Source: Day 19: Linen Layout
Full solution for today (spoilers!).
Part 1
Given a comma delimited list of substrings and a list of strings, count how many of the latter strings can be made up of any (repeating) combination of the former.
JP's Blog
AoC 2024 Day 17: Virtual Machininator
Source: Day 17: Chronospatial Computer
Full solution for today (spoilers!).
Part 1
Implement a virtual machine. The machine will have 3 unbounded signed registers, 8 opcodes (see below), a variable parameter scheme (see below that). You will be given the initial values of the 3 registers and a program. Find the final output.
Instructions
| Opcode | Instruction | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | adv reg/val | A = A >> OP | |
| 1 | bxl val | B = B ^ OP | |
| 2 | bst reg/val | B = OP & 0b111 | |
| 3 | jnz val | If a =/= 0, jump to LIT | |
| 4 | bxc ignore | B = B ^ C | Still takes param, but ignores it |
| 5 | out reg/val | Output b | Only outputs lowest 3 bits |
| 6 | bdv reg/val | B = A >> OP | Same as adv but writes to b |
| 7 | cdv reg/val | C = A >> OP | Same as adv but writes to c |
Parameter specification
For instructions that can take reg/val, 0 to 3 (inclusive) are treated as literal values, 4 is register A, 5 is B, 6, is C, and 7 is an error (should never happen).
For instructions that only take val, it’s always a literal value in the range 0 to 7 (inclusive).
AoC 2024 Day 7: Mathinator
Source: Day 7: Bridge Repair
Full solution for today (spoilers!).
Part 1
Given a result and a list of numbers, determine if any combination of addition (
+) and/or multiplication (*) using all the given numbers in order can return the result. Ignore order of operations.
Solving Cosmic Express
Another Rust Solvers puzzle: Cosmic Express. Basically, it’s a routefinding puzzle. You have a train that needs a track from entrance to exit, picking up and dropping off cargo on the way.
It’s actual a relatively simple puzzle, so far as things go, but one thing that’s interesting from a solving perspective is that branching paths really don’t work great with my solver code. Paths just have a crazy branching factor when compared to (for example) playing one of a handful of cards.
But it’s still an interesting puzzle!
The Golf (Peaks) of Solving
Another day (week? month?), another puzzle game.
This time around, we’re going to solve Golf Peaks. I picked this up a while ago on iOS, but only recently on Steam. It’s a cute little puzzle game themed around minigolf.
Basically, you’re on a grid and you have to get the ball (in the bottom in that screenshot above) to the flag (currently at the top). You have a set list of moves you can take, styled as cards–all of which either move a certain number of tiles in a specific direction or possibly jump into the air (and fly over obstacles).
It gets more complicated from there, but hopefully you have the basic idea. 😄
Solving Sokobond
Another solver that I’ve been working on, after A Good Snowman Is Hard To … Solve?. This time, we have Sokobond! It’s a Sokobon… but with chemical bonds! Yeah, that’s a really good title.
The basic idea is you have a field of elements with (chemical accurate) free electrons):
Here we have 4 hydrogens (1 bond each) and a carbon (4 bonds). It should seem pretty obvious that the carbon should end up with a hydrogen on each end. The one last bit of interest: the element with the dashed border is the one we actually control, that will never change.
This eventually gets more complicated, adding:
- Modifiers that are placed on the map between squares:
- One that strengthens bonds, turning a single bond into double into triple
- One that weakens bonds, turning triple to double to single or breaking single bonds
- One that rotates bonds as you move by it
- More elements, eventually hydrogen (1), oxygen (2), nitrogen (3), carbon (4), and helium (0)
- Solutions that require forming multiple elements at the same time
It’s a pretty neat puzzle game with 144 levels of increasing difficulty. Perfect to solve.
A Good Snowman Is Hard To ... Solve?
I enjoy puzzle games. I especially enjoy letting computers solve them for me 😄. Once upon a time, I set up a framework for solving random things. Let’s solve some more.
Today: A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build
It’s a Sokoban about making snowmen! You can push snowballs of three sizes around, collecting snow if you roll over it. You can push smaller snowballs onto bigger ones, stacking them. Or back off, in order to get around one another.
And that’s really it.
There are some interesting twists (multiple snowmen, the ability to leave and re-enter levels, and even a whole second ‘hard mode’), but at a basic level, it’s just pushing.
AoC 2022 Day 24: Blizzinator
Source: Blizzard Basin
Part 1
Given a map with a series of moving walls (that wrap when the hit the edges of the simulation), calculate the fastest route from the top left to the bottom right.
AoC 2022 Day 23: Elf Scattinator
Source: Unstable Diffusion
Part 1
Implement a cellular automaton with the following rules:
- If you have no neighbors, don’t move (important, I forgot this one for a while)
- Otherwise:
- Calculate a potential move:
- If you have no neighbors to the north, move north
- If not, check likewise for south, then west, than east
- If no other agent is moving to the same space, move to your potential move
- Otherwise, don’t move
- Calculate a potential move:
- On each frame, rotate the order the directions are checked in (
NSWE,SWEN,WENS,ENSW,NSWE, …)
AoC 2022 Day 19: Blueprintinator
Source: Not Enough Minerals
Part 1
Given a series of given a series of
blueprints, each of which gives instructions for how to build a singlerobotfrom a collection ofmaterialsthat in turn will produce one of a givenmaterialper turn, determine the best order of builds to maximize yourgeode(the most valuablematerial) production for eachblueprintgiven a time limit of24 minutes.