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Toys Puzzle Games (Games) Entertainment Games

Rubik's Cube Comeback 163

Posted by CowboyNeal from the missing-link-still-less-popular dept.
aheath writes "Today's Boston Globe has an interesting article on the revived popularity of the Rubik's Cube. The article mentions that Winning Moves Games 'hopes to capitalize on the renaissance of the original Rubik's Cube in the next several months by rereleasing a version of the supersize 'Rubik's Revenge,' a 4-by-4 cube with 16 squares per side.' You can compare your best Rubik's Cube solution speed to the world champion's record. If the manual solution method doesn't appeal to you, you can always use the Lego Robotics automated method." I remember having a cube that had letters on each sticker instead of colors, so that the solved product spelled words across each face. That thing got me through a lot of childhood car rides.
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Rubik's Cube Comeback More

Rubik's Cube Comeback

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  • Never mind solving them (Score:4, Funny)

    by ahecht ( 567934 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @02:35PM (#7424836) Homepage
    I could never figure out how the darned things worked. I took a few apart, but it still seems like magic to me.
    • It's not magic, the solution is simple, there's a Rubix inside of a Rubix!

    • Re:Never mind solving them (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Try solving a 4-D rubik's cube. ;)

      http://www.superliminal.com/cube/cube.htm [superliminal.com]
    • Homer: Okay okay, think back to your training...
      [begin flashback]
      Trainer: Now, Homer, this may very well save your life one day.
      This... Homer?
      Homer: [playing with a Rubik's cube] Yeah?
      Trainer: Please pay attention. This button here controls the
      emergency override circuit. In the event of a meltdown,
      push this button and only this button.
      Homer: [completing a side of the cube] Ooh, a side!
      Trainer: Simpson!
      Homer: What?
      Trainer: You see which button I'
    • 1. Take apart a cube
      2. rotate one of the vertex pieces by 120 degrees
      3. reassemble and rotate into a mixed state
      4. give to your least favorite "cube genius"
      5. watch'em suffer as they try to solve it
      6. Profit!
    • I used to know a guy that wouldn't let anyone bring a Rubik's Cube into his house. He said it was "because of the magical connotations". but I think it was because it didn't understand how to solve it.

      Funny thing was, he had absolutely no problem with those big felt tip pens commonly known as magic markers.

  • did anyone actually solve it? (Score:5, Funny)

    by The Tyro ( 247333 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @02:38PM (#7424848)
    I tried and tried to solve that maddening little cube... ended up taking it apart.

    OK, I cheated. I'm a bad person. Happy now?

    • Re:did anyone actually solve it? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Rasta Prefect ( 250915 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @02:39PM (#7424853)
      I tried and tried to solve that maddening little cube... ended up taking it apart.

      Oh, wait, thats not what they meant by the manual method?

    • When it came out in my teenage years I got one and solved it on my own in about a week. I wound up improving my technique until I could reliably solve it in around a minute or so.

      A few months ago I got one on a lark and gave up after a few hours. Of course I tried to tell myself that I just didn't have time to fiddle around all night with that stupid puzzle but the truth is that zee brain she dun work so good no more.

    • Re:did anyone actually solve it? (Score:4, Informative)

      by tessaiga ( 697968 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @03:26PM (#7425031)
      I got one of these at a job fair from Microsoft recently. I'd never actually been able to solve one before, but now with the power of Google, I thought I'd try for a first.

      Turns out it's easy to find links to speed cubing pages, but for people like me who just want an easy-to-understand (as opposed to super-fast) solution you have to dig a bit. The best explanation I found was Denny's 3x3 cubing page [unc.edu], which uses a layer-by-layer approach that's pretty intuitive. The only drawback was that it doesn't cover what to do about logos, which need to be oriented in a specific way (as opposed to just being on the right face); for that one, try Matt Monroe's page [unc.edu].

      • Warning: Self promotion here.

        At the chance that I'll be slashdotting my hosting service... Here's my "Practical Guide" for solving the cube. It has the following advantages:

        - It is simple. There's even an ASCII version that fits on a single page. Honest! It makes it easy to carry it with the cube (or in your PDA, or whatever).

