Mountain Vista Software News http://www.mountainvistasoft.com News and updates about Fathom It! and Battleship puzzles en-us Copyright 1998-2007 Mountain Vista Software. All rights reserved. webmaster@mountainvistasoft.com webmaster@mountainvistasoft.com Mountain Vista Software News http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/images/anifthm.gif http://www.mountainvistasoft.com 32 32 News and updates about about Fathom It! and Battleship puzzles Argentinian puzzle blog rich in Battleship puzzles (classic and variants) http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/omnibus.htm#internet-sites I stumbled upon this fine puzzle site the other day: Markelo's "Acertijos, juegos y pequeños enigmas" ("Riddles, Games, and Small Puzzle"). Although the site is in Spanish, it holds within in a delightful collection of Battleship puzzles, both classic puzzles and interesting variants (I used AltaVista's BabelFish translation service to translate any and all pages -- very helpful!).

Markelo mentions on several occasions that the Battleshipp genre is his favorite type of puzzle, something that is obvious when perusing his site. He publishes his own Battleship creations, including classic puzzles, and variants like cylindrical,wraparound, minesweeper, easy-as, foggy, single-fleet subset, two-ocean. If you enjoy battleship puzzles, this is a site to follow (you can subscribe to his RSS feed). ]]> Fri, 26 Jan 2007 13:29:00 GMT Fathom It! Battleship puzzle analyses translated into other languages http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/how_to_solve_battleship_puzzles.htm Solitaire Battleship analyses often have a chess problem-like beauty to them. Many people solve Battleship puzzles the way they eat salted peanuts: gobbling up puzzle after puzzle, solving a puzzle as quickly as possible and moving on to the next one without looking back.

This is a perfectly legitimate way to solve puzzles in general, and Battleship puzzles in particular. I must confess, however, that I will often solve the same puzzle again and again, trying to eke out the cleanest and most elegant solution.

You can find some of these analyses on MVS's website. Reading through them may offer insights into solving Battleship puzzles (I welcome any insights you may have!).

It was with pleasant surprise that I found that other websites had translated these Battleship analyses into other languages (German and Turkish). ]]> Tue, 28 Feb 2006 09:00:00 GMT LEGUP (Logic Engine for Grid-Using Puzzles) attempts to produce Battleship solver http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/omnibus.htm#legup The LEGUP project at the Rensselaer Department of Cognitive Science is an undergraduate research project whose objective is "to research and categorize various grid-based logic puzzles, with the intention of creating a formal system of 'grid logic' applicable to various puzzles of different formats".

One of the logic puzzles they are tackling is Solitaire Battleships. Check out the link on the MVS web site for more information. ]]> Tue, 28 Feb 2006 09:00:00 GMT Two Battleship variants, from the 13th PQRST Puzzle Championship, added to variants page http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/variations.htm#square_box PQRST is definitely a leader in publishing new and original Battleship variants. Here are two such variants from their 13th PQRST Puzzle Championship. These variants include: Square Box, and PQRST Letters. ]]> Six new Battleship variants, found on Diogen Russian puzzle site, added to variants page http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/variations.htm#triple_fleet Diogen, the Russian puzzle site, always includes a Battleship variant in its puzzle championships. We've added six new battleship variants from their 2003, 2004, and 2005 puzzle tournaments. These variants include: Triple Fleet, Observers, Boarding, Shuffled, Halves, and Laser Battleship variants.

]]> Constraint Programming and Battleship puzzles http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/omnibus.htm#constraint_programming Constraint programming is a programming paradigm in which a set of constraints that a solution must meet are specified rather than set of steps to obtain such a solution. It can be used for solving Battleship puzzles. I've added links to two interesting resources related to Constraint Programming and Solitaire Battleship puzzles.

]]> Full analysis of Fathom It! battleship puzzle (hard level #190) http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/solution/10-hard-190.htm Here's a full analysis of Fathom It!'s hard-level #190 puzzle. The analysis shows the battleship must reside along one specific row. Once that is established, the correct positioning is quick to follow. The rest is, as they say, just technique.

]]> GAMES Magazine now has an Internet web site http://www.gamesmagazine-online.com/ After many years in the coming, GAMES Magazine has finally created a web site of their own. For those who don't know, GAMES Magazine is a United States-based bimonthly magazine devoted to games and puzzles. The magazine is published ten issues a year; monthly, except January and June. Each issue contains reviews, articles, the Pencilwise section (pencil puzzles), and a contest. Hidden among the advertisements is usually a fake ad, which readers must spot. The cover of the magazine itself is usually a puzzle of some kind.

The Pencilwise section contains: Crossword puzzles, cryptic crosswords, word searches, cryptograms, math and logic puzzles, as well as other regular and periodic puzzles, including Solitaire Battleships.

Solitaire Battleship lovers should check out the Battleship solving guide on the resources page.

It was through GAMES Magazine that I first learned of Solitaire Battleship puzzles.

Check out this month's GAMES online contest. First prize is a free one-year subscription to Games Magazine.

]]> New Battleship variants added http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/whatsnew.htm I added two Battleship variants that featured in the last year's 13th World Puzzle Championship:

]]> Full analysis of a Fathom It! battleship puzzle (hard level #7) http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/solution/10-hard-7.htm Check out a full analysis of Fathom It!'s hard-level #7 puzzle. The analysis demonstrates a powerful solving rule commonly encountered when solving battleship puzzles. The rule states that, in a rectanglar area of 6x2 or 7x2 with an effective tally count of five and one, there must be two vertical ship segments.

]]> Full analysis of a Fathom It! battleship puzzle (hard level #9) http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/solution/10-hard-9.htm Check out a full analysis of Fathom It!'s hard-level #9 puzzle. The analysis alternatively uses direct or indirect logic to place the largest ship, (i.e., the battleship).

Check out the growing list of battleship puzzles analyses.

]]> The Russian on-line weekly puzzle magazine "Kig" carries 11x11 Battleship puzzles http://kig.tvpark.ua The Russian website, http://kig.tvpark.ua/, has PDF versions of a weekly puzzle magazine. Half of the puzzles are logic puzzles that do not require knowledge of Russian. They have over a year of back-issues available for free download. Each issue has an Battleship puzzle that is standard except in size -- it's 11x11 with fifteen ships -- five 1's, four 2's, three 3's two 4's and one 5.

Many thanks to Edward Jackman for pointing this out.

]]> Diogen Russian puzzle site's "Aiming Battleships" variant added to variants page http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/variations.htm#aiming_battleships We've added a new battleship variant from Diogen's second-round 2005 puzzle tournament entitled "Aiming Battleships".

]]> Diogen Russian puzzle site's "Russian Battleship" variant added to variants page http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/variations.htm#russian_battleship The Russian puzzle site Diogen continues to invent new Battleship variants. Here's a new one where numbered grid cells denote the distance to the center a ship hidden within the grid.

]]> Mountain Vista Software news available on website and via RSS http://www.mountainvistasoft.com Just sit back and enjoy Mountain Vista Software's new RSS feed. You will be notified whenever a new Battleship variant, article, puzzle solution, and more are added to the site.

]]> ICGA article "Battleships as Decision Problem" added to site http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/omnibus.htm#sevenster_ICGA Added link to Merlijn Sevenster's interesting article in the September 2004 issue of ICGA Journal entitled "Battleships as Decision Problem".

]]> New Battleship variants added http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/whatsnew.htm I've updated the MVS site with new Battleship variants that surfaced recently:

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