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Sudoku and the Media
One
of the main reasons for the sudden success of Sudoku is the media,
particularly newspapers. Without this medium Sudoku would be nowhere
near as popular as it is today.
The explosion in the popularity of Sudoku puzzles in the UK and America
can be attributed to one man. Mr Wayne Gould, a retired Hong Kong based
judge. Gould, a New Zealander first came accross a Sudoku puzzle in a
bookshop, he saw the potential popularity of this puzzle ,and over the
next 6 years he developed a computer program that produced Sudoku
puzzles quickly. He recommended The Times Newspaper used his software
to create Sudoku puzzles for it's readers, they took his advice and the
first Sudoku puzzle was printed on November 12th 2004. This was the
beginning of a Sudoku explosion.
Before long several major papers were printing Sudoku puzzles in
Britain. However America were one step ahead of Britain. The Conway
Daily Sun published a Sudoku puzzle by Wayne Gould in 2004.
As the popularity of Sudoku increased it's coverage spread to different
mediums, and on the 1st of July 2005 the first Sudoku show was
broadcast on Sky One. The show was called Sudoku Live and was presented
by popular English presenter Carol Vorderman.
The BBC soon followed suit and later that year they lauched a game show
called SUDO-Q. It used 4x4 and 6x6 puzzle squares and mixed Sudoku with
general knowledge questions.
However newspapers and TV are not the only mediums that have been used
to promote Sudoku. These days Sudoku games can be found on computers,
websites (like this one) and mobile phones. Further more the popular
handheld game consoles Playstation Portable, Gameboy Advance and the
Nintendo Ds have Sudoku videogames.
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, is a popular Nintendo DS
game. It features Sudoku and has sold over 8 million copies worldwide.
As you can see there are a lot of options available for you too play
Sudoku, and that explains it's sudden popularity.
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