        - It is "practical"; it focuses on solving the cube using a small number of basic moves that are "natural" and easy to perform. They become "muscle memory" in no time.

        - It is easy
      • I've got a couple of copies of a booklet published in 1980 called "Notes on Rubik's Magic Cube" [google.com], by David Singmaster. In the middle of the booklet is a 9-step process for solving the cube from any position.

        The rest of the book covers all kinds of mathematical group theory, as well as a lot of procedures for making pretty patterns. There's even a process that rotates top-center and front-center 90 degrees, making it fairly trivial to solve those picture face cubes.

        Back then (1982? 1983?) I used to have a 4

    • I was no speed demon, but I did manage to solve the cube. I can now regularly solve any mixed up Rubik's cube within about 4 to 5 minutes.

      The way I learned how to do it was this:

      I would choose an arbitrary side to be the "top", and another side to be the "front", of the cube, and I invented a notation for describing different ways of turning the cube: ie, left side clockwise 90, bottom side 180, right side counterclockwise 90, and so on.

      Then I would take an already solved cube and start making differ

    • I tried and tried to solve that maddening little cube... ended up taking it apart.
      Why didn't you just peel off the stickers and restick them in the correct configuration?
    • Well, did you put it back together properly?
      If so, then you're not really a bad person.
      Bad people put them back together in non-solvable positions.
    • I was about 8 when i first got one. I could do it in 3 minutes on a good day. The first two layers were a piece of cake, the top one was a bit harder.

      The (A) secret with the top layer is to find a combination of moves that does what you want to the top layer, without worrying about the rest of the cube.

      So say if you want to rotate a top corner piece, figure out a sequence of moves that leaves the top layer untouched except for the rotation of the corner piece. then find another corner piece that needs rot
    • That would be the Kobayashi Muru solution...good job!

  • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I wrote a program in Qbasic to solve it. Is that cheating?

      Yeah, well...the program I wrote in C to solve the cube is orders of magnitude faster than your QBasic program, so I win.
    • I wrote a program in Qbasic to solve it. Is that cheating?

      If I build a forklift can I say I can lift 3000 lbs?
      • No, but you might be able to lift heavy stuff.

        If I can build a tool to accomplish a task, and allow others to accomplish a task, how is this less valuable than simply accomplishing a task?
      • If I build a forklift can I say I can lift 3000 lbs?

        Yes, you can, because you now can lift 3000 lbs.

        You could also say you can dig a hole.. even though you might require a shovel to do it.

        You can say you can 'use the Internet'.. even though you require a computer to do it.

  • Boasting contest! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by arvindn ( 542080 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @02:42PM (#7424868) Homepage Journal

    I used to do the cube in under a minute regularly. My best averages were around 50 seconds. Nowhere close to the world champion of course, but still more than enough to impress your friends :)

    I used the corners first [speedcubing.com] algorithm. Its not what the fastest cubers use, but its much easier to learn, because its more "natural". It also has a shorter average number of moves (under 60, IIRC). Though I say "easier", it takes several months!

  • If you want to solve it. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Kjellander ( 163404 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @02:46PM (#7424876)
    Here are a couple of links if you want to get better at solving it:

    Lars Petrus' method for speed [lar5.com]
    Dan Knight [middlebury.edu], the world champion
    Jessica Fridrich [binghamton.edu]. Her method is used by many.
    www.speedcubing.com [speedcubing.com]
    www.rubiks.dk [rubiks.dk]
    A solution some think is easy. [solen.se]

    I bought my first cube 2 months ago and today I completed it in 56.98 seconds! After loads of practice of course.
    • Of course I forgot one:

      Josef Jelikek's [misto.cz] fast method for the last layer.

      This is the one I use. It's the same as Lars Petrus' method up to the last layer, but then it does things in a different order and you only have to memorize 28 patterns to solve the last layer in 2 steps.

      For beginners I recommend Lars Petrus' page. You only have to learn flipping the edges, Niklas(tm), Sune(tm) and Allan(tm) by heart to always be able to solve it. I.e. only 4 sequences. That's how I started off.
    • You forgot about this one, contributed by Steve Rubenstein:

      Easiest Color to Solve on a Rubik's Cube:
      Black.

