A puzzle box full of secrets is more than enough. But add well hidden elements that reveal themselves through exploration, little tools that are discovered and must be used in unexpected ways to proceed and open the box, and a puzzle box becomes an adventure.
Bram’s Stoker’s classic horror story about the undead ghoul with a serious blood lust, published in 1897, was inspired by a history of Wallachia, a region in what is now modern day Transylvania, and one of its most famous rulers, Vlad the Impaler - better known as Dracula.
I’m sharing a wonderful gift with everyone this week, on the heels of the American holiday grounded on giving and gratefulness. The gift is the story of another wonderful puzzle box created by one of the world’s true masters of the art, Perry McDaniel.
Close friends of Doog Menzies, a ship builder, engineer and craftsman, among other things, know Double Trouble is the name of one of his best puzzle boxes.
Dee Dixon did the puzzle world a favor when he decided to dedicate himself fully to designing and crafting his beautiful, delightful puzzles.
The Pioneer spirit is alive and well in the debut puzzle from Dylan Christopher, a mechanical engineer with a flair for ingenious design.
Matt Williams, a die cast machinist in England with a brilliant knack for creating outstanding mechanical puzzles, loves pinball, and has produced a remarkably puzzling object in Pinball Wizard.
There’s always something abuzz at an International Puzzle Party (IPP), which often has to do with, no surprise, an interesting puzzle, perhaps spied passing hands here and there, and utterly unfamiliar.
Who Dares Wins is a British television show named after the SAS (Special Air Squadron) motto. It is also now a collaborative puzzle lock box from a bunch of brilliant Dare Devils....
I recently received a mysterious package. The return label identified the sender as “The Source”. I suspect it may have come from the CIA, as the address listed Arlington, Virginia. It was also not addressed to me, but rather one “WSW” ...
September 6 was National Read a Book Day, which is celebrated like a National Holiday at Boxes and Booze headquarters. This is because at B&B we love books as much as we love boxes. And booze.
Joe Turner is getting frisky. The newest numerical addition to his ever expanding “free the coin” series of puzzles showcases his development as a woodworker and puzzlemaker over the many years that he has been honing these skills.
Dee Dixon's latest foray into the circular format, which began with the Bad Moon rising, and came full circle with the uplifting Uplift, has got some dizzying antics sure to give you Vertigo.
In March of 1882, construction began on what would become the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world, the Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família.
Puzzle historians will be well familiar with the works of Angelo John Lewis, an English lawyer and avid magician, who catalogued a compendium of puzzles of the Victorian era.
Franz Rudolph Wurlitzer was a German immigrant to the United States who started a music company in 1853 based out of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Whilemina the Wombat is an adorable marsupial made from rare Queensland Walnut, an indigenous Australian wood which is no longer commercially available. Produced in 2008, the puzzle combines elements of a high-level interlocking burr type puzzle with hidden mechanism sequential discovery tools.
The origins of photography can be traced back to approximately 500 CE when the first descriptions of the “camera obscura” can be found.
They say you never forget your first love, and it’s likely true with puzzle boxes too. I’d argue that with a Mowen’s puzzle box, on the other hand, you might try not to forget, but try as you might, you’ll get lost every time – and probably love every moment all over again.
Lex Luther, Dr. Doom, Magneto, Joker – arch enemies are easy to identify in hero centric fiction, and always seem to be the evil characters. I’m particularly fond of Moriarty, if we’re picking favorites.
There’s something thrilling about receiving mail. Perhaps the excitement of getting a physical letter from someone wears off as we get older, likely tempered by all the bills and junk mail, but even now in my jaded days it’s still nice when that happens. And if getting a special letter is a nice surprise, well I don’t need to tell you what it’s like to receive an eagerly awaited puzzle box.
There was a time, once upon a time in the not too distant past, when becoming a metagrobolotegestolomixologist was merely a speculative thought experiment meant as clever wordplay.
If mechanical puzzles came with a soundtrack, this one would elicit fine chords of acoustic guitar to placate you every time you picked it up, soothing your frustration in failing to solve its secrets. And if you found yourself with a selection of well made, compact, clever, multistep, elegant and entertaining sequential discovery puzzles to choose from this year, you would surely heed the call of this one, to Pick Me.
In ancient Greek lore, the Titan Cronus was overthrown by his children, the gods Zeus, Hades and Poseidon, who divided the skies, the seas and the underworld amongst themselves.
It’s been really cold here in Houston over the past week or two, and any time the temperature gets below freezing the city goes into crisis mode. We can’t handle the cold!
Call me Ishmael … no, that doesn’t sound right. You can’t start anything good with a line like that. Hmmm … Call me Idan.
This holiday episode of Stream of Consciousness is brought to you by our sponsor, Doog Menzies of Doogaloo Games.
Enter a winter wonderland that is just in time for the holidays courtesy of Dee Dixon, master storyteller at DED Wood Crafts, who presents his most whimsical puzzle adventure yet in the form of a magically mysterious wardrobe.
Listen closely, or you may well find your ears roughly severed and mailed to your next of kin, packed in salt in a cardboard box. The game is afoot again in Scotland Yard …
We are celebrating our collective love of the TV with a limited series on the B&B Network. Tune in!
According to legend, a vast treasure in gold lies waiting to be discovered, hidden somewhere in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona.