[HN Gopher] Nonograms - Japanese Crosswords
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       Nonograms - Japanese Crosswords
        
       Author : clouddrover
       Score  : 82 points
       Date   : 2023-09-16 08:08 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nonograms.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nonograms.org)
        
       | Avshalom wrote:
       | I stick to good all Simon Tatham
       | 
       | https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/js/patt...
       | 
       | (also available in most linux distros and both the android and
       | apple stores)
        
         | mdtrooper wrote:
         | Simon Tatham is a small group of people that I want to meet and
         | invite to beers and torreznos
         | (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torreznos).
         | 
         | It is awesome his collection of puzzle games. There is android
         | version in
         | https://f-droid.org/es/packages/name.boyle.chris.sgtpuzzles/ .
        
         | joeframbach wrote:
         | Would be nice if I could keep tapping multiple times on a
         | single cell to iterate through the states. Would make it mobile
         | friendly with the least invasive changes to the existing UI.
        
           | Avshalom wrote:
           | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.boyle.chr.
           | .. works like that.
        
       | berenddeperend wrote:
       | Nonograms are great! I created a multiplayer co-op nonogram
       | browser game that works with websockets, it was a lot of fun to
       | create. https://berendswennenhuis.nl/nonogram/
        
         | whoopsie wrote:
         | The top puzzles are penises.
        
           | berenddeperend wrote:
           | Users can make new puzzles by drawing pixel art, so I guess
           | it was unavoidable.
        
         | harryvederci wrote:
         | I like this. And as a Dutch guy, I like your user name.
        
       | CatAtHeart wrote:
       | Hungry Cat Nonogram [Google](https://play.google.com/store/apps/d
       | etails?id=com.tuesdayque...)
       | [iOS](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hungry-cat-
       | nonogram/id73774447...) was always my favorite of these as it had
       | full-color puzzles.
       | 
       | It was also called "Hungry Cat Picross" until Nintendo
       | trademarked "Picross" and went after everything branded with it.
       | This actually caused me to learn about the nonograms as I had
       | assumed the type of puzzle was always called picross.
        
         | BuenosNachos wrote:
         | I thought they've owned the trademark for 15+ years at this
         | point? That's part of the reason why Jupiter, the main dev for
         | Nintendo's picross games, can't use the name when they create a
         | picross game for a non-Nintendo system
         | 
         | That's why they had to use the awkward Logiart name for the
         | game they just published on Steam
        
         | aqme28 wrote:
         | Hungry Cat Nonogram uses a kind of numbering system that will
         | really annoy you if you're coming from a different nonogram
         | app.
        
       | gurchik wrote:
       | When Hurricane Irene left me with no power (and no wifi), I
       | played hundreds of these nonograms on my Kindle Keyboard 3rd Gen.
       | I was amazed by the battery life I could get even in a game that
       | required many screen refreshes. I had bought the Kindle only a
       | few days earlier, and the unlimited 3G access came in handy!
        
       | phforms wrote:
       | As a teenager, I loved solving Nonograms in puzzle magazines on
       | train rides or when I was bored, they are the perfect time
       | killer. Somehow I forgot about them but recently rediscovered
       | them through a Twitter post, which was a real pleasure.
       | 
       | The linked website seems to be very nice, especially since there
       | is a community aspect to it, where people can send in their own
       | puzzles (it seems like).
       | 
       | My recent goto app for Nonograms is https://nonograms-katana.com
       | , which works great on browsers and mobile alike with lots of
       | well thought-out features (e.g. it asks you if you want cells
       | automatically crossed out if a line is complete) and beautiful
       | artwork, good interaction, etc.
        
         | uoaei wrote:
         | This one was always my favorite app but I had to move to a
         | tablet once I got above 35x35 or so. Couldn't stand all the
         | scrolling around.
        
       | simonbarker87 wrote:
       | I'm not into puzzles at all and is one of the reasons I find
       | typical dev interviewing so frustrating, problems and puzzles are
       | not interchangeable afaic.
       | 
       | But my wife LOVES puzzles, her favourite type are nonograms.
       | She's spent many a long haul flight casually watching films while
       | really just devouring these things one after the other.
       | 
       | They all end up making a picture of some kind (as far as I can
       | tell anyway) so they scratch the itch of a logic puzzle and also
       | the feeling of something creative, revealing the image at the
       | end, be it a lions head, a windmill, landscape or whatever.
       | 
       | If you're into puzzles and haven't tried these I second hand
       | recommend it. Second hand since I can think of nothing worse than
       | these things but I enjoy seeing the satisfaction and enjoyment my
       | wife gets out of them. Them
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | dietr1ch wrote:
         | I find that both, puzzles and problems can pet your brain with
         | the reward of getting something right through reasoning. I
         | guess the joy you get from problems maybe stems from the
         | results or impact beyond the reasoning and solving part.
        
           | simonbarker87 wrote:
           | Exactly, the best part of a problem is the solution and its
           | positive impact. Also, a viable solution to a problem is to
           | go around it/avoid it. Since a puzzle (to me) has no tangible
           | impact/benefit the best solution is to simply go around
           | it/avoid it ... which apparently misses the point!
        
