Cross Quote Player |
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| Review by Dave Fisher |
Cross Quote Player is a program developed by Richard Marzi for solving acrostic style puzzles. His Web site offers the puzzle player (and two sample puzzles) as a free downoad in hopes that people will then pay a subscription fee for subsequent puzzles. I recently test drove the software, evaluated the sample puzzles and went through the online subscription form.
Here are my comments and suggestions.
First of all, I must say that all these acrostic programs provide a welcome respite from the tedious back-and-forth cross-referencing that paper and pencil solving requires. The Cross Quote Player interface is fine and the program worked well. The screen shot above shows you the layout.
I found the sample puzzles to be quite challenging on two counts. The quotes were very long or clues were very minimal. If these are indicative of the quality of the rest of the puzzles then I'd say that most of the puzzles will be difficult. Also, the subject matter of the quotes themselves was somewhat depressing. One lamented the 'progress' of science while the other mentioned paralytic polio. I'd prefer to see quotes that depend more on wit, wisdom and humor.
The site offers 120 puzzles for US$24.95 at the rate of 10 per month. I'm not sure that people will want to 'pay-before-you-play'. Why not just give them the 120 puzzles and be done with it?
Finally, the mechanics of the site also need some fine-tuning. Subscribers are asked to fill out a form with a lot of personal information before getting any details such as:
- Who can subscribe? US only? International?
- Payment methods accepted
- CQPuzzles physical address is not prominent.
Bottom Line:
I think it's a good program and the puzzles are finely crafted but I don't think this is going to be a resounding success. The sample puzzles are too difficult for the average solver and the 'pay-before-you-play' aspect will deter others. Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think. Click here to visit Cross Quote Puzzles. To post your comments in the Puzzler's Forum, follow any of the links below.
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