Pretty much figured out the binary puzzle and started on it only to realize I didn't know whether the lower case or uppercase was 0 or 1 and it was too much work to do twice. I also figured I could compare it to the real numbers of pi, but that was yet again too much worked. In the end I was on the right track, but it was just too much effort for things that didn't interest me. Thanks for the puzzles and the explanation though!
Comment has been collapsed.
Yeah, this puzzle was too much effort, I'd never try solving it... :) Well, maybe I would find the Shadow of War giveaway, and then give up. :) Ain't nobody got time for that! :)
Thank you too, and hopefully have fun in the next one! :)
Comment has been collapsed.
Pretty much what I did :p Still it was amusing talking with you, can't wait to see what you come up with next. Too bad you didn't get the 5 entries for the last one. Maybe if I was still unemployed I would have tried, but since I'm working...
Comment has been collapsed.
Well, I have nobody to blame for that but myself... :) And my favourite puzzle only had one solver, so it's not the end of the world... :)
Think my brain's on empty right now, so don't expect anything for a while... :) But keep hope alive... :)
Comment has been collapsed.
Hopefully it'll get played. Que sera sera
But keep hope alive... :)
You can't tell me what to do! You're not my real mom! :p
Comment has been collapsed.
Thanks a lot for the puzzle. And for the solution. :)
Comment has been collapsed.
Sorry the puzzle was dumb, but at least the solution can stand as a warning so people know what not to try in their own puzzles... :)
Comment has been collapsed.
Well, if I had spent more time on it, maybe more people would have solved it... I mean, it's not such a bad idea, but it sounds like it was more difficult to read than necessary... Oh well... :)
Comment has been collapsed.
I tried to google search that telescope building image hint and google led me to Maya pyramids, and I thought that was a Maya temple being built or on the Maya land, so I had to study the Maya ciphers/scripts and history, now I have a PhD in the Maya Civilization, thank you fiftykyu!
Comment has been collapsed.
Aha, that's a bunch of ideas for a new puzzle, but I don't have enough spare brain to learn all that stuff... Sigh... :)
Comment has been collapsed.
And at one point I was thinking that the isolated pairs as well as the clustered pairs had something to do with their number system. :))
Comment has been collapsed.
I'll be honest when I say that I started manually separating all the "noise" but got too lazy to continue. No clue what BBS is but I started removing chunks of digits that matched with the appropriate digits of pi and leaving the remaining chunks of "noise" along with the digits that were supposed to be at their places. I thought the "noise" chunks might be encoded in some way from the original digits at their places but couldn't really find a reliable pattern in the first 20 or so chunks so I thought you must be using an encoding scheme that I just didn't know about and got too lazy to do everything. Didn't really occur to me to take all the "noise" chunks together or to separate the letters and digits in them, I guess over time I'm getting too stupid for this. XD
Comment has been collapsed.
Hmm, BBS. :) Just some ancient pre-internet stuff. :) You didn't miss much... :)
Oh, hmm, I seem to remember you noticed it wasn't actually 2000 digits, which I thought was a big clue so I didn't want to say anything... :) Turns out none of the solvers needed that clue. Oh well. :)
There's a lot of stuff that was just as valid as the one thing I actually did, which makes this more of a "read my mind!" puzzle, which is a pity... Hopefully I can come up with something better next time... :)
Comment has been collapsed.
Considering how many of the non-lazy people solved it, it clearly wasn't mind reading, so no need to beat yourself up like that. O_o
(I just suck at seeing words. I'm more of an "other" patterns kind of person. :) )
Comment has been collapsed.
Yeah, I wouldn't have thought of trying this stuff... :) So it's a good thing I already knew the solution... :)
Thank you too! :)
Comment has been collapsed.
Heh I spent 2 days separating the letters out. First I got halfway through just. By separating the letters out in my head. Then the next day I tried typing out the extra letters out in notepad. Finally after trying the third day and asking you about that weird circle thing I saw your comment about trying itstoohard. I then realized at that point I mistyped the url which was why the code at the bottom wasn't working. After that I gave up. :(
Also I googled FLCL and pi. It kept showing me a result that FLCL can't pi.
Comment has been collapsed.
Ouch, trying to solve this stuff by hand, or in your head, that sounds way too painful for me... Maybe for the next one I should provide a list of tools required, so more people have a chance of solving it... :)
Hmm, wonder if that was Canti? Oh well... :)
Comment has been collapsed.
I miss this puzzle, just manage to see it after it finished.
Comment has been collapsed.
