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2022-08-26
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u
S U D O K U
by Dave Moorman
Evidently, it is the puzzle craze
of the year. Everywhere I looked while
post-Christmas shopping, I found hand-
held Su Doku games and books. My
sister even had "Su Doku for Dummies".
Never say LOADSTAR misses out on a
band-wagon ride! Here is SUDOKU with
an easy-to-use interface, loaded with
simple to easy problems for you to
solve.
The concept is simple. Each row,
column and 3x3 sub-grid must contain
all numbers, 1 through 9. Some numbers
are given with the opening of the
puzzle. Your job is to figure out
where all the rest go.
With our program, click "Start"
(or press <S>) to load a puzzle. A box
cursor appears at the upper-left
corner of the grid. Use the cursor
keys or click with the mouse pointer
to move the box cursor to an open
space. Press a number key to put that
number in the space. <SPACE> will
clear any space not containing one of
the original puzzle clues.
Since this is a computer, we have
added some features for your
convenience. Click "Opts" (or press
<O>) to open the Options menu. "No
Help" means just that. Whatever number
you insert in the puzzle will go
unchecked. "Warning" will turn the
background of any number that already
appears in that row, column, or 3x3
grid to red. "Block" automatically
erases any number that is already in
the row, column, or 3x3 grid.
"Clue" is for the faint of heart!
It will put the correct number in the
box cursor's box. I like to use it
[after] I have made my selection, just
to check before going on to other
spaces. "Check" checks the puzzle as
it appears on the screen against the
answer. If any number is wrong, you
return to putting numbers in boxes.
"Check" will [not] tell you what is
wrong! You can also check the puzzle
by pressing <RETURN>. The items on the
"Options" menu are all hot-keyed (with
<H> for "Check").
As Sheri and I were beta-testing
(read: playing around), we noted that
a Save Puzzle function would be
useful. Otherwise, one may have to
choose between sleep or re-doing a
puzzle from scratch. I decided that
one Saved Puzzle would be enough. So,
before you shut down, press <O>, the
<S> to save your work (read: play).
When you boot Sudoku the next time,
you will be asked if you want to load
the saved puzzle.
Click "Exit" (or press <E>) to
leave the current puzzle as it is. If
no puzzle is on the grid, "Exit" exits
the program.
Techno-Babble
-------------
I intended to carry on at length
about how clever I was putting this
program together in about 6 hours.
However, it really took me much longer
because I just sat down and started
whacking away -- creating all kinds of
problems. DotBASIC makes such programs
a lot easier. But it will not replace
well-planned algorithms and logic.
Compare SUDOKU to N-STALL to see
what nine years means in terms of
using a Mouse with the C-64.
DMM