Rubik's Cube
by
Georges Helm
Rubik Unbound By Karl Hörnell, March 11, 1996.
Twist or rotate by pointing and dragging in "natural" directions.
Press s to scramble and r to restore (while positioning the mouse cursor somewhere in the applet region).

visitors since December 27th, 1995.

Solutions to the puzzles - Where to buy the puzzles - Discussion Forums worldwide

Online Collection


Although the cube had been invented as early as 1975 by Ernö Rubik, the cube fever spread only in 1980 to last until 1983. Some clubs and newsletters popped up only to vanish after some months / issues. But since the use of internet has been established world-wide, the cube has been kissed to life once again. And the cube is feeling fine!

Here is the gallery of my cube collection (updated November 1st, 2007).

I sold cubes of good quality This sale has come to an end after having sold nearly 2000 cubes. All my customers are happy with them. I have very few left. I don't yet know if I am going to sell them.

I had to unpack my cubes once again to add the new ones and I took some fotos while they were lying around in my room

Here is my list of cubes and cube-related puzzles.

Solutions to the Rubik's Cubes and alike

For those interested in solutions, here are two lists with up to 650 solutions of my private collection. Solutions to 2x2x2 cubes, 3x3x3 cubes, 4x4x4 cubes, 5x5x5 cubes, pyraminx, barrel..... (lists updated 5.5.2006)

29.9.2006 - Great News! I have a 7x7x7 cube!

From left to right: Krell 5x5x5 cube, Acryl magnetic 3x3x3, black plastic 5x5x5 and white plastic 5x5x5 by Mr. Verdes, black plastic 7x7x7 and two 6x6x6 cubes by Mr. Verdes. In my hands a white plastic 7x7x7.
Thank you, Mr Verdes! I get younger and younger with the invention you made!

June 2008: The V-cubes are finally available
5x5x5 black plastic / 5x5x5 white plastic / 6x6x6 white plastic and 7x7x7 white plastic!

Puzzle meeting events like
IPP 28 in Prague 2008, Dutch Cube Day 13+14.10.2007 in Eindhoven, German Cube Day 28.4.2007 in Gütersloh, Luxembourgish inventor and record holder who built fully functional Rubik's cubes out of matches and cardboard, and more

25.6.2005 - I have a 6x6x6 cube!

Look at my gallery (scroll down to 6x6x6 cubes) to see some pics or click the above photo to see some moves on the 6x6x6.
And more nxnxn cubes to come soon, where n > 6.
Mr Βερδές, a Greek inventor, has patented a new system that makes it possible to construct these cubes.

Have a look at his "V-Cubes" site now and enjoy!

The only club still existing and still publishing a regular newsletter is the Nederlandse Kubus Club (NKC). At first in Dutch, the newsletter is published in English since members from all over the world did subscribe. Though the cube is not forgotten, the newsletter covers other puzzles as well. Submissions for Cubism for Fun (CFF) should be sent to Rik van Grol, .
Back issues are available for members. Details on how to get them, see CFF backissue page at the NKC site. Applications for membership should be sent to the Treasurer. To get the address of the Treasurer, please send a request to Rik van Grol .

From the beginning of 1980, a mailing-list had been established at MIT. The archive of the list is available via anonymous ftp at cube-lovers. Subscription requests should be sent to cube-lovers-request@ai.mit.edu

Mirror of the cube-lovers archive from MIT

Since the archives are no longer available at the ftp-site of the MIT, I am hosting a copy from 2002 at my server.
The last entry is from 'der Mouse' from 27.01.2000.
I have also mirrored the /contrib directory of the archive.

Mark Longridge (cube-lovers@MIT will know him) has a Web-site. Mark says: "I've started my own Web Page for Rubik's Cube. It has my rubik's chronology and full move list. Eventually all issues of Domain of the Cube will reside there!" So don't miss this page.

an interesting French site by Guillaume who offers a solution for the nxnxn cube. The methods for the 3x3x3 through to the 5x5x5 are shown, but the algorithms are the same for the Olympic Cubes f.i. :-))

a great Spanish site by Juan Roure: Juan y el cubo de Rubik. Hola Juan!


Foto by Daniel Urlings
Daniel Urlings from Luxembourg has built a fully functional 3x3x3 cube out of matches. He holds several records in the Guinness book.

