Rotabram by BRAM and OSKAR

Oskar · **Joined:** Mon Nov 30, 2009 1:03 pm

Hi Twisty Puzzles fans,

Rotabram is a Doug-Engel-style flat twisty puzzle, conceived and designed by Bram Cohen and me. Based on our earlier collaboration on Dual Circle puzzle, Bram challenged me to design a puzzle based on the same mathematical concept, but now with three circles. Rotabram is my solution to his challenge.

The puzzle is played by turning the three big yellow gears. When these are turned, the small gears are changing orientation and the black hexagons are broken. As the big yellow gears have 42 teeth and the small red gears have 6 teeth, a red gear turns effectively one tooth forward when a yellow gear is turned 60 degrees. The object is to scramble the puzzle and then to get the puzzle back to its starting state.

Watch the YouTube video.
Buy the puzzle from my Shapeways Shop.
Read more at the Shapeways Forum.
Check out the photos below.

Enjoy!

Oskar

Attachment:

Rotabram v11 - prototype - view 1.jpg [ 57.97 KiB | Viewed 1568 times ]

Attachment:

Rotabram v11 - prototype - view 2.jpg [ 58.94 KiB | Viewed 1568 times ]

Attachment:

Rotabram v11 - prototype - view 3.jpg [ 53.08 KiB | Viewed 1568 times ]

Attachment:

Rotabram v11 - prototype - view 4.jpg [ 55.4 KiB | Viewed 1568 times ]

kastellorizo · **Posted:** Sat Mar 27, 2010 8:05 am

Great puzzle and nice combination of mechanisms to achieve the "Engel" effect
for three circles. And for some reason, it reminds me of those yummy pizzas
they make in Napoli (Italy) by mainly using cheese and tomato as ingredients.

Well, anyone who is hungry for puzzles and/or food should love this one!

Pantazis

EpicAbrewFail · **Posted:** Sat Mar 27, 2010 8:17 am

Wow. That's a big puzzle.
But still, that is cool! It would certainly be a tough one to solve.

cooldayr · **Joined:** Fri Nov 27, 2009 8:09 am

I am going to ask the question I bet most of us are wondering

HOW DO YOU AFFORD TO MAKE THESE PUZZLES LOL
Each one costs like 200 dollars

EpicAbrewFail · **Posted:** Sat Mar 27, 2010 8:30 am

cooldayr wrote:

I am going to ask the question I bet most of us are wondering

HOW DO YOU AFFORD TO MAKE THESE PUZZLES LOL
Each one costs like 200 dollars

They sell their puzles for prices that's in the hundreds one. But he's so famous that a lot of people would be willing to buy them. I certainly think the Redicube and the Fadicube are cool, now with this puzzle addittion. Those are three of my favorite puzzles. I don't have them, though.
favorite 1. The MF8 teraminx
2. The V-cube 7
3. The V-cube 6
4. Fadi Cube
5. Redi Cube
6. Rotabram
7. Platypus

MonkeyZ · **Joined:** Tue Aug 11, 2009 3:59 pm **Location:** NJ

This is an amazing puzzle, it reminds me of the enigma...

PixelSalt · **Joined:** Wed Jul 08, 2009 4:14 pm

yet another epic puzzle from Oskar and Bram :shock:

heh, i wanted to try solving it, so i made a simulation in C++.
i will try to solve it and then update this post on how it went :scrambled:

EDIT: okay, so I've tried to solve it and i must say, its allot harder then i taught it would be :scrambled:

Pinoycuber27 · **Joined:** Sat Jul 11, 2009 6:20 am

I more Appreciate Oskar in non-rubiks like Puzzle!!! Great one for this

Oskar · **Joined:** Mon Nov 30, 2009 1:03 pm

cooldayr wrote:

HOW DO YOU AFFORD TO MAKE THESE PUZZLES LOL
Each one costs like 200 dollars

Thank you for asking. Yes, these prototypes cost a lot of money. I hope that my sales will some day break even with my prototype costs.

So if there is a puzzle of mine that you like, and you want me to continue developing new puzzles, then please buy one. You can buy puzzles as do-it-yourself kits from my Shapeways Shop or dyed, stickered and assembled samples from me directly. When you are first, then you'll buy the original prototype.

Oskar

Jared · **Posted:** Sat Mar 27, 2010 2:45 pm

I really like the concept of this one, although if I ever get one I'll probably color the moving parts so that they have to be matched up too.

Disjunto · **Posted:** Tue Mar 30, 2010 3:01 am

Oskar wrote:

When you are first, then you'll buy the original prototype.

Oskar

You don't hold onto your prototypes?

Oskar · **Joined:** Mon Nov 30, 2009 1:03 pm

Disjunto wrote:

You don't hold onto your prototypes?

Too expensive. Most of my sales are in person. If I don't sell my prototypes, I should buy two samples of each puzzle.

Rotabram by BRAM and OSKAR

Who is online