PXC: Project Syzygy Pre-Game-New

[SPEC]tacular! ;) General Speculation (wildness may ensue)

Scott@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 07:09:07 +0000

I don't know where to post this. I'm sorry if this is the wrong place. I think i know where this whole thing is going but i don't want to say. If i post in a thread I don't want to upset anyone and be marked for taking out. Is there anywhere where end spec is likely to be discussed so that I don't explode or shall I keep it all to myself and see if I was correct? Thanks. Apologies in advance.

[Edit - I've started this thread entirely for spec, and moved the related messages over. Fi]

[UPDATE] March 19th - Abbey Road (webcam)

Scott@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 06:57:05 +0000

From the new video update
http://www.abbeyroad.co.uk/virtual_visit/webcam/

Maybe this is the start of the game :D :D

[EDIT: topic, tag. yanka]

Fran Mendling an Anagram?

Lockwood@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 05:42:18 +0000

Fran Mendling has been running around my mind ever since the news of her death. There's something about that name that seems like it could possibly hold a clue to the theft of the cube. Could it be that the name is actually an anagram?

Take into consideration that Fran is a common abbreviation of many other names. Some of the more common ones i can think of are:

Frances
Francene
Francesca
Francoise

To name but a few. What you will notice in all of the above names, when combined with 'Mendling' is that they all contain one very important word..... RECEDA !!

So I have been playing around with those names in an anagram generator (I have been mainly using the Internet Anagram Server ) to see what comes up, but so far have drawn a blank. The closest I have got so far is 'RECEDA FILMING SONN' for 'Francoise Mendling' which is obviously close but no cigar! So I thought I would start a new topic and throw the challenge open to others.

The other thing to mention is that I have only tried anagram searches in English. There have been various mentions that 'Receda' could be Italian or Latin, so potentially so could the whole anagram?

Some interesting things to note

SimonSays@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 03:41:51 +0000

Well a friend and myself have been working hard at the numbers 2210,
and the 24 digit string (I am extremely sorry if that has been posted
before, I didn't really find anything related) and we came across some
interesting notes. Collaborating we discovered that the Academy logo
also has 21 faces of the cubes showing, which also led us to note that
the 24 digit number was completely divisible by 21. Being the middle
two digits of the four digit number we figured it would be worth a
shot, and we quickly went to work. Using a lot of tools at our
disposal we came across some more interesting things to note. Using
everything from Binary translation tools, to anything ASCII, we
dissected the number that came about by dividing the 24 digit number
by 21 more ways than we could even keep track of. After a bit of
caffeine and late night work, we came across a few things to warn
others of, that we're not really getting anything, but this is an
interesting track of thought at the very least. We received some crazy
decimaled [sp?] numbers through ASCII that repeated the three numbers
316 a few times. Only thing we tried with that was a bible search,
which really didn't supply much if any information pertinent to the
puzzle at all. Among things tried were an enigma decoder, Veginere
[sp?], ASCII, binary, bible searches, area codes, etc. Eventually
after a late night I called it quits, and also a dead end. I then
decided to work with the morse code of the "Taversen square, Old Town"
line. We came up with something interesting. Now this one may have
been posted I didn't really check, I deeply apologize in advance if
so, but we found that the most sense we could make was "541 Taversen
Square, Old Town ST". Now this may not mean much, if anything at all,
but interesting to note if it is an address.

That's pretty much all I've worked on the past day or so, just warning
others, offering ideas. Once again I apologize if any of this has been
posted before, and feedback is greatly appreciated.

[PUZZLE] [SOLVED] Dinah's print-out

thebruce@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 03:05:55 +0000

We came, we milled around Abbey Road and we conquered.

The March 19th Abbey Road clue turned out to be three clues stuck to various objects within view of the webcam at http://www.abbeyroad.co.uk/virtual_visit/webcam/ .

Typically, I don't have them with me (so someone else will have to fill you in with the gory details) - but they contained along the bottom a crossword clue:

hang exec ruined on stock market (8)

..for which the answer is:

EXCHANGE - 'hang exec' ruined (ie, anagrammed) gives 'exchange' which is synonymous with 'stock market'

Sure enough, when a suspicious looking lass arrived with a stack of envelopes, we wandered over and asked if she was Dinah and gave her the password - and received an envelope each (signed, with a kiss) containing our old friend the Perplex City postcard (yes, the same one as before) and a print-out of an email conversation not dissimilar to the original dinah@perplexcity.com email.

