Abbott's 3D Maze is a remake of a
classic maze design by
Robert Abbott. The puzzle is a ball maze. The object is to get the ball out of the maze. The puzzle is a 4x4x4 cube grid with holes between adjacent cells. The holes come in two sizes: small and large. The ball goes through large holes, but not through small ones. The ball starts at the marked cell in the corner. One of holes at the outside is a large one. This is where the ball exits. The brilliance of this classic Abbott design is that the maze has a whole bunch of interconnected loops. There is one place in the middle of the puzzle where one "inner" loop connects to an "outer" loop. It is very easy to miss this place and just keep wandering around.
The puzzle was designed for a 12.7-mm diameter steel ball, but any marble with a diameter from 12 to 13.5 mm would work.
Watch the
YouTube video.
Read at the
Shapeways Forum.
Read more at the
Non-Twisty Puzzles Forum.
Please order a 3D-printed do-it-yourself puzzle kit from Shapeways at this page (check with Oskar about dye and ball), or
contact Oskar directly if you are interested in obtaining a fully colored sample of this puzzle.