Nice article, which also explains the mapping of the puzzle to an exact cover problem and how those can be solved with dangling links as in Knuth's Algorithm X.
Tangential, but does anyone know good places to find other physical puzzles like this? Also, recently there was an article on elastic knots I was hoping someone would productize into a novelty puzzle.
Be careful! There's a whole world of mechanical puzzles out there, and it can get very expensive and start to take over your life.
Here's an assortment of links to places where you can buy interesting puzzles. This isn't exhaustive of course: it's just a few places that came to mind.
Very interesting, but I have a hard time differentiating the colors. The gradients seem to be there for aesthetics only, but they confuse me to no end :)
Here's an assortment of links to places where you can buy interesting puzzles. This isn't exhaustive of course: it's just a few places that came to mind.
https://www.puzzlemaster.ca/
https://puzzleparadise.net/
https://www.pelikanpuzzles.eu/
https://twobrassmonkeys.com/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/PuzzleguyStore
Totally feeling like vibe-coding a web version of the game and plastering it with giant BUY THIS THING links that send people to the real thing.