Showing posts with label game. Show all posts
Showing posts with label game. Show all posts

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Vanishing Point Game Entry 11 - Meta development

From VPWiki (originally posted by thebruce in Unfiction):
It looks like the number of little white and filled in patches on each feather are not accidental and will possibly lead to something. At least we now know this to be a major part of the game, thanks to Loki's new video. Also, people have noticed in the videos that when Loki says the word "Right" in the videos, she always adjusts her glasses:
This image was found at www.vanishingpointgame.com/images/loki.jpg

Vanishing Point Game Entry Ten - Puzzle Box Two

Seven Card Monte:
Use each card like a phone keypad. Where you have to click to get them to flip is the number. Filling these in, along with the 263 from the LA clue gives us: 877-263-4786
Calling gets Loki, who asks what disappeared Halloween night, 1:26, in rm 401, detroit - HOUDINI
The Rest of Them:
I am too tired to explain all the rest, there are plenty of explanations in the forums, and its not worth repeating here.....sorry.

RABBIT TRAIL : PRESTO
POSTERS : WHITE
MIND READER : MATE
X-RAY CARDS :
2:H, 4:D, 6:H, A:S, 5:C

TALE OF 2 BROTHERS : AMAZE
GRAVITY LOCK : SECRECY
DOMINO : DRAWING A BLANK
MAGIC LESSON : SEWANEE

HEADLINER : LIGHT
SEVEN CARD MONTE : HOUDINI
POSTCARDS : T. NELSON DOWNS
CUPS AND BALLS : STAGE




Friday, January 12, 2007

Vanishing Point Game Entry Nine - White Box Phenomenon?

I saw this: http://vanishingpointwiki.com/wiki/White_Box_Phenomenon on the VP wiki. Very interesting. Looks like some sort of other puzzle, but very complicated, seeing as the boxes are so small.

Weird.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Vanishing Point Game Entry Eight - Thoughts So Far

I'm kind of amazed at the level these puzzles go to, involving MS customer support, phone lines, automatic faxes, etc. One thing I have noticed is that some of the clues let you know what is going on, but answers to the puzzles don't answer the question in the clue. Also, as I stated before, I wonder if there is going to be some further work done (post 5) with these answers for the meta puzzle, although the solutions seem to have very little to do with each other. I guess we'll see.

Vanishing Point Game Entry Seven - Hard Puzzles

STARFIELD:
For this one, we are presented with a sky with stars and a journal:Again, from the video, there was a star with a time in it, probably filling in the first line of the journal here. If we use the simple alpha-numeric cipher, converting the hours to their respective letters in the alphabet, we get: CONNECT THE MINUTES. It took me a little while to figure out, but starting from the start and moving in the direction of the minutes as if it was a clock, i.e. 15 is directly right, connecting the stars makes a shape. The shape is the state of: WASHINGTON

CALENDARS:Looking through the calendars here, there are the six mentioned by Loki in the Vegas video. So first we print each calendar out, and then fill in the dates based on the note on the right. 1 = June, 2 = Jan, 3 = April, 4 = March, 5 = May, 6 = February. You then notice that the written in things on the edges of the calendars all occur twice. Arranging the calendars so that all of them are touching forms a cube. The cube has a question mark and an exclamation point on it. An INTERROBANG is exactly that, a mix of the to symbols.

REPAIR TABLE:To repair these, we need to remember the cube from the beginning of the Vegas video. Each item has a number associated with it: 101 Dalmations, 76 trombones, 3 blind mice, an 8 ball , Route 66, 21 is Blackjack, 9 lives in a cat. Put the numbers into the clocks. The blinking then synchronizes into a morse code message: "Morse is the key, use the code". If you use the filled in sections (a dot is a vertical bar, a dash is a horizontal one) You get: WRINKLE

HOURGLASSES:
This one is a pain to get to work. The best method is given on the VP wiki - hit start and flip any hourglass that is COMPLETELY empty until they all are empty. They will then light up the words GRAINS. This doesn't work as the answer though, but from the video, there were all those @ signs around the hourglass. Emailing grains@vanishingpointgame.com sends us back an email with the answer: CANDELABRA

Word.

Vanishing Point Game Entry Six - Medium Puzzles


AIRPORT:
If you remember, in the video, the word DEPARTURES scrolled in the background of a clock whose numbers were messed up. Here is how they were rearranged (supposed to be:actual) 1:6 2:4 3:11 4:8 5:12 6:3 7:5 8:10 9:7 10:1 11:2 12:9 So you look for the flight departing at 1, and take the 6th letter and so on... You get: HGRPORAERCAT. Rearrange by the original order on the board and voila: CARTOGRAPHER

CUCKOOS:
Remember the cuckoos from the video? One cuckooed 3 times and the other 4 times. Those are to be filled in for the missing clocks. The rest you have to count. This ends up giving you coordinates, and looking them up shows: BIG BEN

POCKET WATCHES:


