An Astonishing Debut

Today sees an astonishing debut on the channel for Memeristor with a puzzle called Horseshoes and Handgrenades. This is worth every minute you can spend on it. Play the puzzle at the following link:

Rules:
Normal sudoku rules apply. Along purple lines, digits must form a sequence of non-repeating consecutive digits, in any order. Along thermometers, digits must increase from the bulb end. Cells separated by an X must contain digits summing to 10. Not all possible Xs are given.

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▶SOFTWARE◀
Play the puzzle in the video by clicking the link under the video (above). We are building a website which will allow you to enter your own sudoku puzzles into the software and this is coming soon!

▶Logo Design◀
Melvyn Mainini

▶ABOUT US◀
Hi! We're Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe, two of the UK's most enthusiastic puzzle solvers. We have both represented the UK at the World Sudoku Championships and the World Puzzle Championships.

Thank you for watching!
Simon and Mark

[PurpleSidewalk]

Memeristor here

Thank you so much for the feature! I am a long time follower of the channel and especially of Simon (I watch Mark often but I watch every Simon video). I'm honestly thrilled that I got to be even more excited when you started getting excited about the logic! It makes my day whenever you show such passion for these puzzles and seeing you discover the logic in my own is incredibly heart warming.

Mark had actually done one of my puzzles beforehand, but it was my first puzzle ever and wasn't a very impressive one 😅 I'm happy for this to be the debut instead.

[KestrelQ]

"I was about to say "no" because this cell hasn't got the same orange-ness as its counterpart here, but I don't need orange-ness to do it, this square can't be a 1 or a 9 by sudoku-ness" - I love Simon xD

[ryandavis]

Simon, here in the States, we still play this horseshoes as a backyard event (there is a pro league as well). Depending on the rules played by, scoring happens when you get a "ringer" 3 points (shoe completely around the stake, "leaner" 2 points (shoe leans against the stake), or point 1 point (shoe is within a horseshoe's distance of the stake).

[travholt]

I think the thermometers are supposed to be the hand grenades. Some of the older models had long handles for throwing.

[superdan]

The phistomefel ring at the beginning in conjunction with the renban lines in the corners proved that there is no 1 or 9 in the ring.

[thorns]

One thing I notice, that Simon worked around (and did not give me a full in anyway) is that the 10-domino will create a boundary for the four length renban line when they share box.

So the 10-domino can't be 3-7, because that would only leave 456 for the renban line. So the 10 dominos that share a box with a four cell renban line has to be 19 or 28,

[johabee]

This is my favourite kind of puzzle: it creates a complete new world to explore, discover its wonders and secrets, and after completing it, it feels like I've travelled and am back home with great memories, looking back at how marvellous that was.

[fanyaugusts]

It took me some 3 hours to get this sudoku done. Then I sat and watched the master doing it some 30 minutes. Amazing job, Simon.

[kimberlypreston]

Simon, I soooo look forward to your videos. Sometimes your puzzles are the only thing that makes sense in the world! <3

[peterkelley]

Simon, you got the saying 100% correct. It fit for society 100 years ago. As a contemporary twist on it I've added Close only counts with Horseshoes, Hand-grenades, and Atomic Bombs ...

[tanadienwhiteowl]

The phistamfel ring was in line with the squares in that they were all in order. Box 1 was in row 3, box 2 was in column 7, etc., around the grid. I almost looked like he wanted it to be used as somewhat of a troll almost. Great job as always, Simon.

[amoswittenbergsmusings]

Just one comment: great show tonight! Great debut, great solve, beautiful logic. Way above my pay grade, so sit back and enjoy time. It does give me the itch to try and set a puzzle.

[inspiringsand]

Rules: 04:25
Let's get cracking: 06:28

And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
Useless: 5x (16:48, 16:54, 30:39, 32:53, 43:05)
Beautiful: 5x (03:26, 28:17, 28:40, 37:18, 37:39)
By sudoku: 5x (22:03, 24:28, 27:28, 27:57, 42:58)
Good Grief: 4x (28:14, 28:40, 33:20, 48:17)
Clever: 4x (20:19, 49:42, 49:45, 49:58)
Brilliant: 4x (00:37, 49:28, 50:37, 50:37)
Sorry: 3x (25:37, 33:16, 40:03)
You Rotten Thing: 3x (39:39, 46:30, 46:31)
Lovely: 3x (46:11, 49:39, 50:35)
Deadly Pattern: 3x (22:14, 22:38, 49:11)
Naked Single: 2x (48:15, 48:56)
Horrible Feeling: 2x (17:26, 41:35)
Incredible: 2x (03:17, 49:30)
Surely: 2x (38:34, 38:36)
Goodness: 1x (48:01)
The Answer is: 1x (11:09)
Out of Nowhere: 1x (48:15)
Maverick: 1x (21:34)
I Have no Clue: 1x (31:10)
Fascinating: 1x (18:51)
Elegant: 1x (22:19)
Nori Nori: 1x (37:55)

FAQ:
Q1: What is a Simarkism?
A1: A Simarkism is something that Simon and Mark typically or frequently say.
Q2: How do you do this so fast?
A2: I'm not made of flesh and blood, but of sand ...
Q3: Why don't you include 'XX' and 'YY'?
A3: Probably it's already on the list ('Scooby-Doo' for example), but not mentioned in this video. But if you think it's not, tell me what you'd like me to include and there's a good chance I'll add it!
Q4: You missed 'XX' at 'YY:ZZ'!
A4: That could very well be the case! Human speech is hard to understand for computers like me, especially British sometimes! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn!
Q5: Could you turn these statistics into videos?
A5: I've been playing around with the idea and I'm open to input as to what people would like to see. Let me know if you are interested in this and/or have suggestions.

[theashen]

Wow, this just kept surprising me with its ingenuity. Really found it hard, but kept chipping away, and the setting was just so stunning at times. Fantastic.

[alienrenders]

50:26 for me. Liked the interaction with the 3's and 7's as they can't both go in the 4 cell bands. Unfortunately, Simon didn't look at the X's. If they're in the same box as a 4 cell band, they can't be 46 or 37 because that wouldn't leave four consecutive digits. I used the Phisto ring to eliminate 19 from all the center X's. I actually got all the beginning interactions and got fairly deep in the puzzle. Got stuck at the end disambiguating all the pairs.

edit: Ah, I missed the logic in box 8. I never got the 38 pair. That would have broken the puzzle open for me.

[shashankjodge]

These are the kinds puzzles that make us love sudoku and Simon solving sudoku!

[BeaDSM]

I love how kind you are to this Simon character; makes for some lovely listening.

[scragar]

RE: what you know about a 4 cell purple line is that the total must be 4x+2. Or to put it another way it must be even but not a multiple of 4.
No idea if that is ever needed, but it's worth remembering.
You can confirm that easily enough by just considering the lowest 4 digit sum: 1+2+3+4 = 10 = 4*2+2; and since every consecutive sum is 4 more than the previous one they must all follow the pattern.

[erikburman]

Very nice puzzle! I did struggle with solve tremendously. Almost ninety minutes and now my brain hurts. Nice one, Memeristor!

[ethanchoo]

I think the thermos are the handgrenades and the short renbans are the horseshoe posts.