Hey all,

My "Secret of Atlantis" arrived last night, and at 4 this afternoon, I could intentionally go from one image to the next. The puzzle moves very well. It feels a little stretchy compared to my Rubik's Magic (8tile), but the puzzle is quite stable and puts up to a lot of abuse. Only once did I pop a string and it was easy to slip back over its corner. The puzzle itself is pleasantly frustrating. I actually had to photograph each step. I was able to go one way but couldn't seem to go backwards. I glanced at Pantazis' solution after I had figured it out, and saw I had found a different solution than he had.

I am very pleased with this puzzle and if this is a show of the quality of his puzzles, he does a top notch job. Btw, check out the vid. 5.28 on the timer.

I would be happy to answer any questions you have.

Thank you for a great puzzle Pantazis.

-Adam-

What did I get myself into?! lol


I have too ordered this puzzle. Holy cow! That looks amazing. Can really solve it that quickly or is that just a compressed video?

I think Pantazis is right, I'll have to start with the MUCH easier ones first. hahaha

Thanks for the vid!

The video was recorded, cut (I did three solves and posted the best), and converted. So that's pretty much real time. I usually solve between 7 to 10 seconds. Only have a couple times quicker than that.

I didn't mention how strange it was working with an odd-tiled magic. Every thing I have done with the puzzle has had to be 3-d shapes. I do not believe this puzzle can lay flat. It became quite difficult at times to move, or even figure out what I was doing. It definitely is a strange puzzle.

LOL!!!

So now you have started speedsolving the Secret of Atlantis???
And yes, that record is fast, I am very very impressed!

I am glad to see that this competition puzzle fell in the right hands.
(besides the abuse part that is!)

And you are right, odd number tiled magics are always in 3-d shape, which makes them different than the flat ones. This makes more sense as (mechanically speaking) there is no parity issue, giving almost double the number of combinations.

I appreciate this lovely review!




Pantazis

No your wrong dude you can have it both ways. You propbably forgot about these to magics you made before since your very busy these days. All I know is one is 7 and the other is 9 tie magic and there both flat.

Bronze Olympic Challenge

and

Silver Olympic Challenge

LOL ok ok, let me be more specific then.

I meant the odd numbered tile magics which are one single loop. The Bronze and Silver Challenges are two loops connected to each other.

That made me think... maybe I should also make the Golden Challenge as an odd numbered tile magic with two loops, instead of the current one which has ten tiles on a single loop. How about connecting two 6-tile magics, but this time with only one piece in common? (hmm... I think that should work lovely!!!)

Summarising:
Bronze Challenge: 7 tiles in total, two 4-tile loops, with one tile in common.
Silver Challenge: 9 tiles in total, two 6-tile loops, with three tiles in common.
Golden Challenge: 11 tiles in total, two 6-tile loops, with one tile in common.


I therefore rename the previous "Golden Olympic Challenge" as "Magic Laby"
(a proper Golden Challenge should be ready in the next days/weeks/months/years(?) LOL)




Pantazis

Now its time for a little segment called: Good news Bad news.

The Good news is....while visiting my brother I managed a 3.72 solve on my SOA!!!! I believe we can chalk that up on a Record board somewhere.

The Bad news is....after the next solve I saw some chips/stress mark on a few of the tiles. Now I'm going to have to retire the puzzle.

Next step there is to get some new tiles/strings copy the images over removing the trademark date so it can't be confused with the real one and using that to solve. Of course if Pantazis would prefer I not make a copy I will not.

Has anyone other than Pantazis or I worked with these puzzles? I would love to hear your input as well.

Pantazis, how many of these puzzles exist?


Good luck to all you soon to be owners of this puzzle. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

-Adam-

i still cant figure out my Atlantis puzzle. it stays in its upright shape. actually i never play with mine, its only for looking at.

Wow... now that is fast!!!




ON THE TILES???

You must have applied some abuse to it LOL

This has never ever happened to me. The only time I saw a tile break was when I deliberately was trying to cut the square corners to give it the shape of an octagon.

How did this happen? Was it hit on some hard surface with force? Please let me know!





Adam, since the puzzle is for you, you may repair the puzzle by yourself if you wish. I know you are good with stringing. Alternatively, I could repair it for you, but you must pay the postage costs!

Also, were the papers also affected? In my mind I am picturing you trying to cut the puzzle into many pieces using a chainsaw!!!





Regarding the numbers made, this is 25 (including yours and my prototype), and I am glad that all of those who have a copy, are some of the best collectors in the world.

Many of them are members of this forum.





Thanks!!!



Pantazis

Hey! I remember you solving the puzzle from "city state" to "column state" in front of me last December!

Maybe you mean solving it from the "column state" to the "city state"?



Pantazis

Don't worry. Its not as big as you are thinking. The stress is coming from my speed solves. Fast twisting, forceful flipping, and of course the release at the end. The puzzle itself is completely functional. I simply don't want to speed solve it and risk doing more damage to the puzzle. So I am looking to copy the puzzle not repair the puzzle. I posted a picture to show you exactly what/where the damage is. The tiles are slightly angled away from each other. On the center of both tiles on the joining side are two stress/chip marks. A small amount of material is missing and it is not completely transparent. Also, you can see some stress in the corner of the left side piece. Since this is a custom puzzle made as a gift, I don't want to stress the material anymore. So now I will solve it occasionally (not for speed) and otherwise display it with my other puzzles.

If it's for yourself go for it.

But seriously, you are some dangerous speedsolver!!!
(I don't think I will let you use my Memory Cube!)




Pantazis