The clue here says to synchronize the watches. kind of like the lights out game, but a little different. Turns out the easiest way to do this is by clicking on each one in a clockwise pattern, starting at the upper left watch. Then the center one has to be clicked until they are all glowing green. It will then say "time to cash in your chip" and ask you what color it is. From the video, the chip shown was: GREEN

CURRENT EVENTS:

Building demolitions in Vegas. Search for these dates on Google and you can figure out which building each one is. Connect the building to the date of demo. Then read the numbers from left to right that the strings cross (3795211). Remember the 866 from the Vegas sign? Calling 866-379-5211 gives us a message from Loki asking: "What line separates the earth from the sky?" Obviously, the: HORIZON

Vanishing Point Game Entry Five - Solutions and Idea

Here are the solutions for week 1 (description of solutions to follow):
Puzzle Answer Spokes on Gear
SUNDIAL HELIOS 5
WATCH SPRINGS FIVE 1
MANTLE CLOCK HONEY 2
GEARS TIME TRAVEL 1
AIRPORT CARTOGRAPHER 3
CUKOOS BIG BEN 1
POCKET WATCHES GREEN 3
CURRENT EVENTS HORIZON 5
STARFIELD WASHINGTON 4
CALENDARS INTERROBANG 3
REPAIR TABLE WRINKLE 1
HOURGLASSES CANDELABRA 3



Time on broken pocket watch - 11:05

I have done MS puzzle challenges before and this looks like something to do with a meta puzzle. Seeing as Loki let us know it all has to do with time, I wrote down the time on the broken pocket watch, which is 11:05 (first thought it was 11ish, but the 11:05 is reinforced by the red 5):

I also thought the gears might be important, but who knows. I tried using the number of spokes and the time 11:05 as indexes or similar into the answers, but so far nothing. Also, the image behind Loki seems to be of an eye. There are 13 "I"s in the solutions and answers, taking out the one in "time" gives us 12, both the number of hours on the clock and the number of puzzles. Of course, it is possible that these things have nothing to do with the rest of the contest....ah well.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Vanishing Point Game Entry Three - Vegas Video

So, part of the viral part of this game was that MS sent out a bunch of free stuff to frequent bloggers that were small puzzles, which you can read about elsewhere. I don't think they will have much of anything to do with the game from now on. Anyway, once solved, the puzzles gave a location (The Bellagio in Vegas) and a time. There, in the fountains, a video of Loki was shown to kick-off the real part of the game. There are some you-tube videos of it as well as a video of it at the vanishing point game website itself. Pretty elaborate and cool. The only problem is that the resolution of it was not very good, what with being projected onto streams of water and whatnot.

Many clues were in the video for the puzzles. The video is summarized here (let me know what I left out):
(note, Loki is the only speaker)

(church bell rings 3 times)

"It's time."

(church bell rings once more)

"Listen carefully, I don't have very long, and it is my nature to disappear. My name is Loki. My job is to find the smartest people on the planet. My employer is rewarding them with astonishing prizes, including a trip up to the edge of space to see the ultimate Vista. And being immortalized on a computer chip around the world. "

(a bunch of white clocks with spinning hands fly from the center of the screen out)

"Pay attention, its all about time. To challenge the cleverest people in the world, I have devised a series of intricate puzzles. Think you've got what it takes?"

(screen fades to an hourglass with 20 @ symbols around it)
(screen fades to a side of a cube - a picture of a dalmation, next side - trombone, next - a mouse with sunglasses and a walking stick, next - a magic 8 ball, next - an interstate sign, next - the Jack of Spades, and lastly - a cat. The screen fades to some sort of blend of these images quickly and then to black)

"Calendars. Lets think outside of the box. First there's June, then January, April, March, May, and February."

(A white star appears with the time 3:15 written in it)

(The traditional Las Vegas sign then appears, but the Vegas turns into (866))
"Everyone knows the color of money."

(A green poker chip with the $ symbol appears, turns into two clocks with no hands, then cukoos appear and cukoo (is that a verb?) 3 times - one clock falls on the first bird, then the second cukoo cukoos 4 times before being covered by the other clock.)

(A new clock appears, with no hands, but the numbers are messed up, reading from the normal 12 position to the 11 clockwise: 9-6-4-11-8-12-3-5-10-7-1-2 Also, the word DEPARTURES appears numerous times behind the clock in yellow text)

(Next, a spinning gear, with a picture of H.G. Wells in the center, whose ID is aided by his birth year - 1866 on the left and year of death on the right - 1946)

(Loki appears with arms outstretched, with the word SOLVE upside-down and backwards below her. The equation 694+42 is on the viewer's left and the equation 114+224 is on the right)

"The use of calculators is allowed. (Pause) All done? Now lets make some waves."

(five waves of water from the fountain and she waves goodbye)

"Okay, I have time for one more."

(A sun, with the times: 2:30, 5:00, 12:00, 1:30, 8:00, 7:00)

"Now you should have everything you need. You'll see me again before too long. But act fast, things in my world tend to...disappear."
(vanishingpointgame.com)

Vanishing Point Game Entry Two (helpful links)

Game Site:
http://www.vanishingpointgame.com

Wiki:
http://vanishingpointwiki.com/wiki