Loop-De-Loop 3

Title: Loop-De-Loop 3
Author: Smith from Australia
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.deadofnight.org/Smiths_Stuff.shtml

DRoD: The City Beneath has been eating up my time this week. That and various Christan and Jewish religious meals (I am an atheist who loves to eat) has not left me with time to finish anything new this week. So, I am going to give a quick review of a great slitherlink program I ran across recently. The objective of a slitherlink puzzle is form one loop such that the edges adjacent to each numbered square equals the number in the square.

Loop-De-Loop generates random slitherlink puzzles and lets you solve them. You pick the size, say "14x10" and hit "new". It generates a random slitherlink problem of that size. Now it is time to solve. Left click to place an edge; right click to forbid an edge. Great, an almost infinite supply of slitherlink puzzles!



Looking a little deeper, there is a lot to this program. First, it supports other grid types, such as hexagons. Then take a peak at the puzzle creation options. Using the "Full Generator" option results in some tough puzzles. I personally like the difficulty of puzzles using the "Simple Generator" with "Lookahead" 2. You can use "AutoStart" to automatically fill in the obvious edges. One last thing, to get an idea as to how it solves slitherlink puzzles, try the "Use Visual Solver" option and then hit "Solve" on a tough one. I find this oddly entertaining to watch.

This is a great program. Any slitherlink fan will have a blast playing with it and the various options. Thanks Smith for making this program.

My only real complaint about Loop-De-Loop is the "hints" are often fairly obvious edges that have already been filled in. I would prefer that hints are always edges which are not currently assigned. Another complaint, which is very personal and I cannot really justify, is that random slitherlink problems are often a bit sterile compared to human generated problems. And to be picky, Loop-De-Loop does requires Microsofts's .NET Framework 2.0.

There are lots of other slitherlink programs out there. A decent one is Loopy, although some of its puzzles are uninspired. Online, my favorite is still janko.at, but some people prefer www.puzzle-loop.com.