# New Cube by Okamoto "Latch Cube"



## Zubon (Jul 25, 2010)

Hey guys,

Looking at the new Tribox site today and there seems to be a new cube designed by Okamoto. He is the guy who designed the void cube, floppy cube and a lot of other interesting puzzles.

It's called the "Latch Cube". I don't think there is an English page up yet but I did a very quick translation for those who can't read Japanese.

http://tribox.cart.fc2.com/ca94/258/p-r-s/

**************************************************

Latch Cube

This is a cube where the edge pieces can only move in a fixed direction.
In its solved position, three faces (gray, yellow and green) can only be turned anticlockwise. The other three faces (black, red and blue) can only be turned clockwise.

As you scramble the cube, if one face contains a clockwise arrow (white) as well as an anticlockwise arrow (black) then the face will be locked and unable to be turned.

Under these restrictions it is extremely difficult to solve.



**************************************************

So what do you guys think? It looks like the edge pieces that have an arrow on them can only turn one way. Probably because they have one-way latches (duh!) or something. You could probable do your own sticker mod to make this puzzle and just trust yourself not to "cheat" by turning a face against the arrows.


----------



## flan (Jul 25, 2010)

surely you could do R3 instead of R'? maybe I'm stupid and I'm missing something but I can't see how this would really be different


----------



## blah (Jul 25, 2010)

flan said:


> surely you could do R3 instead of R'? maybe I'm stupid and I'm missing something but I can't see how this would really be different





Zubon said:


> As you scramble the cube, if one face contains a clockwise arrow (white) as well as an anticlockwise arrow (black) then the face will be locked and unable to be turned.


Too short.


----------



## whitelynx_nivla (Jul 25, 2010)

flan said:


> surely you could do R3 instead of R'? maybe I'm stupid and I'm missing something but I can't see how this would really be different



correct
but for those who do algorithmes by muscle memories (which are most of speed cubers do) will have difficulties.
even tho someone is able to memorized(by muscle) all the OLL and PLL algorithms, chaging an R' with R3 and etc will slow him/her down, and i mean slow it down a lot.


----------



## timspurfan (Jul 25, 2010)

Very interesting- hopefully pictures of the internals will be up soon


----------



## flan (Jul 25, 2010)

hmm your right... i had that problem with OH. still do infact


----------



## Zubon (Jul 25, 2010)

I think the main challenge with solving this cube is that faces that have edges with opposite arrows will be locked. I think this case comes up quite a lot.

The creator of this cube says it is "extremely difficult" to solve. This is the first time that I know that he has said this about any of his puzzles.


----------



## Chance (Jul 25, 2010)

It still seems like a cool puzzle.

You can use Google Translate to view the website in English, which is what I am doing.


----------



## vcuber13 (Jul 25, 2010)

its translated in the first post :fp


----------



## Chance (Jul 25, 2010)

vcuber13 said:


> its translated in the first post :fp



I said website, not the cube description.
:fp:fp:fp


----------



## whitelynx_nivla (Jul 26, 2010)

flan said:


> hmm your right... i had that problem with OH. still do infact



i've been imagining the cube again...
and i take back my words

here's the quote
"As you scramble the cube, if one face contains a clockwise arrow (white) as well as an anticlockwise arrow (black) then the face will be locked and unable to be turned."

that means (if i'm right) in scramble position, the arrow heads can be mixed up with others in 1 side. If this occurs, that 1 side wont be able to turn at all.

i think that's the "extremly difficult" take place.


----------



## Zubon (Jul 26, 2010)

I read a post on twistypuzzles where a member managed to solve it. He said it took a "long time" to solve it. Judging by his post it looks like a very hard puzzle.


----------



## Kirjava (Jul 26, 2010)




----------



## Whyusosrs? (Jul 26, 2010)

wow. That looks like such a fun puzzle. I'm guessing it's impossible to completely lock up the cube by two opposite arrows on each side?


----------



## joey (Jul 26, 2010)

Whyusosrs? said:


> wow. That looks like such a fun puzzle. I'm guessing it's impossible to completely lock up the cube by two opposite arrows on each side?



If you could put it into that position, you could just reverse it


----------



## Whyusosrs? (Jul 26, 2010)

hrm. true.


----------



## akiramejin (Jul 26, 2010)

it looks really fun, or really annoying.


----------



## Feryll (Jul 26, 2010)

WOW twenty four hundred yen!?!?! Isn't that like, a million Earth monies?


Spoiler



$27-$28


----------



## Andreaillest (Jul 26, 2010)

Looks fun, but I'd probably get frustrated and not being able to move it in a certain direction. XD


----------



## uberCuber (Jul 27, 2010)

i want one of those


----------



## TEGTaylor (Jul 27, 2010)

are any type of M moves possible?


----------



## bhearn (Jul 27, 2010)

Zubon said:


> I read a post on twistypuzzles where a member managed to solve it. He said it took a "long time" to solve it. Judging by his post it looks like a very hard puzzle.


 
That was me... this is the thread.

http://twistypuzzles.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17871

Yes, it was very hard. I've solved it a few more times since then, and it's gotten easier. But no way can I solve it as fast as in that youtube video. I wonder which of us was the first one to solve it? Until I saw that, as far as I knew, nobody else had solved it. Mr. Okamoto, who invented it, said he had no idea how to solve it.


----------



## maggotcuber (Jul 28, 2010)

10 minute f2l ftw! xD


----------



## andreccantin (Sep 26, 2010)

joey said:


> If you could put it into that position, you could just reverse it


 

Not necessarily, because the sides only move in one or zero directions, so you wouldn't be able to turn back that side.


----------



## vcuber13 (Sep 26, 2010)

if you can do a r you can do an r3 and undo it


----------



## ~Phoenix Death~ (Sep 26, 2010)

Let's make this a WCA event.


----------



## oprah62 (Sep 26, 2010)

Nakajima :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Iy5Q2HD0AU


----------



## splinteh (Sep 26, 2010)

This has actually been out for a while... Heres a vid


----------



## Joker (Sep 26, 2010)

This thread was out for a while...


----------

