Many of the puzzles that I create can be ordered for personal use. Please note that the prices that I quote on this web page are for INDIVIDUAL USE ONLY.
One unique product is my message maze printed on pastel-colored bookmark size (approx. 8.5 by 2.3 inches) cardstock. It is just the right size to use in your favorite book, and it's a solvable maze, also. Here is a very crude copy of such a bookmark.
These GIF's do not do these puzzles justice. When I use a laser-printer to print these puzzles, they are fantastic. If you would like to see five different laser-printed printouts of this bookmark, click here to download this "5bukmrks.zip" file and see below for directions on how to send it to your HP-compatible laser-printer. If you do not have the correct printer, but you want to see a free sample, send me a self-addressed-stamped-envelope and ask for one of my business-card bookmarks. In fact, ask for two or three different mazes on several cards.
Most of my labor goes into creating the first bookmark of a set, so there are BIG discounts for extra (different) bookmarks.
One bookmark costs $50, five bookmarks are $65, 25 bookmarks are $85, and 50 bookmarks are $99. Order more than 200 bookmarks, and the price drops to $1 per bookmark (why someone would want that many different bookmarks, I don't know). Every bookmark will have the same message, the message of your choice, but I guarantee that EVERY MAZE WILL BE DIFFERENT.
If you want to order bookmarks with different messages, the price starts out at the same $50 per bookmark. If you order at least five bookmarks with different messages, send $40 per different bookmark. At least 25 bookmarks with different names, the price drops to $30 per bookmark. And, once you exceed one hundred bookmarks, the price is $20 per bookmark. Bigger discounts are available on bigger orders. If you order at least ten different messages, you also receive all rights to duplicate these puzzles.
Page Size Maze prices?
Because I put a lot of labor into designing the first maze, and because I have set up "automatic generation" of new mazes with the same identical mazes, there are BIG discounts for multiple mazes with the same message.
One page-size maze bookmark costs $60, five page-mazes are $70, 10 page-mazes are $80, 20 page-mazes are $90, and 30 pagemazes are $99. Yes, we make the mazes VERY EASY up to VERY HARD in difficulty. You specify the message and you specify the difficulty level. If you request a variety of difficulty levels, please add 20% to the cost, as more labor is required.
Every page-maze will have the same message, the message of your choice, but I guarantee that EVERY MAZE WILL BE DIFFERENT because of the randomizing algorithm that I created for this program.
If you want to order page-mazes with different messages, the price starts out at $60 per pagemaze. If you order at least five page mazes with different messages, send $45 per maze. At least 25 maze, the price drops to $35 per maze. And, once you exceed one hundred page-mazes, the price is $25 per maze. (If you order 25 or more different messages, these prices include duplication rights.) Bigger discounts are available on bigger orders.
Why order my mazes?
You might want to order these personalized puzzles for a birthday party, with an appropriate message for the birthday child (yes, we can make the mazes VERY EASY up to VERY HARD in difficulty). Then you can tell the kids that they can get cake and ice cream right after they solve their puzzle. Don't tell them the puzzles are different, let them figure it out for themselves.
Here are some sample mazes which do NOT do justice to what the mazes you order will look like: "JOHNNY JONES / IS AN / AMAZING GUITARIST", or "MARY SMITH / AMAZING FIFTEEN", etc.
A teacher can order appropriate bookmarks for her class, "MRS. ROGERS / HAS / AMAZING STUDENTS", or "MRS. JEFFERSON'S / AMAZING FIFTH GRADE".
Teachers might want to order personalized bookmarks for an entire class, or a PTA might want to order them for every child in a school. Here are some message ideas, "JENNIFER ALYSSA WHELAN / AMAZING READER / HILTON HEAD ISLAND LIONS '99", or "COURTNEY RITZ / AMAZING STUDENT / GRAVETT LIONS '01", or "JOHN GNAGY / AMAZING READER", or "THE AMAZING / DANIEL STUART", or simply "LAURI ALISSA", or "CYMRA". You may, of course, request any message of your choice, as long as it does not include a business name or trademark (businesses may order, but prices are higher to more closely reflect the amount of time that has actually been spent on this project).
First, obviously, download the file to your hard drive. Then PKUNZIP it using your copy of PKUNZIP 2.04g. Make a note of the actual filename (it will end in ".HP"). Finally, copy it to your Hewlett-Packard compatible printer. (At the DOS prompt, type "COPY filename.HP LPT1: /b" (without the quotes).
The Byte Man, also known as John Knoderer, is a professional computer programmer, systems analyst, and microcomputer consultant living at the very northwest corner of Arkansas. He works with customers around the tri-state (Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma) area, doing many things. John does systems installations, training, software development, debugging, teaching, etc. He is also writing materials that can be used to help literacy council and adult education students prepare for the Driver's License Examination.
John has been a professional programmer/analyst since 1978. Even before '78, John was writing educational and recreational programs. You can find more information about this at the bottom of this page.
And, make sure that you look at the many sample puzzles that are on his home page (click here to visit The Byte Man's Home Page). Search the puzzles home page and find out how you can enter a contest to win a maze puzzle personalized with your name.
These puzzles shown above are actual, solvable, mazes. As you can see, some of the walls of the maze have been thickened in order to spell out messages. There is exactly one solution that leads from entrance (top left corner) to exit (bottom right corner).
Be sure to download the GIF for this or any other puzzle that you might want to print and solve. If you cannot download and print these puzzles on your own computer, click SASE Instructions to find out how you can get them by snail-mail (US Mail).
In addition to being a programmer, educator, computer consultant and curriculum developer, John is a puzzle creator. He creates puzzles of many kinds, most of which are suitable for publication. Samples of many types of puzzles are available on his home page.
John learned to program computers in 1969, as a freshman at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where he earned his BS in General Management and a BS in Elementary Education. John used those skills while teaching sixth and fifth grade in Northeast Kansas from '76 to '78, on an IBM mainframe the first year, and in the classroom on a 16K Level 1 TRS-80 his second year there. When the local newspaper realized that John had the first microcomputer-based CAI software in the state of Kansas, they featured him in stories in two of their newspapers. After "retiring" from teaching, John went on to earn his MS in Education from Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas. He is now working on post-Master's graduate work, and hopes to earn a doctorate in Curriculum Design.
John's best-known computer game is probably the STAR TREK game that he started writing in December, 1977. It was based on the teletype Star Trek game published in the book What do you do after you hit RETURN. He released the 16K Level 1 TRS-80 version in February, 1978, giving copies to friends at the Kansas City TRS-80 Users' Group. By April, he was giving copies to friends at the St Louis Users' Group and to Radio Shack managers and salesmen in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas.
John's programming and puzzle-creating skills have been featured on NBC News Nightside and on many NBC local affiliates around the country (1992). Newspapers in the Gannett Group featured John in stories that included mazes in the shapes of their states.
John has been a programmer since 1969, when he was a freshman at Indiana University. Now, he lives in a small town in Northwest Arkansas, where he spends most of his time being a volunteer tutor, and where he spends part of his time hoping that this page will eventually start earning some income. Feel free to help make his dreams come true.
