> if it actually wrapped around on itself with a half-twist, wouldn’t the letters wind up backwards too? Then 6-Down wouldn’t be MESSENGER but rather MESSENGER, and so on.
This premise is assuming the Mobius strip is transparent, which the header image clearly isn't. No letter-reversals or any symmetry is needed. On normal, opaque paper, you can just make a crossword as a normal long loop. (proof: Write GGGGGGG on one side of a paper, and write it upside-down on the other side. With a twist, you'll get one long GGGGGGGGGGGGGG... looping as if it were one boring single-sided loop).
wglass [3 hidden]5 mins ago
Interesting article. Note that many of the clues in the article are mis numbered.
Not sure why. Refer to the original puzzles linked for the correct clues.
quuxplusone [3 hidden]5 mins ago
Oops! Should be fixed now.
srean [3 hidden]5 mins ago
A long long time ago I had a fun time making Mobius strip structure out of link list(s).
Each edge of the ribbon was a linked list, connected to each other by rungs. It looped back on itself but connected crosswise .
Then if you nuked all the rungs it was clear you still got a connected piece that you could traverse over.
wxw [3 hidden]5 mins ago
My partner publishes crosswords and it's always fun to see how much artistry goes into authoring a puzzle. You can play with the structure/grid, the theme of course, every minute detail of the fill, etc.
Never would have thought of a Mobius-strip though, insane.
rockostrich [3 hidden]5 mins ago
It's crazy how good puzzle creators are. I've watched a bunch of videos on it and I'm still in awe of how effortless they make it seem.
zem [3 hidden]5 mins ago
qxw [https://www.quinapalus.com/qxw.html] is a wonderful open source app that lets you make crosswords with interesting topologies, complete with grid filler support, if anyone wants to experiment with them.
edwcross [3 hidden]5 mins ago
For anyone trying to solve the examples, the toroidal crosswords example image has a copy-paste error from the post author (not present in the original): the numbers for Down are 1, 3, 5 and 6 (and not 1, 2, 4, 7).
quuxplusone [3 hidden]5 mins ago
(Author here.) Oops! and thank you. Should be fixed now.
Happily I used SVG for those images, or it'd have been harder. :)
HN.zip
This premise is assuming the Mobius strip is transparent, which the header image clearly isn't. No letter-reversals or any symmetry is needed. On normal, opaque paper, you can just make a crossword as a normal long loop. (proof: Write GGGGGGG on one side of a paper, and write it upside-down on the other side. With a twist, you'll get one long GGGGGGGGGGGGGG... looping as if it were one boring single-sided loop).
Not sure why. Refer to the original puzzles linked for the correct clues.
Each edge of the ribbon was a linked list, connected to each other by rungs. It looped back on itself but connected crosswise .
Then if you nuked all the rungs it was clear you still got a connected piece that you could traverse over.
Never would have thought of a Mobius-strip though, insane.