Links to Puzzle web sites


In the "Directory of Puzzle Collectors & Puzzle Sellers" from Jerry Slocum in the green section (pg 144) a selection of links are presented. A reference is made to this page on which you can find all these links and more.

Noncommercial Web Sites

The following web sites are noncommercial for the most part. Some have puzzles for sale, but the primary focus is sharing information about puzzles.

Puzzle World (www.johnrausch.com/PuzzleWorld) ¾ John Rausch's site contains nearly 2,000 pages of mechanical puzzle information. On this site you will find, among other things: (i) The Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections by Stewart Coffin, a complete online version of Stewart Coffin's long out-of-print book (augmented with many puzzle photographs and fully "searchable"); (ii) Puzzle World Forums, an online discussion forum where you can ask questions and share your mechanical puzzle knowledge with other collectors; (iii) The IPP Puzzle Design Competion, reports and information on the yearly puzzle design competion.

Nick Baxter's Sliding Block Puzzles (www.johnrausch.com/SlidingBlockPuzzles) ¾ If you are interested in sliding block puzzles, then this is the site for you. You will find everything from such classics as Get My Goat and Dad's Puzzler, to the modern creations of Minoru Abe. You can actually play most of the puzzles if your browser supports Java. Once you solve a puzzle, you can challenge yourself to match or beat the minimum number of moves ¾ give it a try!

Hirofumi Fujiwara's Homepage (www.pro.or.jp/~fuji) ¾ A very nice collection of very well done Java sliding piece puzzles.

he Burr Puzzles Site (www.research.ibm.com/BurrPuzzles) ¾ This site, developed by Jürg von Känel at IBM Research is a remarkably complete background and description of the burrs. It includes Java applications to compute assemblies and solutions and animate them before your eyes. Not to be missed!

The Genel Collection by Viktor Genel (www.puzzleman.com) ¾ Viktor Genel is a Russian-born inventor who has lived in America since 1990. Almost all of his creations are geometrical puzzles. Viktor's puzzles resemble those by Stewart Coffin, yet the internal design is very different.

Trevor Wood's Gallery of Wooden Mechanical Puzzles (www.puzzles.force9.co.uk) ¾ Trevor Wood's very well done and comprehensive gallery of his work.

James Dalgety's Museum of Puzzles & Puzzling Objects (puzzlemuseum.com) ¾ A virtual home of real puzzles. Find here "puzzle classes & definitions", a "Berrocal Gallery", Frans Rocco's puzzles, etc.

Kathryn Huxtable's Flexagon Page (www.kathrynhuxtable.org/flexagon) ¾ A nice site about flexagons with good instructions for making a hexaflexagon.

Juergen Koeller's Homepage (www.mathematische-basteleien.de) ¾ A site in English and German with background information on a wide range of puzzles, including instructions to make paper foldings (such as flexagons).

Puzzle will be played … (www.asahi-net.or.jp/~rh5k-isn/Puzzle) ¾ A site in English and Japanese by Ishino Keiichiro. It is a very comprehensive site with designs (and solutions – if you like) of mainly put-together and interlocking puzzles.

Nemmelgeb Murr Import Shop (www.nemmelgebmurr.com) ¾ A very special site by William Waite. Find curious puzzles to play, articles on puzzles, etc, The only site (?) with a lot of Keychain Puzzles.

Martin H. Watsons Mechanical Puzzles (www.martinhwatson.co.uk/puzzles.html) ¾ A fun site with lots of different colorful thoughts on mechanical puzzles and related matters.

3D Puzzles (home.compaqnet.nl/~kalde063/puzzels/eng.htm) ¾ A site from Peter Kaldeway with designs (and spoilers) of three-dimensional puzzles; interlocking and put-to-gether

Jaap’s Puzzle Page (www.geocities.com/jaapsch/puzzles) ¾ For elaborate descriptions on many sequential puzzles go to this site from Jaap Scherphuis. It also has an extensive list of links to other of puzzle-sites.

The Puzzle Page of Maarten Net (www.maar10.net/puzzles.html) ¾ Play Rubik's Fifteen, Spinout, Topspin, Triple Cross or Mini Tangle on-line on this site from Maarten Vermaak

Creative Puzzles (www.creativepuzzels.nl) ¾ A site in Dutch, English and French from Gijsbert van Uden and Jan Merolant. A nice collection of all types of puzzles that can be played on-line. They were mainly taken from the newsgroups alt.brain.teasers and nl.hobby.puzzels.

Web Guide (thinks.com/webguide/mechpuzzles.htm) ¾ A guide with a collection of links to other puzzle sites ¾ somewhat linke these pages.

Puzzle Solver (www.puzzlesolver.com) ¾ A site with solutions to a wide range of puzzles ¾ only to be visited when you have finally given up.

Commercial Web Sites

Bits & Pieces (www.bitsandpieces.com) ¾ They send out a catalog several times a year. It's mostly jigsaws but has some of the newest and nicest mechanical puzzles you'll find anywhere. They have made arrangements with Akio Kamei to reproduce some of his secret opening puzzles. And there are many more high-quality puzzles available in wood, brass & aluminum.

Binary Arts (www.puzzles.com) ¾ Home to all those puzzles you see at The Store of Knowledge, Natural Wonders and many other stores.

