Thursday, April 04, 2019

Two Brain Games

I am not a gamer. Although I played the usual old games on my first computer back in the mid-80s, I have never been much of a gamer. Back then I played Pole Position, Frogger, Pacman, and others. But I never played them very well. Perhaps okay-ish way back then but nothing great and probably not even good.

These days I play two games on my iPad, mostly just one round of both per day and sometimes not even that. And they're not real games but just the quick hit mental stimulation kinds.

One is Sudoku. I hadn't played for quite some time but, about a month ago, I downloaded the app on a whim. I like how the game is set up and the way you can make notes if you like. (I should have put some notes in this screengrab.)



It has four levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert. I don't bother with Expert unless it comes up in the daily puzzle. I figure it just takes too much time and effort to bother, and the other levels give me all the brain workout that I require.  I play Easy without making notes, just trying to keep it all in my head. I do the same for Medium, and I usually manage, but some Mediums are as Hard as Hard, and I resort to notes.

The other game is Wordscapes. It's a word scramble where you try to make words out of a jumble of 6 or 7 letters; you know the type. But it comes in crossword format, so there are clues of a sort; as you guess an across word, for example, you will have a letter for a down word, and you will know how many letters it contains. I completed part of the following puzzle to demonstrate.



I discovered the game and showed it to Sue. She has since played it much more than I have. Sue showed it to her sister, Heather, who is a tad compulsive, and she actually finished the game. Well, so did Sue afterward, but then they added more levels, so Sue keeps playing. You can see that I lag behind, being only on level 399. However, the game of the day doesn't count in the levels, and this is often the only game that I play ... if that. I'm therefore not sure how many actual games I have played, and I have also done a few hundred on the phone.

Of the two, I prefer Sudoku. I am more of a convergent and logical thinker, so it suits me. Even with the clues that you get from the crossword approach, Wordscapes is more of a game for divergent thinkers or creative types. Although I manage, I find it more tedious.

But I try to believe that they are both good for the brain and are worth investing a half hour or whatever a day if I have the time. If you have an iPad or iPhone, you might find one or both worth your while too.

17 comments:

Jenn Jilks said...

Soduku gives me headaches!
I used to have a client, Thursday evenings, who did crosswords. I caught that bug. Thing is, we don't get the paper anymore!
Good for you for not being compulsive! I'm on Angry Birds and play Scrabble with my daughter. She creams me all the time.

Christina said...

I am not a gamer but I used to play a game called "The Lemmings" on our very first computer in the 1980s. It was amazing then, and I remember spending hours playing. I am unable to do Sudoku. I am not sure why but I have never managed to complete one, which I find most embarrassing considering I have a PhD... I think I would enjoy Wordscapes but will not start playing because I might be on it all the time!

Barbara Rogers said...

Thanks for sharing what games you play these days...techno kind anyway. I was kind of remembering, you know, when you first wake up, playing Sudoku...which I played mainly on a hand held device in the early 2000s. A PDA, I think it was called. Now I have just a solitaire game, which is mind numbing rather than stimulating. So that must be why my brain is slowly going ...going....gone.

Shammickite said...

Back in the 1980s I played Frogger, loved making that little frog jump from lily pad to lily pad. That was on the Commodore 64!
Now I attempt the occasional Solitaire but that's about it.
I've been teaching the grandies to play Soduko, they are getting the idea.

Marie Smith said...

Soduku was a favourite of mine years ago. Must give it a go again.

Thickethouse.wordpress said...

My daughter put wordscapes on my tablet and I've been enjoying it lots! Sudoku is more of a challenge and I should try it more often.

Mage said...

You both are to be commended. I am applauding you.

William Kendall said...

Admittedly I do not play games on devices.

troutbirder said...

No gamer here at all. Particularly any involving arithmetic...:(

Red said...

You're right that they are good for our head. I'm going to try the word game.

Tabor said...

Sudoku reminds me of school math classes which I did not like and therefore, I would gain no pleasure in getting those numbers to add up correctly. Word games are another story and I do have several on my Kindle.

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