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 Forum index » Diversions » TimeWasters
Decryption Puzzle
Moderators: Giskard, ndemeter, ScarpeGrosse
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timtodd
Boot

Joined: 05 Sep 2008
Posts: 12

 		 Decryption Puzzle
Flashing Codes
I discovered a while ago that some Gemini Division trailers have codes that flash at the end of the video. So I did a frame by frame and transcribed each line into excel. First horizontal line of code in line 1, second horizontal line of code in line 2, etc. I then noticed that there were patterns in the code and highlighted those. I think each horizontal line has its own key (this way all the characters change) and that they may be using the Vigenerre cipher.

It is important to note that my transcription may not be completely accurate. It would be good to have someone double-check my transcription. Not completely sure about O's, Q's, or D's. If someone is interested in verifying my transcription and can do a frame-by-frame analysis of a flash video, I will PM them a link to the video.

The first message has 14 vertical lines. Gemini Division has 14 characters. So it is possible that they have one master key (Maybe 4 characters in length?) that has been vertical shifted by the word "geminidivision". "g" being the key used to encode the master key for line 1, "e" being used to encode the master key for line 2, etc, etc, etc.

I think the pattern for discovering the key for each line is in the code itself. My thought is that the repeating columns may contain the key for each line. However, I have yet to decrypt the message so my thinking may be incorrect.

Well that is a lot of description. Here is my transcription:



This is pretty advanced for most of us who are enjoying the Gemini experience (though at times it is in spite of NBC's Heroes interactive team). [Edit]After seeing the simple answer, I realize that I made this much more complicated than it actually was and misled others to follow my misguided path. Humble Pie time for me...[/Edit]

So I thought I would come to the unfiction forum for help. Many of us are uninitiated but we like the immersive experience and community created as we solve puzzles together and dig into the story.

Any ideas or help on deciphering the codes?

Thanks,
Tim

[Edit]

After posting I realized that it might be helpful to include text for cut and paste purposes into excel or some other editor. Wasn't sure how to change to a fixed width font in this post, so they won't line up. The _ represents a space (like in the picture above).

N P X Y O Y J Y Q Y W Y E O * H E X
B B R B R B B B O B X B R R * B R R
F G T Z T Z G Z O Z V Z T T * D T T
C C A C A C F C F C T C B A * F B A
X W K X J X X X M X J X K J * X K K
E F D P D P C P C P F P D E * G D D
A D Z E X E E E P E D E G X * E G Z
W L G V G V L V L V Y V Z G I ? ? G
I I O G M G _ G B G N G M M * L M O
L A V O V O A O Z O K O W V * A W V
O J Y O Y O H O H O H O Y Y * J Y Y
K K C K C K K K U K P K L C * K L C
V Z I W I W Y W S W E W C I * Y C I
T R Q U P U R U K U L U Q P * O Q Q

PostPosted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:14 pm
Last edited by timtodd on Sat Sep 06, 2008 12:25 am; edited 2 times in total
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Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

 		My take is that it's a simple substitution cipher spelling out
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
GEMINIDIVISION.COM

_________________
I'm telling you now, so you can't say, "Oh, I didn't know...Nobody told me!"


PostPosted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:31 pm
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catherwood-offline
Guest


 		to make a block of text "line up" with a monospaced font, wrap it in the CODE tag.
Code:
g e m i n i d i v i s i o n
N P X Y O Y J Y Q Y W Y E O

You pointed out that there are 14 letters and 14 columns (before the punctuation break), so I just lined them up above and see how the letter Y could easily subsitute for the letter 'i' -- this would not be a vigenere incryption at all.


p.s. the new guest-posting form captcha image is VERY hard to decipher, i forsee much annoyance with the new level of security when I want to casually post from work without logging in. I see someone replied in the time it took me to post.

PostPosted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:33 pm
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timtodd
Boot

Joined: 05 Sep 2008
Posts: 12

 		OUCH!!!!
Thanks so much.
Gah. So should have come here way earlier. No way... All that time wasted. I think the name of this forum is a misnomer. Come here if you don't want to waste your time.

I have another one that looks a bit different but is probably very similar. Will post it tomorrow. Thanks so much. You all rock!!!

PS - I feel so foolish. I so read way too much into that one. It all makes sense as well. Sad

PostPosted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:21 pm
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timtodd
Boot

Joined: 05 Sep 2008
Posts: 12

 		Ok. So that works for the first line.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
N P X Y O Y J Y Q Y W Y E O * H E X
G E M I N I D I V I S I O N . C O M


Now I need to figure out the others.
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
One of my thoughts was that this message might provide the master keys for messages to come, but maybe I was wrong about that too. I obviously don't have the experience you all have, but it seems that the other lines were shifted using the Vigenere Cipher. This will then possibly generate keys that could be used elsewhere. Anyway that is my theory. Off to test.


Here is line 2.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
B B R B R B B B O B X B R R . B R R
G E M I N I D I V I S I O N . C O M


PostPosted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 8:35 pm
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Rogi Ocnorb
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 4266
Location: Where the cheese is free.

 		Anything's possible where vigenere encryption is concerned, the overwhelming majority of the time a key is some non-gibberish string and the encrypted output has a fairly even letter frequency distribution.

The creators could have crafted their key to produce the rows as they are. It's just not typical. In order to convert the one you're focusing on, now, the required key would be "VXFTETYTTTFTDEZDF".

If you're going to focus on Vigenere, I'd try to do something within each column, instead.
_________________
I'm telling you now, so you can't say, "Oh, I didn't know...Nobody told me!"


PostPosted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 11:08 pm
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timtodd
Boot

Joined: 05 Sep 2008
Posts: 12

 		Thanks Rogi.

PostPosted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 12:22 am
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thebruce
Dances With Wikis


Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 6899
Location: Kitchener, Ontario

 		perhaps missing letters?
map out all the letters that are included in the grid, then find out which ones are missing from each column.
the "." looks like it might be the only missing keyboard symbol.
the rest, with GEMINIDIVISION.COM, the letters don't appear in their respective columns.
_________________
@4DFiction/@Wikibruce/Contact
ARGFest 2013 - Seattle! ARGFest.com

PostPosted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 7:38 pm
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