A Rubik's Cube Timer is offered by Benoit. I am no speedcuber and have no intention of becoming one, so if you want, tell me about how you experience it.

rubiksillusions Paolo's site in English and in Italian. He proposes amongst other things solutions to the cube as well as an automatic solver. - Chi invece non vuole saperne di imparare metodi di risoluzione può sempre utilizzare il risolutore automatico, facendosi dettare dal computer le mosse da eseguire, seguendo l'animazione interattiva.

Michael Reid's Rubik's cube page is here. Michael has very valuable information on his pages, quick to download and up-to-date. His patterns page is worth a visit, too.

A nice page of a French cubist, Christophe Goudey is here

Here is an online solution from a Danish cube solver, mbs. Nice gif animations for this simple beginners solution of the Rubik's Cube.

Ton Dennenbroek Rubik's Puzzle Building, The art of speedcubing and more!

Juanan's RUBIK LIKE PUZZLES

Here is Gaétan Guimond's page. Gaétan says: "I invented my méthod in 1982 and this is the first time I’m publishing it via my site. With a little practice you will find that this corner method allows an almost immediate and very fast start. You need no more than 2 secpnds as a maximum of inspection for resolving the cube. I call that a real acceleration."

Alessandro Fogliati has found a very interesting solution to the multicolor cube problem as described among others in André Warusfel's book. Alessandro gives a solution with the six colors appearing no more than two times on each face AND stickers of the same colour touch themselves by vertices only!

David Byrden has the cube I dreamed of 15 years ago. A huge 11x11x11 java cube to play with online. And many other fine puzzles, too.

The Virtual Puzzle Museum by Denny Dedmore had been taken over by cube enthusiast Joshua Bell. Since July 2002 the puzzlemuseum is developped and hosted by Sandy Thompson. Sandy is The web's most complete collection of twisty puzzles!
Joshua has a very complete page on Magic Polyhedra* Patents. Two great places to visit!

Pay a visit to Jessica's speed cubing page and have look at Josef Jelinek's Gloomy Cube.

A solution to the cube is available from the Netherlands.

Rubik's 'Tesseract' (KAMACK H.J./KEANE T.R.;The Rubik tesseract;Newark;1982) is online at last. It is called Magic cube 4D by its authors Melinda Green, Don Hatch and E. Jay Berkenbilt.
You may download the 'Tesseract' paper here or from the authors page above.
For all those who want to go even farther, here is a 3^5 computer puzzle which extends the 4D tesseract puzzle (MagicCube4D) another dimension by by Roice Nelson and Charlie Nevill.

My small pretty patterns page.

A solution to square-1 can be found here.

Here is the Official Site of the 2003 World Rubik's Games Championships .

Jaap Scherphuis has a great puzzle page. I spent hours and hours there: dozens and dozens of solutions to most of all available interlocking puzzles from the 2x2x2 to square-1 and Tsukuda's Square . You will be delighted!

Where to buy Rubik's Cubes

You can buy very good "made in Taiwan" clones from me. (all the boxed cubes are sold (1,900 cubes)
This is what my customers said about these cubes
I have some cubes left without their boxes. (I used these to make a fake 9x9x9 cube)


Buy some very interesting Rubik's cubes and other puzzles at Uwe Meffert's Puzzles Online Store! Uwe is the inventor of the 5x5x5 cube (Professor cube) and I have experienced a very good service when buying from him.

I have a small puzzle shop in Germany, says Hendrik. It is a nice shop and he sells from the cube to the skewb, at affordable prices. Here is a list of the puzzles available (22.12.1999):
Rubiks Cube Rubiks Magic Rubiks Pocket Cube Rubiks Micro Cube Rubiks Darth Maul Rubiks Minicube Pyraminx Megaminx Impossiball Skewb Professor Cube Plastic Tiles Cube Mini Cube Giant Cube OctagonMickey Donald Dogic Mini Pyramid Mini Skewb Cube21 / Square-1 (tchech version)

and some other, non-cube puzzles:
Rubiks Snake Rubiks Triamid Rubiks Tangle BaseBall GlobeBall Mozaika Turn Stile Triple Cross Top Spin Back Spin Magic Nude Magic8 Duo Masterball USA Masterball BrainBall Iqube Kaos Drehholz Tricky Disky Sonic Ball Space Cubes Hungarian Globe Mini Creative Ball Mini FootBall Rashkey 1/2/3

Buy at Hessport's Online Rubik shop. When they started they had only some standard puzzles, but now the range has been expanded and you find amongst others 4x4x4 cubes, 5x5x5 cubes, stickers for 3x3x3 cubes a.s.o.
Their shop is now at www.rubiks.com so the links at hessport.com may no longer be valid.

