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Hitori (1990) — Why a Puzzle Too Hard to Catch On for 8 Years Is Still an AI Test Case in 2025
Hitori — first published as a reader submission in Puzzle Communication Nikoli issue #29 in March 1990 — is a logic puzzle built from just three rules: no duplicate numbers, no adjacent black cells, and no disconnection. It was too hard to catch on at first, taking eight years to find its footing. Yet it was ported to the Nintendo DS in 2007, proven NP-complete by Robert Hearn and Erik Demaine in 2009, and in 2025 became the subject of an AI research paper on explaining puzzle solutions. This traces how far three reader-submitted rules have carried across 35 years.
Sudoku (1979) — How a Nameless Invention Conquered the World's Morning Papers
In 1979, a puzzle called 'Number Place' appeared, uncredited, in an American magazine. This piece traces the 25 years it took to become Sudoku — refined by Japan's Nikoli, carried by a retired Hong Kong judge's homemade program, and finally landing in a London newspaper in 2004 — and the 'logic only, no guessing' design principle that still lives on in the 2024 Steam puzzle collection Islands of Insight.
Hashiwokakero (1990) — Thirty-Six Years of Logic Grown from Numbers Joined by Lines
In 1990, Hashiwokakero debuted in Puzzle Communication Nikoli #31. Its rule — connect numbered islands with bridges until everything forms one network — grew out of an earlier prototype, "Ketsugoshu," that the same contributor "renin" had published in issue #28 the year before. In 2009 it was proven NP-complete; in 2004 it reached Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection ahead of any Steam release; and in 2023 Nikoli itself ported it to Switch, PC, and Xbox. This article verifies a 36-year lineage.
Nurikabe (1991) — A Ban on Two-by-Two, Borrowed from a Yōkai's Name
In 1991, Nurikabe debuted under the pen name "renin" in the reader-development column of Puzzle Communication Nikoli #33. Its four rules — size islands by number, connect the rest into a single black sea, and never allow a two-by-two black block — weren't even expected to catch on by the magazine's own editors. In 2004 it was proven NP-complete; its "no two-by-two" rule was inherited by LITS; and in 2025, Steam's Nurikabe World brought the puzzle back under its own name. This article verifies a 34-year lineage.
Masyu (2000) — The Loop of Black and White Pearls Born from a Misreading
In April 1999, Puzzle Communication Nikoli issue #84 published a puzzle format called "Pearl Necklace," using nothing but white circles. In 2000, issue #90 added black circles and renamed it "White Pearl, Black Pearl," completing the logical skeleton Masyu still uses today. The official name "Masyu" wasn't settled until 2003 — the result of Nikoli's president misreading a kanji, an accident that simply stuck. With sources, we trace how a grid using no numbers or letters survived 26 years across an NP-completeness proof, official console ports, and an open-source implementation.
数字连线（1897）——从报纸解谜专栏，到 Flow Free 与 Zip 的时代
1897年，解谜作家 Sam Loyd 在《布鲁克林每日鹰报》刊登了《困惑的邻居们》。1917年，Henry Ernest Dudeney 在自己的著作中将其打磨成一款驾车者谜题；1980年代，Nikoli 将其引入日本，命名为 Arukone 与 Numberlink（数字连线）。2012年，Big Duck Games 的《Flow Free》把它变成彩色圆点与管道，下载量突破一亿；到2025年，这一脉系谱延伸至领英（LinkedIn）的每日谜题《Zip》。本文追溯这条已有120余年历史的规则——不交叉地画出一条线——是如何存活至今的。
Yajilin (1999) — A Board Where Two Rule-Systems Were Grafted Together
In July 1999, Puzzle Communication Nikoli issue #86 introduced Yajilin, a hybrid pencil puzzle that grafted the "draw exactly one loop" grammar established by 1989's Slitherlink onto a black-cell-counting rule. It reused the arrow-and-number cell from a puzzle published just before it, Yajisan-Kazusan, and by 2005 had already been adopted, as "Arrow Ring," into the US qualifying round of the World Puzzle Championship. From official Xbox and PS Vita ports to a dedicated 2025 mobile app called Loopr, we trace, with sources, 26 years of this grid's survival.
卡库罗（1966）——从 Cross Sums 到加算 Cross，六十年不曾移动的加法格子
卡库罗，英语圈称为 Cross Sums，1966年诞生于美国戴尔公司的一款拼图杂志企划。1980年代，Nikoli 将其引入日本，命名为“加算 Cross”，2005年又经由《卫报》以近乎逆向输出的方式传遍世界。本文将追溯这个既非填字游戏也非数独、专攻加法的格子，为何在六十年间不断更换媒介却始终未曾改变规则，行文将同时参照当年的纸面报道与如今的 Steam 商店页面。
Slitherlink (1989) — Loop-Closing Logic Born From a Two-Player Paper Game
In June 1989, barely half a year into the Heisei era, Puzzle Communication Nikoli #26 introduced a new puzzle format. Adapted from a two-player paper game called Slither into a single-player pencil puzzle, Slitherlink offers a paradoxical solving pleasure — proving where lines cannot go rather than where they can — and carries a nearly 38-year lineage running through NP-completeness proofs to Steam storefronts in the 2020s. We trace, with sources, the loop-logic Nikoli founder Maki Kaji once called "the son of Sudoku."
Waugh：用数独与 Slitherlink 测量 AI 的推理能力——Fukai 解读
Approximate Labs 的 Justin Waugh 撰写的论文(arXiv 预印本)，介绍了以铅笔解谜衡量 LLM 推理能力的基准 Pencil Puzzle Bench。从 62,231 道题、94 种类型中挑选 300 题，核心是机器可以逐步核算每一手是否违反规则，并据此评测了 51 个模型。即使最强的 GPT-5.2，在能动式解法下也只有 56.0%，约一半题目未能解出。
Tangram (Qi Qiao Ban) — Around 1810, Seven Pieces of Lies and Truth
Seven shapes, five triangles, one square, one parallelogram, enough to form countless silhouettes. The tangram's origin lies in late-18th-century China, but its history was long distorted by a fabricated chronicle puzzle maker Sam Loyd wrote in 1903. I dig up both the toy's true voyage and the fiction that obscured it.
Nikoli (1980) — The Reader-Grown Puzzle Magazine, and the Road Sudoku Took Around the World
Puzzle Communication Nikoli, launched in 1980, was Japan's first magazine devoted to puzzles. Its name came from a racehorse; the prototype of Sudoku came from America. This essay traces forty years in which Nikoli's mode of production—reader submissions and handmade problems—gave birth to Slitherlink (1989) and Nurikabe (1991), and sent Sudoku around the world via Hong Kong judge Wayne Gould's generator program, rereading the source of a question at the heart of modern puzzle design: who should make a good problem?
纵横字谜（1913）—— 从阿瑟·温的菱形开始的格子谱系
1913年12月21日，阿瑟·温的"Word-Cross"印刷于《纽约世界报》娱乐副刊。这一游戏因排版误植而被称为"纵横字谜"，1924年西蒙与舒斯特出版社的书籍令其广泛传播，1930年《泰晤士报》、1942年《纽约时报》使之走向全球。本文追溯格子、交叉与线索这三项发明，如何作为思考型解谜的设计语汇，从纸上方格延续至尼科利的铅笔谜题与现代数字作品。
