PUZ (crossword puzzles) - Revision history

Sembiance: sample files

2024-07-30T15:04:01Z

sample files

Eli: /* Format documentation */

2022-05-17T15:33:09Z

‎Format documentation

Eli: update links

2022-05-17T15:31:22Z

update links

Dan Tobias at 14:09, 16 February 2014

2014-02-16T14:09:48Z

Dan Tobias: /* Format documentation */

2014-02-15T21:58:37Z

‎Format documentation

Dan Tobias at 21:53, 15 February 2014

2014-02-15T21:53:32Z

Dan Tobias at 21:53, 15 February 2014

2014-02-15T21:53:05Z

Dan Tobias: /* Links */

2014-02-15T16:14:52Z

‎Links

Dan Tobias at 16:09, 15 February 2014

2014-02-15T16:09:16Z

Dan Tobias at 16:08, 15 February 2014

2014-02-15T16:08:29Z

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 * [https://communicrossings.com/files/crossword/puz/derekslager/puz.html PUZ file in-browser rendering (via Derek Slager)]
 * [https://www.crosswordnexus.com/solve/ PUZ file in-browser rendering (via Crossword Nexus)]
 == Other links ==
 * [http://www.crosswordfiend.com/blog/2011/04/05/see-im-telling-you-make-peace-with-puzzle-solver/ See? I’m telling you, make peace with Puzzle Solver]

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 * [http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/txt/acre.html Reverse-engineering the scrambling algorithm, by Brian Raiter]
 * [http://www.litsoft.com/across/docs/AcrossTextFormat.pdf Official documentation of Across Lite text puzzle format]
-* [http://acrossdown.net/specification.htm Another format description]
+* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110806052658/http://acrossdown.net/specification.htm Another format description]
 == Software ==

@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 == Utilities ==
-* [http://derekslager.com/puz/ PUZ file in-browser rendering]
+* [https://communicrossings.com/files/crossword/puz/derekslager/puz.html PUZ file in-browser rendering (via Derek Slager)]
 == Other links ==
 * [http://www.crosswordfiend.com/blog/2011/04/05/see-im-telling-you-make-peace-with-puzzle-solver/ See? I’m telling you, make peace with Puzzle Solver]

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 |extensions={{ext|puz}}
 }}
-The '''PUZ''' crossword puzzle data format (unrelated to the [[PUZ]] document format used by Microsoft Publisher) is a format used for electronically-distributed crossword puzzles. It was created for the Across Lite program, and became a de facto standard for online crosswords, including the popular ''New York Times'' puzzles. No official file format documentation was provided (the producers probably would have preferred it remain proprietary), but it has been reverse-engineered and is now used in many crossword programs and apps. For a long time, reverse-engineered implementations were unable to decode the "scrambled" version of the file format, where the correct answers to the puzzle are encrypted with a four-digit key needed to unlock them (you can still do the puzzle without unscrambling the answers, as the grid layout and clues are not encrypted, but have no way of checking your answers), but eventually somebody reverse-engineered that as well (a tour-de-force of computer science and mathematics by Brian Raiter, linked below; Mike Richards apparently also discovered the algorithm as documented in comments in another of the links below).
+The '''PUZ''' crossword puzzle data format (unrelated to the [[PUZ]] document format used by Microsoft Publisher) is a format used for electronically-distributed crossword puzzles. It was created for the Across Lite program, and became a de facto standard for online crosswords, including the popular ''New York Times'' puzzles. No official file format documentation was provided (the producers probably would have preferred it remain proprietary), but it has been reverse-engineered and is now used in many crossword programs and apps (though perhaps not so many after some more recent saber-rattling by the legal department of the owner of the originating program). For a long time, reverse-engineered implementations were unable to decode the "scrambled" version of the file format, where the correct answers to the puzzle are encrypted with a four-digit key needed to unlock them (you can still do the puzzle without unscrambling the answers, as the grid layout and clues are not encrypted, but have no way of checking your answers), but eventually somebody reverse-engineered that as well (a tour-de-force of computer science and mathematics by Brian Raiter, linked below; Mike Richards apparently also discovered the algorithm as documented in comments in another of the links below).
 Across Lite also has a "text format" of puzzles, which can be used to create puzzles which the Across Lite program can convert into the binary format for distribution. Unlike the binary format itself, the publisher of Across Lite has documented that format to allow third parties to use it.

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 * [http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/txt/acre.html Reverse-engineering the scrambling algorithm, by Brian Raiter]
 * [http://www.litsoft.com/across/docs/AcrossTextFormat.pdf Official documentation of Across Lite text puzzle format]
 == Software ==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{FormatInfo
 |formattype=electronic
-|subcat=Game data files
+|subcat=Puzzles
 |extensions={{ext|puz}}
 }}

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 The '''PUZ''' crossword puzzle data format (unrelated to the [[PUZ]] document format used by Microsoft Publisher) is a format used for electronically-distributed crossword puzzles. It was created for the Across Lite program, and became a de facto standard for online crosswords, including the popular ''New York Times'' puzzles. No official file format documentation was provided (the producers probably would have preferred it remain proprietary), but it has been reverse-engineered and is now used in many crossword programs and apps. For a long time, reverse-engineered implementations were unable to decode the "scrambled" version of the file format, where the correct answers to the puzzle are encrypted with a four-digit key needed to unlock them (you can still do the puzzle without unscrambling the answers, as the grid layout and clues are not encrypted, but have no way of checking your answers), but eventually somebody reverse-engineered that as well (a tour-de-force of computer science and mathematics by Brian Raiter, linked below; Mike Richards apparently also discovered the algorithm as documented in comments in another of the links below).
 == Identification ==
@@ Line 14: / Line 18: @@
 * [https://code.google.com/p/puz/wiki/FileFormat File format documentation]
 * [http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/txt/acre.html Reverse-engineering the scrambling algorithm, by Brian Raiter]
 * [http://sourceforge.net/p/wx-xword/code/HEAD/tree/ XWord program code]