Anyone remember a competition in a UK magazine from the mid/early 1980's?

[fixit9660]

When I built my ETI Cortex computer in the early/mid 1980's, one of the magazines, (ETI, Practical Computing, Elektor...?) ran a competition. It supplied a grid of numbers, (16 x 16?), and the winner was the first person to calculate with a Program, the highest additive route across the grid. Anyone recall the competition, or even the magazine that ran it please?

[Gyro]

You can find the old ETI, Practical Electronics and Practical computing mags on World Radio History... https://www.worldradiohistory.com/index.htm   The old Elektors have been taken down at the request of the publishers so that they can sell them on CD (gits!).

I can't help you with the issues, but if it was around the time that you built your Cortex then it might narrow your search a bit.

[Zenith]

I don't recall it, but there were quite a few magazines dealing with computing and electronics back then.

What's your interest in this? Is it nostalgia or are you interested in having a go at the problem?

I believe it's called a Numbered Route Problem and there are a few mentions on the WWW, and programs to find the highest numbered route. There can be various restrictions, such as not being allowed to move diagonally, or having to start and end at an edge.

https://nrich.maths.org/2319

[fixit9660]

I've already trolled through years-worth of ETI and PC magazines, I'm going PDF blind! Thanks for the reminder of Practical Electronics though, I'd clean forgotten about them. I'll give them a try.

[fixit9660]

Is it nostalgia or are you interested in having a go at the problem?

It's a bit of both really. I did have a go at the competition at the time and was in with a good chance until I came home from work to discover we'd had a power cut during the day. The program took nearly a week to run :-(
I couldn't remember the actual grid size and complexity so I thought I'd go looking for the magazine article.
Ahh a Numbered Route Problem. Thank you. That's a great help!!! 

[brucehoult]

When I built my ETI Cortex computer in the early/mid 1980's, one of the magazines, (ETI, Practical Computing, Elektor...?) ran a competition. It supplied a grid of numbers, (16 x 16?), and the winner was the first person to calculate with a Program, the highest additive route across the grid. Anyone recall the competition, or even the magazine that ran it please?

Addition being commutative and associative, the sum will be the same no matter what route you take!  Well, unless I guess some of the numbers are negative and your route is allowed to avoid them.

[fixit9660]

Sorry brucehoult, I think you've misunderstood the competition. The idea is to calculate the sum of the values in the horizontal route across the cells of the table, with +1/0/-1 cell vertical variation, to discover the highest summing route.
See the attached table.

[Terry Bites]

I believe the guy at lookmumnocomputer, Sam James Battle has a huge colection of old ETI mags.
He set up a great museum: https://this-museum-is-not-obsolete.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Look_Mum_No_Computer

[fixit9660]

Ooooh now that IS very eerie!!!!! I emailed him only a few days ago after watching his YouTube channel of the same name "This Museum is (not)obsolete" https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0-QuVLhCc4hmJaiLSCMwcw. I used to work for the UK GPO (now BT) and am very familiar with all the telephony equipment on the channel!!
He going to think I'm stalking him!! LOL!

[Terry Bites]

I am a spooky f***er! Everyone says so....

[EggertEnjoyer123]

Sounds like a classic dynamic programming problem

[brucehoult]

Sounds like a classic dynamic programming problem

Certainly dynamic programming is the obvious and easy / efficient solution.