Sorry about that! I haven't looked at puzzles in a while, so I'm probably missing all sorts of interesting ones myself... :( But maybe I'm just trying to avoid noticing I can't solve them... :)
Comment has been collapsed.
Wow!
Even after the explanation, this puzzle looks too complicated :D
Comment has been collapsed.
Wow, awesome work.. And thank you even more so for the solution!
Tried participating in puzzles here for awhile, and I'd love to give it another go (if I even had the time), but mostly the harder and more esoteric they get to challenge the people that keep up with them the bigger that gap becomes when starting out. Even with the puzzle guide, there's a gap between reading about and actually doing. It really helps being able to check out the answers eventually.
If I'm ever going to train my brain to start thinking about these correctly, I've got to go through them on my own, Knowing the right answers are available to check my work or see where I went wrong helps immensely. I've got the original post copied still, and I'll give it another go in a month after I've got some distance from the answers.
Comment has been collapsed.
I suppose it's like learning a language, each week relies on the stuff you did the previous week. So the people who are constantly puzzling learn all the common ideas, and the uncommon ideas, and the ways different ideas can combine to make something obscure that someone would never see starting from zero...
I remember years ago making and solving puzzles, and I'd see the same small group of people in every hidden giveaway, because they solved everything. :)
If you have the time, puzzles can be a lot of fun... But often a lot of frustration too, so don't feel bad when you can't find the answer to one... Like this one, for example - I never would have solved it if I hadn't made the puzzle myself... :)
Good luck! :)
Comment has been collapsed.
HA! I was sure there were wrong digits in that π! I was just.. ehm.. too lazy to check =P
Also, shame on me for not thinking of binary conversion.. usually is one of the first things I check -_-
Comment has been collapsed.
Yeah, I think this puzzle was simpler for people who wrote a small program to handle all the converting nonsense, but too annoying / time-consuming to solve manually... At least, I'd never want to solve it by hand, one character at a time, hoping I didn't make any mistakes... :)
Most likely I'd notice how much time it would take to try one idea, and if I didn't guess the right idea the first time, have to redo it over and over again... No thanks! :) Stuff like that is what computers are for... :)
Next time I'll have to think of something that doesn't require programming or blind luck... :)
Comment has been collapsed.
Hopefully Steamgifts will let me paste this whole thing in... :)
Ok, let's start with the easy part. The pity puzzle "https://www.youtube.com/watch?pity=okgYK&v=cu1yijNTeus" - pity=okgYK should lead you to https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/okgYK/fox-hime if you've ever tried a puzzle before. So if you didn't find this giveaway, maybe READ THE PUZZLE GUIDE again. :) And good luck with the rest of this thing... :)
Anyway, here's your puzzle. Two thousand digits of pi, plus some line noise because like I said, I couldn't remember how the script worked. Oh well. :(
Here's a hint for the future: don't believe
everythinganything you read in a puzzle, especially if I wrote it. :) Let's try again:It's 1909 characters (I counted!) that look like digits of pi, but I don't know for sure. It starts out right, but I didn't memorise 2000 digits of pi. Maybe check somehow? And there are some letters mixed in, that are obviously not digits of pi. Maybe that's the "line noise"?
Oh, right, "line noise"? Assuming you're old enough to remember what that looks like from the bbs days, how does creating a puzzle by hand add line noise to your digits of pi? I mean, come on. :)
So now what? Well, you could start by getting rid of everything that looks like a digit, and seeing what's left. This will work to find the first giveaway, but (spoiler!) you'll be wanting those digits back later. But for now, it's good enough, and gives you:
goODluCkrEadIngthIshumaNsIwAsgOinGtotRolltHATPuZzLeSoLvinGScriPtbUtiaMlAzYsOscREwiTFeELFrEetOtrOlLYOurSelFTHougHITSTOOHARDD⓪Y⑦jwii???
Ok, it looks like words, but it's hard to read. So try this:
goOD luCk rEadIng thIs humaNs I wAs gOinG to tRoll tHAT PuZzLe SoLvinG ScriPt bUt i aM lAzY sO scREw iT FeEL FrEe tO trOlL YOurSelF THougH ITSTOOHARD D0Y7jwii ???
