70s

 

[neurocomp2003]

umm I've been playing minesweeper on/off for like 9 years ...heh realized I should have said getting me into minesweeper again...i stopped playign for over a 2yrs.

 

[mattmns]

lol, beating expert in under 100 in 2 hrs with no experience, that would be quite a feat! Great job neurocomp! You guys are getting me back into minesweeper again too, I had started playing m$ hearts instead of minesweeper.

 

[whozum]

Eh, hearts is fun, but its not a pure challenge like minesweeper is. I used to play minesweeper about 3 hours a night when I couldn't sleep, 1am - 4am. That was months ago, its been a while since I've played, but I've reached all my records that I held back then, now I just have to break em.

Im interested in seeing more videos of you guys playing expert.

 

[mattmns]

I will work on some tomorrow morning, I am tired now :zzz:

 

[neurocomp2003]

got a 2mb avi file...i just did now for exp 97s...don't know how to post though.
btw the double click kills me now...i use to be really fast wiht just the left button but i rely so much on the double click now.

 

[mattmns]

If you used camtasia you can make the movie a flash video, and then host it on www.imageshack.us granted that it is less than 1mb. Split the video into a few parts, or lower the quality, I think 10 fps is good.

 

[neurocomp2003]

bah too much thought involved...if you got msn or email i can send it t hough there

 

[mattmns]

lol here are some things you should know about camtasia.

Once you have finished recording, you save it. Then it opens up camtasia and plays the video. You can stop that, or watch it. But what you should do is right click on the little preview thing in the middle and choose add to timeline. Then drag points and right click and cut selection so you have just the video you want. Then choose produce video, swf (macromedia flash), 10 fps, do not encode audio, and everything else is fine.

I almost had a new record a few ago, although it would have not been much better.

http://img105.echo.cx/my.php?image=minesexpalmost0ud.swf

my email is: mattmns {at} gmail {dot} com

 

[C0nfused]

What about Rubik's cube? I saw that nobody mentioned it. I suggest it to anyone looking for a good mind-game. There are many technics to discover while solving it and there are even tournaments and a world championship for the fastest cube-solvers! I found it really hard to beat but if you are really into this kind of games, you may enjoy it and even if you solve it easily there are many things to discover,as I have already mentioned (although if you are into these games,you will probably have already solved Rubik's cube!)

 

[whozum]

lol here are some things you should know about camtasia.

Once you have finished recording, you save it. Then it opens up camtasia and plays the video. You can stop that, or watch it. But what you should do is right click on the little preview thing in the middle and choose add to timeline. Then drag points and right click and cut selection so you have just the video you want. Then choose produce video, swf (macromedia flash), 10 fps, do not encode audio, and everything else is fine.

I almost had a new record a few ago, although it would have not been much better.

http://img105.echo.cx/my.php?image=minesexpalmost0ud.swf

my email is: mattmns {at} gmail {dot} com

I thought it was really cool that I followed your train of thought almost exactly. You did everything that I thought to do right after I thought it. I love how calmly you play, but I think you had a few lucky guesses that helped you out there :)

 

[whozum]

What about Rubik's cube? I saw that nobody mentioned it. I suggest it to anyone looking for a good mind-game. There are many technics to discover while solving it and there are even tournaments and a world championship for the fastest cube-solvers! I found it really hard to beat but if you are really into this kind of games, you may enjoy it and even if you solve it easily there are many things to discover,as I have already mentioned (although if you are into these games,you will probably have already solved Rubik's cube!)

I'm very intimindated by Rubik's cubes. I think they would rock me, too scared to try.