Ah yes, the olden days... I remember them like it was yesterday...

> This was way back in 1980/1981, back when you solved Layer-By-
Layer, 

Yep, that's how I started.  I somehow managed to win first place in 
the Peoria, Illinois Ideal Cube-A-Thon (as they were called then) 
using nothing but the "keystone" method for the F2L and my cousin's 
algorithms (see http://tinyurl.com/7o8rt for my original cheat 
sheet!)  My 1st place time was 48 seconds!  I later switched to Minh 
Thai's corners-first method, and have only recently gone back to 
trying my hand at LBL.

> turned with your whole hand, and didn't lube up the cubes.

Yeah, I actually won that first contest with a cheap "Wonderful 
Puzzler" clone cube.  No lube, no nothing.  We did have "The Real 
Solution" replacement stickers instead of Cubesmith, although you 
didn't need them back then because the stickers were vinyl to begin 
with (even the cheap models).

> solve you were ecstatic. Rubik's Cube contests were "1 run, no pre-
> inspection, everyone goes at once, drag race" competitions and the 
> winners had times like 68 seconds.

I actually liked this format.  There's something more dramatic about 
watching every solver start simultaneously.  I think they even 
played music.  It's also obvious who wins (whoever puts their solved 
cube down first).  For the competitor, it adds an element of 
excitement because you are truly "racing" instead of just setting 
times.

Speaking of times, I think all of us back then would have found the 
notion of sub-20 averages positively preposterous!

Chris






 
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