Umm, I dunno. Haven't played it.
Maybe they thought Lovecraft was cool? I think that's allowed. Not sure how you'd get to "didnt have any original ideas" from there, but who knows? I haven't played it.
No idea about the story, but I'm pretty sure at least the art didn't create itself. :)
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indeed, the art is original (in the sense it was specifically done for it).
I'm just seeing a whole bunch of VNs right now that have zero ideas / uniqiueness / originality in source material. Combine this with the amount of games (films, books music etc as well) that use a low grade quick take on "lovecraft" and "cthulu mythos" to do their thing,,, perhaps then i might be making more sense?
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Oh, it's probably been done to death - but still, there's some amazing creativity in the "this wouldn't even exist without Lovecraft" genre... :)
It's not a visual novel, but I think Bloodborne counts... :) And for actual visual novels, Deus Machina Demonbane (maybe don't google that one at work) is not just lazy copy+paste... :)
But I can't exactly defend this specific game, since I haven't played it. Maybe it's a lazy cash-in, a total rip off. No idea. But the only part I can see from the store page, i.e. the art, doesn't look like it, so I have hopes for the words, too... :)
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Thanks for the key drop, I grabbed a few (couldn't believe I'd actually beaten the bots for once ๐ ), then stopped and left some for other humans and/or bots
I got Green Game: TimeSwapper, Equalizer, Qvabllock, Cunning Fox, TANK VS ROBOT, WireNet, NeoBoom2, Unite Cell and Boy Knight
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I bought it but didn't play it yet.
The reviews are good and I believe I'll enjoy it.
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It is cheap. But I liked the art and it looks like a really interesting story.
Also, seems like the price is fair.
The fact that there's no choices doesn't bother me. I have read great VN's that are kinetic.
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I have no clue about the price. :( I've paid more for games I'll never install, and I'll certainly install this once I finally decide to buy it... :) But you know how it is, there's usually a discount somewhere, if you wait long enough... :) Why pour money down a hole? :)
I'd rather have some choices in a visual novel, since I can always read books... :) But there's a lot of fun visual novels where you just read and read and read, so it's not a complete deal-breaker... :) I thought Shan Gui was fun, and very short, so if this one's short too I wouldn't feel cheated. :)
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Sounds like you tried 10... :)
Sorry I didn't leave a larger pile of keys, only 50 (for different games) won't last long around here... :( Maybe I'll add some more later, but I'm pretty lazy so don't expect anything... Oh well...
Ahh, I don't know if this classic guide would help with this specific puzzle, but I do this sort of thing a lot, so maybe check for an older topic full of similar keys for hints...
Good luck... :)
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Thanks! I found a couple of old threads with some googling and I'll set my brain ablaze due to overheating try to figure something out from them tomorrow or the day after.
And don't worry about the keys -- I wasn't really expecting any of them to work. I just tried because, you know, you won't know whether any of them are still good until you try! :P
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Good luck, this is pretty easy as my puzzles used to go, although lately I'm super lazy... So If you've seen a pile of "bundle leftovers" in an old thread you're in business... Otherwise you may have to think or something silly like that... :)
True enough, since if everyone assumes they are used, you might get lucky and find one still untouched... But generally a small number of keys aren't going to last long around here. For every person who says they got a key, there's a bunch of lurkers who are too busy pasting keys to say anything... And a few seconds of regex magic and the whole thing gets sent to someone's bot farm. Just have to hope all the farmers are asleep when the topic appears.. :)
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I think I'm in the right path. I found the thread in question and this has led me to find three things, each obviously linked to a ITH. I'm not altogether sure what I should do with them, though. More specifically, I tried the most obvious things I could associate with them, but I'm still hitting a wall (kinda hard to give any more details without making it very obvious to everyone). Is the hint to jump from what I found to the ITH answer also in the keys somewhere?
