Early in 1963, Daniel J. Yovich was lounging at the kitchen table one evening in his Burlington, Iowa home. His four children were already in bed. His wife had gone out to play bridge with "the girls." Bridge bored Yovich.
"Why," he asked himself, "isn't there a game that is mentally stimulating as well as entertaining and relaxing?"
"Getting a bottle of coke out of the refrigerator, he speculated further that such a game should be easy to play by individuals of any age or mental level.
But above all, it should be stimulating. "Actually," Yovich thought, "it should be more than a game. It should be an exhilarating experience. Playing it should provide total emotional involvement."
The more Yovich thought about the objectives, the more excited he became. He resolved to attempt the challenge himself.
A businessman, he had no special aptitude for numbers, but with scraps of paper representing numbered cards he began that evening a series of studies that three months later were successfully concluded with the invention of KRYPTO.
After considerable "head scratching" and many "false starts," like all satisfying, rewarding and pleasurable experiences, KRYPTO turned out to be quite simple.
A deck of 52 cards, with numbers between 1 and 25: three cards each of the numbers 1 to 10, two each of the numbers 11 to 17, and one each of the numbers 18 to 25. The basic object? To combine five cards (the hand) to equal the sixth card (the objective) by merely using the rules of simple arithmetic.
Yovich began playing KRYPTO only with friends. To his pleasure and surprise, his friends reacted quickly and favorably. They also wanted to spread the experience of playing KRYPTO, and before long, "KRYPTOMANIA" had swept through Burlington, Iowa. Schools were using KRYPTO in both primary and secondary levels of mathematics; KRYPTO Clubs were started on college campuses; men were playing the game instead of gin rummy at luncheon clubs; hospitals and other institutions were enthusiastically recommending the game; and KRYPTO had replaced bridge at many adult parties.
Yovich had achieved his goal with a game that is mentally stimulating, that is an exhilarating experience, that is entertaining and relaxing, and that is fun for people of all ages. From a challenge personally accepted at a kitchen table one evening in Iowa was born KRYPTO.
One of the fascinating aspects of KRYPTO is its use by the individual for both mental relaxation and stimulation without group competition. It has been described by many, during the formulative stages of KRYPTO, as a "mental conditioner."
Businessmen play a few hands of KRYPTO before an important meeting or transaction when an alert, sparkling mind is a necessity. College students will devote five or ten minutes to "KRYPTO exercise" before an important test. Men and women, both adults and teenagers report the experience of "feeling your mind being stimulated."
KRYPTO players, during a two year testing period, have described it as "more than a game ... an exhilarating experience."
After an hour or so of playing KRYPTO, the player soon realizes that rapid solution of a hand is a "mental picture" of the entire hand at once, and not the laborious process of working with the individual cards and trying various combinations.
A KRYPTO hand consists of five cards with a sixth card as the objective card. Simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are used with the five cards in the hand to equal the number of the KRYPTO or objective card. Any combinations or groupings of these five cards may be employed, but each of the five cards must be used, and one time only. (Many times there is more than one correct solution.)
The game is that simple. After studying the examples that follow, and after dealing several sample hands, most players immediately feel the exhilarating experience of mental stimulation.
a solution: 13 - 7 = 6 ........ 12 / 6 = 2 ........ 2 * 2 = 4 ........ 4 / 4 = 1
a solution: 3 * 1 = 3 ........ 15 - 3 = 12 ........ 24 / 12 = 2 ........ 22 + 2 = 24
a solution: 2 * 1 = 2 ........ 2 * 2 = 4 ........ 4 * 2 = 8 ........ 8 * 3 = 24
a solution: 3 - 1 = 2 ........ 7 + 2 = 9 ........ 9 / 1 = 9 ........ 9 - 8 = 1
a solution: 24 + 22 = 46 ........ 46 / 23 = 2 ........ 20 + 2 = 22 ........ 22 - 21 = 1
There are over 3,000,000 combinations of hands possible in the playing of KRYPTO. An average of 1 in every 3,000 hands cannot be solved using simple arithmetic.
All intermediate values must be positive integers, no negative numbers or fractions are allowed.
The above was taken, without permission, from the instructions of a KRYPTO card game found under a Christmas tree in the 1960s. An address was also included on the instructions:
KRYPTO Corporation
2 Pine Street
San Francisco CA 94111
a solution: 6 * 6 = 36 ........ 36 / 4 = 9 ........ 25 - 9 = 16 ........ 16 - 1 = 15
a solution: 9 / 3 = 3 ........ 25 / 5 = 5 ........ 5 + 3 = 8 ........ 8 / 2 = 4
a solution: 9 - 9 = 0 ........ 16 * 0 = 0 ........ 5 * 0 = 0 ........ 12 + 0 = 12
a solution: 24 + 6 = 30 ........ 30 / 10 = 3 ........ 3 - 1 = 2 ........ 16 / 2 = 8
a solution: 17 + 16 = 33 ........ 33 + 1 = 34 ........ 11 - 9 = 2 ........ 34 / 2 = 17
a solution: 24 + 13 = 37 ........ 37 * 7 = 259 ........ 259 - 4 = 255 ........ 255 / 17 = 15
there is no solution!
Six cards are drawn from a deck of 52 cards (three each numbered 1 to 10, two each numbered 11 to 17, and one each numbered 18 to 25). The object is to combine five cards to equal the sixth card, the objective, using simple arithmetic.
The top row displays the six cards drawn, five blue cards and one red objective card, clicking on them has no effect. The five blue cards are sorted and copied to the second row and mixed with red intermediate value cards as the game goes on. Click on the second row of cards to move them down for use in calculations. Click on the third row of yellow operators to copy them down for use in calculations. The entire game can be played by clicking only on the second and third rows.
There are several ways to reset or to back up. Click to start a New game or click to Restart the current game. To backup one or more rows at a time, click on a yellow equals sign. Cards and operators can be moved back up by clicking on them.
Don't give up too easily, but if the game seems unsolvable, click Solve to see a solution.
To work on games that have been interesting or troublesome in the past, click to start the Manual setup interface. Click to select cards from the white card deck. Click the top row to move cards back to the deck. After selecting the sixth, the objective card, the game begins.
This game was programmed in Java in April 2004 for Larry Egelund's Java I class, CIS 2430, at Salt Lake Community College. The game was modified in September 2005, adding the Manual setup interface and the Solve capability. The computer game was created by:
Roger Roth
rogerroth@141.com