Crosswords and Puzzles

[Georgia Galaxy]

What Crosswords and Puzzle games have you enjoyed (Solitaire, Bejewelled etc)? This question is mostly focused on crosswords. Share your experiences with those! Also, WHO CARES if it's age stereotyped to be enjoyed by only the elderly or older people? I'm 17 and I really enjoy this, plus reading ^^ Here's what I'm checking out:

 

[Forest Cat]

I used to do lots of crosswords but I had a ulterior motive, it was not just for fun. Some magazines had lots of crosswords and some puzzles that had prizes, you could send it in and win stuff. So I did everything in those magazines and sent it in. Because of the volume and that I did it over and over again I even won some things. So my main reason for doing it was just old fashion greed, I wanted the prizes.

 

[Darkkin]

Puzzles of any type are awesome. My writing style with poetry is often a giant, abstract logic puzzle. A different format of my own making, but a puzzle nonetheless.

Growing up, my mom loved doing crosswords, she would call at random times when she needed an answer. She still does them.

Just like with books, puzzles aren't limited to a certain age. The only limitation is stereotypes. As long as one gets enjoyment from the activity that is what truly matters.

 

[Georgia Galaxy]

Puzzles of any type are awesome. My writing style with poetry is often a giant, abstract logic puzzle. A different format of my own making, but a puzzle nonetheless.

Growing up, my mom loved doing crosswords, she would call at random times when she needed an answer. She still does them.

Just like with books, puzzles aren't limited to a certain age. The only limitation is stereotypes. As long as one gets enjoyment from the activity that is what truly matters.

I agree :3 I used to avoid them and assume they were boring or for old people as a kid, but I really do find them fun now!

 

[Georgia Galaxy]

I used to do lots of crosswords but I had a ulterior motive, it was not just for fun. Some magazines had lots of crosswords and some puzzles that had prices, you could send it in and win stuff. So I did everything in those magazines and sent it in. Because of the volume and that I did it over and over again I even won some things. So my main reason for doing it was just old fashion greed, I wanted the prizes.

Huh,,,,!!! Interesting! I hope you won biiig 8) lol. I sent something in twice as well!

 

[Outdated]

My grandmother used to love numberless crosswords. There's no numbers corresponding to the clues, so you had to work out what the word was and where it went in the puzzle.

I liked all those sorts of puzzles when I was young, any puzzles really. These days the only one I still play is Sudoku.

 

[Outdated]

Many years ago I was going out with a Suisse sheila and my father asked her an interesting question about European crosswords. English is the most extensive language in the world, it often has many different words for the same thing, where as many European languages don’t have enough words and have to use the same word for several things.

In both French and Italian, Spanish too I suspect, they use the same word for both a river and a beach – Rivierra. In English it can be a River, Creek, Brook, Burn, Stream, Rill, and a few more.

She replied that European crosswords contain a lot of famous people and place names. She said that she grew up speaking English along with 3 other languages but she liked the challenge of English crosswords and they greatly improved her vocabulary.

 

[Demon_Scientist_069420]

I don't like how obscure and vague the hints are sometimes

 

[Stuttermabolur]

I'm not into crosswords as I'm not great at word games and often literally don't know the word, but I enjoy simple logic puzzles, both verbal and number based. I played Sudoku quite a lot as a kid, I like nonograms/picross and one of my favourite recent puzzle game is Hexcells Infinite, which is basically a mix of nonograms and Minesweeper (without randomness) in a hex cell grid. It hit just the right balance of requiring thought and being satisfying to progress in, but still not so hard that I wasn't able to see the next step eventually (unlike medium difficulty Sudoku puzzles where I lack the foresight to keep all the different possibilities in mind) so I managed to beat the whole game without clues (which is rare for me).

Speaking of which, I really like Minesweeper. It's one of two games on my phone and I managed to get sub 100 seconds on expert, which I'm pretty happy with though it's still amateur time. I like to do a 50x50 grid with 500 bombs, which is expert difficulty but with the largest possible grid in standard Minesweeper. I've only beaten it once or twice as you need to get lucky, but it's a great timewaster when on a plane or public transport as it takes over half an hour to finish. @Misery can also vouch for Demon Crawl, which is an awesome minesweeper/Roguelite combo. I got really sucked into it for a while and would probably still be playing if it didn't keep crashing when I sequence break it (do very well).

 

[pastelanxiety]

I've never been able to focus on crosswords very well, however have always been obsessed with wordsearches and am currently working my way through a book of 270 of them

 

[DaisyRose]

I recently got these. They are addicting and help me stay focused. I find them to be great to do when I am really bored.

