A grid consists of nodes (#) that have a number of connections. It is possible to move from one node to another if the connections of both nodes meet. After a move the destination node is rotated 90 degrees clockwise, i.e. if it had a connection pointing left, that connection will point up after the move etc. If an invalid move is attempted, i.e. there is no connection to another node in that direction, the move is ignored and no rotation is performed.
Let's look at an example. Assume that you start at the rightmost node of
the following 3x1 grid:
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If you try to move right nothing will happen since there is no connection to another node in that direction. It is possible to move to the left though, which will cause the middle mode to be rotated:
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Now it's possible to move to the left again, which will cause the leftmost mode to rotate:
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This path - right, left, left - will cause us to end up in the leftmost node no matter which node we started in. And this is the goal of this puzzle; to find a path which will end in the top left node regardless of where we start.
Here are some mazes you can try, they were posted to rec.puzzles 2003-03-11. I have indicated what I think is the minimum path. You can also create your own mazes by editing the URL (it's quite straightforward: http://puzzles.zzlevo.net/turngrid/x/y/grid where x and y are the dimensions of the grid and the grid itself is specified with x*y hexadecimal digits). If you create a nice maze, send me an email with the link and I may add it to this page. Please include a solution so I can easily verify that it is solvable; unsolvable mazes will not be added.
The following were posted to rec.puzzles 2003-03-11
- 3x1 (the example above)
- 2x2, 4 steps
- 2x2, 4 steps
- 2x2, 6 steps
- 2x2, 9 steps
- 3x3, 6 steps
- 3x3, 8 steps
- 3x3, 13 steps
A few new ones that weren't posted to rec.puzzles:
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