Playing Instructions

1. Click an arrow to turn a slice of the cube. To turn multiple slices, right-click on arrows to select slices then click on one of the selected arrow. Drag on an arrow to rotate cube.
2. Keyboard shortcuts:
   ← → ↑↓<>: rotate Cube by 90°.
   1 to 4: Trick1 to Trick4.
   Keystroke does not work
3. Start solving the cube by clicking on the arrows. A surprise awaits you when you solve the puzzle starting from .
4. Use to watch how Computer solves the cube with detailed step by step animation.
5. To fix up your real scrambled cube, use to paint the scrambled colors, then click and follow the solution step by step in slow motion.
6. Click on [+] at bottom to show sandbox panel if not alreay shown. Change animation speed using slider. You can Save, Restore, Record a move, etc.
7. For playing tips, click vcube4Tips.htm.

Learn the Secrets

Solving the Rubik's Cube is difficult, very. The reward is a life-time of immense pride and joy that you can share with people around you. So slow down and learn, it is that worth it.

Take your time to follow through this learning path:

1. Step1: ► Learn how to fix up 4 TOP corners
2. Step2: ► Learn how to fix the other 4 corners
3. Step3: ► Learn how to make 12 nice edges
4. Step4: ► Learn how to make 6 nice faceCenters
5. Step5: ► Learn how to fix up 12 good edges
6. Study real live situations, many times:
   ► Learn from step by step animation

Step1: Fix up 4 TOPCorners (← back)

This step does not require any trick, but you need to be familiar with some basic moves.

• At this stage, you are free to mess up the 4 BOTTOMCorners, making the task easy.
• You can learn these basic moves by observing how the computer does them in live situations:
  Tip: Before you click, adjust animation speed to slow. Understand the detailed descriptions of each computer move. Repeat as often as you like. Come back here when Step1 is done.
  Click then click .
• Or you can learn these basic moves by going through online demo(internet access required) Tutorial1 in a separate window.

Step2: Fix the other 4 corners (← back)

• This step requires you to apply Trick3 (0 to 2 times) then Trick2 (0 to 2 times) to ensure that all 4 corners are in their correct locations and orientations.
• First we want 4 TOPcorners to be in their correct locations. Trick3 can be used to swap top corners into their correct locations.
  ► Learn Trick3
• Then you use Trick2 to flip them into their correct orientations (color facing the correct way).
  ► Learn Trick2
• You may also learn these tricks by observing how computer does them step by step: click

Step2: Learn Trick3 (← back)

• Start with a simple 2-turn move consisting of a turn on the right and top slice.
• Combine that with reversed turns on the same 2 slices, we get a 4-turn move named RightTopX.
  Click or
• Trick3 uses RightTopX as part of the trick. It exchanges 2 top front corners and flips a third at LEFT-TOP-BACK. Click and study the turns in slow motion.
• You now know that Trick3 always changes 3 top corners.
• Often, in order to preserve a good corner, you need to do a pre-move before doing Trick3 so that the good corner will not be changed.
• Example: swap LEFT-TOP-BACK to RIGHT-TOP-FRONT location.
  :  → →

Step2: Learn Trick2 (← back)

• Learn Trick2. It uses RightTopX a total of 6 times. It flips the 2 BOTTOM colors to FRONT.
  To see it in action, click
• It looks complicated but is very simple. After some practice, you intuitively count the turns as 8,1,16,1 and amazingly the fingers remember them. It is such a joy!
• Learn Trick2a. It uses RightTopX a total of 6 times. It flips 2 FRONT colors to BOTTOM.
  To see it in action, click
  For this, you count the turns as 16,1,8,1.
• Often, you need to do a pre-move before doing Trick2 or Trick2a so that the 2 target corners are at BOTTOM-FRONT.
  :  → →
  :  → →

Step3: Make 12 nice edges (← back)

• Click to see example of a badEdge, niceEdge, goodEdge.
  In Example1, it is easy to make a niceEdge out of 2 cubeletsi.
• The idea is to move the 2 cubelets of an edge to FRONTmiddleslices then turn the middle slices so that the 2 cubelets line up.
• But in , you need a small trick to make a niceEdge out of these 2 cubeletsi without disturbing the FRONTslice.
• When there are only 2 or 3 badEdges left, we require tricks that will make a new niceEdge without destroying other niceEdges:
  ► Learn Trick4

Step3: Make niceEdges - Trick4 (← back)

• Trick4 can be used when we have 3 badEdges left. In Example3 we want to pair up these 2 edgeCubelets by moving top cubelet to down location while preserving BOTTOM-BACK-edge. It requires a pre-move before doing .
  :  →
• Learn more of how to make niceEdges in real live situations: Click . Speed up the animation. When you see Step3, slow the animation and observe the step by step carefully.

Step4: Make 6 nice faceCenters(← back)

These few tricks in Step4 are all variations of Trick1t.

• Study Trick1t. Similar to Trick1 and is used many, many times in this Step. .
• Trick1t involves turning middle slices. Here is another way of doing Trick1t for right-handed person. .
• Study Trick1Swap2Columns. It uses Trick1t and is used many, many times.
• To make nice TOPfaceCenter requires a carefully planned pre-move to line up the target column.
  :  → →
  :  → →
• Learn to form a color column at FRONT by joining up 2 colors using a clever pre-move.
  :  → →
  :  → →
• Learn more of how to make nice faceCenters in real live situations: Click .

Step5: Learn to fix up 12 edges(← back)

• Learn Trick1. sends top face color to bottom face.
• Trick1 involves turning middle slices. Here is another way of doing Trick1 for right-handed person. .
• These examples require pre-move to line up the 3 intended edges before doing Trick1.
  :  → →
  :  → →
• Learn Trick1a , a useful variation of Trick1.
  sends top face color to left face.
• Trick1a is actually an extreme example of pre-move to flip the LEFT-BOTTOM-edge cubelet before doing Trick1.
  :  → →
• Learn more of how Trick1 is used to fix up the edges from

Learn from step by step animation

You can click on a wiki link to read more or discuss a step.

Here is a learning Tip. Scramble cube and save to file.

1. Start with the same scrambled cube using "Restore from file" icon.
2. Try to accomplish Step1 by yourself.
3. For help, use to see how the computer does the next step. Then you click [UNDO], [STOP], and try to do it yourself.
4. Repeat from (1) every time, until Step1 is achieved.
5. In a similar manner, try to accomplish other steps.

Solve step by step

Click [START] to see how the computer solve the cube step by step.

To enter "Solve step by step" mode, click [START].
To exit "Solve step by step" mode, click [STOP].

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To exit Solve step by step mode, click

Animate Moves & Cube Patterns

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