Or, with punctuation, "Good luck reading this, humans! :) I was going to troll that puzzle solving script but I am lazy so screw it. :) Feel free to troll yourself, though. :) ITSTOOHARD = D0Y7jwii :)
Which should lead you to http://www.itstoohard.com/puzzle/D0Y7jwii which points to the first giveaway, i.e. https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/Ca1E9/middle-earth-shadow-of-microtransactions
Cool, solved one! Only three left! :)
Now, for this next part, maybe you get the idea, and maybe you don't. It's tied up with the 112 (I counted again!) goofy mixed-case letters, somehow. If you get lucky, you might wonder if that mixed-case business is hiding a message, i.e. maybe it's encoded in base 2? Let's see what we get from:
goODluCk rEadIngt hIshumaN sIwAsgOi nGtotRol ltHATPuZ zLeSoLvi nGScriPt bUtiaMlA zYsOscREwiTFeELF rEetOtrO lLYOurSe lFTHougHOr, if you want me to spell it out:
goODluCk rEadIngt hIshumaN sIwAsgOi nGtotRol ltHATPuZ zLeSoLvi00110010 01001000 01000001 01010010 01000100 00111101 01010100nGScriPt bUtiaMlA zYsOscRE wiTFeELF rEetOtrO lLYOurSe lFTHougH01100010 01000101 01010011 00110111 01001001 01110010 01110001Or, if you really want me to spell it out, try ASCII:
32 48 41 52 44 3d 54 62 45 53 37 49 72 712 H A R D = T b E S 7 I r qWhich should lead you to http://www.itstoohard.com/puzzle/TbES7Irq which gives you the second giveaway, https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/5H4sH/nioh-complete-edition-ren-wang-complete-edition
Cool, that's two solved, only two left! :) These things sure are easy when you know the answer! :)
So now let's go back to that big "digits of pi" thing. Do you remember where I said maybe check somehow? Well, if you compare 1909 real digits of pi to our "digits of pi", obviously the text message characters are wrong digits - but some of the numbers are wrong, too. What's up with that?
Oh, and while we're on the subject, what's up with 1909? Hmmm, did you want a hint for that part too, before I explain it? :) Well, 1909 is the product of two primes, 83 and 23. So maybe it's something to do with public-key cryptography? Umm, nice idea, but no. Let's worry about that part later. :)
So, we have:
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⓪81Y65⑦251251j51173929849w609i12848862693i604240?652850222105?11838279679766814541009538837863609506800642251252051173929848960841284886269456042419652850222106611863067441?86306744278As you can see, compared to the real digits of pi, some of our "digits of pi" are +1, and some are -1. Hopefully the previous part of the puzzle, with 112 mixed-case characters hiding a message in base 2, will give you the idea. With 128 (I counted again!) wrong digits, calling every "+1" a 1, and every "-1" a 0, we get:
01010100 01001111 01001111 01001000 01000001 01010010 01000100 0011110101101010 01101011 01011000 01101010 01110101 01010101 01100011 01101100And if you got this far, you know ASCII when you see it:
54 4f 4f 48 41 52 44 3d 6a 6b 58 6a 75 55 63 6cT O O H A R D = j k X j u U c lhttp://www.itstoohard.com/puzzle/jkXjuUcl gives you https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/5Z5FJ/ken-folletts-the-pillars-of-the-earth - cool, only one left! Almost finished! :)
Oh, by the way, this final itstoohard thing contained an actual hint! :)
Sorry, there's no hint. Instead, here's a pity jpeg for anyone who waited a whole day for nothing. :) And the picture https://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/10/new_panels.jpg :)
A bit of googling should lead you to the source of that image, i.e. https://www.wired.com/2013/11/arecibo-50th-anniversary/ - it seems to be a picture from the Arecibo radio telescope, in 1974. Hmm, is that a hint? Spoiler: yes! :)
Now, you might get lucky and stumble across something called the "Arecibo message", and you might not. If you do, and you noticed previously the "2000 digits of pi" were actually 1909 characters, maybe the reason for 83 * 23 = 1909 makes sense now.
But here's something funny - none of the three solvers needed that hint. Here are their explanations, which probably make more sense than mine:
nickchanger: I counted the spaces and the same numbers repeated all the time but they didn't make sense as a cipher so I realized it will be a picture :p
Ryzhehvost: After making a file - it still made no sense to me, but I noticed that some markings go one after another, and some other have space between them... it looked like pattern, so I decided I need to check it. Find&Replace marked places as @@, unmarked as spaces, copy&paste to notepad, change window width... bingo!
nhahtdh: I'm not surprised that you can encode all those GA into the puzzle, and I know that the last piece of information lies in the position of the differences, but only thought of turning it into an image recently.
