~ The Enigma Device ~

Two new word puzzles every day

This is the new "Runs-Everywhere" version.

This entertaining puzzle has become a classic.  The original versions were inspired by "The Enigma Machine" which the Germans used to encode and decode messages in World War II.

In this simplified version, a one-stage letter substitution is used to scramble a well-known or humorous quotation.  Your task is to unravel the quotation by swapping letter pairs until the original message is restored.

Swap letter pairs by selecting the two letters you want to swap using the mouse, the keyboard or by tapping the screen (on an iPhone e.g.).

Lock any letter you know is correct by tapping it twice. There is a handy Undo key (<) on the right-hand side. Stuck? Click the spy-glass.

The histogram shows letter frequencies.  Since E and T are the most common letters, a good way to start is to make the most frequent letters in the histogram E and T.  Then look for words like THE, AND, I and A. Keep swapping letter pairs until words you recognize start to emerge.

There are two new puzzles every day.  If you can"t solve one today, come back tomorrow and see the solution.

This puzzle was first programmed in Java by my daughter, Camberley, as a freshman class programming exercise at Harvard in 1996 based some ideas suggested by me that were in turn based on a book called "Codes and Cyphers" that I read when I was 10 years old. It was converted to HTML5 in 2014. Enjoy.

-- Michael Crick, Bellevue, WA