[Unofficial] 15 sliding puzzle - 13.23 avg5 (give me tips?)

[vcuber13]

i find this funny

Bobby Fischer was an expert at solving the 15-Puzzle. He had been timed to be able to solve it within 25 seconds; Fischer demonstrated this on November 8, 1972 on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

 

[Florian]

I'msub-20 now but it's only because of my tps(6+) i don't now how to do it in less then 100 moves or even less in average

 

[Cool Frog]

what about:
1,5
2,6
7,3 (in 4,8's place)
4,8 (the 3 and 7 will be forced into their own place when solving 4 and 8)
9,13
10,14
11,12,15

I will see what times I can get with this, Currently I do 1234 all in one step
56, 78
9 13, 10 14, last 3

But I seem to be faster at
1-5-9-13 all in one step.
2-6
10-14
3-4
7-8
last 3

 

[chris410]

I found a metal one on ebay and ordered it...so far my best avg. of 12 has been 37 seconds. I have never messed with these before so it is a bit different but still fun.

 

[d4m4s74]

I play with it a lot on my phone and (because of the difficulty sliding the pieces with my touch screen) my record is 21 seconds, average 45. I've ordered a physical one (thinkfun metal one) which will probably improve my times.
btw. should I lube it?

 

[cuberkid10]

God, now I have to get my 15 puzzle back out again. I got one over a year ago. (Metal one from ThinkFun). I lubed it with Maru...

 

[Mr.Toad]

I've been trying to find this puzzle in physical stores since this thread was created, without success. Can you recommend an online shop and/or a particular brand? In Amazon there are several models.

 

[d4m4s74]

I got mine from ebay. thinkfun. 5 dollars (plus 9 shipping. but whatever)

 

[chris410]

The one one thinkfun is exactly the same as the one I bought. It seems to slide pretty nicely and so far has not locked up. I'm new to the puzzle so maybe Odder or some of the others could recommend a better one.

 

[thackernerd]

I'm kind of getting bored of the sim. What's the best kind of puzzle I can buy under 20$ online?

 

[Owen]

DO NOT but the thinkfun puzzle. It is overpriced and doesn't work very well. I have a white a red plastic one that I lubed with CRC, and sanded the corners down on. Works like a charm. (It's about $1.99)

Seriously, thinkfun is the Rubik's brand of fifteen puzzles. Really common, really expensive, really bad.

 

[Carrot]

I don't know about the thinkfun one, but I can definitely recommend the other pretty popular one, which is a plastic one that has white and red tiles (I think the numbers are gold or white or black...). I was just lucky to get a bunch of extremely good ones in Thailand

 

[d4m4s74]

could someone post a link?

 

[thackernerd]

I know you guys aren't going to believe this but I just got a 4.80 single.

 

[CUB3R01]

How do you read the scramble on qqtimer for the 15-puzzle? I think I am making it more complicated than it is...

 

[Mr.Toad]

R = Move tile to the right
L = Move tile to the left
U = Move tile up
D = Move tile down

Two different tiles can't be moved in the same direction in the same puzzle state, so you just move the only one that you can move.

 

[CUB3R01]

R = Move tile to the right
L = Move tile to the left
U = Move tile up
D = Move tile down

Two different tiles can't be moved in the same direction in the same puzzle state, so you just move the only one that you can move.

Thanks for clearing this up for me!

 

[thackernerd]

4.44! 16 moves.

 

[Mr.Toad]

Thanks for clearing this up for me!

You're welcome. Now I'm curious about how you were interpreting these scrambles.

 

[Mr.Toad]

I've written a JavaScript-based Fifteen puzzle which integrates a timer and supports different puzzle sizes. I created it for my personal use but it might come in handy to some of you:

http://albertoonsoftware.com/fifteenpuzzle/