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The Virus
I’ve only ever seen two of these and I’ve got one. The first one was in someone else’s collection, and I saw it for the first time early in 2002. This puzzles me as the date on the base of the puzzle is 1999. The minute I saw it I knew I wanted one, but I’d never seen one advertised, and, as mine was a present (thanks, Ole Poul!!) I can’t offer any advice on how to get one.
 It measures about 5x6 inches, and is about 3 inches high. It is, if the pictures aren’t clear enough for you, a 4x4 sliding tile puzzle, with a great big insect straddling it. The 15 tiles each show part of a black and green web, with bits of computer circuit board on others. It’s meant to be a computer virus. This one won’t harm your hardware, but it will certainly cause you to be totally unproductive until you’ve solved it.
Thirty seconds of trying to solve this puzzle will give you a better idea of how frustrating it is, better than my description but here goes. Imagine that 1970s game Twister where you have a plastic sheet with large coloured spots on it, and everybody has to put their hands and feet on their own colour, while getting tangled up with everyone else. Combine that, (and I’m only speaking from personal observation here, not actual experience) with the problems of trying to get an angry child into a one-piece baby suit, while you are looking in a mirror, and you may appreciate the difficulty in solving this little pest.
The insect’s six legs are very rubbery, and are securely fixed to tiles. It will withstand a lot of stretching and bending. As you slide the tiles around to meet your puzzling requirements, the insect starts pulling in other directions, and, just when you are thinking what to do next, the tension in a leg, (or are they arms?) causes one or more tiles to spring back to earlier positions, often with an alarming click. There is no picture, so you don’t know where the web parts go, or what position the virus has to be in for the puzzle to be solved. You don’t even know where the blank space is to be left. It is even possible, as I found out, to solve the tiles, but leave the fly in an uncomfortable position, which necessitates starting all over again, with a different plan.
The text on the base reads, “Virus, 1999 Spartan CC, Made in China”. I really am surprised that this isn’t more readily available as it is far better than the 3D 3x3 sliding puzzles in shops now.
Well, I’m off to get inoculated…
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