         | neontomo wrote:
         | I love this comment, probably because I relate so much. I enjoy
         | designing puzzles more than actually solving them. The one
         | exception is crosswords.
        
           | simonbarker87 wrote:
           | Interesting, I suppose the problem of creating the puzzle
           | gives the tangible outcome of knowing that you made something
           | for others to enjoy - which relates to the sibling comment to
           | this and my reply.
        
       | uoaei wrote:
       | One of my favorite kinds of puzzles, one of those I played so
       | long that I felt it necessary to build a solver in order to
       | formalize the (slow, manual) algorithms I was employing.
       | 
       | Once you get the hang of it, see if you can progress to Cross The
       | Streams[1], a variant with wildcards and also more constraints so
       | the solutions are at least achievable.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.gmpuzzles.com/blog/cross-the-streams-rules-
       | and-i...
        
       | willis936 wrote:
       | For the tiny intersection of HN users, nonogram enjoyers, and
       | people who own functioning 3DS: I highly suggest playing picross
       | 3D.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | tetha wrote:
       | If you have an itch to solve a few, https://griddlers.net has you
       | covered for just about a lifetime. Even huge multi-grid-puzzles,
       | triangle ones, colors, no colors.
        
       | sirlantis wrote:
       | Paint it Back (2013) was the first nonogram game I devoured and
       | still have a great memories of playing it by the pool.
       | 
       | https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1PjruB8wDLQ
       | 
       | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/paint-it-back-gameclub/id14915...
       | 
       | Less pretty but very functional app with near infinite content to
       | play these days is Nonograms Katana.
       | 
       | https://apps.apple.com/de/app/nonograms-katana/id1037710023?...
        
         | deaddodo wrote:
         | The android version of Katana looks _and_ functions a bit
         | better. I don 't know if the devs are just less informed or
         | just care less for iOS but, having made the switch recently,
         | it's a pretty drastic difference.
        
         | hadrien01 wrote:
         | Nonograms Katana also has a Web version: https://nonograms-
         | katana.com/play/
         | 
         | I use it almost daily on my laptop.
         | 
         | On my phone, I use Nonogram Galaxy. So much that my previous
         | phone has some of the app layout burned-in on the OLED screen.
        
       | aidenn0 wrote:
       | Aw man, there was an adventure game back in the day where you had
       | to solve a bunch of these, but the numbers were from an alien
       | script. Earlier in the game, you encounter a clock using the same
       | script, which if you didn't notice and record, you were going to
       | have a hard time.
       | 
       | Of course this being an old-school game, they specifically
       | disable the load/save feature as soon as you go into the puzzle
       | room.
        
       | philshem wrote:
       | The site isn't readable on my mobile device, so here is the
       | Wikipedia article for "nonogram", for others who don't know what
       | they area
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonogram
        
       | marcos-dv wrote:
       | Nonograms provide nice BW pictures, I love solving them through
       | general techniques such as Constraint Programming.
       | 
       | Nonograms solver through Python in Jupyter notebook using ampl
       | and highs mip solver:
       | 
       | https://colab.ampl.com/tags/mip.html#solving-a-nonogram-puzz...
        
         | mzl wrote:
         | See chapter 17 in https://www.gecode.org/doc-latest/MPG.pdf for
         | a description on how to solve it with regular expression
         | constraints using CP.
        
           | marcos-dv wrote:
           | Great material, thanks for the reference!
        
       | marban wrote:
       | Mario's Picross -- Highly recommended.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | drooopy wrote:
         | That game was a gateway drug!
        
         | ChrisClark wrote:
         | That's where I got hooked as a kid. And I've been solving them
         | ever since. Nonograms Katana on the Fold 3 with the S Pen is
         | amazing. For someone as addicted to them as me, it almost made
         | the price of the phone worth it in itself. Yeah, I'm a bit
         | crazy.
        
       | haunter wrote:
       | The Picross series on 3DS is perfect. The stylus makes the whole
       | solving as close to paper as possible with all the upsides of
       | being a digital game.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | jprete wrote:
       | Nonograms are not bad but I wouldn't consider them either
       | crosswords or puzzles. There's a cap on how much skill is needed
       | to solve one (of a reasonable size) based on the need to make a
       | solvable piece of art.
       | 
       | (Nonograms in general - without the need for a pictoral reward -
       | might well be NP hard or even able to encrypt information. I'm
       | not at all sure.)
        
         | bluepod4 wrote:
         | They're not crosswords. But they are _logic_ puzzles. Regarding
         | your skill cap comment, even children's jigsaw puzzles that
         | have 4 pieces are still considered puzzles lol.
         | 
         | Wikipedia says NP-complete under "Nonograms in computing".
         | 
         | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonogram
        
         | GuB-42 wrote:
         | They are definitely puzzles. But they are closer to sudoku than
         | crosswords in that no knowledge is required besides the rules
         | of the game.
         | 
         | As for the skill cap. It is the same for the Rubik's cube, once
         | you know the algorithms, solving it is straightforward. It
         | doesn't make it less of a puzzle. And if you want to up the
         | skill cap, time it (as in speed cubing).
        
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       (page generated 2023-09-17 23:00 UTC)