Cash Back

I managed to snag a copy of Cash Back from Alan’s second release and it arrived at the tail end of the week. Gill had a pile of pals around so I spent some quality time fiddling around with the latest little cubic wonder.

It’s the same size and colour as it’s brethren, there’s the familiar coin/token waiting patiently to be freed and the usual assortment of holes and slits around the sides… oh, and the rather obvious bolt. Of course there’s also the familiar instruction card telling you not to break the puzzle, as if…

I duly get sucked into this one and find myself doing the obvious things and I find I can make stuff happen, and even make it unhappen (sometimes that’s important!). Stuff moves around and I feel like it’s useful, but it’s not getting me very close to freeing the coin…

… I spend quite a while trying very similar things and getting exactly the same reaction and keep hoping that something different might just happen… Yup, I should know better!

After a particularly fruitless period I try something different and find the in my lap – which is great, except I seem to have found myself up a creek with my paddle stuck in a tree. You had one useful tool and you managed to get it jammed! Call yourself a puzzlist?

I spend a little while panicking and trying increasingly desperate things but I can’t find my way out of there… and I begin to doubt the designer’s abilities – have I been able to do something I thought was sensible and bricked my puzzle?

Turns out the answer to that is “No, Alan Lunsford is a damn good puzzle designer!” – I’m just not quite up to his level of thinking yet… it does take me a little while longer but I finally manage to get there and my faith in the designer and his mighty excellent puzzles is thoroughly restored…

I really loved the cat and mouse game that I nearly lost in there… highly recommended if you know someone who needs taking back down a peg or two.