Articles & Guides
Plain-English guides, a little puzzle history, and stories behind our favourite themes.
Diner Days: A Nostalgic Look at the 1950s American Diner
Chrome counters, jukeboxes and bottomless coffee: a fond look at the classic 1950s American diner, the theme behind our most popular word search.
Drive-In Nights: When the Movies Moved Outdoors
A few thousand screens under the stars: the story of the drive-in movie theatre and its 1950s peak, retold through the words in our Drive-In Nights word search.
What Makes a Sudoku "Gentle"? Clues, Symmetry and No Guessing
Easy sudoku is not just a label. How the number of givens, their symmetry, and a unique-solution check make a puzzle genuinely gentle.
A Short History of Sudoku: From an Indiana Architect to the World
Sudoku was invented in Indiana, named in Japan, and carried around the world by a New Zealand judge. The short, surprising history of the number puzzle.
A Short History of the Word Search Puzzle
The word search is younger than you might think. How Norman E. Gibat's 1968 digest puzzle became a classroom, waiting-room and coffee-table favourite.
How Our Puzzles Are Made — and Checked Twice
A plain explanation of how the puzzles on this site and in the Nostalgic Brain Games books are generated by computer and then independently verified.
How to Play Sudoku: The Gentle Introduction
Sudoku looks like maths but uses no arithmetic at all. This gentle introduction explains the grid, the three simple rules, and how to place your first numbers.
How to Play Word Search: A Beginner's Guide
New to word search puzzles? This plain-English guide explains the rules, the eight directions words can hide in, and how to finish your first puzzle.
Printing Puzzles at Home: A Simple Guide
Paper, printer settings and ink-saving tips for printing word search and sudoku puzzles at home — including how the print view on this site works.
The Space Age Comes Home: The 1950s in Orbit
Sputnik, NASA and star-shaped everything: how the space race of the late 1950s reached into kitchens, classrooms and design — the story behind our Space Age word search.
Sudoku Tips for Beginners: Start With the Easiest Wins
Four beginner-friendly sudoku techniques explained in plain language: scanning, nearly-full lines, pencil marks, and the one-square-left test.
Why Large Print? A Plain Guide to Bigger, Clearer Puzzles
What "large print" actually means in publishing, the standard sizes used for books and puzzles, and why grid size matters as much as letter size.
Word Search Themes: Why Familiar Words Make Better Puzzles
A word search is only as good as its word list. Why we build puzzles around familiar themes — diners, gardens, kitchens — instead of random vocabulary.
Word Search Tips: 7 Simple Strategies That Help
Stuck on a word search? These seven practical scanning strategies — rare letters, word shapes, and systematic sweeps — make hidden words much easier to find.