Author
Message
taozero
Veteran
Joined: 01 Mar 2005 Posts: 87 Location: Back in Alaska...
Well, I don't know about anyone else, but that's not a clean solve to me - I wanna get this sudoku done! Piece of cr- er....
Yeah, so, I thought I had a solve (would've been my first puzzle solve in ARGs!) but no....I didn't. That nine down on the bottom left killed it. Didn't even notice it...
Anyways, if the sudoku is screwed up - PMs, fix it please! I'm sure most of us will forgive you....maybe.
_________________Trying to Play: WIBS?
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 12:12 am
drizjr
Unfictologist
Joined: 28 Nov 2003 Posts: 1700
I think there have been more numbers added.
Here's a possible solution for the sudoku part.
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
743 819 256
169 752 483
528 463 719
281 546 397
496 137 528
375 928 641
912 3 75 86 4
857 6 94 13 2
634 281 975
Another solution would be if the 3 and 6 (in bold above) were vertically flipped.
And the number pairs. (Please check these as they are difficult to see)
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
79/ 48/ 58/ 65/ 67/ 75/ 56/ 85/ 71/ 87/ 56/ 96/ 37/ 85/ 77/ 56/ 98/ 96/ 38/ 83/ 78/ 69/ 65
If this is all trout of SinVraal's excel sheet, humble apologies. I can't download excel on this computer.
edit: added an alternative sudoku solution.
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 1:50 am
shambles
Veteran
Joined: 23 Jun 2005 Posts: 129 Location: Galway, Ireland
Phaedra wrote:
addlepated wrote:
shambles wrote:
Methinks they fear your awesome powers of deduction...
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!
Ozy?
Oh, it's you. Nvmd.
Watchoo talkin' bout, Phaedra? Who's you? Gawd maybe I just need more sleep...
_________________Shambles Likes Shiny Things
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 10:24 am
mastrrob
Boot
Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 30
another possible solution... hopefully it hasnt been posted.
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
743 819 256
169 752 483
528 463 719
281 546 397
496 137 528
375 928 641
912 675 834
857 394 162
634 281 975
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 11:27 am
Sin Vraal
Decorated
Joined: 28 Nov 2002 Posts: 219 Location: NJ
hm I notice a few posts of mine were deleted - any particular reason who/why? At least do me a courtesy of telling me in a PM or something so I don't go crazy that I posted something or not.
The content wasn't anything bad or particularly spoily, and this was just a puzzle trail and not an ARG so I don't think there's a curtain to pretend isn't there or anything...
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 4:08 pm
darkphan
Veteran
Joined: 01 Aug 2004 Posts: 113
I came up with the same thing mastrrob did and then picked out the numbers:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
79 48 58 65 67 75 56 82 71 87 56 96 37 85 77 56 98 96 38 83 78 69 65
Taking those, and swapping digits around you get the following ascii:
O T U A C K A R G N A E I U M A Y E S S W E A
(there are a couple that can be multiple letters, such as 67 (C) - 76 (L) and 87 (W) - 78 (N)
EDIT: Sigh, I would ave saved myself some trouble if i would read this forum more often... heh
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 4:09 pm
Last edited by darkphan on Sat Aug 06, 2005 4:16 pm; edited 1 time in total
Sin Vraal
Decorated
Joined: 28 Nov 2002 Posts: 219 Location: NJ
mastrrob wrote:
another possible solution... hopefully it hasnt been posted.
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
743 819 256
169 752 483
528 463 719
281 546 397
496 137 528
375 928 641
912 675 834
857 394 162
634 281 975
Yes - this matches drizjr's post about flipping #s.
I put both of these into the spreadsheet and we haven't quite hit a combo that spits out all capital letters yet (or like maybe a question mark or period but nothing else like numbers).
Note - I want to note to those playing along at home that they did fix the "unsolveable sudoku" by changing a given 9 to an 8 in the lower left-hand corner of the puzzle.
Note - The one thing I did *not* do is swap around numbers to yield viable ascii code equivalent decimals - is that a reasonable assumption to make?
If so, then it looks like what drizjr got has all letters, and looks like a painful anagram or substitution code (it didn't ROT to anything, anyway)
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 4:12 pm
Phaedra
Lurker v2.0
Joined: 21 Sep 2004 Posts: 4033 Location: Here, obviously
shambles wrote:
Phaedra wrote:
addlepated wrote:
shambles wrote:
Methinks they fear your awesome powers of deduction...
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!
Ozy?
Oh, it's you. Nvmd.