      Simply remove all the little colored stickers on the cube, and each of side of the cube will now be the original color of the plastic underneath -- black. According to the instructions, this means the puzzle is solved.
    • Another Simple One [nerdparadise.com] It has pictures and such. Instead of just a move list, makes it easier to visualize.
    • How does giving links to the ANSWERS help people solve it? Doesn't that seem like cheating to you? Why not figure it out yourself?
      • How many people did figure it out for them selves? I didn't know anyone who had sovled it till after the books came out. I know the guy who wrote the 1st book on solving it in Europe and he won't tell me how he solved it but he's very good are reverse engineering and can code. I'm guessing he had a bit of computer help but maybe not.
  • It is a long time ago that the cube was popular, and it has been many years ago that I have seen the 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 versions. These are not really much harder than the original one. Just more of the same. Through the years I have never lost my ability to solve the cube, because I only make use of a few formuleas to solve it. I start with putting all the rib cubes in the right position. That only requires two formuleas, one of them being a little tricky, the other rather straight forward (a did find it myse

  • palmtop qubit simulator? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Doc Ruby ( 173196 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @02:50PM (#7424895) Homepage Journal
    Rubik, the Hungarian mathematician, invented his cubic toy as a playful model of quaternion math in group theory. Has playing with the Cube influenced a generation of people who could actually learn quaternion dynamics from it [eps.org] as children? Can the puzzle be used to demonstrate to the unenlightened the quantum computing techniques those grownups are now inventing?
  • Rubik's cube is one of the things of my youth that I would categorically define as "an evil, mindsucking toy".

    I wasted so many hours of my finite life working on that damn cube and I'll never get any of that time back. I hate it!

  • What happened since then??? :)

  • Fun cube facts (Score:5, Informative)

    by arvindn ( 542080 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @02:56PM (#7424916) Homepage Journal

    * The inventor Rubik used to solve it in about 3 minutes
    * To measure your average the standard procedure is to do it 12 times, remove the smallest and largest, and take the mean of the remaining 10
    * The fastest cubers have averages of about 17 secs
    * The best average anyone ever got is (IIRC) 12 secs (Imagine that!!)
    * Some people can solve the entire cube blindfolded!! (Study it once, get blindfolded and then solve it). Its based on group theoretic invariants of the cube. You can do certain operations without changing most of the cubies
    * Some people can solve a 20x20x20 cube (a software simulation of course)
    * There are some incredible videos of people speed solving it available. One by Dan Knights [middlebury.edu] for instance
    * The best known computer algorithm can solve random instances in 18 moves (human solutions take about 60 moves). This is optimal on average; There is a lot of work going into finding "God's algorithm", a worst case move-optimal solution

    Disclaimer: I used to do it 2 or 3 yrs ago so my info might be somewhat outdated.

    • Re:Fun cube facts (Score:2, Informative)

      by skinny.net ( 20754 )
      Erno Rubik didn't solve his 1st cube in over a month, and didn't know if it was possible until then.
      The best averages I've ever heard of are in the low 17's. 12 seconds is outrageous and would surely be a lucky case, where the last layer was coincidentally solved.
      Blindfolded cubers that I've read of have a 15 minute study time.
      Many people can solve a 20x20x20 cube (like the one at oinkleburger [oinkleburger.com], but even some of the fastest people in the world (like Chris [speedcubing.com] )take hours and hours to do it.
      The world's fastest o

      • Re:Fun cube facts (Score:4, Interesting)

        by rokicki ( 132380 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @05:42PM (#7425639) Homepage
        18 isn't rare. I've had a Celeron solving random positions for 154 days now (using God's algorithm); here is the solution length distribution (half-turn metric):

        15 27

        16 400

        17 4343

        18 11020

        19 623

        So 18 is by far the most common as well as being the median.
  • I still can't solve one, or even two sides. I can get one, then continue with another until I've got about 7 or 9 squares of the second, but I just can't seem to finish it. Or, if I take a different apporach, I can finish one side, and then a little more than half of all other sides. of course, I always quit after a few minutes. Tv and the internet (mostly slashdot) have shortened my attention span; I wonder what's on right now...
    • If you think about it it for very long you find that you can't solve by sides as each piece can be in more than one position on its side and the side still be correct but other sides incorrect.

