mjah
March-2nd-2011, 10:27 PM
Okay, this is driving me nuts. In the 1980s there was a toy/puzzle in the form of a black plastic triangular pyramid with colored LEDs at each of the 4 points of the pyramid. I think it probably was 6" long per side.
It was a battery-operated electronic puzzle: the goal was to get each of the four points of the pyramid to glow with the same particular color. (Red?) Each time you tipped the pyramid so a new point was facing upward, one or more of the corners would change color between yellow, green, and red. You had to figure out the rules governing those color changes in order to get all four corners lit with the same particular color at the same time. At any given time, a corner could be solidly lit or flashing, or maybe multiple LEDs could light per corner at the same time -- I don't really remember -- but each of those counted as a different color state.
The first level was easy: tipping a corner so it stood straight up would increment its color by one state, leaving all other corners unchanged, and all corners followed the same sequence of states. In later levels, tipping a corner up would cause other corners to change, and in different sequences. It was a lot of fun to figure out, at least for a 7th grader.
I still have my old Rubik's Magic panel puzzle in a box somewhere, but I'll be damned if I can find this pyramid puzzle. I think it might have been called Illuminations, but I'm not sure about that. I'd love to find one again.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? Google was not my friend on this one.
It was a battery-operated electronic puzzle: the goal was to get each of the four points of the pyramid to glow with the same particular color. (Red?) Each time you tipped the pyramid so a new point was facing upward, one or more of the corners would change color between yellow, green, and red. You had to figure out the rules governing those color changes in order to get all four corners lit with the same particular color at the same time. At any given time, a corner could be solidly lit or flashing, or maybe multiple LEDs could light per corner at the same time -- I don't really remember -- but each of those counted as a different color state.
The first level was easy: tipping a corner so it stood straight up would increment its color by one state, leaving all other corners unchanged, and all corners followed the same sequence of states. In later levels, tipping a corner up would cause other corners to change, and in different sequences. It was a lot of fun to figure out, at least for a 7th grader.
I still have my old Rubik's Magic panel puzzle in a box somewhere, but I'll be damned if I can find this pyramid puzzle. I think it might have been called Illuminations, but I'm not sure about that. I'd love to find one again.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? Google was not my friend on this one.