The most difficult puzzle Revomaze. (7 photos)

“The most intriguing puzzle”, “Perhaps the most difficult puzzle on the planet” - such reviews from journalists and users about the new product are heard from all sides. This simple-looking little thing can’t yet compete in popularity with the Rubik’s Cube, but dreams of it. And probably not in vain. Five difficulty levels. The third one has been sold en masse on both sides of the Atlantic since July of this year, but the number of people who have solved it is counted in a few.

British inventor Chris Pitt claims the laurels of Erno Rubik of the 21st century with the maddening toy Revomaze. The first version of this puzzle arrived in stores in Europe, the USA and Canada in March 2009. And, we admit, having seen information about it somewhere in passing, we then passed by - the task seemed too simple. But in vain. It turned out to be that ingenious simplicity behind which depth and non-triviality are hidden.

Therefore, let’s get acquainted with the new product (we will still consider it as such: Revomaze is practically unknown in our country). The toy is a heavy metal cylinder (length - 10 cm, diameter - 5 cm, weight - 600 grams), with a pair of large nuts protruding from the ends. By rotating them relative to the body and moving them along the toy, you need to gradually remove the axis hidden inside the cylinder.

That's all? All. But for this to happen, the protrusions inside the puzzle must navigate a labyrinth of curved cuts on the surface of a hidden cylinder. The beauty of this labyrinth is that you don’t see this labyrinth until the very end: a large clear area is left on the inner cylinder, which comes to light as you progress through the labyrinth. Therefore, you can only be guided by your tactile sensations, spatial imagination and memory of the correct movements and miscalculations already made.

This maze is full of dead-end lines, forks and looped trap areas. And one wrong step can take you back to the beginning of all moves. Judging by the sharp clicks, the puzzle hides not just a set of pins, but ingenious latches, which, in case of an error in the middle of the distance, throw the cylinder that was pulled out to its original position. This is one of the highlights of the toy, the inventor notes.

The simplest toy, with which sales of the new product actually began, is called Revomaze Blue. Its body is painted blue accordingly.

The company presents the complexity of its cylinders in the form of conventional units. Without specifying whether this scale is linear or logarithmic. Judging by the first customer reviews, perhaps the latter. So, the “puzzlingness” of Blue is rated at 50 points. The second Green model already reaches 60. Together they form the so-called group of simply complex Revomaze.

At home, the blue and green versions of the puzzle cost $114 each. This is the manufacturer's selling price; in stores it is slightly higher. The company invites users to report their successes via the Internet. Each internal cylinder has an individual code written on it, which can only be seen by pulling the cylinder out of the body, that is, by solving the puzzle.

The first few people, the most active fans of such games, who bought the “blue” toy from the trial batch, spent from eight and a half hours to two days of intense activity solving the puzzle

On July 6, sales of the third level cylinders began - Bronze ($121). Their solution difficulty is defined as 80, and it opens the group of "extreme" Revomaze.

Clearly Chris put a lot of thought into putting together this labyrinth. “Bronze” is no longer solved as famously as the “blue” and “green” versions. For example, four days after the start of Bronze sales in Britain and continental Europe, Pitt was pleased to note that only one buyer opened the coveted cylinder.

One of the Bronze buyers, who discovered this puzzle, posted this picture, in which he obscured the labyrinth, so as not to deprive his followers of the joy of discovery. In the background is a certificate of the owner of an authentic puzzle, signed by the inventor and protected by a hologram. It comes complete with the toy.

Now the number of confirmed discoveries of "Bronze" is about 20, but the fact remains a fact. The intricacy of Revomaze apparently surpasses the complexity of solving a Rubik's cube (assuming, in the latter case, that no one teaches you the techniques that lead to the desired sorting of its sides). But based only on the description of the problem, we would say that the cube is more difficult.

Now imagine what a challenge the fourth Silver model will present to puzzle lovers. "Silver" makes up a group of "extreme" cylinders paired with Bronze. Sales of the Silver version will start on October 14 this year. The inventor defined its difficulty rating as 90 points, for which puzzle lovers will have to pay $130. The predicted time for the first Silver solution for those who have already warmed up on previous models is 40-100 hours of thought and testing.

As for the fifth level of Revomaze - the Gold version, its labyrinth is still in development, and it’s too early to talk about a sales date. Pitt calls the solution to this version of Revomaze “almost impossible”, highlighting his “golden” puzzle in a separate category, since the conditional difficulty rating for the solution here is already 100.

"The Spinning Maze" hasn't won too many fans yet, but the British company led by Pitt is making a tempting offer for fans.

The code that opens after solving the puzzle is a pass to registration on the Revomaze Challenge 2009-2010 website. This is a chance to receive one of the intermediate prizes (game consoles, cameras, players). But the main thing is that each code hidden inside the toy is part of the general code from the “first series” release, which can only be obtained by solving Revomaze of all five levels.

Those who achieve this feat have the opportunity to win a “jackpot” of sorts - part of a prize fund of five thousand pounds. The company will distribute the money among the leaders who opened each of the colored cylinders before other inhabitants of the planet. The “golden” model is the pinnacle of excellence in the first official series. But its release has not yet begun. Applicants for the prize compete in two separate (geographically based) competitions. One is called “London” and unites Revomaze buyers in Britain (they were the first to receive the new product), the second is called “Las Vegas” and unites users from the USA and Canada, where the toy was the second to arrive.

In each of these regions, 106 buyers who solved the puzzles chronologically earlier than others (and registered themselves) will be invited to a head-to-head competition, in which they will compete with each other on the speed of assembling Revomaze in front of judges.

Of these 212 people, an absolute global winner will be identified, who will be ahead of everyone both in the chronology of the first solution to the purchased puzzles and in how quickly he learned to collect them in the future. But the most important thing is that the champion must be the fastest to assemble a special version of the Revomaze Purple cylinder!

This craftsman will get 30% of the prize fund. The rest of the money will be distributed among 10 finalists (5 each in the USA and Britain), who are the fastest in collecting Gold, Silver, Bronze, and so on.

Revomaze puzzles are not cheap enough to become the favorite toy of millions. But the other day, Pitt announced the imminent release of an additional series, no longer intended for collectors and connoisseurs, but for the general public. It is called Extreme, and its main difference from the “classic” set is the material. Revomaze Extreme is made of plastic and, with identical dimensions, weighs only 200 grams. Plastic Revomaze is precisely what lays claim to the Rubik's Cube laurels, since it must be sold in large quantities. The author of the toy promises that the pleasure from solving them will be no less than from “splitting” the original metal labyrinth. Although the material is different, the creators of the puzzle note, the labyrinths inside these cylinders are cut out on the same high-precision machines as the patterns in the metal series, and have deviations in size not above 0.01 millimeters. The design of the labyrinths in the line of “plastics” is unique. And Revomaze Extreme is divided into four difficulty levels: Blue, Green, Black and Red. This "puzzling scale" is not literally the same as the metal Revomaze rank scale, but it is close to it. And the level of difficulty is identical. The main difference between the newest series (it is not considered the “second”, since it goes in parallel with the “first metal”) is the price. Only about $32 (in the UK). They will go on sale on November 30 this year. Pitt intends his toy for those who are 12 years old and older. He believes that the top hat maze will attract a lot of attention from both adults and teenagers. He draws this conclusion from a simple test: a Briton gave Revomaze to children aged 12-15 to test and simply had difficulty taking the puzzle back.