Another one of these, I guess. Like a normal cryptic, but with letters & numbers. In my mind there are four types of entries that we can have here: (1) regular letters-only entries (like “dog”), (2) numbers only entries (like “101”), (3) expressions with numbers and letters (e.g. “WD40”), and (4) expressions with number homophone wordplay (e.g. “sk8er” for “skater”). Other types of wordplay (like SOF2OD for “softwood”) is not allowed, though maybe it has a place? There is nothing like that in this puzzle at any rate. For clues where the use of a number vs. word is debatable, I assumed the spelling in the grid when putting the word lengths, so TOP 5 is (3, 1) not (3, 4), etc.
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1A: means to hold music; [ca]MP 3 S[ummers] 4A: disregards; 8 (“oxygen”) in VIOLS (“string instruments”) 5A: Nintendo console; pikmiN + 64 (“2 goes to the sixth”) 7A: the ancient world had these; 76ERS (“athletes from Philadelphia”) with 1D (“a boy band”) replacing 6 (“back side,” i.e. in military slang) 8A: wig; 2 + PEE (“number one”) 1D: a video channel; “even” (letters from) eMpTy + V2 (“rocket”) 2D: outside of the circle over the middle line, roughly; 14 (“won for” homophone) after (“leading off with”) 3POINT (“a high-scoring shot”) 3D: does not attempt to do it alone; WHELP (“insolent child”) holds 8S (“two cubes”) and 4 (“a number of Tetris blocks,” i.e. number of blocks in a Tetris piece - this may be a bit stretchy I admit) 6D: baby clothing; 1S (“the rightmost column” i.e. “the 1s column” vs. “the 10s column”, “the 100s column”, etc.) + [l]IE[s] (“sleeveless”)
Filling with numbers is very hard. Considered making a program to find all words with syllables matching 1,2,4,8 and 10. I’d be impressed if you could find words containing any other letters as syllables.
Absolute disaster on the solve but all the clues are fair. I almost wet myself laughing once I got 8Across! You cryptic folks are a wacky bunch; I love it. And maybe just maybe in the next decade I’ll get decent at solving them.
Haha “absolute disaster” huh? I will say there are probably better cryptic crosswords to start with if you’re trying to learn, would be nice if there was a beginner-cryptic tag or something, like @theNoah was doing with his cryptic tutorial. Anyways thanks for attempting! Eagerly awaiting whatever you make next :)
I always enjoy yours because in retrospect I can usually unravel the clues on my own but when I can’t you include a key. For the newbie cryptic tag, I nominate de-cryptic. I’ll get there eventually. It took most of my 30s to overcome my poor spelling to do regular crosswords well. I’ll get cryptics by the time I’m 60! I’ve appreciated all the advice from you and @theNoah and am fascinated by how the crossnumber cryptics are developing.
4A: disregards; 8 (“oxygen”) in VIOLS (“string instruments”)
5A: Nintendo console; pikmiN + 64 (“2 goes to the sixth”)
7A: the ancient world had these; 76ERS (“athletes from Philadelphia”) with 1D (“a boy band”) replacing 6 (“back side,” i.e. in military slang)
8A: wig; 2 + PEE (“number one”)
1D: a video channel; “even” (letters from) eMpTy + V2 (“rocket”)
2D: outside of the circle over the middle line, roughly; 14 (“won for” homophone) after (“leading off with”) 3POINT (“a high-scoring shot”)
3D: does not attempt to do it alone; WHELP (“insolent child”) holds 8S (“two cubes”) and 4 (“a number of Tetris blocks,” i.e. number of blocks in a Tetris piece - this may be a bit stretchy I admit)
6D: baby clothing; 1S (“the rightmost column” i.e. “the 1s column” vs. “the 10s column”, “the 100s column”, etc.) + [l]IE[s] (“sleeveless”)