Double crostic techniques
OwnerKenneth Lukerinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention generally involves a computer program for creating, printing, storing, organizing, solving and publicizing double crostic puzzles and playing a solitaire game based upon the double crostic puzzle theme. The computer program allows a user to create or solve double crostic puzzles with minimal effort because the computer program accomplishes the “book keeping” and layout requirements of a double crostic puzzle. In addition, the computer program may be used as a solitaire game wherein the user attempts to create a puzzle from a preselected letter bank.
Claims18
A method of creating a double crostic puzzle utilizing a computer having a processor, a memory, a storage device, at least one input device, and at least one output device, said method comprising:
- retrieving a first message comprising a finite number of first message letters;
- retrieving a second message comprising a finite number of second message letters;
- ensuring that said first message letters are a subset of said second message letters;
- creating a letter bank from said second message comprising said second message letters;
- identifying a set of solution word first letters comprising said first message letters;
- removing each of said first message letters from said letter bank;
- retrieving a set of solution words corresponding to said set of solution word first letters from said at least one input device;
- removing each letter in said set of solution words from said letter bank as said set of solution words are retrieved;
- displaying a negative number for any letter used in said set of solution words more than the number of times it appears in said letter bank, wherein said negative number reflects the difference between the number of times said particular letter appears in said second message letters and the number of times a particular letter appears in said set of solution words;
- and
- retrieving a set of solution word clues from said at least one input device.
A method of creating an double crostic puzzle utilizing a computer having a processor, a memory, a storage device, at least one input device, and at least one output device, said method comprising:
- retrieving a first message from said input device, said first message having a finite number of letters;
- retrieving a second message from said input device, said second message having a finite number of letters;
- creating a set of solution word letters, said set of solution word letters corresponding to said finite number of letters in said first message;
- assigning a solution word identifier to each of said solution word letters;
- displaying said set of solution word letters and corresponding solution word identifiers on said at least one output device;
- creating a letter bank, said letter bank comprising each of said letters of said second message;
- displaying said letter bank on said at least one output device;
- retrieving a solution word for at least one solution word identifier wherein said solution word begins with said solution word letter corresponding to said at least one solution word identifier;
- removing each letter of said retrieved solution word from said letter bank, wherein any letter of said retrieved solution word not in said letter bank is displayed in said letter bank as a negative value corresponding to said letter;
- and
- retrieving a solution word clue for each said solution word.
A method of playing a solitaire word game utilizing a computer having a processor, a memory, at least one input device, and at least one output device, said method comprising:
- retrieving a message from said first input device, said message comprising a finite number of letters;
- forming a set of undeciphered solution words from said message, each undeciphered solution ord of said set of undeciphered solution words having a first letter corresponding to exactly one of said finite number of letters of said message;
- displaying each undeciphered solution word and said first letter on said at least one output device;
- retrieving a predefined letter bank unrelated to said message, said letter bank comprising a finite number of letters;
- and
- prompting the input of a solution word in place of one of said undeciphered solution words, said solution word beginning with said first letter of said undeciphered solution word.
A method for creating a double crostic puzzle from two messages utilizing a computer program, wherein solution words beginning with letters from a first message are formed from letters in a letter bank consisting of letters from a second message, comprising:
- allowing a use of letters not in the letter bank for the temporary formation of solution words.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.