      If you solve it by layers then you makes sure that each corner/edge piece is correct for its layer with respect to its sides and you can ignore the unsolved layers while you do the current one.
  • Wow that is really impressive, I hafta say. Twenty seconds to solve a fully randomized cube!! Kids these days!
  • ... will be going to Rubik?

    A: None. Capitalism only rewards inventors when they are forced into it by the law. So much for all of this 'we respect IP rights' crap.

  • News for Nerds? Or well-done press release, YOU BE THE JUDGE!

  • Could somebody who is more enlightened, explain HOW the cube works, or maybe post a link?
    I don't understand, how when twisting it, the corners don't flat fall off.
  • for those of us that are now curious but can't afford one!
    Java Cube [rubiks.com]

  • Rubik's Party (Score:3, Funny)

    by scrotch ( 605605 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @03:02PM (#7424946)
    By a strange coincidence (unless Slashdot is watching me... ), my girlfriend called a little while ago to tell me that we've been invited (really, she's been invited and I get to tag along) to a Rubik's Cube Party. The idea is that everyone wears something that matches each of the cube's colors to the party (6+ pieces of clothing) and leaves wearing just one color.

    So, somehow the mind challenger has been turned into a clothes swapping party. Who'd have thought it?
  • Is the Lars petrus solution.

    Apparently its not the fastest by about 0.5 seconds or so but it takes years to get to that level.

    I found it encredibly easy to learn, got under 60 seconds in less than a month.

    http://lar5.com/cube/

  • Whew! It's over again. (Score:5, Funny)

    by blair1q ( 305137 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @03:06PM (#7424960) Journal
    In the time it took to read that submission, Rubik's Cube came and went. Again.

    You can't push a fad, you know.

    Groovy.
  • String theory physics has determined that the universe is a really big 11 dimensional Rubik's cube.

  • Cube math (Score:5, Interesting)

    by arvindn ( 542080 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @03:15PM (#7424983) Homepage Journal
    Any move takes edge pieces to edge pieces, corner pieces to corner pieces, and face centers to face centers.
    • Among corner pieces, all positions are possible (reachable from a given configuration), but only one out of 3 orientations are possible.
    • Among edge pieces, only half the positions are possible (diagonally opposite edge pieces can't be switched) and only half the orientations are possible.
    • Among center pieces all positions are possible.
    So that means only 1/12 of the total configurations are possible!

    So if you take the cube apart and put it back randomly, chances are you'll end up with an insoluble position :)

    This also allows us to count the number of possible configurations.

    • Corner positions: 8! (8 factorial)
    • Corner orientations: 3^8
    • Edge positions: 12!
    • Edge orientations: 2^12
    Total = 8! 3^8 12! 2^12 / 12 = 43252003274489856000 = 4.3 * 10^19

    Now a math teaser:

    The set of operations (operation = sequence of moves) you can perform on a cube forms a group. Two group elements x, y are said to commute if xy = yx (in this case, 2 operations commute if it doesn't matter in which order you perform them). Question: Find an operation that commutes with every operation.

    Rot13d spoiler follows.

    Syvccvat nyy gur rqtr cvrprf.

    In fact this is the only answer. If you know group theory, this is the only group element other than the identity which lies in the center of the cube group.

    • technically, commutitivity is tested whether or not (x)(y)(inv(x))(inv(y)) = 1

      • Re:Cube math (Score:3, Interesting)

        by yellowstone ( 62484 )

        technically, commutitivity is tested whether or not (x)(y)(inv(x))(inv(y)) = 1

        Not so.

        <math-geek>
        A binary operator R is said to be commutative for any two values x and y, if and only if

        x R y = y R x

        Note, in particular, it does not require that x or y have inverses -- thus, multiplying by zero is commutative, even though 1/0 is undefined.
        </math-geek>


  • I grew so frustrated with mine I threw it away furiously once, damn thing broke a vase!

    Then I melted it on the stove. Heh that'll teach the damned Cube!