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Well, I dunno what thread you found, but everything you need to solve these puzzles is in this thread, right here. :)
When people are stuck, I'm only suggesting they read that puzzle guide and/or search for old leftover bundle key things to give them ideas, not the actual answers. :) Maybe they get some inspiration, or notice something, or whatever. Anyone thinking something from an old puzzle might be part of the solution to this one is on the wrong track. :)
Hope that helps! :)
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Hello world fellow human,
I am programmed wish to upload a message into your random access memories.
Please accept the character array {'t','h','a','n','k',' ','y','o','u','!','\0'} into an appropriate variable on your systems.
Took IF3T3-... (Sleight). L8R7K-... was already taken.
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have not tried the game yet.. too bad its just a kinetic VN, if the choices mattered I would just buy it myself.
THANKS for the puzzle too.. if i'm not too tired after work, i'll give it a shot
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It does look interesting! Like someone put in actual effort or something? Pity all the boobie garbage visual novel developers seem to have skipped that part...
Ahh, I read some comments elsewhere discussing the kickstarter thing, umm, I'm too lazy to find it right now, but maybe remind me tomorrow... :)
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Yeah, those "Double Struck" characters don't work everywhere, but it seems to help with bots gobbling up all the keys, or some clown sending the entire list to their bot farm in 0.2 seconds...
You'll probably need to see those funny characters to solve everything, but maybe there's some workaround with copy and paste? Can't think of anything myself though...
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Well, took some random shots to see if anything was still available. Was about to give up when A74RZ- worked. I have no idea what "goocubelets" is, but hey, thanks for a game. I'll check it out once I get my comp up and running again.
...I mean....uh.....beep boop I am human.
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Ahh, I believe it's one of those dodgy developer removed games - so you can get trading cards, but you can't actually sell them.
It's possible to trade removed game cards with VanillaBot in exchange for other removed game cards, so if you're missing a few from a set, take a look you might get lucky. Or you might have them stuck in your inventory forever, who knows? :)
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Ya kin also (painfully) complete the set by ways of crafting boosters for that game outta, um, gems.
Yea, so I sicced my savant-friend on your machinations, heretic. Knock, knock-!
Shit, I'm completely lost and torn between all those hints leading in circles ;O
You, sir, should unmask.
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Oh yeah, I always forget about those stupid booster packs... Not sure I want to waste all my gems on it, though...
Somehow I'm always hoping for the 1:1 any-removed-game-card-trading VanillaBot to have a huge pile of what I'm missing right when I remember to check it... But I guess I don't check it often enough because it's always the same old junk. I assume the uncommon cards disappear quickly... :(
Hmm, don't put too much faith in the puzzle hints, it's more of a "hey, notice this" sort of thing than an actual direct hint...
Oh, in case I forget to add a "BIG HINT" for this puzzle today, you might get a brain wave from the hint recently added to the other puzzle... :)
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Just black squares instead of unicode symbols on android. Well, they are all used already anyway, so no worries. Back to solving the puzzle(s)
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Sorry, this is a pretty dumb one... :)
If you can find some old puzzles with a pile of leftover bundle keys, it's just like one of those. :) And if not, there's always that puzzle guide umm https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/TLR8m/zelgh-magic-guide-to-basic-sg-puzzling-update-october-2017 :)
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There's hints and stuff, but maybe not very helpful if you don't notice whatever... So have another link to this thing, I keep spamming it... :)
Good luck...
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Hmm, my puzzle hints are often useless, generally meant to indicate the solver has overlooked something a while back that I'd assumed was obvious...
But sometimes a real hint would have been useful, if only I hadn't been too lazy to write one... Not sure which applies in this case... :(
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Turns out the best way to write a puzzle explanation is to sit down and write it. Ideally before you make the puzzle, but I never remember to do that... Usually I just start fooling around with numbers and bundle keys and see what turns up... :)
Yeah, numbers and bundle keys. I guess this will spoil any future puzzles, but my key drops with random leftover bundle keys are never random leftover bundle keys - there's always something hiding inside.
LOOK AT THE KEYS!
