MazeBall

Post Reply
User avatar
Splinter
Posts: 127
Joined: September 4th, 2012, 3:10 pm
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Contact:

MazeBall

Post by Splinter » January 8th, 2013, 7:16 pm

This is the MazeBall!
MazeBall Shapeways2.JPG
MazeBall
MazeBall Shapeways2.JPG (142.24 KiB) Viewed 4316 times

I hope you like this as a design and as a puzzle.

Size (assembled): approx. round 122 mm
Weight: approx. 300 grams

Youtube video of puzzle
Youtube video of assembly

The aim of the puzzle is to bring the ball through the maze from one end of the MazeBall to the other end. Going back through the maze should give you the same experience, as this puzzle is mirror-symmetrical.

Added to this challenge is the situation that this maze is a kind of maze within a maze. This makes solving it much more complex (hence more fun) than "align the rings and follow the path". The rotation of adjacent rings is restricted by a simple groove-and-notch system, especially designed to prevent you from positioning the rings such that the maze can be navigated at once. In other words, you are forced to reposition the rings several times while the ball is somewhere in the maze. This makes solving take longer than you would expect at first sight!

For experienced puzzlers I’d rate the challenge as ‘moderate’.

The maze of the MazeBall is different from the maze of the MazeRoll and MazeCone, but the design and solution method are comparable. Main extra features of the MazeBall are that it’s a large puzzle and it’s the best (easiest) puzzle to assemble yourself from the Shapeways kit.

The MazeBall is available at my Shapeways shop and ready assembled at my wife’s webshop.

The MazeBall is a registered design (reg.no. 002144584-0002).

Post Reply