ANSWERS: The Sudoku Code

Before I reveal the answers to "The Sudoku Code", I've got some big news! A while ago, I told you that my second set of "Squeezed in the Middle" "Word Sandwiches" puzzles are set to be published in the February 2017 issue of GAMES Magazine. Well, last Tuesday, that issue came in the mail! It's not on newsstands yet (it'll come out this Wednesday, most likely), so the inevitable contest with that issue as a prize won't be posted until next week. In the meantime, here are the people who have successfully solved "The Sudoku Code":

• Lynn Sweeney ***
• Grant Fikes ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Debbie Benford ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• YYW ****
• Chris Hendricks ****

Now just head below the break for the answers, as well as some solver comments!

The highlighted numbers, going down by each row, are 21-14-5-17-21-1-12-5-4. Replace each number with its corresponding letter in the alphabet (1=A, 2=B, 3=C, and so on), and it spells out UNEQUALED

Yeah, that word didn't give me a whole lot to work with, picture-wise...

Solver Grant Fikes gave me his answer in a very sneaky way: "I followed your directions, filling in the squares with nonzero digits such that each digit is unequaled by the other digits in its row, column, and 3x3 box. It took a while to figure out what to do with the digits in the highlighted cells. There are 14 of them, so my first thought is to interpret them as coordinates: N21.14517, W21.11254. This is in Libya, near the Chad border. Looks like I'm going to Africa to find the answer to your puzzle!"

I focused on the second half of his message and as such, didn't notice the italicized word, so I told him that coordinates had nothing to do with anything. He later replied "You could have told me that before I bought those non-refundable airplane tickets, sheesh. ✈️️

What else could I do with a 14-digit number? Diners Club cards have 14-digit numbers on them. Is 2114 517211 1254 your Diners Club number? Or is it an ITF-14 barcode? Gosh, the difficulty of this puzzle is unequaled [extra emphasis added] by any of your prior offerings." It was then I finally noticed his answer, and subsequently gave him credit for solving it.

Pictured above: The first DVD volume of Phi Brain

Solver Chris Hendricks said "That's a really clever take on a sudoku. Of course, I figured out early on what the numbers must mean, so I used that as a bit of a cheat to figure out the secret answer (two digits had to start with 1 or 2)."

Solver Sam Levitin said that "I got that by anagramming; I didn't read it out sequentially from the grid." In a later email, he clarified that he initially read it in the order of the boxes and not the rows.