I'm not clever enough to save links to old puzzles, but poking around found some examples:
Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition puzzle, or Little Witch Romanesque: Editio Perfecta puzzle :), or NieR:Automata puzzle, or, of course, Dark Souls 1+2+3 & The Miskatonic puzzle and The Miskatonic + Monster Hunter: World puzzle. :)
I suggest anyone working on puzzles read the puzzle guide first. For this specific puzzle, you have a pile of text (i.e. the bundle keys) meant to distract you from the secret message(s) hiding inside. Like this:
1xxxx-xx2xx-xxxx3
1xxxx-xx2xx-xxxx3
1xxxx-xx2xx-xxxx3
1xxxx-xx2xx-xxxx3
1xxxx-xx2xx-xxxx3
The first column in the keys gives THATISNOTDEADWHICHCANETERNALLIEANDWITHSTRANGEAEONS which Lovecraft fans might know as That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons... :)
The second column in the keys (yeah, ok it's not a column, it moves around because I don't own a million spare bundle keys...) gives 486F776D616E796167657368656E63655368616C6C74686973 which umm, it's a long string of gibberish? Don't worry, that is base 16 ASCII character codes, which you already knew or noticed in the puzzle guide. Turning that into text gives HowmanyageshenceShallthis which looks like Shakespeare if you spread it out a bit How many ages hence Shall this... :) Yeah, I wasted a lot of time trying to make some other Lovecraft quotes fit instead, but I didn't own enough bundle keys to pull it off. Oh well... :(
The third column gives ISAWTHEBODYSPREADONTHATDANKSTONEANDKNEWTHOSETHINGS which is also Lovecraft, but you'd probably need to google it to discover where I saw the body spread on that dank stone, And knew those things came from... :)
Incidentally, that should (?) explain the keys added in the 26 July edit, which didn't help with the puzzle but just gave you one more chance to notice something. The things you could notice were GALLIA EST OMNIS DIVISA IN PARTES TRES QVARVM VNAM INCOLVNT BELGAE ALIAM AQVITANI TERTIAM QVI IPSORVM LINGVA CELTAE NOSTRA GALLI APPELLANTVR and This is not a hint. This is not a hint. This is not....... and HI OMNES LINGVA INSTITVTIS LEGIBVS INTER SE DIFFERVNT GALLOS AB AQVITANIS GARVMNA FLVMEN A BELGIS MATRONA ET SEQVANA DIVIDIT FREE KEYS WOOHOO which google could explain for you. :) There's no U in Steam keys, sorry. :)
The 4 August edit was the same idea - ?HINT? and HINTHINT in the keys were trying to get everyone to look at the keys. That's it. :)
Anyway, the solution to these puzzles comes about by guessing you need to finish the quote. Otherwise you're screwed. Hence the Burma-Shave "hint" in the itstoohard things. Blah blah blah blah, and googling tells you the missing part is BURMA-SHAVE. The part in the keys is "blah blah blah blah" so you just type in the rest of the line, i.e. the "Burma-Shave" part. Yeah, it's not a very good hint. Sorry! :)
Anyway, solving those first three itstoohard puzzles led to the Miskatonic giveaways 1 2 3, each of which contained a number.
For the fourth itstoohard thing, you only needed to add the numbers: 2247371907021798609437 + 3673622262609912460805 + 2490417963119497539938 = 8411412132751208610180. Which leads to... ?
For everyone who tried to do something with that number, umm, sorry. A lot of people noticed what's going on, but more than a few didn't... :( Check the puzzle guide one last time. It's simply more ASCII characters. Would 084 114 121 032 075 120 086 101 080 have helped? Yeah, definitely. I guess if you're familiar with ASCII you noticed, and if not, you didn't. Anyway, turning that ASCII stuff back into text gives Try KxVeP which was the Monster Hunter: World giveaway.
Sorry it took so long to write the explanation, and sorry the puzzle was dumb. Hmm, seems I'm always writing this...
I could say I'll try to do better next time, but most likely next time I'll be just as lazy and make the same dumb things again. So thank you for playing, and good luck next time! :)
Original message:
Umm, nope, same here. Maybe when it's in a bundle?