Puzzletts (offline for the moment) is selling puzzles and brainteasers. They have a limited stock of 2x2x2, 3x3x3, 4x4x4, 5x5x5 cubes, skewbs, square-1's etc. Even Rubik's Magic can still be bought. Check for 'sequential movement' puzzles!

I am still interested in getting solution book(lets) I do not yet have. Don't hesitate to e-mail me.
Once upon a time... there were some cube-related magazines. In 1991 CFF published an article by myself entitled 'Ten Years of Cubic Mags'.
The best solution I know of so far for square-1 is in the pilot edition of puzzle worldPuzzle World. The solution is by L.E. Hordern.

"Rubik's Cube: The Ultimate Solution" (mirror on helm.lu) uses a method unlike any other I have seen either on or off the internet, says Philip Marshall It uses only two series (a four turn series places edge pieces and an eight turn series places corner pieces) and completes a scrambled cube in an average of 65 moves.
On June 28th, 1999, Philip informed me that "I now have solutions for all three of Rubik's cubes on the internet." All solutions to be found above.
Have a look at Matt Monroe's page on how he solves the cube. And have a look at David Lee Winston Miller's artificial intelligence approach to solving the cube.
Ernö Rubik himself has opened a page on the web. Well, in fact he has nothing to do with the site, just giving his name. They sell official cubes and a Java cube and information on his other puzzles with solving hints can be found there.
Noel Dillabough has a program that he wrote called Puzzler. It contains among others the cubes (2x2x2, 3x3x3, 4x4x4, 5x5x5), the pyraminx, the impossiball, the skewb, and the megaminx. The program runs in win95/win98/winNT.
On July 5th, 1999 Noel writes "Puzzler has been completely rewritten! I have also decided to make it a shareware product (registration fee of $10), to help offset the cost of development. The new version is vastly superior to the old one; there are a total of 16 puzzles now, and I am currently working on morphing puzzles like the Pyramorphix and the Square 1."
Have a look! It's worth the detour.
On 10 Jun 2000 Chris Hardwick writes: I have one page that seems to be pretty popular. My unofficial records page is where I let people submit their fastest times for any rubik puzzle to compare with people all over the world. So far I've had 33 people submit 79 different records and I was hoping to promote it so that more people could submit their fastes times.
Chris also has a 4x4x4 solution that is easy to understand and working fine.
Adam has a skewb solution online. Cool!
Here (Robs Rubik site) you can let a cgi-program solve *your* scrambled cube that is lying around at home or in the office. Simply enter the colors of each face and click. Presto! The solution appears like magic.
Dan Knight: "I know there are many such applets (cube applets) out there. The most attractive feature of my applet is that it will show the user an ANIMATED step-by-step solution to THEIR SPECIFIC CUBE when they enter their own cube's colors.
I have revisited Dan's site yesterday and I was quite impressed by the quality of his cube applet. The eagerness with which Dan learned how to do the cube and how he ever wanted to improve his speed and his energy put into his cube collection remembers me the time I was young and did the same, in the beginning 80's. Thank you Dan! I think it is worth to have a look at this applet.
Matias Creimer has built the largest Rubik's cube of the world. It is monochromatic and in wood.

Discussion Forums Worldwide

Twistypuzzles (international)

Spanish (very good)

French

World Cube Association Forum

Swedish (dead)

David Singmaster & Georges Helm. Tony Fisher & Georges Helm. Christoph Bandelow, Erno Rubik, Rainer Seitz.
back to the main page
This is what I found in my e-mail box on July 23d, 1998:

Congratulations! Your page: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Georges_Helm/cubeold.htm (now http://webplaza.pt.lu/public/geohelm/myweb/cubeold.htm) has been selected to receive a Links2Go Key Resource award in the Cube topic. The Links2Go Key Resource award is both exclusive and objective. Fewer than one page in one thousand will ever be selected for inclusion. Further, unlike most awards that rely on the subjective opinion of "experts," many of whom have only looked at tens or hundreds of thousands of pages in bestowing their awards, the Links2Go Key Resource award is completely objective and is based on an analysis of millions of web pages. During the course of our analysis, we identify which links are most representative of each of the thousands of topics in Links2Go, based on how actual page authors, like yourself, index and organize links on their pages. In fact, the KeyResource award is so exclusive, even we don't qualify for it (yet ;)! (...Due to costs, the Links2Go search engine has been shutdown as of August 1st, 2002...)

Last updated on September 6th, 2008.
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