Solving the Over-The-Top 17×17 puzzle cube

Today during my daily crawl through blogs using Pulse, I stumbled across this video of a guy solving the Over-The-Top puzzle from creator Oskar Van Deventer. If you’ve not seen it before, it’s basically a huge version of the Rubik’s Cube designed to mess with your mind even more. I struggle with the 2×2 but this guy, Kenneth Brandon reckons if you’ve got the 4×4 cube licked, then you can do this mammoth 17×17 beast.

“The 17 x 17 isn’t that hard, but it is very, very tedious.”

It took Kenneth 7.5 hours in total to solve over the space of 5 days. I imagine if you went at it in one hit, your eyes would start to hate you after not long. Anyway, below is the time-lapse with some interesting explanations at the start. But you can also see the full 7.5 hours on his YouTube channel if you’re interested…

via :: The Verge

5th January 2015 Surface Tension , , No comments
Surface TensionSolving the Over-The-Top 17×17 puzzle cube
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Revival 2014

With Revival 2014 just around the corner, we’re just chilling out counting down the days. Yeah right! We’re busy getting everything ready so we don’t arrive at midnight again, have to set up then back to the hotel for an hour of sleep! That’s the plan anyway.

If you’re wondering what we’re talking about, Revival is a retro games expo which premiered last year. Taking place on the 9th and 10th August this year, it’s everything from Magnavox Odyssey to Megadrive, pinball to Playstation.

There’s plenty on at Revival again this year. Once you’re in, there’s 60+ arcade machines, 20+ pinball tables 150+ retro gaming systems, plus 2 VR systems linked up this year! John Romero will be there for you to challenge to a game of multiplayer Doom, plus a Q&A session. There will be other Q&A sessions from Andrew Hewson (Hewson Consultants), Andrew Oliver (Dizzy series), Ocean and US Gold employees.

Turnarcades will also be unveiling their own Revival Survival arcade cabinet which succeeded on Kickstarter which surface tension backed, so we look forward to our inclusion there!

surface tension will be there again in the same location, so come and say hello. We’ll have our Dual, Arcane and Retrograde systems with us. As well as arcade games, we’ll have our Retrograde upright showing off plenty of games on the Steam platform which play, look and sound great on our home arcade systems!

We will also be offering discounts on all of our products purchased at the show.

Take a look at our photos from last years show.

31st July 2014 Surface Tension , , , , , No comments
Surface TensionRevival 2014
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The new Rubik’s Cube seat from surface tension

We’ve been extremely busy lately. We haven’t eaten, we haven’t slept, and none of our friends have seen us in months!

We’re now pleased to announce the launch of three new products. As with all other surface tension products, they are all produced in the UK.

First up is the Rubik’s Cube seat, which is also a table and a storage unit. Made from MDF, sprayed to a fine black finish and stickered with pantone-matched colours to give a real authentic over-sized feel… measuring 45cm³.
These are currently in manufacture and are available now for pre-order for Christmas delivery in the UK, Eire and Channel Islands only.

It has the old-skool retro Rubik’s logo on the side.

Everyone’s favourite colours!

Open it up and discreetly store all your junk before your friends come over.

Available now to pre-order for £199 from surface tension.

17th November 2011 Surface Tension , , , , , , No comments
Surface TensionThe new Rubik’s Cube seat from surface tension
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Rubik’s Cube + Lego = One Awesome Retro Toy

When the Rubik’s cube was launched in 1980 it was awarded the Best Puzzle of the year, to date it is still considered to be one of the top selling puzzles in the world. While many only aim to solve the puzzle there are others, including surface tension, who try to give it their personal touch.

Another of my childhood favourites were Lego blocks, even these days the fan following for both the Rubik’s cube and the Lego blocks is still huge. One such fan is Andreas Nortmann who has come up with this awesome fusion of both.

Take a look at his innovative idea and you will be amazed at the brains that have worked behind them. Both the creators of the Rubik’s and Lego would surely be proud of him.

Nortmann exchanged the stickers with 2X2 plates of Lego. Different colored plates for all the six sides. What you have here now is a Rubik’s cube with Lego blocks fixed all around them. You can not only solve the puzzle but also use it as a base for other creations.

The building technique being applied here is referred to as SNOT (Studs Not On Top). Since it is being applied with the Rubik’s and Lego it is termed as Rubik’s + Lego + SNOT and the result is ‘Awesome’. You simply have no other word for it.

Kudos to Nortmann for such a brilliant idea!!

8th June 2011 Surface Tension , No comments
Surface TensionRubik’s Cube + Lego = One Awesome Retro Toy
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Help us decide on our Rubik’s Cube Stool!

You may have seen our pre-production Rubik’s Cube stool at R3play last year and it won’t be long before it becomes a reality. But we need some help deciding which should be the ‘missing’ colour.

Because it is storage and requires feet, it must have an orientation. So as a result, one colour must be lost But, we’re running a poll so you can help decide which colour that is!

Due to the design, each colour has a set opposing colour, so whatever colour you choose to get rid of, decides what colour you’ll be sitting on! Every silver lining has a cloud…

White is opposite Yellow, Blue is opposite Green and Red is opposite Orange. Or if you like images…

So, we’d love to hear your input on this one. You could leave us a message here, or better still, head over to our facebook page and just click on the choice of colours. If you’d like to join the page, we’d like that too.

3rd June 2011 Surface Tension , , , 2 comments
Surface TensionHelp us decide on our Rubik’s Cube Stool!
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Robot solves Rubik’s cube in 10 seconds

Learning the Rubik’s cube is on my list of things to do before I die. Though there never seems to be the time.

Now, getting myself a robot that could do it for me would save a lot of time! Time enough to do the next thing on the list, whatever that may be. Luckily a bunch of students at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, have created such a labour-saving device!

(Click for some youtube action)

Ruby managed it in just over 10 seconds, which includes the time to analyse. This is the fastest recorded time for a robot to solve the puzzle, though it’s still a few seconds off the fastest human time of 6.24s.

via :: technabob

1st June 2011 Surface Tension , No comments
Surface TensionRobot solves Rubik’s cube in 10 seconds
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