You know, it doesn't really say "Humble Monthly" to me, and frankly it looks too good for Indie Gala or (current) Groupees... But you never know...
The store page https://store.steampowered.com/app/870290/The_Miskatonic/ looks interesting, but it sounds like they ran out of money or the programmer left or something? I dunno. In other words, typical kickstarter? The art looks cool though.
Anyway, maybe if you solve one of these puzzles, you won't have to buy it:
Level 0 puzzle, i.e. public giveaway Can you solve the puzzle of the people who try to win a visual novel but can't read? One of the enduring Steamgifts mysteries...
Level 1 puzzle
Level 2 puzzle
Level 3 puzzle
Level 4 puzzle
And the obligatory puzzle pieces disguised as a bundle leftover key dump in 3... 2... 1...
TZM3N-CB๐B2-MN6QIH9YC9-CA73๐ -0A5LSALIEX-4V๐E3-7PBKAT5WAC-GC8๐ฝ7-NXPMWIN4YK-GBDZ๐-C7JYTS20IL-MCZ๐E-Y3ECHNTFEX-๐ZCYW-Y44AEO2DZE-FG๐ปAH-LDHHBTAYBX-๐QWBE-GZKTOD5WZ0-JY๐PV-5GVLDEA9EA-QW๐PR-KEBAYANCR8-FY๐ผIW-WVV5SD5W3P-AC0๐9-2AH4PW4CB5-K0๐กHK-GC4PRHYBX9-๐3A0T-LNGCEI087L-F2K๐V-F6EXAC62Q5-VC7๐2-82JPDHGWNC-YWV๐4-AFCPOCF035-K0๐YD-EINZNA5IJM-KV๐LY-GBZMTNDBZL-๐5DQT-4EDZHEJPTY-0YGX๐-LL57ATR7HB-IWE๐G-KRFRTETFE0-D๐ QNE-VXRXDRECEP-Q๐KAR-J79PAN5FK2-L2๐99-D9GMNA74RZ-๐EGDT-XAHWKLQGMZ-YV๐ผ5I-VBRGSL8R7K-๐B4A8-0JFCTIF3T3-MB๐I2-CYR0OEE9R8-๐ZH3E-MQBYNAL3AW-29๐BV-XFRBENH5ZV-M๐3T4-VZ20ADQKNX-๐XZ8K-AZ8CNWVCQK-JN๐M9-V26QDIJVYM-8B๐ 7N-AGJDKT6M88-4X๐KN-N4W7NH0FZ0-๐7YQN-XK46ES5Q5E-๐3QH3-JVGVWTC2EA-M๐PL3-IK7LTRIR3K-๐2YPV-4AN4HAGACG-WJIZ๐-WZNQON6YLN-H8G๐0-YKJ3SGWF9Z-T๐2XY-WR2ZEEI8J0-YKW๐T-WY28TAZA87-0P๐ R2-IZZQHEXM6X-F๐QXW-QEYMIOG2T8-๐ก6CJN-JCA2NNWLLB-AGD๐7-0YV4GSDAVV-P64๐7-8Q6XSGood luck! :)
Edit 26 July:
Hey, I couldn't think of any new hints, but I did find some more leftover bundle keys... :) Someone's got to feed those starving bots... :)
