Binary is too easy, but hex can be tricky. I made a hex-based wordle puzzle for my programming game where you have to guess an 8-digit hex string in as few as 6-12 guesses using wordle mechanics... called the level "dwordle" :)
This is obviously improper. The valid strategy for this game unfolds as follows.
Step 1: Guess 11111.
Step 2: Replace all grey cells with 0s.
Thank you for your careful consideration.
nmeofthestate 2 days ago [-]
If you start with 0's you save a small amount of electricity. 1's use up more electricity - any electronic engineer will agree.
justsid 2 days ago [-]
Not to ruin a joke, but does it actually make a difference for SRAM? It’s two inverters in a loop, despite not being the same size they are active components. But I’m also a software guy so I could be totally wrong.
dskloet 2 days ago [-]
I think displaying black or white pixels makes a bigger difference.
bdcs 2 days ago [-]
> does it actually make a difference for SRAM?
I have no idea in practice. But for the thermodynamic limit of actually making a difference, any irreversible change requires heat to be generated, e.g. initializing to zero, truncating, or bitshifts with discarded information. In contrast, addition/subtraction/multiplication/bitshifts without over-/under- flow will not necessarily generate heat.
PS. you can also use mass-energy equivalence to extend this to calculate the lower limit of mass for a given quantity of information. TL;DR: The internet weighs 50g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaUzu-iksi8
heckelson 2 days ago [-]
And for a second, I was proud that I solved mine in 3 steps...
2 days ago [-]
paxys 2 days ago [-]
Step 1: Guess anything
Step 2: Flip all the non green cells.
underlines 2 days ago [-]
afaik, guessing anything not 00000 or 11111 at first step will lead to an optimum strategy of 3 steps. because you introduce possible "right digit at wrong place" as a third state.
guessing 00000 or 11111 removes that third state and leaves you with simple substitution of wrong cells, which leads to an optimal 2 step strategy.
but obviously the shortest strategy is just guessing it right on the first try :D lol
paxys 2 days ago [-]
It doesn't matter.
Right digit at the wrong place = wrong digit = you should flip it.
This puzzle won't take more than 2 guesses no matter what you input the first time.
Jtsummers 2 days ago [-]
It's still two steps. You only ever need to flip wrong digits.
jesse__ 2 days ago [-]
I think it's actually possible to win on the second guess with any initial input. Or at least I did it a handful of times..
vikingerik 2 days ago [-]
This should be correct. For any cell that isn't green after your first guess, there's only one other possibility for its value.
dskloet 2 days ago [-]
It's not guaranteed you will always win in 2 steps because occasionally you will win in 1 step.
Supermancho 1 days ago [-]
Isn't 1 within the bounds of 2?
Sohcahtoa82 1 days ago [-]
There's a difference between "in 2 steps" and "within 2 steps".
Supermancho 1 days ago [-]
Splitting hairs seems like grammar policing. I can even see action 1 and null action if I squint hard enough.
selcuka 2 days ago [-]
Yes. Yellow and grey mean exactly the same thing in this game: Flip it.
I intended this strategy, but 00000 happened to be correct, so I didn't even need a step 2.
arjvik 2 days ago [-]
Came here to present my strategy for solving it in two tries, and realized it was far more complicated! (started with 00011)
zck 1 days ago [-]
I also made some number-based wordle-variants, which I call "numberdle". I found that it was hard to come up with good ways of guessing because wordle has the restriction that most combinations are invalid. You won't ever have to guess xwqqf, because that's not an English word. And more importantly, guessing some letters gives you information about the other letters. If you find out three letters, and have the target as _a_ts, you can use that to figure out the other two letters.
But if you need to guess a number, and you know it's _5_34, having three correct digits don't help you figure it out.
So I made some variants where guessed values do help you figure out the correct answer.
In rationerdle (https://zck.org/numberdle/?variant=rationerdle), you have to guess a rational number x/y, where both x and y are between 1 and 99, inclusive. It displays the rational number you actually guessed, and whether x and y separately are too high or too low.
This delivers on the title but I wonder if you could tweak it to make it an actual game without wildly overcomplicating it.
Maybe make the string much longer, like 10 bits, and the game only matches on substrings longer than 3. 000...000 would generally return no matches.
That's still probably solvable with superpermutations but wordle is "solvable" with a dictionary, so don't let perfect be the enemy of "better than 2 guess bordle"
mulmen 2 days ago [-]
Got it in 10.
