The origins of this puzzle game date back not to far to the late 1970’s.
In 1979 the game board was developed and designed by Howard Garns, a 74 year
old retired architect. The game provided a partially filled 9x9 grid with numbers
in the 1-9 range. The purpose of the game is to fill the grid with numbers one
through nine so that each number was used exactly one time in each row an in
each column. The game is a spin off on the Latin Square game which was created
by Leonhard Euler in ancient times. The puzzle was first introduced in the New
York Times; however, the paper did not continue publication of the puzzle after
a short period of time. The game then and then reappeared in April 1984 in the
paper Monthly Nikolist in Japan. The game caught on in the Far East and became
one of the most popular puzzle games of all time.
In 1989, Loadstar/Softdisk Publishing took the game to a whole new level
by creating a CD version of the puzzle and in the latter half of the 1990’s
and into the new mellinium, more software applications of the game were released.
During this time game has appeared in various print sources throughout the
globe, becoming an international phenomenan.
The game has increased in popularity and reach greatly in the last few months
and has found its way back to the United States as the puzzle has been printed
in many popular daily newspapers such as the New York Times, The Boston Globe,
The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, and hundreds of other newspapers
and magazines. This game has often been compared to the Rubik Cube, one of
the most famous puzzle games ever created, and is known today as the Rubik
cube of the 21st Century. The game is known worldwide and there are a number
of competitions held each year where contestants must solve a Sudoku game
board. The game has also gotten some television coverage as a Sudoku tournament
was covered by the Sky One Network and there have been many shows which detail
the history and rules of the game.
Sudoku may have failed when first released, but due to its popularity and
growth in the Far East in countries such as Japan and China, the game has
made its way back to the Western World and is emerging as one of the most
popular puzzle games of our day.