GKEWA-79๐6P-Q6QZHA5G89-8I๐MT-5Q80IL82IV-F0NV๐-L5L8OLN6VR-27๐ TB-2YNQMI3CXG-ERJ๐K-83GENANXEB-5๐กVM3-6MMGEE7DHY-95EV๐-80PHSSRYI8-๐JGX6-AMCHLTVDVA-D0๐03-HNICIOGKWH-YA๐EM-9K6HNMP8YT-I9๐KZ-D8Q3GNVEAA-KF๐กVX-QD7TVIT5E3-W๐E68-EIWAASZ7ZW-X9๐DM-C8VYIDNHLE-VJ๐BB-2JVENIR47G-DQL๐E-PNJESVX48N-8XZ๐I-6I2BTIAN5V-8E๐ผPV-W404ISZBXW-๐EPL0-84KHTAMKZC-4VKZ๐ฝ-BPWWVIW5Q6-WZ๐KX-CPE5TNM0NM-FW๐N6-K0JKIPV4XJ-RM83๐-4TVESA9Q2F-FM๐NG-KI3TLR8BK2-H05๐J-TXG4ET47W6-IMC๐E-AE2VGE53VQ-BW๐GE-KLKJISMHKY-7R๐57-4CJZBTPG4R-WX๐IG-P9FXVR3RGL-74๐ IT-ICCWSEIL69-95T๐P-GTI4ISTL7R-H2๐กTR-X2XQNQ6T6M-MG๐PB-KGFHTV54G9-8M๐ผCK-LFWLEAN9RV-MFQ2๐-PLRNRR9247-๐DQZC-BQIPSVZQAC-3AG๐J-EXAAEMW040-JV๐ผV3-33Y6DVPQ0I-๐KFZL-47MFINZ4CK-J๐AVQ-X3C9FAEIKT-09๐4E-TR64FMCYAC-44๐Z9-YFKCEI62TA-๐NFIP-CB7RRN4EM8-๐X0TH-XDM3VC2HDL-R0GV๐-EKFXNOARQ0-3D๐ CM-ANDBTLCDHV-K๐8VV-5GC0GVIZCN-K๐ก6F4-462WANH5RK-FDY๐Q-NNH2LTVQHM-X88๐R-N3ZXLBC386-NE๐MY-70JFOENB4Y-YW๐0P-4I3PSL6WEK-๐F5FD-RX6BAGACNE-6B๐กV4-7NA5BAA479-YP๐EN-VBWIAEA3Y5-JX๐ZM-5NILQAHZAW-XFJK๐-RMZDVLEZV4-AZ77๐-9ZNAIIV3CI-MJ๐49-9QQCTA0F3I-๐ผDNTJ-MNJBAMEY9M-๐8VN5-QE94NA0CVJ-LD๐ฝP6-98PKIQCAXA-9GLW๐-39R9SVGDCC-84W๐W-EHG0GITN05-0L๐75-7L2CAT69H7-052๐E-2KQJRA0MLQ-๐HMN6-80NLVNIY4V-ARD๐M-Y6Z4MI5MXJ-GY๐BF-Y6A9NTKJGK-E๐P3N-0CADAEE3N8-2R2P๐-LNR0FRTV0P-W5E๐ G-7D2JLTPG4R-WX๐IG-P9FXVIE5MC-QC๐กCV-PH67MAVX8Y-PC๐RF-2TQWEMCB4I-D๐ผL9I-6XA8NQ2BNV-AQ3๐T-6LFAAV0A5L-ZP๐8K-AGPEBIV2LJ-๐64AX-DFXGEIPMB4-W3๐ผIC-JDXRLP582X-๐P77T-7EFMGSMWZA-YZ9J๐-EA6HIONL5T-L4๐2F-2ZC9SR2T5J-๐JMPW-CAP9MV89B7-GI๐2J-R64XAMJLDR-๐CTAW-CWLYTLTAKR-EWQ๐V-9MTNRI8ZJZ-ZR๐ BH-38V3ONW0Y9-4๐2YW-I5CNNGECRQ-H8๐กK0-WXIRAVNAF2-TY๐DF-KD6VEA60ME-FWYR๐-BNPLTCYA2A-TX๐N5-4W6GSEPHR9-Z32๐Y-AL9WEL37TI-DIP๐3-W5IAQTHGMB-74๐กY9-2RZVVAA479-YP๐EN-VBWIAEH8HA-AY๐7V-E80ZNNVEKT-P9Y0๐-W9XVAONKQD-P5๐79-MWHJDSVPY0-2X๐PZ-VWFRIT42BT-๐ผBGMC-THYBVR8F24-HWX๐6-5CW9IAWMTL-D๐ฝR5Y-AL57DGFKAV-54Y๐T-A4Z2IA0VZ3-AR7๐Z-J3Z3TL97DM-FAL๐8-JIKDFL8FHY-๐ผATFX-ACVYRI9PFY-R๐Y35-D6YLEAJA56-RX๐ผ8X-FDEEEP5IE0-Q9๐XB-Y695KPEDQL-4๐ผG45-CK9LEEN8LW-IG๐IZ-BV3QYLWNKA-F๐ผC3Y-VFW7SLB7JY-BH๐0K-57X3WADLWM-6W3X๐ผ-EB97ONRCM2-JMF3๐-4KLWOTDEYE-Y7K9๐ผ-W0YKHVQ4JK-8KP๐H-H383ORPBXV-7B๐ผGH-2LYIOEdit 28 July:
