XWord Muggles Forum

As Mike Miller mentioned on Monday (that's hard to say!) Patrick Berry has dropped a series of nine of his amazing variety puzzles at A-Frame Games. You can download all nine from aframegames.com for only $15 via PayPal, $5 of which goes to a COVID relief fund. Now there is a win-win!
I just finished the first one, "Opening Line." Apparently they build upon each other!

Just bought and printed it. My printer prints in reverse order, so the first thing I saw was the last page, which is an insane looking bonus crossword. Can't wait to get to that one!

Love doing Patrick's variety puzzles on Saturdays. Now with this set, I am good for the next 9 weeks! It's a great deal at $15.

I got it last week. I've only done two, but they are really fun and challenging!

I kept seeing this mentioned all over the place. Finally gave in. I’ve done the first 2, which were lovely, of course!

The third one was tough! 4th not too hard. Loved the last step.

I’ve been working on these here and there between other puzzles and loving them.
I’m a little stuck on #6 (Chain of Command) though. I’m not sure that I fully understand the directions. Every time I think I do I get roadblocked. Anyone who has done it and could chat with me about it?

Dannyvee wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 5:05 pm I’ve been working on these here and there between other puzzles and loving them.
I’m a little stuck on #6 (Chain of Command) though. I’m not sure that I fully understand the directions. Every time I think I do I get roadblocked. Anyone who has done it and could chat with me about it?

Yes, happy to help. I have done these in the past and below is one from August, 2019 by Patrick. My highlights are a bit hard to see, but the darker purple shows where the turns are being made. Please reach out if you have any questions.

auee89 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 5:56 pm

Yes, happy to help. I have done these in the past and below is one from August, 2019 by Patrick. My highlights are a bit hard to see, but the darker purple shows where the turns are being made. Please reach out if you have any questions.

Also, I have seen all of these formats before except for Number 1 and the Bonus Puzzle and am happy to answer questions about these as well.

Thanks! I guess my confusion was whether or not the letter that gets turned on is used by both directions. Looks like it is. Much appreciated

In #2 I was thinking the entries could go anywhere, which made me baffled as to how y'all were finding it at all doable. I'm starting to think that reading the instructions may be called for with these.

(Daunted, I had written a program that will solve puzzles of the sort that I thought this one was, so long as you have all the correct entries -- it basically works like you're solving a jigsaw puzzle from a corner, trying every possible piece as the upper-left corner, and then every possible next piece. That turned out to be doubly a waste of time, as not only was I wrong about the rules, but also I had several incorrect guesses.)

Hector wrote: ↑Thu Apr 01, 2021 3:24 pm In #2 I was thinking the entries could go anywhere, which made me baffled as to how y'all were finding it at all doable. I'm starting to think that reading the instructions may be called for with these.

Yes, me too; sometimes I am so eager to get started that I just jump in without reading the instructions. I did #3 today and I don't think I've ever seen a variety puzzle of that type before. Took me a while to figure out that not all the blocks were the same size: some were 8 squares, some were 10. Which, of course, was explained fully in the directions, I later figured out!

Mr. Berry might have indicated in the instructions for #4 that the semicircular end-caps take letters as well as the grid squares.

#6 gave me fits. But finally figured it out. My brain hurts. I think I'll do #7 in a few days to recuperate!

I bought it yesterday and finished the 8th one at about 3 this morning. So rewarding... awe-inspiring, and worth every penny.

What an incredible suite, and a most perfect and satisfying final answer. This man is not human.

Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Tue Mar 30, 2021 11:54 am As Mike Miller mentioned on Monday (that's hard to say!) Patrick Berry has dropped a series of nine of his amazing variety puzzles at A-Frame Games. You can download all nine from aframegames.com for only $15 via PayPal, $5 of which goes to a COVID relief fund. Now there is a win-win!
I just finished the first one, "Opening Line." Apparently they build upon each other!

Wendy
He says that you can do the first 8 in any order but the last one depends on getting the first 8. Maine Marge and I are collaborating. apparently you also get the answers and I told her to give the file to her husband and under no circumstances let us have it before July 4

I may regret that.

Wendy, thanks for posting. I’m familiar with all of these formats from PB’s puzzles that appear as variety puzzles in the WSJ. As they say, “But wait, there’s more” - these are his standards on steroids! Rebus squares, adding and subtracting letters, letters outside the grid, pointers to other letters, lions and tigers and bears, oh my! [spoiler/]

Hector wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 7:07 pm Mr. Berry might have indicated in the instructions for #4 that the semicircular end-caps take letters as well as the grid squares.

THANK YOU!

I did 3 beautiful, elegant, fun, challenging puzzles. Then I got a whole lotta whaaaa?!?!? when making crosses on #4. This should help immensely....

Finished. Can hardly, er, contain myself. And liked it more and more as I got more on his wavelength.

Joe Ross's Excel technique proved to be a god-send in solving most of these. Without that, I'd be ankle-deep in eraser dust. Thanks, Joe!

With much effort I finished all of these. I am astonished at Patrick Berry's accomplishment here: everything fit together so neatly, like nesting Russian dolls There were a lot of challenges along the way, and they required a lot of meta-like thinking. I felt very pleased with myself when I finally saw through all the twists and traps and completed the final puzzle. Bravo!

I’ll echo others: a slog but so worth it in the end. I can’t imagine the amount of time he must have put into getting this whole thing so cohesive and polished.