Twisty Puzzles like Rubik's Cube

Twisty Puzzles

Are you also one of these persons who - like me - were infected by the Rubik's Cube fever in the early eightees? Or have you discovered the Rubik's Cube or similar twisty mechanical puzzles only recently? There is a renaissance of puzzles like the Rubik's Cube during the last years, and recently a number of these puzzles became available again through various Internet sources.

This page shall make a small contribution in naming a couple of interesting links as a starting point:

Where are images of twisty puzzles like the Rubik's Cube?

Denny Dedmore's Virtual Puzzle Museum shows images of almost 700 items of Rubik Style Puzzles. Hendrik Haak also shows a wide variety of puzzles in his museum. My own puzzle collection can be seen here .

Where can I buy twisty puzzles?

Hendrik Haak offers maybe the widest range of mechanical puzzles for sale, followed by Uwe Meffert who recently manufactured very nice tiles versions of his former puzzles. Ernö Rubik's Cube Page also offers some original puzzles in a shop. There is not very much on mechanical puzzles available at Toys'R'Us in Germany, I only saw the Rubik's Cube there. You could buy a few more puzzles with some toy chain stores in the USA, for example KB Toys.

Are there computer programs on twisty puzzles?

Yes, there is one "Must Have" program for the Rubik's cube, Herbert Kociemba's Cube Explorer (Windows Freeware, Version 2.25 ZIP archive 551 kB). It's Delphi source code (Windows Freeware, ZIP archive 87 kB) is also available. The Cube Explorer is not one of the many programs which just simulates the Cube, it implements a sophisticated and extremely powerful algorithm to solve your scrambled Cube quickly, providing a solving sequence of 18 moves on average. The Cube Explorer requires Windows 98 and 128 MB of RAM installed in the computer. It also features an Optimizer to find the perfect solution ("God's Algorithm"). It is very user-friendly and has a built-in researcher for nice patterns ( examples >70 kB, takes a while).

If you run a computer with less than 128 MB of RAM then use the older Version 1.5 of Herbert Kociemba's Cube Explorer (Windows Freeware, ZIP archive 140 kB). It runs very nicely on computers with at least 16 MB of RAM. It is about 50 times slower than the latest version and the solving sequence is 19 moves on average. A separate Optimizer (Windows Freeware, ZIP archive 60 kB) is also available.

Another good program is Noel Dillabough's Puzzler (Windows Shareware, 20 US-$, 0.85 MB). It simulates a collection of 43 (Version 2.05) sequential movement puzzles, but you can only play the dino cube as long as you are not registered.

Are there Newsgroups on twisty Puzzles?

Unfortunately, none which just deals with Rubik style puzzles.There are two newgroups which deal more general with puzzles, rec.games.computer.puzzle and rec.puzzles. The last one is more active.

There are a number of additional links on mechanical puzzles at Mark Longridge's or Uwe Meffert's homepages.

Maze Cube

Maze Tiles

		updated: 16.01.2006

Twisty Puzzles

Where are images of twisty puzzles like the Rubik's Cube?

Where can I buy twisty puzzles?

Are there computer programs on twisty puzzles?

Are there Newsgroups on twisty Puzzles?

Twisty puzzle related Links