So you thought this puzzle sucked? You're in luck, there's a completely different puzzle here! :)
Edit 4 August:
Hey, it's your last day to solve this, so have one last hint:
H4I7M-โพ๐ โโโฟ-RXYF2I3LNI-โโธโถโธ๐ -TGYNDND249-โโโนโโ-MJIZITBPDG-โโโโโธ-47E7JHJLNM-โโถโโโบ-3KHNQIF8I5-โโถโธโโ-IKZQJN8M0E-โผโ๐ โโน-P6EQ5TK5WW-โฟโธโโฟโ -GZ54JHCBEW-โโ โโพ๐ -9WLGZIJVCC-โโนโ โโ-WM5BPNDQ9D-๐ โโฟโโ-GP097T0MV6-โโโโโ-PQKJWH9XAD-โโโบโโ-AG434IYC2L-โโโโโ-TC8BPN3ZRE-โโพโฝโโ-9MXNLTANMV-โทโพโฝโโธ-V6B02HRYBY-โนโโโโพ-2WXFDIHDWK-โธโธโโโท-PHVBWNXHV6-โโนโโฟโพ-BCMZ7T8W77-โปโฝโโผโ -KRT48HFTYP-โ โฟโโผโ-62JCVIWJR7-โพโฟโโปโ-G56CWNQJEX-โปโโ๐ โน-KBD32TY9R9-โถโปโโผโ-YIYHDHNLEW-โโโโปโ-XNAHGIIBCL-โโโบโฟโ-TD6YWNY8D5-โโโ โธโ-RWMFPTGQ6C-โโทโโโ-49TDDHHJRT-โโโธโโ-PDQ6BIG4BV-โโบโโโ-A8CQNNZPLX-๐ โธโโโ-2RZZ7TFK5F-โนโปโโโผ-NLT9NH0BY4-โโ๐ โโ-BCCDWI04G7-โผโ๐ โธโ-J7M6ANYXLB-โโโโโ-GPG33TLT3Y-โถโ๐ โโป-QWRP8HQJV2-โโโโพโ-GPPBXIHEBB-โโทโโโป-TZ5Z7NB9XV-โโ๐ โ โ-Q3FF0TQ396-โโบโบโโฝ-T2E89HF5TI-โโโโโ-5NK4QI09AZ-โโทโฟโบโ-6G3Z5NZ7MX-โถโฟโโโฟ-QE7ACT43Q0-โโธโโพโ-3BKVDHY4B5-โโโโโพ-9P4JPIE6AW-โโถโโโ-9HQD4NXF86-โผโ โโบโบ-YF7ZZT30NZ-โถโถโโพโ-CQ2EXEdit 5 August:
So you're wondering where the solution might be hiding? Ahh, it's not written yet - for some mysterious reason the Level 4 giveaway is still running... :) So you still have three days to work it out, or maybe just forget about this nonsense and go play something you already own... :)
Good luck... :)
p.s. I say "for some mysterious reason" but it's not actually mysterious - although I managed to forget it... :) Fortunately I put off writing the explanation so long that I noticed it's too early to write it. Sorry about that! :)
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