Computer Puzzles Unlimited

Computer Puzzles Unlimited is a single-player, shareware, compendium of puzzles consisting of fifty-seven puzzles of which there are one or more in each of the following categories:

* Anagram Word Find: this is a Word Find puzzle but the words have been 'anagrammed' making the puzzle much harder to resolve.

* Antograms: the player is presented ten pairs of words which are antonyms of each other in some sense. All words have been 'anagrammed' and the puzzle is solved when the player enters all the correct words.

* Bowl A Word: this puzzle consists of ten groups of nine letters representing the ten frames in a game of bowling. The objective is to unscramble the letters to make a nine letter word and then to continue to make two more words to score more points

* Changeling Words: this puzzle often appears in books and newspapers. The player starts with one four letter word and must change that word into a specified word by changing one letter at a time, each change however must form a valid word.

* Cross Cross Links: this is a crossword where all the words have a common theme and all the words are placed into the grid. Key letters have been removed and the puzzle is to place these letters back into the grid thus completing all the words.

* Cross Cross Numbers: this is a crossword but instead of words the player must place numbers into a grid

* Cross Cross Words: this is a crossword where the player is supplied with a grid and a list of words which must be placed into that grid.

* Crossed Sums: the player is provided with a crossword-like grid. In that grid are spaces into which the player must place numbers. The only information they are given is the total of the numbers in each horizontal and vertical group.

* Cryptogram: the object here is to decode sentences that have been encoded using a letter substitution code.

* Curving Word Find: this is a Word Find puzzle but some of the words start in one direction and then change direction.

* Figure-It: the player is given clues, by entering the correct answers the player's letters decode a sentence and complete the puzzle.

* Krypto Quiz: here the player must decode a group of related words that have been encoded using the same letter substitution process

* Ladder Anagrams: the player is given a series of clues. Working across the grid the solution to the leftmost clue has all the letters of the second clue plus one additional letter, the solution to the second clue has all the letters of the third and one additional latter, for example SHOOT-SHOT-SOT. By solving the clues correctly the player determines the 'dropped letters', in the example O and H, which together with the solutions to other sets of clues complete a pair of synonyms.

* Letter Choice: the player is presented with a phrase, sentence or saying. However the puzzle shows between one and three groups of letters each of which has between three and five lines of letters. The object is to select one letter from each vertical line to complete the word horizontally.

* Looping Word Find: this is a Word Find puzzle where words can run off the edge of the puzzle and continue on the opposite edge

* Math Cryptic: this is a logic problem, the player is given a series of statements of the form A + B = C x D and must use them to determine the values of each letter.

* Placed Numbers: this is an example of Sudoku

* Quotation Columns: the player must spell one or more sentences that form a quotation. They are supplied with a grid showing where the length of the words where they are located together with the letters that have been removed from the grid.

* Solitary Crossword: this is one of the puzzles that has no single correct solution. The player is supplied with a 9x9 grid and a stack of letters. Within the grid each cell is numbered and the player must place the supplied letters into the grid to obtain as high a score as possible

* Super Bowl A Word: follows the same format as Bowl A Word, see above, but the player is now dealing with fifteen letter groups not nine.

* Super Solitary: this follows the same format as the Solitary Crossword puzzle but it is based on a 12x12 grid

* Synograms: similar to Antograms the player is presented ten pairs of 'anagrammed' words which are synonyms of each other in some sense, the puzzle is solved when the player enters all the correct words.

* Word Addition: another logic puzzle. The player is given three statements in the form MLAEO + MIMEL = TABLE and from these statements the player must deduce which letter represents which number.

* Word Crostics: the player is given a series of questions. The answers to these questions, when entered, complete a quotation or saying

* Word Division: this does not strictly involve words at all. The player is shown a long division sum in which all the numbers have been replaced by letters and they must determine which numbers the letters represent

* Word Find: a standard word puzzle in which the player is given a grid filled with letters within which the player must locate a series of supplied words all of which share a common theme.

* Word Formation: the player is given an 11x11 grid in which the top row is filled with letters, the second row is blank, and the remaining rows are filled with a combination of blank cells, letters, and blocked cells. The player forms a word from the letters on the top row, the unused letters drop down to the row below where the player must form another word. This process continues until the player has entered a word for each line of the grid. Letters will only drop down to the row below if there is an empty cell beneath them. The player's score is the sum of the lengths of all the words, when all words have been entered the player can view the computer's best solution.

* Word Multiplication: as with Word Division, this does not strictly involve words at all. The player is shown a long multiplication sum in which all the numbers have been replaced by letters and they must determine which numbers the letters represent

* Word Subtraction: similar to Word Addition, the player is given three statements in the form DCUPDPC - RTPCIRO = REDUCED and from these statements the player must deduce which letter represents which number.

* Wordless Word Find: this is exactly what it claims to be, a Word Find puzzle in which the player is not supplied with a list of the target words.

There are three levels of difficulty for each puzzle though as the game's documentation says;
"... some puzzles are inherently difficult and cannot be made truly easy. Super Bowl A Word, Synograms, and Antograms can be particularly difficult, for example, because in each of these puzzles, you must unscramble 'anagrammed' words up to 15 characters in length. For these types, even the easy category can be quite challenging".

Each puzzle has both a help feature, which explains the puzzle and gives tips, and an assist feature though what the latter does is dependant upon the puzzle, it may give a letter or word in some cases while in others it may solve the puzzle.

Upon registration of the shareware version the player would receive a a pack containing a further thirty puzzles. Further puzzle packs, each containing thirty puzzles, were available, these could be ordered separately or delivered monthly for those players who took the annual subscription option. Many of the puzzle types on offer appeared in the Dell magazine and have been renamed to avoid any copyright issues, the order form helpfully lists both names so that players can order the puzzles they are familiar with.