Talk:Battleship (puzzle)

Suggested edits
I found this particular article's language a bit hard to understand. "Firstly, one can be told, for particular squares in the grid, whether each square contains a submarine, a longer ship (and whether it is the north, south, east, west, or middle of a ship), or water (meaning no ship)" as an example. The sentence is a bit run on, and could be divided into multiple sentences to increase understanding of what it is trying to say. There were a few other areas like this.

I also find that it would be nice if the rules were described a bit more clearly, and some sort of diagram might be useful.

There is also a computer program of this called "Fathom It!" for Windows that is not mentioned in the article. It might also be nice to include some links to puzzle sites. However, I do not know enough about Wikipedia and if such a thing would be entirely allowed.

Just my opinion. Augwich (talk) 17:18, 16 March 2008 (UTC)Augwich
 * I added a public domain graphic to the page (it was generated with the solitaire battleship generator that I created for my web site) and edited the article to make it clearer in parts where it was confusing.


 * Since "Fathom It!" is a pretty popular program, it should get a mention in the article, as long as it doesn't come across as an advertisement (which is against Wikipedia's policies). It might be OK to have a link to one or two puzzle sites, but again, it can't come across as an advertisement.


 * Hope that helps! -  carolyn 81  (user &bull; talk) 16:17, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Nonogram
Am I correct in thinking that battleship puzzles are a subset of nonograms -- i.e., all battleship puzzles are valid nonogram puzzles, but not vice versa? - furrykef (Talk at me) 14:09, 26 January 2009 (UTC)


 * It's true that a solved battleship puzzle is basically the same as a solved nonogram puzzle. However, I don't know if a battleship puzzle would be a 'solvable' nonogram puzzle.  There might not be enough clues.  And certainly, nonograms are not valid battleship puzzles since they don't have ships, and black squares can touch each other, etc.-  carolyn 81  (user &bull; talk) 17:47, 26 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Battleship is not Nonogram. In Nonogram, you are told the lengths of consecutive black squares. In Battleships, you are only told the number of black squares.

Chaotic iak (talk) 16:25, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

Please add example game
It's not clear to me how this puzzle differs from a standard Battleships game (other than being for one player). Perhaps adding an example game will help. cm&#610;&#671;ee&#9094;&#964;a&#671;&#954; 12:42, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

Date of invention may be earlier
Although the article cites Argentina in 1982, I am convinced I first encountered Battleships much earlier and in London.

I firmly believe a daily Battleship puzzle was published in the Evening News / Evening Standard during the early- to mid-1970s. These two newspapers (the Evening News was taken over by its rival the Evening Standard) were/are evening edition papers in London, England.

I can't provide supporting evidence for this timing, except to say that I remember struggling with the puzzle in my early teens before I went to University. At that time I was missing key aspects of the logical process to solve the puzzle but was fascinated by it - which is why I remember so clearly. My father bought the paper every day. That places it in time and location. Duncanpt (talk) 19:32, 7 June 2023 (UTC)