So don't feel bad, I never would have solved this part, either. :)
Here's the idea: compare the real digits of pi to our "digits of pi", call each correct digit 0, and each incorrect digit 1. But this time it's not a message in base 2, it's a bunch of hmm, monochrome pixels, in an 83*23 rectangle. Maybe having 1909 characters helps with that idea, or maybe you just resize your text editor until the message appears by magic. :) Assuming Steamgifts doesn't screw it up, let's see how it goes:
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................@@.@@.@@...........@@........@@..........@@..@@.@@.@@.@@.@@........................@@.@@.@@...........@@........@@..........@@..@@.@@.@@.@@.@@........................................................................................................@@..........@@.....@@....@@.....@@..........@@..............@@.....................@@..........@@.....@@....@@.....@@..........@@..............@@........................................................................................................@@..............@@..........@@.....@@....@@..............@@.....@@.@@.@@.@@........@@..............@@..........@@.....@@....@@..............@@.....@@.@@.@@.@@...........................................................................................@@..............@@..........@@........@@..............@@........@@..........@@.....@@..............@@..........@@........@@..............@@........@@..........@@........................................................................................@@..............@@.@@.@@.@@.@@.....@@....@@........@@...........@@..........@@.....@@..............@@.@@.@@.@@.@@.....@@....@@........@@...........@@..........@@........................................................................................@@..........@@..@@..........@@..@@..........@@.....@@...........@@..........@@.....@@..........@@..@@..........@@..@@..........@@.....@@...........@@..........@@...........................................................................................@@.@@.@@.....@@..........@@..@@..........@@.....@@...........@@..........@@........@@.@@.@@.....@@..........@@..@@..........@@.....@@...........@@..........@@.Or, if you prefer:
.@@@....@...@...@.@@@@@......@...@..@.@..@...@.....@......@.....@...@..@.@.....@..@@@@.@.....@...@...@.....@...@...@@.....@@@@@..@.@...@....@...@@...@.@...@.@...@..@....@...@.@@@..@...@.@...@..@....@...@Which is pretty hard to read, now that I look at it on here. Hopefully it isn't quite so painful in your text editor/whatever. :) Anyway, let's assume you can squint and make out the characters "CAX7n". :)
So that's the final giveaway, https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/CAX7n/little-busters-english-edition :) Thank you to everyone, and congratulations to the winners! :)
Original Message:
I suppose cartoon fans can guess what's hiding in here. And yes, I know it's not the same thing, so you don't have to tell me. :)
For people who hate reading, or puzzles, or anything that comes between you and your profitz: click here for free stuff!
Pity "puzzle" hiding in the youtube video: have pity! And if that video's blocked, try this one: have pity!
And, hmm, well, I was going to make a puzzle last year but it got boring so I bailed. Sorry.
If you like, imagine I kept working on that puzzle for months, piling it full of loot, just for you. Spoiler: nope.
Today I found a few of the leftover pieces and threw this crap together. And I couldn't remember how the script worked so I did it by hand, and probably screwed the whole thing up. Oh well.
For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: 'It might have been!'
Anyway, here's your puzzle. Two thousand digits of pi, plus some line noise because like I said, I couldn't remember how the script worked. Oh well. :(
3141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381964428810975665933446128475648233786783165271201909145648g56o33O503486104543D764821339l50726024914u373C14k77r96E16a05588174881520920962829253d92I16n643678925904g001133054t54882046651h385I45s50h42u12m09433057270365759591953092186117381932611793105118548074462379962749567351885752724891227938183011949129a43673362440N666430s50213I594639w12473719070A079860943702770s49217176293176752384673g18467669404O320004i81270n526357G82778577133t757789609173636o78721468440901224953430146549585371050792279689258923542019956112129021960864034418159813629774771309960t087072113499999R73729780499o005973l83281l996318595024459t653469H73A36T15P1308253345u850352619311880Z10100031377z875289L58752e208381420617176S691472o36L81v33i0428755468731159562863882353787593751957781857780532171226806613001927876611195909216420198n280952572010654G48632788659S715338182c068230301952035r118529689i67736225994P2891240t217752834791314b55748572425U415069596t829533116861726i558890751a83817546373M4939319255060400927701671139009848824012858361603563707660104710181942955596198946767837l594482553797747A58z61Y50s85O364620s14668c159069491R033136770289E01521047521w1056967i240580381501934T13F34e23E09L558763F24748r473263915E992726042690e27967823546t1636009341721641219924586315030286182974555706749838505494588586926995690927210797509302O65321165344t772r37559602364O966l39911988183L897753Y763698074265O35278625518u7417575r72890977771S939e00816470609l615F24919217320T214773H501414419734o85481613612u7352552133475741849468438523323907394143334547762416862518983569485562099219222184272550254g46H97T617904O56016534668O598H52723279178A985784R738279679766D24541009538D4786360959⓪81Y65⑦251251j51173929849w609i12848862693i604240?652850222105?11863067441?8Good luck... :)
Comment has been collapsed.