The History of the Sudoku Number Puzzle Game
Sudoku is one of the most addictive number puzzle games to hit the puzzle
world. Millions of people from all walks of like have caught up with the
Sudoku puzzle game in every form and version that exists today. People
can play this by themselves, or against another person in a timed game.
So you have to ask… what is this Sudoku game anyway?
Sudoku was invented in 1979 by a 74–year old retired architect named
Howard Garnes, who was also a freelance puzzle maker. It was a puzzle
that had a grid that was partially filled with numbers. The solver had
to fill in the rest of the squares with the right combination of numbers.
The game first appeared on the New York publication Dell Pencil Puzzles
and Word Games under the name Number Place.
Number Place was introduced in Japan in April 1984 by the Nikoli company
in its paper, the Monthly Nikolist. Kaji Maki, Nikoli’s president, named
the game “Suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru”, meaning the number must be
single, or the number must occur only once. Later, the name was
abbreviated to Sudoku. In 1986, two innovations to the game were
introduced by Nikoli:
a) a maximum of 32 numbers will be given in each puzzle; and
b) the numbers were distributed in rotationally balanced squares.
These innovations made Sudoku very popular with puzzle solvers. Though
Sudoku is currently published in almost all mainstream publications in
Japan, like the Asahi Shimbun, Nikoli has the copyright to the name
Sudoku.
Due to the similarity of the logic behind Sudoku and the legendary
Rubik’s Cube, Sudoku was dubbed as “The 21st Century Rubik’s Cube”.
The first computer version of Sudoku was Digit Hunt, created by
Loadstar/Softdisk Publishing and released on the Commodore 64 console
platform in 1989.
Another running version that still exists is Single Number, which was
created by Yoshimitsu Kanai. Single Number is a computerized puzzle
generator that first appeared in 1995 for the Apple Macintosh PC
platform. A PDA version appeared in 1996, and the most recent version
for the Mac OS–X appeared just last 2005.
Dell Magazines still publishes Number Place. But it has added two new
Sudoku magazines, Original Sudoku, which highlights the original version
of Number Place, and Extreme Sudoku, which is a more difficult version of
the original game. Kappa publications prints the Nikoli Sudoku as
Squared Away in GAMES Magazine. Various American newspapers like The
Boston Globe, The Examiner, The New York Post, and USA Today also print
daily puzzles of Squared Away.
Though Sudoku was very popular in Japan and the USA before, Europe
virtually had no idea that the game existed. But thanks to a retired
Hong Kong judge, Wayne Gould, Europe would also catch the Sudoku fever.
Gould saw a partially completed Sudoku puzzle in a Japanese bookstore in
1997. He bought the book, and created a computer program that could
generate puzzles quickly and easily, developing it over 6 years in
Pappocom, his software company. Then, he promoted Sudoku to the British
newspaper, The Times, with knowledge regarding its history of publishing
puzzles. On November 12, 2004, the first Su Doku puzzle was introduced
to the Britons. Pappocom’s puzzles are being printed daily by The Times
since that day.
Various British versions of Sudoku then started popping up. There was
Codenumber, The Daily Mail’s version, which was derived from Michael
Mepham’s puzzles, and first printed on January 19, 2005. 5 Sudoku
puzzles were first printed by The Daily Telegraph of Sydney last May 20,
2005. And when the British Telegraph introduced Sudoku daily on its
front pages, starting last February 23, 2005, other British newspapers
started to take real interest in the game. Due to the popularity of the
game, The Times published the first Sudoku book to gain its edge over
competitors. Due to its popularity, Sudoku was dubbed as 2005’s "fastest
growing puzzle in the world".
Sudoku conquered not only the print media, but also broadcast and
electronic media! Channel 4 introduced the first TV Sudoku game last
July 2005 when it included daily Sudoku puzzles in its Teletext service.
The Radio Times, BBC’s program guide, started featuring Super Sudoku, a
weekly puzzle game last August 2, 2005. Dutch mobile phone company
Mobile Excellence International also released the first mobile phone
version of Sudoku last September 2005 in Europe.
Sky One also produced the first Sudoku TV show, Sudoku Live, which
started airing last July 1, 2005. Hosted by Carol Vorderman, Sudoku Live
featured 9 teams composed of 9 players per team, representing different
geographical regions, that had to solve the show’s puzzle. Each team had
a celebrity member and 8 ordinary citizens. While the studio version was
being played, home viewers had their own interactive version to play
with.
CBS started the broadcasting stories regarding Sudoku, including on the
Early Show last summer 2005, and on the CBS Evening News last October 26,
2005.
The US TV series HOUSE M.D. also showed Dr. House solving a Sudoku puzzle
during the December 13, 2005 episode. Due to its addictive nature,
Sudoku was banned on the set due to the cast constantly playing it.
Now, the Internet is teeming with millions of Sudoku versions, both
online and offline, free and purchasable. With the billions of unique
puzzles generated by computer programs, 2 to 4 websites will not bore a
Sudoku addict for a quite a long time.
Who could’ve thought that a simple number puzzle on paper in 1979 would
conquer the world like the common cold?