 

[Georgia Galaxy]

I don't like how obscure and vague the hints are sometimes

SAME! Trying really hard not to cheat...

 

[Georgia Galaxy]

I recently got these. They are addicting and help me stay focused. I find them to be great to do when I am really bored.

View attachment 98513

Thanks for sharing yay twinsies <3

 

[Georgia Galaxy]

I'm not into crosswords as I'm not great at word games and often literally don't know the word, but I enjoy simple logic puzzles, both verbal and number based. I played Sudoku quite a lot as a kid, I like nonograms/picross and one of my favourite recent puzzle game is Hexcells Infinite, which is basically a mix of nonograms and Minesweeper (without randomness) in a hex cell grid. It hit just the right balance of requiring thought and being satisfying to progress in, but still not so hard that I wasn't able to see the next step eventually (unlike medium difficulty Sudoku puzzles where I lack the foresight to keep all the different possibilities in mind) so I managed to beat the whole game without clues (which is rare for me).

Speaking of which, I really like Minesweeper. It's one of two games on my phone and I managed to get sub 100 seconds on expert, which I'm pretty happy with though it's still amateur time. I like to do a 50x50 grid with 500 bombs, which is expert difficulty but with the largest possible grid in standard Minesweeper. I've only beaten it once or twice as you need to get lucky, but it's a great timewaster when on a plane or public transport as it takes over half an hour to finish. @Misery can also vouch for Demon Crawl, which is an awesome minesweeper/Roguelite combo. I got really sucked into it for a while and would probably still be playing if it didn't keep crashing when I sequence break it (do very well).

That's very interesting, thank you for sharing. Minesweeper is fun :O

 

[Luca]

I used to love doing crossword puzzles in the newspaper, but where I live now I don't get the newspaper anymore.
I might have to look into buying some of those crossword puzzle books, thanks for sharing them!

 

[Angular Chap]

I've always been a gamer, and I still play the classics. Old school Tetris, Dr. Mario and Columns. Recently I've been playing a Gameboy Colour homebrew I found on itch.io called Petris. Like Tertis, but with pets!

 

[Nervous Rex]

I really enjoy word puzzles. I do these four every day as a kind of "wake up" exercise.

Cryptic Crossword - Where every clue has two cryptic ways of leading you to the answer.

Elevenses Crossword - As many eleven-letter words as one can pack into a small crossword.

Code Cracker - A crossword cryptogram.

Jumble - Unscrambling words.

One of my travel rituals is to buy a USA Today paper and do everything in the puzzle section.

I also like to play cribbage (I use the "Cribbage Pro" app) and do Kakuro puzzles on my phone.

I like all the casual games mentioned - Bejeweled, Tetris, MInesweeper, etc. I didn't grow up with gaming consoles (only "rich kids" had those when I was growing up), so modern gaming isn't my thing.

If you like Minesweeper, you might like Hexcells Infinite. It's available as an Apple app.

 

[Nervous Rex]

I don't like how obscure and vague the hints are sometimes

Solving a crosswords depends less on how smart you are and more on how much you can think like the guy who made it.

If I do a daily crossword made by the same person enough, I'll start to recognize how the maker thinks and the crosswords get easier. Also, they like to repeat clues.

 

[Outdated]

I also like to play cribbage....

I used to love cribbage too, I love a cut throat game - 3 players.

When I was a kid my father used to play cribbage for money. A penny a point. That might not sound like much but it was a lot of money for a working man back then. Losing a game could cost you about 9 Schillings.

 

[Nervous Rex]

I used to love cribbage too, I love a cut throat game - 3 players.

When I was a kid my father used to play cribbage for money. A penny a point. That might not sound like much but it was a lot of money for a working man back then. Losing a game could cost you about 9 Schillings.

Sounds like they also played with muggins rules. I don't like to play muggins, but my friends and I do like to tease one another when someone miscounts.

I've accumulated quite a lot of trivia about cribbage. For instance, every hand that contains a 5 or any number of cards that add up to 5 is guaranteed to have at least two points in it. The only hand that isn't improved by any starter card is four aces. There are several hands, such as 2 2 3 4, that are improved by any starter card. The highest possible hand+crib score is 53 points. If it's your crib, you are guaranteed at least one point for last. No matter what you hold in your hand and what you put in the crib, it's always possible for the crib to be worth 12 or more points. And so on.