Yes, yes, I know. I never expected to get away for long maintaining a blog about the 1980's without eventually having to talk about the Rubik's Cube. It's a little bit reminiscent of Godwin's Law, so I'm defusing the possibility early :)
Ok, so I can cube, I own several, and can solve one in roughly 3 minutes. I'm a Coffee Acheiver :) But, for those of us übergeek cube enthusiasts who want a greater challenge, there are many options available. Larger cubes, Siamese cubes, Fused cubes, but it took people and computers a long time before they began exploring adding dimentions instead of size.
This brings us to Magic Cube 4d. This is a fascinating — and so far, to me, largely insoluble — puzzle inspired by the Rubik's Cube. It uses innovative techniques to simulate a 4ourth dimentional "hypercube" which follows the same puzzle-tennets as the original. The Windows version of the app is 3^4 only, but the Xwindows verion (I've played both ;) can be altered anywhere from 2^4 to, I think, 6^4.
The makers of the Magic Cube hold contests to see who can solve it with the fewest moves. I think the current record is 495. They will also list the names of anyone who can solve the cube whatsoever. So far only 25 people are on that list, so reserve a low number while they are still available! ;)
Finally, if you would like to try out the cube but can't stand their selection of colors (It's a legal issue), contact me and I'll email you the "color file" that they could not exactly bundle with the software. :)
Posted by jesse at May 11, 2004 12:47 PM