An Abacus for Abekas
(Published on 1. June 2023, 02:21 by HalfBakedLunatic)
This puzzle is an homage to Abekas Video Systems, the company I worked for from 1992 through 1996 (Now owned by Ross Video). I was the product manager for the ASWR-8100 production switcher and the "Dveous" digital video effects system.
The Rules:
• Normal Sudoku Rules Apply
• A black dot between cells indicates cell values with a 2:1 ratio
• A white dot between cells indicates cells with consecutive values
• Not all possible dots are shown (no negative constraint)
• Lines that make up the Abacus frame are for cosmetic purposes only
The frame is actually made up of Renban lines ... meaning the line must be a set of consecutive digits in any order, and must not repeat. But they all span the nine digits of a row or column, so just by the rules of Sudoku they must be a set of 9 digits that do not repeat (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Enjoy the puzzle, and please leave a comment to let me know how you like it!
Solve Online here:
An Abacus for Abekas (SudokuLab)
An Abacus for Abekas (F-Puzzles)
An Abacus for Abekas (Cracking The Cryptic)
Puzzle by David Workman (aka "HalfBakedLunatic")
Solution code: Row 9, left to right
Comments
on 1. June 2023, 23:57 by HalfBakedLunatic
I've posted a "VERSION 2" of this puzzle, without the extra dots I had added to make this original version more approachable. Check it out:
https://logic-masters.de/Raetselportal/Raetsel/zeigen.php?id=000E24
on 1. June 2023, 19:51 by mbrandtwls
I never got to work on any Abekas gear, that was before my time at WLS in Chicago. But great puzzle, one of my favorites!
on 1. June 2023, 18:22 by Criptonight
Het was heel moeilijk voor mij!
on 1. June 2023, 13:02 by sanabas
Fun and extremely approachable. Do the dots correspond to buttons on the original system or something? I noticed a couple of them weren't needed to solve it.
- Hi @sanabas, the Kropki dots are simply to make a valid puzzle. It's funny that you mention this ... because I added about four extra white dots as I thought my original was too hard (there was a 'jellyfish' pattern that I didn't think anyone would figure out). And now I'm getting a 1 star difficulty rating. Serves me right for trying to make it easier :-)
- nothing wrong with 1-star difficulties, nor with multiple solve paths. For me, I didn't do anything complicated like a jellyfish, and as I got near the end the white dots in r8c1 and r8c9 were superfluous, sudoku had already resolved those cells. It'd be interesting to do the harder version that needs a jellyfish to solve.
on 1. June 2023, 03:28 by rictech
Cool puzzle! I enjoyed the solve. Thanks!
- Thank you rictech, very glad you liked it!
on 1. June 2023, 03:20 by MmeMagique
Very pleasant and smooth solve!
-Thank you MmeMagique, you entered the solution code just 50 minutes after I published the puzzle, so you made good time on it!