Black616Angel 2 days ago [-]
I was a bit sad, when it didn't display my number of tries as a 10.
mccolin 2 days ago [-]
There’s 10 types of people in this world: those that get that joke and those that don’t.
makerofthings 2 days ago [-]
There are 2 kinds of people in this world, those that can extrapolate from incomplete data.
taneq 2 days ago [-]
And fence post errors.
rodnim 2 days ago [-]
And those who know this joke is actually in base 3. :)
thehours 2 days ago [-]
Feedback: I'm unable to input with keyboard after typing anything but '0' until a full refresh (and selecting the input area with mouse).
Jtsummers 2 days ago [-]
You may not need the refresh, with Safari I have to select the game board again after focus is moved by clicking "play again".
lazerman 2 days ago [-]
The number of guesses should be written in binary too!
bitwrangler 2 days ago [-]
I like the UI and cute idea, nice animation. great way to learn xor $FF haha.
bentt 17 hours ago [-]
If this kind of troll app is what we can expect from our vibe coded future, then I'm all for it.
nickburlett 2 days ago [-]
Feature request: a "share" button, à la base-26 Wordle.
2 days ago [-]
soneca 2 days ago [-]
I guessed my first game in the first attempt! (10011)
drooopy 2 days ago [-]
Guessed my first game in 2 attempts.
teekert 2 days ago [-]
What are the odds!
soneca 2 days ago [-]
3.125% I believe :)
thrance 2 days ago [-]
1 in 32
eckesicle 2 days ago [-]
Me too!
dhsysusbsjsi 2 days ago [-]
I guessed 00000 and won first go!
thinkingemote 2 days ago [-]
hmm. I guessed something different (010001 maybe, I cant remember) and won first go too. I looked in the comments hoping to find the joke. I guess I'm 1 of the 10 people who don't understand binary jokes.
thih9 2 days ago [-]
For context, the original joke is:
> There are 10 kinds of people in this world — those who understand binary and those who don’t.
I love that not only are the inputs binary, but so are the results.
citizenfishy 2 days ago [-]
Isn't this just Mastermind?
maaaaattttt 2 days ago [-]
Apologies for opening a tangeant on a tangeant, but am I the only one who thinks there are 2 levels of playing master mind (and therefore wordle)? Easy level, you let the player know exactly which spots are correctly placed and which ones are there but incorrectly placed. Hard level, you let the player know only that some are correctly placed and some are there but incorrectly placed without identifiying which ones.
I personnaly don't enjoy the easy level when playing mastermind, but I do enjoy the hard version which is much more investigative and in my opinion triggers the same brain process as when I'm debugging code.
madcaptenor 2 days ago [-]
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Wordle implemented in what you call “hard level”. But there’s no reason it couldn’t be.
zaik 2 days ago [-]
No, this is much simpler.
jansan 2 days ago [-]
More like Minionmind.
drdec 2 days ago [-]
With this game, there is no try. There is do or do not.
sarmadgulzar 2 days ago [-]
So, this can be solved in at least one and at most two attempts.
neuroelectron 2 days ago [-]
I see what you did there
celticninja 2 days ago [-]
Isn't it always possible to get this on guess 2?
oneeyedpigeon 2 days ago [-]
Yes. I think that's the joke.
kcaseg 2 days ago [-]
Bit masking : the game
sidcool 2 days ago [-]
It should be solvable in no more than 2 moves.
UnreachableCode 2 days ago [-]
Don’t you mean 10 moves?
amanverasia 2 days ago [-]
The only reason I logged into my account is to give you an upvote!
b0a04gl 2 days ago [-]
bitmask bruteforce took 5 ops max.solving fizzbuzz with a GPU.
lo_zamoyski 2 days ago [-]
Why 5 rows? Just have two.
itishappy 2 days ago [-]
Is it possible to get yellow cells?
Jtsummers 2 days ago [-]
Use a mix of 0s and 1s, if the answer is "00110" and you put in "11000" you'll have 4 yellow and 1 green. If you use only 0s or only 1s for your first guess, you'll just get green and grey, no yellow.
itishappy 2 days ago [-]
Huh, surprisingly difficult to get. Took me 8 or so attempts.
2 days ago [-]
october8140 2 days ago [-]
Got it. Second try.
alloysmila 2 days ago [-]
only two attempts are ever needed :-(
HenryBemis 2 days ago [-]
So....
