This software creates mazes of different sizes and configurable appearance. It is designed for teachers and makers. It can save the output as printable sheets or bitmap images.

[updated terms]

• This software is provided free to use for all commercial / non-commercial / educational, puzzle publication purposes.
• The code is licensed under the MIT licence
• see https://github.com/busyDuckman/MazeMaker

[how to show appreciation]

• I super appreciate getting some credit for the work, especially if you are printing a book of puzzles. Something like “puzzles created using Maze Maker software, by Dr Warren Creemers”.
• If you make something cool with it, I would love to see a photo/link.
• If you make a kids book or something like that, I’d really get a kick out of getting a free copy. Gestures like that make my day

Screenshot

Examples of different types of output

Can it do large mazes, like really large mazes?… YES.

Download

Install from the latest release on github

• • Download zip file.
  • Unzip file
  • run setup.exe

First created:  2016-9-29
First published to github: 2019-09-13

Limitations:

• Beta software (minor bugs to iron out, but quite usable)
• Smooth edges when wall width is set to 1 are buggy.
• Even line widths produce a better output.

What is done:

• Generates a valid maze.
• Appearance is configurable.
• Maze size is configurable.
• Printing is enabled (adjust blockSize to alter print output size)
• Zooming in, moving etc (few minor bugs still).
• Support for DPI / block size.

Next Release

• Bug fixes
• Support for graphical inserts
• Ascii output

Road Map

• Will probably combine this with other software I have written to create a puzzle creation suite.

Update:

I have tentatively started working (April 2019) on a online version of this software, to be open sourced.

Contact / Feedback

Please leave feedback and bug reports via: https://github.com/busyDuckman/MazeMaker/issues

Solution in this video.

Easy to use software to generate crossword puzzles.

This is still very much alpha software (totally unfinished).  This crossword puzzle generator is provided here for those who would like to kick the tyres and get a preview of some upcoming software.

Screenshot

Download

Install file here

Limitations:

• Apha software (very incomplete)
• Unimplemented menu items are greyed out..
• No way to save a crossword yet.

What is done:

• Generates a valid cross word, generally quickly, but may stall for 20 seconds during generation.
  • Not a bug, my algorithm is not finished. If it works itself into a corner, it tries to think its way out instead of backing up a step.
• Supports several generation rules.
• “View Solution” toggle enabled
• Gives basic clues (just a word definition at the moment)
• Zooming in moving etc (few minor bugs still).

Next Release

• Mark squares that must/must not be used.
• Dictionary management
•  Find spot for given word
• Find word(s) for given spot.
• Restrict to words of a certain readership / usage frequency.
• Bitmap backgrounds.
• High DPI screen support.

Road Map

• Proper clues
• Subject areas option for word selection
• Support for visually impaired output
• App(ify) / Touch screen support
• Support for half-toning and newsprint optimisation
• Awesome-sauce graphics options
• Artistic options
• Use one dictionary across a series of crosswords.
• Multiple languages.

Contact / Feedback

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This particular puzzle is from The Moscow Puzzles. This book is awesome, sold millions of copies, and is one of the best “brain teaser” books ever (first released back in the 1950’s).
It’s not a “modern self help book” so nobody is trying to market it, which means it can typically be purchased for around $4. Not bad for a book so full of great puzzles and rustic Russian charm.

There are two solutions. I will leave them for you to find.

This particular puzzle is from The Moscow Puzzles. This book is awesome, sold millions of copies, and is one of the best “brain teaser” books ever (first released back in the 1950’s).
It’s not a “modern self help book” so nobody is trying to market it, which means it can typically be purchased for around $4. Not bad for a book so full of great puzzles and rustic Russian charm.

Select the text in yellow line below to see the answer.

This particular puzzle is from a great book that I got for free when a local library discarded it.
Teaching Middle School Mathematics [Brumbaugh, Ortiz & Gresham]

Select the text in yellow line below to see the answer.

This particular puzzle is from a great book that I got for free when a local library discarded it.
Teaching Middle School Mathematics [Brumbaugh, Ortiz & Gresham]

There is a significant archaeological artefact, the Cascajal Block, that remains an untranslated mystery.

Background:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascajal_Block and famsi.org

A quite plausible purpose (and most of the translation) of the Cascajal Block jumped out at me straight away. After some work, I formulated an interesting hypothesis that accounts for many things, including the infamous cootie glyph and non standard writing directions.

Upfront: The skill-set I have in deciphering structured data does not come from linguistics; rather from years of deciphering undocumented file-formats, looking at memory dumps, examining data compression/representation, and reverse engineering data streams.  So, I’m applying my existing computer science skill set to a different field.  See what you make of my thoughts.

Explanation

I believe the tablet to be a ‘trade ledger’, used in a bartering economy.

I colourised it to explain what I believe is going on.

• Outlines show a trade account.
• Glyphs shown with coloured lines are people
• Colour filled glyphs are businesses.
• All other glyphs are trade goods (note they look like food or tools)

Basic assumption of barter trade. I go in and give a pig, I want a knife in return. The trader says. I wan’t your pig, but don’t have a knife. Give me the pig now and I will put a knife aside for you when someone else has one to trade. Let me write this down on the ledger so I don’t “forget”.

• The trader recorded items he/she owed to people by putting a glyph for that person, followed by the items. (red circles)
• When someone owed him something he put the items followed by their names. (green circles)
• When he/she had something complex (e.g. a tool/clothing) ‘on order’ from a business, he/she put a picture of the business below the items (blue circles).

My explanation addresses quite a few things.

• Why the text did not run vertically
  • The accounts ran vertically (causing items to go horizontally, like a spreadsheet)
• Why information appeared “grouped into areas”
• Why the cootie glyph (purple outline) had not been seen before.
  • It was used to identify a particular person (therefore unique-ish).
• Why the inscription was so light (it was not meant for a monument).
• Why the surface is slightly concave (eg: the block had been rubbed clean and reused often)
• why the sequence of symbols were independent of each other (ie. no language structure)
• why each cluster of glyphs were were in different sizes.
  1. important debts were in ‘bold’
  2. It was not written on the same day
  3. Possibly, different people worked at this trading business.

Why my interpretation holds an internal logical consistency.

• Name glyphs never appear in the trade section and vice versa
• If you look you can see where recording items owed for some people ran out of room and the trader made a new entry.
• food like trade items often shown near people
• tool like trade items are only shown near businesses
• the name glyphs are more intricate than the trade glyphs.
• Looking at the stone tablet directly, I also believe a flat stone was rubbed over paid debts to signify the job was done.

As this is not my field of research, everything above is pure speculation. I certainly don’t claim to have ‘solved’ anything; I am simply making my speculations public.