What year did sudoku puzzles come out?

Answer 1

The modern puzzle was invented by an American architect, Howard Garns, in 1979 and published by Dell Magazines under the name "Numbers in Place."[5] It was popularized in 1986 by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli, under the name Sudoku, meaning single number.[6] It became an international hit in 2005.[7]

According to Will Shortz, the modern Sudoku was most likely designed anonymously by Howard Garns, a 74-year-old retired architect and freelance puzzle constructor from Indiana, and first published in 1979 by Dell Magazines as Number Place (the earliest known examples of modern Sudoku). Garns's name was always present on the list of contributors in issues of Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games that included Number Place, and was always absent from issues that did not.[10] He died in 1989 before getting a chance to see his creation as a worldwide phenomenon.[10] It is unclear if Garns was familiar with any of the French newspapers listed above.

The puzzle was introduced in Japan by Nikoli in the paper Monthly Nikolist in April 1984[10] as Suuji (or suji) WA dokushin ni kagiru (数字は独身に限る?), which can be translated as "the digits must be single" or "the digits are limited to one occurrence." At a later date, the name was abbreviated to Sudoku by Maki Kaji (鍜治 真起, Kaji Maki?), taking only the first kanji of compound words to form a shorter version.[10] In 1986, Nikoli introduced two innovations: the number of givens was restricted to no more than 32, and puzzles became "symmetrical" (meaning the givens were distributed in rotationally symmetric cells). It is now published in mainstream Japanese periodicals, such as the Asahi Shimbun.

Thanks, Wikipedia!

Answer 2

Howard Garns, a 74-year-old retired architect from Indiana, is believed to be the author of the first modern Sudoku puzzle. It was first published in 1979 by Dell Magazines.