Fantastic Island Game
Here's another thing, I couldn't find anything about online. It's a little puzzle called the Fantastic Island Game - obviously some mangled translation from Chinese, but it's no simple or cheap puzzle. The peices have a nice feel and a lot of thought has been put into its design.As you can see from the pics, you get 7 pieces (ala Tetris) that can be assembled into, get this, 124 different simplex pyramids (like the one I solved at the bottom). The mind's activity during this 'puzzling' is quite refreshing to me. I know a little bit about how puzzles can be solved computationally, so sometimes I get bored with such things because I know the best way to solve some puzzles is to follow a rote set of actions. But, in general, we need to keep pushing ourselves to solve such puzzles if we wanna keep our wits about us (what I mean is, as we get older, we need to exercise that ol' wetware).
Part of the freshness offered by this puzzle, is the 3-nature that the pieces congeal in. From my previous posts, one can see my fascination with ternary systems, and this is a great example. As you build the pyramid, pieces aren't to the left/right of or above/below one another (as in the binary way of things we usually consider) but the interactions are harder to define.
Anyway, a lot of fun and getting good at this is good for ya - my humble opinion.

4 Comments:
I have one of these but I lost one of the pieces. so I went online to see where I might purchase another set. The only "hit" I found on Google was your site. It is a great puzzle, very well designed, many puzzles in one. A search for "Reutter-Sacks" was not helpful either, it's likely the company went out of business. Perhaps I will make a slightly larger scale reproduction out of wood someday.
I found this game and I have lost the enclosed directions, any idea where I can get a set? It says please read the Puzzle Game Explantions, can anyone help
Thanks
I didn't try the phone number, but I found this:
Reutter-Sacks Corporation
15207 Northeast 92nd Street
Redmond, WA 98052
Phone: 253-881-2033
Anyone have any luck on finding this game? I found a product description page here (http://www.manufacturers.com.tw/showroom-6588-4-5-0000015262-0.php) and have contacted them about how to purchase one from them. I had this puzzle as a child (about 15 years ago) and loved it. I have searched high and low for it since then. I'll keep you all posted if I hear back from them or find anywhere else to buy it.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home