Akio Kamei's World of Karakuri (www.karakuri.gr.jp) ¾ This is the support site for Akio's Karakuri Club. Most of the site is for members only. The joining fee is $50.00 with an annual membership fee of $100.00. This includes a Christmas gift puzzle and the opportunity to buy Kamei’s and other trick opening boxes before they become generally available.

Karakuri Creation Group (www.karakuri.gr.jp/creation) ¾ This Kamei companion site includes marvelous Japanese trick opening boxes designed and made by an exciting group of ten designers and makers in Hakone, Japan.

Interlocking Puzzles (www.interlockingpuzzles.com) ¾ Wayne Daniel's site for the puzzles he designs, makes and sells. One of the only places you can buy very high quality handcrafted burrs.

Cleverwood Fine Woodworking (www.cleverwood.com) ¾ Cleverwood makes and sells several hand-crafted wooden puzzles. They also have the most extensive line of Japanese trick-opening boxes outside of Japan. In addition, Cleverwood carries many highly desirable puzzles from around the world and has them available for sale on their web site. They have many of the puzzles commissioned by Bits & Pieces (Akio Kamei, Marcel Gillen) some of which no longer appear in the Bits & Pieces catalog.

Izumiya (www.yosegi.net) ¾ A Japanese site where you can see and buy Japanese Trick Opening Boxes.

Tucker-Jones House Inc. (www.tavernpuzzle.com) ¾ Tucker-Jones makes Tavern puzzles and is owned by museum-trained blacksmith Dennis Sucilsky.

Livewire puzzles (www.puzzles.ca) ¾ Quite a few wire disentanglement nice quality puzzles for sale.

Mr. Puzzle (www.mrpuzzle.com.au) ¾ Mr Puzzle Australia offers a comprehensive range of quality mechanical puzzles including complex wooden burrs and other interlocking puzzles, rope and metal disentanglement puzzles and many more.... See puzzles hand crafted by Mr Puzzle Australia as well as puzzles made by other quality craftsman. Mr Puzzle Australia is well known for stocking some of the hardest puzzles you will find anywhere as well as other puzzling type gift items.

Pioneer Puzzles (www.pioneerpuzzles.com) ¾ Makes and sells a wide range of wire disentanglement puzzles.

The Puzzle & Craft Factory (www.puzzle-factory.com) ¾ Has a large selection of mostly disentanglement puzzles for sale.

Meffert’s Puzzles (www.mefferts.com) ¾ Many Rubik’s cube type puzzles are available including: Skewb, Siamese cubes, Disney Puzzle Balls, 3x3x3, 4x4x4 & 5x5x5 cube puzzles and more.

Rubik's ¾ the only official site (www.rubiks.com) ¾ Site from Hessport with all Rubik's products for sale. Includes possibilities to play puzzles on-line

Jewelry By José Grant (www.josegrant.com) ¾ Makes and sells high quality puzzle rings of all descriptions. An excellent web site with rings available for purchase is now online. A full-color catalog is also available.

Jesus Puzzle Rings (www.jesuspuzzlerings.com) ¾ Puzzle rings with a Christian theme. They also have a couple of rings with the Star of David symbol.

The IQ Company (www.iqpuzzles.com) ¾ An online puzzle store run by Barry Uphoff. They have a nice selection of mechanical puzzles available.

Speel & Leer (www.delftwinkels.nl/sites/speelleer) ¾ A very nice puzzle store in Delft, Netherlands. It has a quite large selection of puzzles, including all of Jean-Claude Constantin's offerings.

Spiel-Kiste (www.puzzle-shop.de) ¾ A nice site with quite a few puzzles for sale.

Kadon Enterprises (gamepuzzles.com) ¾ Make lots of high-quality laser-cut plastic and wood puzzles. Most are put-together puzzles.

Richter Stone Buildings Sets & Puzzles (www.ankerstein.org) ¾ Reproductions of three puzzles and Richter Stone Building Sets are available.

Pentaplex (www.pentaplex.com) ¾ Makes and sells Sir Rodger Penrose tiling puzzles which are based on his work with non-periodic tessellations.

Stave Puzzles (www.stave.com) ¾ Makes and sells high quality wooden jigsaw puzzles. Some puzzles have several layers or contain three-dimensional components.

Adrian Fisher Mazes (www.mazemaker.com) ¾ Adrian Fisher is the modern master of the maze. He builds mazes from traditional hedges, wooden walls, mirrored walls, brick and maize.


More web sites

The links provided below are provided because the board of editors of CFF knows them. No particular method of selection has taken place except for the requirement that the site must deal with puzzles. If you know other interesting puzzle-web sites please let us know. The links provided are not maintained. If you experience that one or more of them do no longer work, please let me know.

Kubi-Games (in German)

G4G4

The Puzzle Store from Tyler Robbins

Rubik's Website

Rubik's Cube by Georges Helm

All Jigsaw Puz ¾ The UK's Leading Online Jigsaw Puzzle Store

David J Rodriguez's online puzzle store

Imaginatorium Shop - Jigsaw puzzles from Japan

Jigsaw Puzzles and Games Shipped Worldwide

Jigsaw Puzzle Factory

Wire puzzle from Poland

Rob’s Puzzle Pages

Puzzles, Jigsaws and Brain teasers

The Sam Loyd Company

Puzzles from Ton Delsing

 

For info mail me Rik van Grol.