bimbogami: the sensei's blog

2000 challengers!

2009-07-06T23:00:00.000+01:00

the sensei is beside himself to announce that there are now over 2000 challengers taking part in the puzzles.

1900 challengers

2009-03-07T21:41:00.000Z

the sensei is delighted to announce that there are now over 1900 challengers taking part in the puzzles.

1800 challengers

2009-02-09T09:00:00.000Z

the sensei is delighted to announce that there are now over 1800 challengers taking part in the puzzles. That's another 200 new players since the launch of movigami last week.

movigami launched

2009-02-06T14:42:00.004Z

the sensei has unleashed the latest challenge to test his followers. movigami is a movie quotes quiz in the same vein as the recent musigami lyrics quiz.

players have to guess the movie from the quite on the screen. sound simple? well maybe, but the quote is jumbled into a word cloud, where words that appear more frequently in the quote are larger than other words.

want to try it? head to the login page and log in to play.

movigami in beta test

2009-02-05T12:00:00.000Z

hot on the heels of the highly popular musigami, which introduced the word-cloud concept to song lyrics quizzes, the sensei is pleased to announce his next fun challenge.

movigami, based on the same concept and style of puzzle, is a movie quote quiz. the new quiz is currently in beta test and is expected to launch by this weekend!

watch this space.

1600 challengers

2009-01-30T07:00:00.000Z

the sensei is delighted to announce that there are now over 1600 challengers taking part in the puzzles. That's over 200 new players since the launch of musigami, three days ago.

Watch this space for another fun challenge, currently in the making.

1500 challengers

2009-01-27T23:50:00.000Z

the sensei is delighted to announce that there are now over 1500 challengers taking part in the puzzles, with a significant number of new players joining as a result of the launch of musigami.

musigami launched!

2009-01-27T07:08:00.002Z

today sees the launch of musigami; a fun, alternative quiz to the main bimbogami challenges.

on the surface it's a simple song lyrics quiz. all you have to do is name the song from the lyrics you can see. but, as you would expect from the tricky sensei, there's a bit of a catch.

the song lyrics are represented in a 'word cloud', where all the words are mixed up on the screen. individual words that are repeated in the song appear larger then those that appear less often. oh, and all the words that appear in the title of the son'g have been removed...

have a look at the taster and you'll see what it's all about.

musigami in beta testing

2009-01-20T09:35:00.002Z

bimbogami is in the final stages of pre-launch preparation for the release of musigami - a new concept in song lyrics quizzes. it's intended as a fun diversion from the main bimbogami seasons, so it's a bit easier - but see if you can do it without using bimbogoogle.

all the puzzles have been prepared and beta testing is now in progress, so not long now.

launch date still tba but will be before the end of january 2009.
there will be a new taster puzzle launched at the same time.

new features launched

2009-01-15T17:17:00.005Z

the sensei is pleased to inform his worthy challengers of some improvements to the free puzzling experience that is bimbogami.

a slight facelift has been done to the landing area for the site; the sensei hopes you like it. this also means you can now log in directly from the landing page as well as gain quick access to the site and the new features from here too. this new style will be rolled out to the puzzle page, player statistics and hall of fame in the coming months.

secondly, and more importantly, the sensei is at last in a position to provide some free puzzling tools to help you solve puzzles, both on bimbogami and other sites, and create your own puzzles.

a newly launched 'puzzler tools' section, is accessible from the landing page. this contains the following tools:
caesar solver
this puzzler tool allows you to encode text using a caesar cipher and also helps you decode any caesar encoded text you have. this is easy to use and flexible.
scrabble solver
this puzzler tool allows your to enter up to 7 letters plus a wildcard and will provide you will a list of words that can be made from your letters. ideal for solving anagrams, word puzzles and playing word games.
random word generator
this puzzler tool will give you a random set of words. the sensei leaves it up to you what you would want some random words for, but would be delighted to hear what you use this for.

next in line for inclusion in puzzler tools will be the nonogram generator, which many have been eagerly awaiting.

if you have any comments on these tools, or suggestions for new tools you'd like to see, please let the sensei know.

new bimbogami challenge

2008-10-22T22:00:00.001+01:00

the sensei is pleased to announce that work has started on a new concept for a mini-challenge series for the puzzling population on bimbogami.

it's a little bit different from the traditional bimbogami 'season'-type questions. something that will be quicker to play, and will hopefully provide an interesting diversion while season 3 is devised.

the new concept will likely be set in a similar format to the standard challenges; comprising 5 rounds of 8 questions. the sensei can reveal that the title of the first mini-challenge will be 'musigami', further details will remain under wraps for now.

musigami launch date tba. watch this space!

