That PC sudoku client I keep talking about is starting to come together. Probably in the next week or two, I’m going to start looking for beta testers. Beta testers get 500 free puzzles, and don’t have to pay any money to be involved. If you’re interested, read on.

The client requires Windows 95 or better, DirectX 3 or better and comcrtl60.dll (which you have if you have IE4 or better, or any version of the .NET framework.) That is, pretty much everyone with a PC can run this. This game will run under OS/2 Warp, NT 3.5 or even (shudder) WINE. So, balls to Java.

If you would like to be a beta tester, I will give you 500 puzzles for free in exchange for your help (150 normal, 50 killer, 50 sudoku-x, 50 killer-x, and 100 nonomino, 75 oversized and 25 undersized.) I’ll try to keep the skill distribution around double at the ends what it is in the middle, since most people either want really easy or really difficult puzzles, and the medium puzzles seem to mostly be used by people ramping up in skill.

Being a beta tester is really easy. I only want beta testers to do three things: evaluate the difficulty of puzzles, note things about the program which could be better, and let me know if they catch errors. For evaluating the puzzles, there’s just a little 1..4 selector for difficulty and fun, and that’s it. For noting things that could be improved, there’s a text box you can fill out in the help menu. For catching flaws, there will be a form in the help menu that you can fill out with a simple report of a bug, including questions like “what happened,” “what were you doing when it happened,” and “can you guess at what’s wrong.” I’ll also give the same form on the web, in case you don’t want to change what you’re doing in the game, or in the very unlikely case of a crash.

And really, that’s all you have to do – write down when something goes wrong, write down when something could be improved, and pick two 1..4 numbers at the end of each puzzle. That’s it. 500 puzzles is a little over double the size of the average sudoku book, so I’ll put it this way:

Two books worth of puzzles for free, in exchange for telling me what to do.

Want to be in the beta program? Mail me at betaprogram-application@stonesudoku.com .

Addendum: I also need to know what country you’re coming from, and whether you’re 14 or older (if you’re from Canada, 15 or older.)

• If you’re under those age limits, I will need to ask your parents’ permission.
• If you’re in a country subject to export restrictions from the United States, I will not be able to admit you (as of the time of this writing, that list is Iran, Iraq, Libya, Cuba, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.)
• Montana does not count as a country.  Despite what you may have heard, that is still technically the United States.

My apologies if you are in one of those seven countries; there’s nothing I can do.  It’s the law where I live.