Insert Cartridge

by Lulu Tir

• Play it ↗
• Difficulty: hard

Puzzmo launched a new push-your-luck poker game today, a sort of constraint optimization puzzle where you pack multiple poker hands into a grid. I wonder whether the design of this game was influenced by the recent indie success Balatro, the pioneer of point-collecting-video-poker-type games^[1].

Anyway, this is a crossword blog.

Today's puzzle is an excellent debut. A little hard, but still excellent. The solve was satisfying thanks to a good balance of tough clues and gimmes. Several times I thought I was stuck, only to stumble on an easier clue that unlocked my progress.

I was disappointed by the theme, but not because of its execution. Rather, when I read "Insert Cartridge" I was sure that this grid was going to be about video games. Nope, just printers.

A few clues had me chuckling because of their obstinance towards the vague. Describing a BLANKET as a "rest-enhancing object" has got to be the understatement of the century. Likewise, calling 3D glasses "Anaglyph glasses" is borderline psychopathic.

One of the clues in this grid requires solvers to play 4D chess. And I mean that literally^[2]. Let me quote Wikipedia, emphasis mine:

Comparatively, four-dimensional space has an extra coordinate axis, orthogonal to the other three, which is usually labeled w. To describe the two additional cardinal directions, Charles Howard Hinton coined the terms ANA and kata, from the Greek words meaning "up toward" and "down from", respectively.

That's probably one of the most interesting and most esoteric math clues that I've seen in a crossword. Good on you.

Lastly, shoutout to "Genly Ai, with respect to the planet of Gethen" (ALIEN). If you haven't read The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, get on that.

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