Nurikabe
Japanese Logic Puzzles #1
Mcreaser is a big fan of geocaching. He's also a fan of
Japanese-style logic puzzles, and so, he thought, why not put them
together?
Everyone knows about the archetypal Japanese logic puzzle,
Sudoku. Less well known, but equally rewarding, are some of the
other puzzles made popular in Japan, particularly in the puzzle
magazine, Nikoli. To find this cache, you must solve the
following moderately difficult Nurikabe puzzle.
Like all such puzzles, there is software available to
automatically solve Nurikabe.
Please do not use a computer
program to solve this puzzle. The goal of this series is
to introduce geocachers to other logic challenges, and using
computer software defeats that purpose. The above puzzle is not
overly difficult and can be solved inside of 15 minutes once you've
learned the rules.
You can learn more about Nurikabe from
Wikipedia.
There is also a short tutorial on solving Nurikabe at
Nikoli.
Once you have completed the puzzle, you may find the coordinates
using the following formula. Consider the rows and columns to
number from 1 - 15, starting in the upper-left corner.
N 44 40.ABC W 63 40.DEF
- A = (# of black squares in row 4) - (# of black squares in row
10)
- B = (# of white squares in row 13) - (# of white squares in row
1)
- C = (# of white squares in row 3)
- D = (# of white squares in row 2)
- E = (# of white squares in column 4) - (# of white squares in
column 3)
- F = (# of black squares in column 5)
The cache is a small camoed lock-n-lock (suitable for small
trade items) and should be an easy find once the coordinates are in
hand. It is roughly 20m from the trail and should be winter
friendly. Please close the lid tightly and replace the cache
exactly as found.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on
Geochecker.com.