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Show HN: Reach 100 – a (unsolvable?) puzzle game (reach-100.com)

13 points by maaaaattttt ↗ HN
I recently remembered a game we used to play with pen and paper some 20 years ago, where you need to fill a 10x10 grid writing numbers in the grid up to 100 following 2 simple rules.

After showing it to my kids I thought it would be nice to adapt it digitally so that they could play it more often (not needing to draw the grid etc.) and so that other people could play it as well.

What I'm really interested in with this submission (beyond general feedback) is wether anybody knows the origin of the game and if it's solvable. Because that's the catch, my highest score of all time is 97 and it doesn't seem to be possible to go higher. I have the feeling this game is an adaptation of a more general problem and probably has its origin in some lecture. So, once again, if you know where it comes from I'd be really grateful. Alternatively I would love to know if there is a possibility to prove if it's solvable or not.

(It's made for mobile but it works on desktop as well with keyboard shortcuts around the S key in a QWERTY layout)

6 comments

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wingerlang
I didn't understand that you're supposed to jump 100 times, rather than reach the 100th circle, until I read your description here. Because naturally I started at 0,0 which said 1 so logically 9,9 will be 100. I didn't really pay attention to the numbers where I tapped as well after the first one.
maaaaattttt
Thaïs for your feedback! I will add an initial instruction to be clearer.
fizek
I'm huge fan of those browser-mini-games. Like: https://eightcolors.net/ https://vole.wtf/perfect-circle/ https://vulume.itch.io/kuroma https://luca.gg/centergame/ https://0hh1.com/

And the Reach 100 fits perfectly here. It's sick, how difficult it is.

It reminds me of Kuroma (it took me 2 months to complete a single stage with a score of 39).

Much appreciate that you shared it here.

maaaaattttt
Thanks a lot! I knew only eightcolors, somehow, I think it's been posted here before. I loved all the others as well with a slight preference for kuroma and ohh1. They've been bookmarked!

If you ever beat 97 at reach 100, let me know, I'm dying to find out if and how someone reaches the end! There's a "trick" that'll get you reliably in the 90's but I think it's a dead-end and you cannot reach 100 with it.

MisterJoe
Great game! After playing it for a while and never reaching more than 80, I googled around and I found a solution in this post on Quora: https://www.quora.com/Can-you-fully-fill-a-10-by-10-grid-wit...
maaaaattttt
Thank you! The explanations for the solution there are quite interesting! I watched a Veritasium video a couple month back that mentioned Hamiltonian paths but my brain didn't make the connection. And even if tbh, I'm not sure I would have found the solution. Thanks for the link, I am somehow relieved now!