Message #3154
From: Roice Nelson <roice3@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [MC4D] 120Cell Solved!!!
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2015 18:38:44 -0500
My congratulations too! I added you to the solvers list and linked to your
video as well, which I liked very much. It was cool to see some of the
features in action while you finished solving the puzzle :D
Like the others, I love reading solution stories, so thanks for the great
write-up. Awesome job all around!
Roice
On Tue, Jul 21, 2015 at 11:54 PM, ‘Eduard Baumann’ ed.baumann@bluewin.ch
[4D_Cubing] <4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> Wow, congratulations too, Alvin!
> I did very much appreciate reading your report and the youtube is realy
> well done. It is not easy to avoid confusion but you did it.
>
> Ed Baumann
>
> —– Original Message —–
> *From:* Melinda Green melinda@superliminal.com [4D_Cubing]
> <melinda@superliminal.com+[4D_Cubing]>
> *To:* 4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com
> *Sent:* Wednesday, July 22, 2015 4:04 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [MC4D] 120Cell Solved!!!
>
>
>
> Wow, congratulations, Alvin!
>
> Gosh, I love reading these stories. They’ve got all the elements you would
> want from a great adventure saga. I once heard a great definition of
> "Adventure" which is a story of some horrible thing happening to some poor
> sap a very long way away. If it were happening to us or to someone closer,
> we could call it a disaster! Of course when it turns out well, it’s easy to
> celebrate, but when I’m in the middle of something like that, it’s simply
> too intense for me to enjoy. And of course if it fails, then it’s a
> tragedy. Mentions of early, unnoticed mistakes, and sudden, appearances of
> parity or other unexpected “obstacles” make my blood run cold! It’s a good
> thing that you’re so young because you don’t yet have enough sense to avoid
> such risky things! If anyone else reading this has already begun this
> puzzle or also lacks enough good sense, this would be the time to do it
> while there’s still a chance to join the ranks of the first 10. It’s not as
> special as being the first person ever, but it is a meaningful record that
> can never be taken away and that will only get more special over time.
>
> I really like your video record too. It’s not clear at first what’s going
> on because the view is so restricted that it makes it look like a much
> smaller puzzle. But that’s all fine because it creates a real mystery about
> just what we’re watching. The interstitial text is very helpful and funny.
> The music is great, and the lack of voice adds to the mystery.
>
> This is a really special puzzle, and I’m amazed by your skill and fearless
> attitude. Congratulations again and best of luck with the next monster you
> get within your sights!
>
> -Melinda
>
> On 7/21/2015 5:43 PM, alvin5553@gmail.com [4D_Cubing] wrote:
>
> About a year ago, Ray solved the 120Cell. It’s about a year and now I have
> solved it. I started a few weeks after Ray did, and it took a year for me
> to complete this puzzle. So back then, I solved the cross, and then I had
> no idea how to do F2L or S2L, since on the 3^4 I always did it with the
> bottom cell invisible. I was thinking to solve do F2L (literally, the 3D
> way, how you do it on a Megaminx) and it doesn’t work, I wasn’t thinking
> "4D" enough. I figured out how to do F2L and S2L and got going. The first
> cell took very long, the first few cells took like half a year, which is
> like no progress. About this time, I took a pretty long break from the
> 120Cell, and then one day decided to continue going. As I started to do
> more F2L pairs, I got better and get to complete a cell. In the beginning I
> had always messed up solved cells while doing others, so I always pair
> pieces up in the "safe zone" (when doing layer 2, layer 3 and layer 4 cells
> are affected, but layer 5 is not, so I do my buildings there etc.), I can’t
> make as much progress as Ray does, but I make myself do 2 cells per day,
> and then progress was definitely noticeable. Originally I’ve calculated
> that, if I do 2 cells per day, I should be able to complete it in August,
> which means I still get to break the age record since by birthday was
> October 20th. But things didn’t go as planned, it went better than planned!
> After layer 5, the rest of the layers just went really quickly.
>
>
> There were tons of “obstacles” when solving. During layer 5, I started to
> pay attention to the pieces and checked if I solved it incorrectly(this
> issue almost caused me to just give up, since I couldn’t find where I was
> doing wrong, luckily someone found the issue), as there were more pieces
> like the gray-gray-gray. I remember on one of the F2L pairs, I struggled to
> see if I inserted the pair correctly or not (with maxed sticker settings),
> and I ended up solving an S2L pair first to check. On layer 6, I noticed
> there was not much building space so I had to bring in layer 9. When
> solving layer 7, I started to do all RKT moves to pair and insert, I
> noticed I didn’t need to do layer 8 since when layer 7 is done, the rest of
> layer 8 pieces belong to layer 9. Something happened when I started layer
> 9, so I finished layer 7/8 and then I saved the puzzle, reset it to test
> some algorithms, and then accidentally saved it. That means the loss of all
> progress done. Fortunately, I had a backup, however it was not the most
> updated so I had to redo layer 7, since then I saved a backup copy whenever
> I complete a significant portion of the puzzle.
>
>
> I did layer 9, up do the LLOLL stage (for more info, check the SZ method:
> http://wiki.superliminal.com/wiki/3%5E4#Notation ), at first it all went
> well, the OLL. But then I found an unoriented edge on the LLF2L. But if
> there was an incorrect edge when OLL was normal, you know what happens when
> I solve that incorrect edge in LLF2L, right? Yep, the OLL becomes
> "corrupted", with a 4 edges oriented case. So that must means somewhere in
> the lower layers, I have solved a piece incorrectly. I tryed to avoid this
> issue but it still occured. I emailed Ray for help, and he found the
> incorrectly oriented edge in layer 4, which was before I started to pay
> attention to the unoriented edge problem. He told me I solve it like usual
> and deal with the problem later. I solved Layer 9 leaving the two
> unoriented edges. The wrong edge wasn’t a normal three cycle(which can be
> solved with the 3rd Three Color Series), it was a case where you would
> normally use the (Special Three Color Series). But the two pieces being so
> far away, I find that too hard, so I made a different approach: ELL (w/
> RKT). I use the algorithm: R U R’ U’ Rw’ U2 R U R U’ R2 U2 L. Of course I
> changed up the alg so it would work with Megaminx RKT (for example: Rw’
> into L’). That alg flips two stickers of a 3-color piece. So I use that and
> finally solved this puzzle.
>
>
> I have a video recorded to show what had happened:
> http://youtu.be/dP61mI0d5TM
>
>
> Can’t believe I can do it in this year, this puzzle gave me a hard time,
> the first few cells took half a year, and before I know, I’m already on my
> last few turns (I originally intended to solve this while I was age 13, but
> that didn’t happen). A coincidence is that Ray also had a similar "error"
> in the end of this solve and also another person (out of the other 8) also
> had a similar 2c problem. . I was also worried that, since Windows 10 came
> out on July 29th and I reserved a copy, if Magic120Cell wasn’t compatible
> with Win10, that was basically game over for me. After I solved the puzzle,
> I was seriously expecting the “congratulations” window to not pop out which
> meant another issue to fix.
>
>
> This is first attempt btw, and my name is currently not on the Hall of
> Insanity yet, but it should update pretty soon.
>
>
>
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