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Nokia 3210 "Rotation" game
By Oliver Samson (P3202) on Wednesday, January 10, 2001 - 07:32 pm:

Does anybody here have a system for completing levels 5 and upwards on this game? I quite easily found a system which swaps two adjacent numbers on the earlier levels, making any starting combination possible, but I'm having problems now. It's a pretty mathematical game. For those who haven't played it, Level 5 looks like this:

14 16 03 06
02 13 05 07
12 15 10 08
04 09 01 11

You start out with a 4x4 grid filled with random numbers, 1 to 16. The aim is to get the numbers in order, and you can rotate any of the 4 3x3 sections of the grid. For example, if I were to rotate the top-right section in the above grid clockwise, I would get this:

14 13 16 03
02 15 05 06
12 10 08 07
04 09 01 11

By Liwei Deng (P2942) on Wednesday, January 10, 2001 - 10:52 pm:

Hi, Olli
It's Liwei. i haven't got any solutions yet, but I'm sending you this message just that you know that some people have seen this problem. Hopefully I will come up with something by Friday.

By Oliver Samson (P3202) on Thursday, January 11, 2001 - 11:42 pm:

In case it's unclear, to complete the game all you need is a combination of rotations that will swap two numbers without affecting the positions of any of the others. It doesn't really matter which two numbers are swapped, although if they're adjacent it's most helpful. I'm not very good at the Rubik's cube or those games where you slide pieces around to form a picture, but I think anyone who is, will be able to do this puzzle/game.

By Zhidong Leong (P3545) on Wednesday, January 17, 2001 - 12:22 pm:

I have a great problem.
I can't even solve the level 1 3x3 puzzle.
Can anyone help me?

By Oliver Samson (P3202) on Friday, January 19, 2001 - 11:27 pm:

Level 1:

01 02 03
04 05 09 Imagine you start with this, and you
07 08 06 want to swap the 6 and the 9.

First, rotate the bottom-left corner clockwise to get the following:

01 02 03
07 04 09
08 05 06

Then, rotate the top-right corner clockwise to get:

01 04 02
07 09 03
08 05 06

Rotate the bottom-right corner clockwise:

01 04 02
07 05 09
08 06 03

Rotate the top-right corner anti-clockwise:

01 02 09
07 04 05
08 06 03

Then the bottom-left anti-clockwise:

01 02 09
04 06 05
07 08 03

Rotate the top-right clockwise:

01 06 02
04 05 09
07 08 03

Rotate the bottom-right anti-clockwise:

01 06 02
04 09 03
07 05 08

Then the top-right anti-clockwise:

01 02 03
04 06 09
07 05 08

Finally, rotate the bottom-right, clockwise:

01 02 03
04 05 06
07 08 09


With ease you should be able to get all but the bottom right four spaces filled in levels 1-4, then use this system to swap any adjacent two, making any combination possible. In case you're wondering how I worked all that out, I really don't know, it was the first thing I tried.

By Oliver Samson (P3202) on Thursday, January 25, 2001 - 09:04 pm:

I cracked Level 5!!!!! (finally)
I was wrong about the type of system I'd need. I don't know if a system of swapping two exists on this level, but my system is far more complicated. If anyone wants to know it, I'll write it out, if you post a message to the web-board.