A Short History of Sudoku

Sudoku's history is a fascinating subject for those who are devoted to the game. You would imagine, based on its name, that Sudoku originated in Japan, but it actually appeared first in the United States and in the UK. Sudoku was first published in the late 1970's in North America in New York by the publisher "Dell Magazines". Dell, a specialist in puzzles of logic and ability, published Sudoku as "Number Place" in its Math Puzzles and Logic Problems magazine.

The American Version of Sudoku

It has not been absolutely determined who designed the modern American version of Sudoku, but some believe it was Walter Mackey, who was one of Dell's puzzle creators. Others believe it was Howard Garns, a 74-year-old retired architect and freelance puzzle constructor from Indiana. The reasoning for believing that it was Garns was because he was always on the list of contributors in issues of Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games that included "Number Place", but his name was always missing from issues that did not.

Sudoku Reaches Japan

Sudoku finally did reach Japan when the Japanese found a "Number Place' in a Dell magazine and translated it as something quite different: su meaning number and doku meaning single unit. It was introduced to Japan by Nikoli in 1984. The puzzle appeared in the Monthly Nikolist in April as "Suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru". This can be translated to "the numbers must be there in only on instance". It immediately caught on in Japan, which is only natural, when you consider that Crosswords don't work very well in the Japanese language, and so number puzzles are much more prevalent there than word puzzles.

In 1986, the popularity of the puzzle increased, and Nikoli introduced two different versions of Sudoku. It is now published in many mainstream Japanese periodicals, including the Asahi Shimbun. The trademark name of Sudoku is still held by Nikoli while other publications in Japan use other names.

Sudoku and the Computer

It was not long before Sudoku could be played by computer. "DigitHunt" was created for the Commodore 64 in 1984 by a company called Loadstar/Softdisk Publishing. This home computer version of Sudoku allowed people of all ages to enjoy the game in a convenient manner and on demand, right on their computer screens.

The Modern Sudoku Craze

The Sudoku puzzle continued to grow in popularity and reached craze status in Japan in 2004 and the craze spread to the United States and the UK through pages of national newspapers. With this increased popularity came more analysis and a deeper scrutiny of Sudoku. It was an accepted belief that practically speaking, there are virtually endless solution grids for the 9x9 Sudoku puzzle. In 2005, Bertram Felgenhauer calculated the number to be about 6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960. He arrived at this number using logical computations. The analysis of the number of solution grids was further simplified by Frazer Jarvis and Ed Russell. It has not yet been calculated how many solution grids there are for the 16 x 16 Sudoku puzzle.

Sudoku is now published in a variety of places including the New York Post and USA Today. The puzzle is also reprinted by Kappa in GAMES magazine. The Daily Telegraph uses the name "Sudoku" and you may see the puzzle called "su doku" in other places. Many times you will find Sudoku included in puzzle anthologies which include The Giant 1001 Puzzle Book. In these books Sudoku is usually titled something like "Nine Numbers". Its popularity is such that "Sudoku" is now a well-known word around the world, and is part of millions of Google searches every month. You can read more about Sudoku at http://Sudoku.HintsAndSecrets.com.

Thomas Smythe is an avid Sudoku fan, and has a blog devoted to the game at http://sudoku.hintsandsecrets.com/.

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Pokemon - A Brief History of a Global Cultural Phenomenon

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past two decades, you must have already heard of the global phenomenon, Pokeman. Pokeman, a brand owned by Nintendo (the makers of Wii, and another famous video game brand - Mario), was launched in 1996. It was originally a set of role playing games for GameBoy, but soon morphed into an entire industry of video games, playing cards, collectibles, toys and other merchandize. Today, it is arguably one of the most recognizable brands in the world with followers in every country of every age group. From six year olds in Sweden to thirty somethings in Turkey, Pokeman is known and loved the world over.

The name Pokeman is derived from the Japanese 'Poketto Monsuta', which means "pocket monsters". Pocket monsters, of course, refers to the wide variety of 'monster' species that populate the Pokeman world. Originally, there were 649 such species and the list has been growing longer every year.

Pokeman is based around collecting, training and battling your own monster species. In this Universe, the trainer can collect monster species by using a specially designed ball called the 'Poke Ball'. Maybe you've even see this 'Poke Ball' - a red, white and black contraption that is a common sight around the world. Once collected, the monster species are trained and battled against each other. Each monster has special attacks and defenses, and winning a battle allows them to 'level up' to gain even more power.

Initially released as a role playing game, Pokeman soon evolved to include a very popular anime series. This series followed a trainer called Ash Ketchum collecting and battling monsters in a fictional world. Ash's first Pokeman is called 'Pikachu' - a furry, yellow creature that soon became the symbol of the Pokeman brand. Even today, most people associate Pokeman with Pikachu.

Besides anime, a number of full length feature films have also been made on the Pokeman Universe. A set of trading cards and manga comics further strengthened the brand's appeal. The cute, cuddly monsters appeal a lot to kids, who are the primary consumers of toys and merchandize related to this brand.

The popularity of Pokeman has been declining over the past few years. Nevertheless, many of the monsters - especially Pikachu - remain cultural icons throughout the world. In Japan, for instance, you can find everything from airplanes to theme parks dedicated to this brand.

Pokeman as a global phenomenon has left a significant impact on pop culture. It has been featured in everything from South Park and The Simpsons to VH1 and even a live action show ("Pokeman Live!") in the US. Despite controversies over the brand glorifying occult and violent themes, Pokeman continues to remain well loved throughout the world.

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Call of Duty: History of the War-Based Video Game

Any player who is a fan of FPS (First Person Shooter, or FPS games with first person view) may surely have tried at least once a title linked to the most famous brands published by Activision Blizzard. This article will deepen the story that led to prevail Call of Duty as an icon of the games of its kind.

Birth of the brand and game mechanics

Call of Duty, better known among fans by the acronym COD, was founded back in 2003 as a war game set during the Second World War. It saw its gameplay divided into different campaigns: initially in the role of paratrooper soldier Martin who must undertake a series of missions that will provide a substantial contribution to the defeat of the German army. So much for the single-player mode: in the first chapters of the brand, it also adds the ability to undertake multi-player games, such as offering deathmach challenges (fighting to the death), search and destroy, material recovery and defense of headquarters. Present from the outset is a wide selection of maps, a game that is offered by custom.

Evolution at the height of success

Given the success of the first chapter, it was not long before Activision decided to publish a successor in 2005 out of Call of Duty 2, which brings some improvements and innovations such as the replacement of the bar that shows the residual energy of the player, favor of a system of damage that disrupts the gameplay (reduced visibility from the blood, slowed movements, impaired accuracy and so on).

The return of the multiplayer, much admired in the first chapter, is back stronger than a server capable to accommodate up to 8 players and new maps, items. Besides the consent of the fans, the game did get positive reviews from many trade publications. The history of COD is still going up to the height of success with the fourth chapter, Modern Warfare, and the next fifth chapter called World at War. With the success of the fourth, it created the successor, Modern Warfare 2 which resumes gameplay and features, and BlackOps which attained the record of best-selling game of all time in 2010.

Spin-offs and future projects

The positive reaction of the masses has led to the creation of numerous spin-off titles that do not closely link to the events narrated in the official titles of the series, but still making full use of the established system of play. It is also planned for November of 2011, the third output of Modern Warfare, which will add to the chapters already released, bringing the number of Call of Duty products to a total of twelve titles.

Tonja Singh is an expert on Xbox 360 games and writes various game reviews on his blog at DownloadXboxGames.com

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