SOMA News

4 April 2010 E-Mail.

I Have often been asked about the SOMA timeline, So here it is..

	"Piet Hein" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Hein_(Denmark)
	Dec. 2 1933 The idea emerges and is patented
	Nov 29, 1934 Original SOMA puzzles, based on the initial idea is released. Among these the manufacturer Erik Willumsen release his wooden version
	around 1967 Piet Hein starts a cooperation with Theodor Skjøde, and markets a very pretty Rosewood somacube on a wooden base
	- This is the version to which all the following are compared. This is generally also the one most people consider the "original" SOMA.
	Skjøde starts to market a version of the Rosewood cube, on an aluminium base
	Summer of 1969 Marketing rights for the USA market, is given to Parker Brothers Inc. and they start producing a red and a blue version in solid plastic.
	Hereafter several years pass, and various "skunk works" emerges. Without production permission from the P.Hein. organization.
	It is among these we find a large number of fine wood versions, in cardboard boxes or in wooden boxes.
	1985 We start to see software solvers.
	In addition to these we also see SOMA versions made in, paper origami, rubber foam, glued dice, cardboard boxes, etc.
	Finally we see giant versions made in large cardboard or from wood plates the size of about 1meter=3feet
	The Piet Hein Corp. release a SOMA for kindergardens, measuring 1 meter on its sides
	And we start to see software game versions, first for the PC-DOS, then for Windows, then linux, and finally for mobile phones.