Issue #28 Feedback

[Midnight Synergy]

Issue #28 is out now. It's an answer to the question "Where did Peegue's Puzzle Page go in Issue 27?"

Feel free to share and discuss puzzle solutions here... so spoilers ahead!

http://www.midnightsynergy.com/newsletter/issue028

[Manski777]

Hey Patrick! Thanks for the new Midnight Post! I think it's awesome that you are becoming more active, and that our good friend Peegue is back! I am curious, will we be getting any news on some of new projects that you may or may not be working on? One last thing, I probably won't get around to doing them, since they are always tough! Thanks again! Very surprising that we got a new one so soon! -Manski

[Lazy Loof]

You made me happy with this! :-)
Haven't checked out the puzzles yet, but WELL DONE!!!

[TheoX]

Thanks for the puzzles! I've solved the island one and am working on the Stinker Logic right now. I'm having an issue with the pom-poms -- the only clues related to pom-poms are that none of them match the hat they are on, and one stinker had red shoes and pom-pom.

Are there any other clothing restrictions, such as, there may only be one of each color pom-pom? I don't see a solution otherwise. It seems like the center and left Stinker could each have two different color pom-poms, as long as they aren't matching the hats.

EDIT: From a puzzle design standpoint, this logic puzzle seems odd to me because usually one doesn't "double up" on a trait like this one does with the "Two stinkers had green shoes" clue. I could solve the puzzle if I assumed the "no doubles" was in place, as above, but I don't want to make assumptions.

[Midnight Synergy]

Oooo - good catch, Theo. Peegue is very sorry, but you're right - there's two possible solutions as is. To narrow it down to the final choice, I've uploaded a final 8th clue. Now it should work... I hope.

[TheoX]

That was a clever last clue, Patrick! Thanks again for the fun -- it's been a very long time since I attempted to solve any or all of the puzzles on the Post. I used to be too busy playing Wonderland levels, now I'm too busy with work and personal projects... but I saw your email and thought it would be fun. And I work with kids so maybe I'll print some of these out for them to try (and "indoctrinate" them to Wonderland secretly, muahaha).

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Here's some clues for anyone trying to figure out the puzzles:

1) Stinker logic -- It's a twist on the classic logic puzzle which renders the normal "grid" solution obsolete, so I just drew on the puzzle itself with letters representing the colors. With any logic puzzle it's about narrowing down your options so write whichever colors you know are for sure only.

2) Gold Coin Islands -- another twist, this time on the "7 Bridges of Konigsberg" puzzle where you treat each island as a node. There is a trick with MS' version though -- it actually works better to treat the bridges as nodes instead of the islands. To solve it, try one of the following: get a blank piece of paper, draw dots on it in the exact places that there are bridges on the original puzzle, and connect the dots only if there is an island in between the bridges on the original.
Or, you can look at the puzzle as-is, and travel through the map, knowing that if you are next to an island with only two bridges, you HAVE to go to that island. Otherwise it will be inaccessible when you try to come back a different way. This helps untangle the mess that is the top left section.

3) Red/Blue Puzzle -- It's kind of like Sudoku. Look at the rules and fill in only the squares you know are FOR SURE a red or blue (I used 1 and 2 instead since I didn't have colors). Once you have the few rules memorized and know the tricks for each of them, it's just a matter of time before solving it.

4) Clock Mazes -- Like with other puzzles, rule out the sections you know can't possibly be anything else. In this case, that is ONLY the places where there is a gap between two numbers "stretched taut", i.e. you can't double up other numbers between them. Then for the rest of the puzzle, consider the "two of each number" rule. To be honest I used a little trial and error with this puzzle but not too much. ;)

Here are my solutions (zoom in): https://i.imgur.com/C1jf5Yu.jpg

[garirry]

Two Midnight Posts in the span of two months?? What a miracle!

Anyway, I solved the last three and I especially enjoyed the red and blue puzzle. The other two were fun as well. However I'm utterly confused by the stinker logic puzzle. Something doesn't seem right, for one thing the "two stinkers had green shoes" seems to make no sense if, by my understanding, there is one colour for each item. So, what I am missing here? I was just utterly confused and gave up.

Anyway, thanks for this! I was always scared of trying to solve these but it appears they aren't as difficult as I thought they could be. Oh yeah, and I finally ordered the DVD collection.

[Midnight Synergy]

if, by my understanding, there is one colour for each item.

Careful, it actually doesn't say that. In fact, you know for sure that isn't true, since there are definitely some matching items mentioned (two pairs of green shoes).