1300 challengers

2008-09-24T22:00:00.000+01:00

the sensei is pleased to announce that there are now over 1200 challengers taking part, with over 200 of them taking part in season 2.

oops - forum problems

2008-08-26T22:00:00.000+01:00

in the never-ending quest to stem the continuous flow of spam into the forum, one of the sensei's minions caused a bit of a 'forum event' yesterday.

as a result *everyone* on the forum was banned for a time.

the problem has been resolved by re-winding the database, however a number of days posts and pm's have been lost. anyone recently registering on the forum may have to do so again.

bimbogami apologises for any inconveninece caused.

1200 challengers

2008-08-06T22:00:00.000+01:00

the sensei is pleased to announce that there are now over 1200 challengers taking part, with over 200 of them taking part in season 2.

1100 challengers

2008-07-16T22:00:00.000+01:00

the sensei is pleased to announce that there are now over 1100 challengers taking part, with over 100 taking part in season 2.

we have a season 2 winner!

2008-07-06T22:00:00.001+01:00

the sensei is pleased to announce a winner for the season 2 challenge.

the puzzlefiles team , consisting of: aki321, bethfay, manda, sparkplug, thehirsuteone and vetti were first past the post at 21:02 bst tonight, taking a total of 1 day, 23 hours and 46 minutes to finish the forty puzzles in their quest.

close on their heels were the crackerjacks, consisting of: cenarius, chantilly, hatfielder and potjegetikt, completing the last question at 21:30 bst, taking 2 days and 28 minutes.

still hard at it are the other two teams that started at the same time: thejpgs and the internationals.

check out the hall of fame for the latest on all the finishers.

the sensei bows slightly in respect of your puzzling prowess. well done to all taking part!

bimbogami season 2 live!

2008-07-04T22:00:00.000+01:00

bimbogami season 2 has been live for one hour now and the race is on, with a significant number of the hard-core puzzlers going for that #1 slot in the hall of fame.

good luck to all who are taking part!

bimbogami facelift

2008-07-03T22:00:00.002+01:00

no, it's not cosmetic surgery for the sensei, you can see he is a young guy and not in need of any rejuvenation work.

the site has had a bit of spring clean, and the elements re-jigged a bit in readiness for the launch of season 2.

fear not, if you've already registered, you won't need to register again for season two, just turn up at 9:00pm bst on friday 4 july and click the season 2 link when it appears.

1000 challengers!!

2008-06-28T22:00:00.002+01:00

the sensei is delighted to announce that bimbogami has now passed the 1000 registered user mark. with only 17 teams/solo players past the post in the 10 months since the launch of season 1, the sensei is pleased that he has provided a good challenge for his users.

with the upcoming launch of season two of the challenge, on friday 4th july at 9:00pm (bst), he is happy that he managed to surpass this significant milestone.

season 2 is coming...

2008-06-19T22:00:00.005+01:00

the sensei is pleased to announce that bimbogami season 2 is almost ready. it has been a while coming but the launch will be on friday 4th July 2008 at 9:00pm uk time.

all challengers, old and new, are most welcome to take part in this new challenge. just log into the site after the launch time and season 2 will be available for play.

new players will need to register beforehand and will be able to play season 1 too. note: you need to register separately for the forum, but can use the same userid and password.

users that are already registered do not need to re-register - your existing user id will still be active.

if you plan on playing as a team, that's not a problem, but please let MorFF know via a pm on the forum beforehand so he can group your user id's for the winner's enclosure.

900 challengers

2008-05-20T22:00:00.000+01:00

the sensei is pleased to announce that there are now over 900 challengers taking part.

800 challengers

2008-03-09T21:36:00.003Z

the sensei is pleased to announce that there are now over 800 challengers taking part.

bookmark bimbogami

2008-02-16T23:16:00.002Z

the sensei has added social bookmark links to the site to allow his puzzling pupils to spread the word to the masses. the first links cover the main bookmarking sites: delicious, digg, reddit, facebook and stumble upon.

the sensei would encourage his disciples to use their favourites to pass on the challenge.

new feature: bimbochat

2008-02-01T22:00:00.001Z

the sensei is very excited to announce a first in online puzzling.

his new orange-themed imbochat room allows puzzlers to interact with each other and also his puzzler support minions.

it's easy to use - just click the link from the top menu and a little chat room will appear. type your message and confirm your nickname and you're off.

please note that, like the forum, the chat room is not manned 24x7, but have a look in - you never know!

play the game, get the t-shirt

2008-01-13T22:44:00.000Z

the sensei is pleased to announce that the first in a line of bimbogami themed merchandise is now available.

you can now prove to the world that you have taken part in the sensei's challenge (and get a good quality cotton t-shirt too).

more merchandise is currently on the drawing board. so to see what the fuss is about, just head over the the bimbogami shop and see what is to be had.

