Numberlink is a type of logic puzzle

Logic puzzle

A logic puzzle is a puzzle deriving from the mathematics field of deduction.-History:The logic puzzle was first produced by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who is better known under his pen name Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...

 involving finding paths to connect numbers in a grid.

Rules

The player has to pair up all the matching numbers on the grid with single continuous lines (or paths). The lines cannot branch off or cross over each other, and the numbers have to fall at the end of each line (i.e., not in the middle).

It is considered that a problem is well-designed only if it has a unique solution and all the cells in the grid are filled, although some Numberlink designers do not stipulate this.

History

In 1897, a slightly different form of the puzzle was printed in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, in a column by Sam Lloyd. Another early, printed version of Number Link can be found in Henry Ernest Dudeney's book Puzzles and Curious Problems (1932) as Planning Tours (puzzle no. 270). This puzzle type was popularized in Japan by Nikoli

Nikoli

Nikoli Co., Ltd. is a Japanese publisher that specializes in games and, especially, logic puzzles. Nikoli is also the nickname of a quarterly magazine issued by the company...

as Arukone (アルコネ, Alphabet Connection) and Nanbarinku (ナンバーリンク, Number Link). The only difference between Arukone and Nanbarinku is that in Arukone the clues are letter pairs (as in Dudeney's puzzle), while in Nanbarinku the clues are number pairs.

, three books consisting entirely of Numberlink puzzles have been published by Nikoli.

External links

• Nikoli's English page on Numberlink