The Journeys of a Solitary Knight
The Journeys of a Solitary Knight — or just Journeys — by a loose analogy to cross-words puzzles, could be considered SCRAMBLED NUMBERS PUZZLE. Alternatively, because the puzzle deals with movements of a single Knight on Boards of different sizes that resemble a chess-board, it could be also classified as a special variation of a CHESS-PROBLEM. As a Knight, you are challenged to complete a given Journey by identifying pathways connecting starting points of Tours —shown in the Journey’s Itinerary as the Tour’s Origins— without ever moving to, or visiting, any board’s square more than once. The intrinsic simplicity, coupled with the familiar concepts, makes the Journeys very easy to learn and easy to pursue. In a ‘tongue-in-cheek’ opinion of one of the enthusiasts, however, the Journeys would be more appropriately defined as a tread-mill for the brain (‘ A journey-a-day keeps Alzheimer away’). The Journeys are available in two configurations. • Journeys XL, and • Journeys Light. Both versions are essentially identical. Unlike in the XL version, though, in the Light version most of the main features have been temporarily disabled. For example, while one can view all of the ‘Generic Journey Boards’ , as well as inspect all individual Itineraries which are present in the XL variant, in the Light version one could use only the enabled ones. The supplied Ad Hoc Journey examples are arranged in four different Itinerary Types (A, B, C, and D): Depending on the number of places included in the Journey’s itineraries, the Journeys are pursued on Boards of five different sizes (according to the number of squares in their rows and columns), i.e.: 5 x 5, 6 x 6, 7 x 7, 8 x 8, and 10 x 10. Additionally, an empty or generic board of one of the above board sizes can be used to create Impromptu Journeys of any of the above four types. At this time, only the iPad versions are available; the versions for the iPhone, iPod and Macintosh will be offered soon. The Light, promotional, variant is FREE. The levels of difficulty generally depend on the number of included Tours in the Itinerary; in another words, more places/tour usually means more difficult to complete Journey. Like chess-problems and words-puzzles, Journeys too are ‘individual’ tasks where the player depends only on his (or hers) own resourcefulness. There is no time-limit how fast one must complete the puzzle, and there are no ‘points-to-earn (!)’ —but there is a lot of self-satisfaction after each completed task. Although some of the more difficult cases could generate considerable frustration, their successful completion typically provides even greater satisfaction! Regardless of the level of difficulty, pursuing Journeys enhances concentration, pattern-recognition, strategic thinking, and it also promotes mental perseverance and tenacity. If you find the samples of the Journeys in the ‘Light‘ version challenging and engaging, please consider purchasing the standard XL versions. As indicated above, close to thirty different Journeys offer a number of hours of the engaging, challenging, progressively more difficult, and satisfying activities!