Looking for name of "Letter Sudoku"


I found an interesting crossword variation in an in-flight magazine
this month. It's an 8x8 grid containing words, not all squares keyed,
in the "vocabulary crossword" style. Some letters have already been
filled in. The remaining 26 empty squares can be filled in with the
26 letters of the alphabet. In an extra gimmick, when the grid is
completed, some letters can be transferred down in Double-Crostic
style to complete a phrase that answers a question or provides the
punch line for a joke.

I think the magazine called it "Letter Sudoku," or maybe "Word Sudoku",
but I can't find anything relevant on Google so far. Has anyone here
seen this kind of puzzle under a different name?

Here's an example I threw together, minus the final Double-Crostic,
because numbered squares don't translate to ASCII well:

#_A_E_O#
_#_#_##_
_DE#_##O
_##_____
E#_E_##E
_##_#A__
_####S#_
#__IC__#

I'm also looking for rules of construction --- how many letters need to
be given to make it solvable? how many letters is too many?

Anticipating,
-Arthur
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Looking for name of "Letter Sudoku"
    ... I found an interesting crossword variation in an in-flight magazine ... It's an 8x8 grid containing words, not all squares keyed, ... Some letters have already been ...
    (rec.puzzles)
  • Re: Looking for name of "Letter Sudoku"
    ... I found an interesting crossword variation in an in-flight magazine ... It's an 8x8 grid containing words, not all squares keyed, ... in the "vocabulary crossword" style. ... Some letters have already been ...
    (rec.puzzles)
  • Re: How many grids?
    ... squares is around 60 so there will be a total of 11 to add. ... indicate that, say, the 7x7 or 8x8 square in the top left of the grid would ... people are trying to explain half-turn rotational symmetry. ... (any word longer than seven letters from the top left corner requires ...
    (rec.puzzles.crosswords)
  • Re: Crossword puzzles Id like to see
    ... but only one fits the number of squares. ... (There would be both across and downs in one grid that wouldn't be in ... Homophones -- the answer for the clue sounds like the word to be ... going down might treat it was if the letters were "culei." ...
    (misc.writing)
  • Re: wordsearch algorithm
    ... grid, you don't place an 'A' and a 'T' like so: ... letters 'CA' never appear next to each other in the grid unless they're ... part of the actual keyword 'CAT'. ...
    (comp.programming)