1st line, all zeros. It shows me where the zeros are.
Well.. that's it. Any non-zero is a 1.
So.. finished on the second line.
Am I the only one?
morcus 2 days ago [-]
Yeah, it's definitely meant to be a joke.
You also don't need to start with all zeros, any input will allow you to finish on the second try.
IAmBroom 2 days ago [-]
That didn't get it?
No, sadly.
13 hours ago [-]
schindlabua 2 days ago [-]
Hilariously dumb
anon84873628 2 days ago [-]
Made me chuckle out loud.
nicwolff 2 days ago [-]
I, uh, got it in two. Is it creepy that the answer is my ZIP code?
odo1242 2 days ago [-]
I somehow got lucky and guessed the answer in just one try lol
rossant 2 days ago [-]
How lucky of you. You had one chance out of 100000.
2 days ago [-]
Rendered at 08:22:46 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
Odds in two attempts: 1 in 1
You won!
You guessed 01111 in 4 attempts!
[1] https://apnews.com/article/new-york-times-wordle-clones-take...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_(computer_architecture)#T...
(video from like 3 years ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/Unity2D/comments/sq4anb/i_added_a_w...)
Gemini self-improved version (added the "Hint" and "What could it mean?" features): https://g.co/gemini/share/05c8cce3b2ff
Step 2: Replace all grey cells with 1s.
Step 1: Guess 11111.
Step 2: Replace all grey cells with 0s.
Thank you for your careful consideration.
I have no idea in practice. But for the thermodynamic limit of actually making a difference, any irreversible change requires heat to be generated, e.g. initializing to zero, truncating, or bitshifts with discarded information. In contrast, addition/subtraction/multiplication/bitshifts without over-/under- flow will not necessarily generate heat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landauer%27s_principle
PS. you can also use mass-energy equivalence to extend this to calculate the lower limit of mass for a given quantity of information. TL;DR: The internet weighs 50g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaUzu-iksi8
Step 2: Flip all the non green cells.
guessing 00000 or 11111 removes that third state and leaves you with simple substitution of wrong cells, which leads to an optimal 2 step strategy.
but obviously the shortest strategy is just guessing it right on the first try :D lol
Right digit at the wrong place = wrong digit = you should flip it.
This puzzle won't take more than 2 guesses no matter what you input the first time.
Spoiler alert: There is a nice video by Captain Disillusion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou7KSmfC3lA (the relevant part is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou7KSmfC3lA&t=275s )
There is no such thing as a two, Bender!
https://thedailywtf.com/articles/what_is_truth_0x3f_
But if you need to guess a number, and you know it's _5_34, having three correct digits don't help you figure it out.
So I made some variants where guessed values do help you figure out the correct answer.
In rationerdle (https://zck.org/numberdle/?variant=rationerdle), you have to guess a rational number x/y, where both x and y are between 1 and 99, inclusive. It displays the rational number you actually guessed, and whether x and y separately are too high or too low.
In factordle (https://zck.org/numberdle/?variant=factordle), the player has to guess the factors of a target number.
In formuladle (https://zck.org/numberdle/?variant=formuladle), there is a graphed straight line, and the player has to guess the mx+b formula that graphs that line.
I would like to make more, but didn't have any other great ideas when I ran out of interest.
…though now that I’m playing it in my head that’s too easy too. (Start at MSB and shift right if too high and add bits if too low)…
Maybe if you reduced the number of guesses to 5 that’d add enough chance to make it fun?
I similarly made a binary one before this version, but unsurprisingly, a lot of people said they found it too easy!
Maybe make the string much longer, like 10 bits, and the game only matches on substrings longer than 3. 000...000 would generally return no matches.
That's still probably solvable with superpermutations but wordle is "solvable" with a dictionary, so don't let perfect be the enemy of "better than 2 guess bordle"
> There are 10 kinds of people in this world — those who understand binary and those who don’t.
There are other versions too[1][2][3].
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7036594
[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7040175
[3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25854900
https://imgur.com/a/W4OjObH
Hope you like it!
https://semenar.itch.io/lost-in-space
1st line, all zeros. It shows me where the zeros are.
Well.. that's it. Any non-zero is a 1.
So.. finished on the second line.
Am I the only one?
You also don't need to start with all zeros, any input will allow you to finish on the second try.
No, sadly.