Ultimate Magic Cube

Intro2

Welcome to the home page of Ultimate Magic Cube (UMC), the computer program that lets you create your own Rubik's cube like puzzles. This program is for the true Rubik enthusiast who can't get enough of the twisty puzzles.

You can download the full version here. With it you can make countless more puzzles of your own. Below is a tour of what UMC has to offer.

Download Ultimate Magic Cube

You'll need WinRar to unzip.

System requirements: Windows XP or Vista (I haven't tried UMC on older operating systems, but it might work), NVidia 5000 series videocard (or ATI equivalent) or better, Directx 9 or better.

Tour of Ultimate Magic Cube

The program works by first having a platonic solid as a shape. There are 5 platonic solids: Tetrahedron, Cube, Octahedron, Dodecahedron and Icosahedron:

Tetrahedron Cube Octehedron
Dodecahedron
Icosahedron

Then cuttingplanes are added to the shape. There are 3 types of cuttingplanes: Cuttingplanes which are parallel to the faces of the shape, 'parallel' to the points of the shape or parallel to the edges of the shape. Here are three pictures to make it clearer:

cuttingplaneface
cuttingplanepoint
cuttingplaneedge
Cuttingplanes parallel to the faces
Cuttingplanes 'parallel' to the points
Cuttingplanes parallel to the edges

These 3 types of cuttingplanes can also be mixed together on one shape:

mix1
mix2
Face and point cuttingplanes mixed together
Face and edge cuttingplanes mixed together

This gives almost limitless possibilities, from traditional puzzles:

Tetrabig
Cube Big
DodecaBig

to mixed cubes, some of which are all new:

Icomix
mix5
Octamix

The second feature of UMC is to connect any cubies you like to make certain rotations impossible (a so called bandaged puzzle). This can greatly increase the difficulty of a puzzle.

bandaged1
bandaged2
bandaged3

The third feature of UMC is to allow the cubies to have an orientation by giving the outside coloured stickers faded colours. Thus a cuby not only has to be on the right spot, but also has to have the right orientation:

colorfade1
colorfade2

This is the end of the tour. I hope you will enjoy the program as much as I enjoyed creating it. If you have any ideas of improving the program, don't hesitate to mail me at wmeesen@gmail.com.

Interesting Links

Jaap's Puzzle Page (lots of twisty and permutation puzzles, most with playable applets)

Magic Cube 4D (a lot of fun, if 3D is not enough for you)

Magic Cube 5D (idem with 4D, and will blow your mind ;)