[SPEC] Malme = Malmesbury

yanka@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 00:13:26 +0000

I believe there are sevearl coincidences here. They either are worthless, or they serve to add flavor to the script, or there is something more . . . Thomas Hobbes was a famous scientist. He met Galileo and was a contemporary of Fermat and Descartes. I think we are meant to draw all these age of enlightenment type people together . . .

I googled "malmes" and got Malmesbury , but I also got: Thomas Hobbes (birthplace), old breweries , Althesian relics, a portion of that city is referred to as "Town" captialized, there is a Triangle (street) with a Three Cups Inn , there is an old Abbey (also a brewery ).

Lastly, this is the oldest borough in England and within a hundred miles of Avebury and Stonehenge (for flavor).

[SPEC] Discussion of text snippets from the ads

Arachnia@forums.unfiction.com — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 15:31:51 +0000

I think it might be a good time to make a separate thread for all the spec about the ad texts. Let's try to direct the speculation etc. about the substance of the ads here, and leave the adverts thread for meta-ish discussion.

Here are the snippets combined by am520dj:

so putting them all together...

The Receda Cube is an archaeological artifact of unknown origin. It has unusual scientific properties, and has been extensively investigated by the Academy over recent years. Several religious and mystical groups

around Perplex City hold the Cube as an object of reverence. It is housed in the Academy museum and has been on public display
since 228AC. The last serious attempt at theft was in late April of 235AC

-- and then --

confirmed the thieves reprogrammed portions of the Academy's security systems, disabling three different

forms of security without tripping warning alarms. Academy security personnel discovered the theft at 2am when security guard Mendling failed to check in for her shift change.
Police as yet have no suspects and are still questioning ball attendees. Perplex City Council leader Camryn Scott confirmed today that a police task force will work with Academy experts to find the culprits. She said, "The murderers of Fran Mendling will pay for their crimes.
Those who perpetrated this heinous act should know that we will

Find them and that will bring them to justice. "Sente Kiteway", Master of

the Academy, said in a statement today: "As is well-known, the Cube is a unique object, with certain unusual properties. We have full confidence that, using our knowledge of its composition, we will be

Able to trace it without any difficulty wherever it may be. The Cube is

not only an object of great significance to the city but also a technological wonder

-- then left out is still --

security on the ball, to make sure no one
gatecrashes their exclusive party." In previous years, the annual ball
has been the occasion of various student pranks including the ''sofas in the stairwell'' incident.

Has this game properly started yet?

firefox@forums.unfiction.com — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 06:34:00 +0000

Well, faced with no new data for a few days and the striking lack of evidence we've got so far (Synagoga started with character interaction; we're still waiting for some) I got wondering - does this even count as the game? I still stand by my prediction that we've got another month or so to wait until the game properly kicks off but I thought I'd see what you lot thought to pass some time until the 28th :wink:

If I were a PM...

Sun, 20 Mar 2005 02:45:06 +0000

...notwithstanding that job applications are still open at the time of writing, but let's play a fill-in-the-blank game.

The best immersive fiction game would have: BLANK.

Think of this as hardcore market research :)

[TRIVIA] Perplex City and Count Zero

yanka@forums.unfiction.com — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 22:12:21 +0000

I tried a search and couldn't find much relating to this topic. I'm not sure if it's relevant in helping us progress in the game (hence the topic label), or whether it's just simply an observation.

Since there has been reference to other William Gibson texts (the Pattern Recognition ISBN right back at the start), the whole idea of the cube reminded me of the box that the character Marly is sent to retrieve in his novel Count Zero . I'm sure that's no new thought, most people would probably have made that association.

Anyway, just reading the new information from the meeting with Dinah today, and one of the chunks of texts was this:

'Possible motives for the theft remain unclear. A ransom demand is seen as one likely development, as the Cube, whose value is almost incalculable, could not be sold on the open market. John Ha, owner of the Ha Gallery on the Mobius Strip, conjectured that the Cube may have been stolen "to order" for a wealthy collector.'

