Kokuro, like Sudoku (which you might have heard of), is a game where the objective is to overcome boredom, and apply relatively simple logic without making any errors over the entire course of the game. I built a script that generates a table of combinations for possibilities that add up to every number between 1 and 45. (The real maximum feasible in a real game of Kokuro is considerably lower, but the theoretical maximum is 45, so I figured I might as well hit it.)

Warning: Don't use the table above. It doesn't generate all possibilities for each number. My algorithm for computing them is flawed, so it skips a (small) number of them; use it, and you risk ending up (as my mom did) with boxes with no "possible" values. When I get some free time, I intend to fix the algorithm, but if you'd like it to happen sooner rather than later, let me know that you're interested. (Take a wild guess what my email address might be, given my name and this domain name. Chances are, you guessed right. If you don't feel comfortable sending an email without a firm guarantee that I'll actually get it, please call my employer at 1(201)406-6766 and ask for my email address.)

Now, since the game involves figuring out the possibilities for an intersection between a row and a column, and both have a certain target and a certain number of elements, we might as well make a table of possible values for a particular box based on the row target, column target, row size, and column size. The only problem is that my mom doesn't like the idea of having the computer "solve the problem" for her. Whatever. . .

Of course, once you've built that table, the next logical step is to build a script that'll apply it to each box to generate the possibilities for each one, and you could then start solving the problem from there. My mom won't even hear of that. (It saves way too much time.)

Once you've gone that far, in fact, why not build a script that'll take the problem from that point, and iteratively exhaust all possible scenarios to determine the final solution for each box - i.e., to just solve the whole puzzle? I suppose that would kinda take the "fun" out of boredom, eh? ;-P