  • Looking back (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 08, 2003 @03:27PM (#7425035)
    Those truly interested in the importance of the Rubik's cube should dig into the archives of Scientific American (if it's not online as a subscriber, try a library). There was a very good, in-depth (cover) story published as the popularity was beginning to wane. For the mathematically inclined, the Cube delves heavily into Group Theory and the article points this out. It also refers to "God's Algorithm", which means if you were to take a cube of any arrangement, hand it to a machine programmed with the algorthim, it would solve the problem with the same twists & turns with no decision making - just the same twists & turns. If you stop to ponder this - a universal algorithm with the same steps applied to any arrangement - this is pretty incredible! IIRC, the number of steps is on the order of 10^60 steps. Back to the mathematics. The arrangement of the tiles is important: at least if any of the pieces are pulled off of the framework and put back on (and this is not the same as peeling the colored paper off). When I was in college, there was a guy named Bert (seriously - his middle name could have been PointDexter) who bragged he could solve a cube in any arrangement in thirty seconds. Someone came to my room and asked if there was any way to shut this guy down. I grabbed a cube, took a corner cube off, gave it a 1/3 twist, and snapped it back into the framework. Scramble the puzzle a bit more, and down we went to visit Bert. Thirty seconds, forty seconds, fifty seconds. At three minutes, Bert exclaimed, "Someone's been tinkering with this cube!" (and he was pretty worked up by now) Obviously, this was pretty funny because his "any cube in thirty seconds" rep was gone and the fact he'd tried harder & harder as time progressed over the goal was gone. By 1982 or 1983, you could go to Target and buy Cubes for $0.50 (closeout). For those with a passing knowledge of the Cube wanting to delve into the history, one of the good places to go is eBay. There was a Saturday morning cartoon (copies sell on eBay), earrings, keychains, 4x4x4 cubes, 5x5x5 cubes, etc. I'm sure there are plenty of web pages and other online resources dedicated to the Cube as well (remember, there was no web when the Cube was hot).

  • ..to solve it included a screwdriver to pry the tiles of. Apperantly, I didn't have much patience back then.

  • The 4 x 4 cube and other shapes and sizes has been available for some time from Meffert's Puzzles [mefferts.com]. I ordered a Pyraminx from them a few years back. I always like it better than the cube.
  • I'm actually so good at it that people are starting to ask me to jumble a finished cube.

  • probably one of those 70s revival thingies like those retro-wood stereos that we've been seeing... i'm sure those who do it are driven to it mostly thanks to fashion rather than genuine interest

    personally i still prefer playing vexed on my Clie... i've been stuck on one of the levels for weeks if not months now and can't figure it out...
  • Look what you've gone and done! Now I have to waste an hour digging out the cube, and my weekend is practically gone, because I probably won't be able to sleep without solving it...

    ...or just taking it apart...

  • I remember popping off a corner of the cube, removing all the other corners & pieces, then putting them back together in the right order (IMO, this is a valid solution). Has anyone ever timed this to see how long it would take? I used to be able to do it in about 2 minutes.
  • what ever happened to square one? am i the only one that bought one of those things?

    the lame thing came already messed up with directions on how to solve it. though, i didnt realize that until after i started playing with it.
  • Never did solve it as a kid, so finally picked up one last year. Took 6 hours straight to solve the 3x3x3. I was kind of hoping for a longer challenge. LOL. The Revenge, and Professor (4x4x4 and 5x5x5) look like to be quite the challenge. Funny enough, the little 2x2x2 was just as tricky.

    Speaking of the 2x2x2 ... does anyone know the total number of permutations for it? I figured it should be = 8! * 3^8, so I have a 3 Gig database of all the cube states, along with a pointer to how to reach it's initi
    • The 3x3x2 is kinda fun. Works just like a regular cube with a slice missing, so it's not much of a challenge. Mine's decorated like dominos, with one white slice, one black slice, with faces numbered 1-9 in dots.

      Another oddity is the dual 3x3x3. The two cubes share a column of 3 pieces, making it impossible to rotate around one axis.

  • My slowest time was maybe like 3-5 minute range, but damnit I never read any of the solution books and I'm proud of that. Well, I was proud of that when I was a 10yr old kid :).