700 challengers

2008-01-01T00:41:00.001Z

the sensei is pleased to announce that there are now over 700 challengers taking part.

600 challengers

2007-12-04T22:00:00.000Z

the sensei is pleased to announce that there are now over 600 challengers taking part.

500 challengers

2007-11-15T22:00:00.000Z

the sensei is pleased to announce that there are now over 500 challengers taking part.

400 challengers

2007-10-25T22:00:00.000+01:00

the sensei is pleased to announce that there are now over 400 challengers taking part.

300 challengers

2007-10-16T22:00:00.000+01:00

the sensei is pleased to announce that there are now over 300 challengers taking part.

200 challengers

2007-10-13T22:00:00.000+01:00

the sensei is pleased to announce that there are now over 200 challengers taking part.

new feature: hall of fame

2007-10-02T22:00:00.000+01:00

hot on the heels of the new bimbogoogle feature announced last week, comes another new feature: the hall of fame.

you need to log on first to see the hall of fame, but it allows you to see those successful puzzlers, who have completed the challenge so far. it also allows you to see where you are in relation to your peers; who is ahead of you and who is trailing.

if you haven't yet sampled the delights of the newest free online puzzle site on the web, you can join (for free of course) and take part - if you dare.

new feature: bimbogoogle

2007-09-28T22:00:00.001+01:00

bimbogami has introduced a new, powerful, feature to the puzzle page.

bimbogoogle will allow challengers to take advantage of the full power of the google search engine to seek enlightenment while solving the master's puzzles.

embedded in the puzzle page, when envoked it pops up a new window, meaning you don't loose your place while you research, and it's in the familiar bimbogami colour scheme, so you'll feel right at home!

to try it out, simple log in as normal. or, if you have not yet registered for the challenge, why not try out the taster puzzle to see if you are up the the challenge, it's a gem of a puzzle.

100 challengers

2007-09-27T22:00:00.000+01:00

the sensei is pleased to announce that there are now over 100 challengers taking part.

first past the post

2007-09-09T13:53:00.000+01:00

bimbogami is pleased to announce the first challenger to complete the first free, online puzzle quest set by the sensei. chantilly completed the quest just over 1 week from the launch of the site. it was a close fought battle, with three challengers in a head to head tussle, but the final question of the 40 that make up the first bimbogami season was first conquered at 22:08:59 on Saturday 08 September 2007.

if you have not yet taken up the challenge, you can still see if you can complete the quest, or even try to beat the best time set, at www.bimbogami.co.uk

open for business

2007-08-31T12:00:00.000+01:00

the sensei is pleased to announce that he has successfully launched his new, free puzzle site. slightly earlier than originally scheduled, the portal was opened and users started registering to take part.

bimbogami is pleased with the attempts from the registered users so far, the difficulty level seems to be set at a good level for the challengers so far.

time will tell, but bimbogami thinks it will be some time before anyone succeeds in the challenge.

if you feel you are up to the challenge, why not register and take part. if you're not so sure, try the taster puzzle first. it's all free, and fun, so what do you have to lose?

bimbogami looks forward to taunting you as you try to solve his puzzles.

progress on track

2007-08-29T21:00:00.000+01:00

the sensei has now performed his final review of lineup of puzzling enigmas that make up the first bimbogami challenge. he has made some changes to the order of questions that he believes will provide maximum frustration for those who take up the gauntlet, and therefore much satisfaction for bimbogami.

his technical minions have been working hard and bimbogami is pleased with the progress of the final preparations prior to the official launch of the site at 00:00 on 1 september 2007. all is on track.

the taster puzzle is still available for anyone who wishes to get an early try of the style of puzzles that will appear in the main challenge.

bimbogami looks forward to seeing you there.

bimbogami day approaches

2007-08-27T21:00:00.000+01:00

bimbogami has set a date for the official launch of the new puzzle site. this will be 00:00 on 1 september 2007. this auspicious date will herein be referred to as bimbogami day.

the master has created a sample puzzle for those who feel cannot wait for the launch of the site, and want to try their hand. bimbogami hopes that some of the future challengers will try this simple taster for an idea of what is to come.

the lengthy process of compiling the questions is almost complete. the the final beta testing is underway and minor format tweaks are being applied.