Once again, I instantly associated this to Herr Virek's search for the box, and the employing of Marly (in this context, it would be the players of the ARG) to aid in finding it. It was something incredibly precious, something that he valued over everything else, which also reminds me of a quote that can be found here .

As I stated, it's just an observation, possibly one many of you have already had, but I'm wondering if it's either a coincidence, if I'm looking for something that isn't there, if it's simple inspiration from a famous novel, or if we are meant to recognise the similarities and treat them as in-game?

[SPEC] Badge Numbers & SMTP daemon subprocess

kelsey_requiem@forums.unfiction.com — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 22:13:45 +0000

I started this because i think there's a connection between Gatehouse Entrances, Badge Numbers, and EMail Communications.

Spec: The email daemon changed when Project Syzygy ended. However, the following was 'issued' at that time, which suggests that email is the way to communicate with the Academy.

"The reason why your message hasn't been delivered so far is that data integrity
transport checksums have failed on all transport attempts. Preliminary diagnostic
information available to me indicates that there has been a failure in Sandbox
Mail Transport Daemon (daemon subprocess 3ea5 ).

Should you wish further information on this error, please access your designated
support resource . Unfortunately, the security context for this instance dictates
I may not disclose your designated support resource."

The "3ea5" stands out to me as similar to a badge number, which also helps 'fliter/categorize' those who pass thru INTO the Academy. Perhaps everything has to scutinized before it can enter there. Perhpas the thieves discovered how to hack it and these badge coulds are the method.

We have "sente at perplexcity dot com"
I think we could get more info this way - what about you all - do we rely on Sente to clue us in - or does it seem likely that we need to try to send email to that address (or another) and use badge numbers in the Subject and or Body?

Is it bad to spam Sente? I would think it would be so unless we had a clear key on how to do this communication correctly and get through the filters.

[EDIT: un-spam-ified the e-mail address. yanka.]

[UPDATE] NYC Postcards - SE Fifth and 40th (11th March)

@forums.unfiction.com — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 15:50:27 +0000

As shown on the updated video - someone in New York needs to get down to Fifth and 40th and ask for Alice NOW .

[PUZZLE] [SPEC] 24-digit postcard number

Wishi-san@forums.unfiction.com — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 17:06:03 +0000

Seeing as how we have unfinished business with the numbers under the semacode on the postcard, I decided to try my hand at it.

Total spec here...just a warning.

I thought about the numbers and how they might be translated. I remembered in school how we used to spell words on our calculators.
Googling turned up a few different alphabets for the numbers 0-9.
After playing around with this for a while, and no results, i took our 24 digit number and found the cube root of it. Taking that into calculator alphabet I came up with GOOGLE BOSSES SIG. While this is a huge stretch and has not yielded any results as of yet, it may be another avenue to look down, or just more wild spec

[SPEC] Receda cube

spaceXplorer@forums.unfiction.com — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 16:33:57 +0000

We have a name!

Unfortunately we don't know what it means yet....

It seems to be Italian and kelsey_requiem got it translated as 'Disagree'

The Disagree Cube? Hmmm, doesn't sound quite right to me. Thoughts?

Also, at the time of writing there's no change to the images at perplexcity.com - the black space is still there.

Lastly, Mikeyj has pointed out that Sente and Receda are both Italian, and there was a postcard found in Bologna airport - could there be a significant Italian connection?

Sooooo, stick your spec here so it doesn't clog the adverts thread (which is getting crazy-long and we've still got some to go) - anagrams? Alternate translations? Obscure references? You know you want to :wink:

[EMAIL] Auto-Responder (March 08, 2005)

Mikeyj@forums.unfiction.com — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 11:44:50 +0000

Good day all,

I am new and I searched and read and I didn;t see this new email so I thought I would post it. Please forgive me if it redundant.

I sent an email to "Sente@PerplexCity.com" and happily received a reply, as follows:

"Thank you for your email. I regret that I am unable to individually reply to mail sent to my public box. If your email is of an urgent or personal nature, I will reply shortly. Otherwise, I shall read your message in due time, and I beg your patience.

Sente

--
Perplex City Academy, One Taversen Square, Old Town
"When we were children, how we longed for the days when we would be grown. Yet now, see us here, gazing mournfully into our cups and wishing for the days when we were still free of the cares of the world.""