    But to date if I'm wandering in a store and see scrambled cubes out for display I will usually sit and [try to] solve them :). Kinda like seeing juggling balls on display. It's a moral imperative.

  • I found an old one my father had from the 80s and decided to learn how to solve it. Then when i got to school this fall, a bunch of kids saw me playing with it and all went out and bought them.

    I figure i'm the one responsible for this cube revival ;)

  • You can play with it here [javaonthebrain.com]
  • Rubik's Cube Comeback
    Comeback? I never thought the fad went away... My Rubik's cube has been hanging around in my room since I was a kid. I also still have the Rubik's Magic [geocities.com] puzzle, which seems to stump everyone who tries to solve it. It's a Rubik's life for me!
    • The Rubik's Magic was the one thing I could actually do, I was about 9 when I got mine and figured it out in about 10 minutes. In the end the only thing slowing me down was the actual physical dynamics of the product.

      The cube however is a totally different story, I've never once done that legitimately. I haven't picked one up for about 10 years though so maybe it would be a little easier now I'm a grown up (at least physically). Does anyone know of an online store that sells these things, the Magic and
      • http://www.rubikshop.com/
        The Rubik Shop [rubikshop.com] appears to carry a large selection of Rubik's goods. They carry the "Magic" as well as lots of different cube variations, including the original 3x3.
  • A group of us in High school got together and solved this thing collectively over e period of several months. When we could all solve it, we would have races.

    We would use vaseline in the mechanism to stop them jamming, and to prevent them wearing out.

    Otherwise, when racing with a well worn cube, the thing would fly apart in your hands - I'm not kidding!

    Our maths teacher hated them, because they used to disrupt his class a bit (and he couldn't solve it himself).

    Best racing ones were the originals. The ta

  • The Cube... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ArkiMage ( 578981 )
    Ahhh, the Rubik's Cube. Video games nowadays may entertain for hours and stimulate the mind, the cube did in the early 80's though. I was a freshman in HS in '82 and that and the next year were spent perfecting my solutions for it instead of study :) I averaged under a minute with a best of :24 once. I was so excited, the :24 time was when the standing world record was I think :24. This was just a week or so before the competition that was televised from Budapest where someone did it in :22.

    I also scrambl
  • "I remember having a cube that had letters on each sticker instead of colors, so that the solved product spelled words across each face."

    I don't remember that one, but I do remember having one that had fruits on them -- oranges, bananas, cherries, pineapples, etc. -- in addition to the original Rubik's Cube and the Pyraminx [geocities.com].

  • My first job, way back when in sixth grade or so, consisted of solving other kids' Rubik's Cubes. It was fairly lucrative. I always wondered why they would bother paying someone to solve it for them, but nonetheless, they did.

    Maybe they brought them home after school to show their parents how smart they were, or something. They certainly couldn't do that to other kids, because the other kids knew I solved it for them.
  • "Rubik's wrist" & "Cubist's Thumb" are mentioned in Singmaster's "Notes on Rubik's Magic Cube". I have had some problems like this at times, but nothing that prevented me from cubing. I still get weird twinges in my wrist or the backs of my hands/fingers every once in a while, but I mostly got rid of these with a few changes: 1. Make sure you have a really smooth easy-turning cube! I started off with really stiff cubes, and that's why I got injured. As soon as I lubed my cube regularly, most of the pro
  • Cube Explorer 3.0 [t-online.de] will find a solution to the 3x3x3 cube that will take less than 20 moves.

    And to see a video of a speed cuber, look at Dan Knight's [middlebury.edu] page.

  • I dont understand his 'world champion record'.
    He has a video on his site of him solving the cube in less than the 20 seconds which, according to /., is his record.
    The woman who's method he uses has videos on her site where she solvs the cube in around 14 seconds, 16 seconds, etc.
    Can anyone enlighten me?
  • I remember playing with a SOMA cube in my youth; I've not heard of it in decades, but somehow I enjoyed this puzzle far more than Rubick's cube.

    Does anyone know if they're still available?

    I googled for it, but apparently, somebody markets a drug with the same name, and it resists googling around it (Brave New World?).

    Does anybody know what I'm talking about?

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