Watchoo talkin' bout, Phaedra? Who's you? Gawd maybe I just need more sleep...
Addlepated's reference is to Shelley's Ozymandias , the same poem from which our own Ozy_y2k takes his name.
The line addlepated quoted is the supposed words of Ozymandias, so hence the "Ozy?" The "you" is addlepated.
Capisce?
_________________Voted Most Likely to Thread-Jack and Most Patient Explainer in the ILoveBees Awards.
World Champion: Cruel 2B Kind
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 4:38 pm
addlepated
Unfictologist
Joined: 17 Aug 2003 Posts: 1885 Location: Austin, Texas
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 5:07 pm
SpaceBass
The BADministrator
Joined: 20 Sep 2002 Posts: 2701 Location: pellucidar
Re: hm
Sin Vraal wrote:
I notice a few posts of mine were deleted - any particular reason who/why? At least do me a courtesy of telling me in a PM or something so I don't go crazy that I posted something or not.
The content wasn't anything bad or particularly spoily, and this was just a puzzle trail and not an ARG so I don't think there's a curtain to pretend isn't there or anything...
Are you quite certain of this? I'm confident that all of the mods and admins are aware that any substantive edits or deletions must be accompanied by a note of explanation.
_________________
Alternate Reality Gaming
http://www.unfiction.com/
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 5:47 pm
Sin Vraal
Decorated
Joined: 28 Nov 2002 Posts: 219 Location: NJ
A bit further w/Sudoku I've got to give Catherwood credit for working on this with me.
There are 2 possible Soduku solutions (also given by others above). See my attached spreadsheet, second tab.
Now, for both soduku solutions, take the question mark pairs and pair them up as either 1-2 or 2-1 (the first pair gives either 79 or 97, then) and look at the ASCII code equivalents (79 = O, 97 = a).
You will find only one Soduku (the second one in my spreadsheet) has a solution that gives all capital letters - the first one ends up with symbols for 2 pairs no matter which way you look at it. So let's concentrate only on the second solution.
I put all possible ASCII outcomes for the pairs in the second solution in the spreadsheet and highlighted light green all of the capital letters.
Unfortunately, 3 pairs make capital letters both ways. Therefore, our soduku solution yields as many as 8 potential strings of letters that are either encrypted or an anagram of something:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
OTUACKARGWAEIUMAYESSNEA
OTUACKARGWAEIUMAYESSWEA
OTUALKARGWAEIUMAYESSNEA
OTUALKARGWAEIUMAYESSWEA
OTUACKARGNAEIUMAYESSNEA
OTUACKARGNAEIUMAYESSWEA
OTUALKARGNAEIUMAYESSNEA
OTUALKARGNAEIUMAYESSWEA
So assuming our methodology is correct, the solution is buried in one of these eight strings.
I've gotta say, I'm frustrated with the plurality of sudoku and the further plurality of the resultant strings. This puzzle needs more guidance from its maker to actually render it solveable - and that's assuming either the encryption is intuitive or the anagram isn't mentally impossible (whichever it's gonna turn out to be).
PS - someone please check my work.
Edit - my apologies for a slight oversight - the sudoku puzzle image in my spreadsheet is still the old one before the PM's corrected their olive green '9' at the lower left of the puzzle to an '8' - but the solutions in the spreadsheet use the 8 as shown on the current revision of the webpage for this puzzle.
Description
Download
Filename
Alkalesh Puzzles.xls
Filesize
377.5KB
Downloaded
104 Time(s)
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 5:55 pm
Last edited by Sin Vraal on Sat Aug 06, 2005 6:13 pm; edited 1 time in total
RobMagus
Unfettered
Joined: 17 Jul 2004 Posts: 469 Location: Vancouver, BC
Well, ROTing all of those strings gets nothing. But I suppose that would've been too easy.
_________________Of course! That's the only possible explanation!
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 6:10 pm
catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee
Joined: 25 Sep 2002 Posts: 4109 Location: Silicon Valley, CA
for the sake of anagramming these into a solution, there are only 6 unique strings of letters to come out of what Sin_Vraal posted above:
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
AAAAACEEEGIK MNNORSSTUU Y
AAAAACEEEGIK MN ORSSTUUW Y
AAAAACEEEGIK M ORSSTUUWWY
AAAAA EEEGIKLMNNORSSTUU Y
AAAAA EEEGIKLMN ORSSTUUW Y
AAAAA EEEGIKLM ORSSTUUWWY
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 6:50 pm
drizjr
Unfictologist
Joined: 28 Nov 2003 Posts: 1700
Just a thought. What if the color pairs were put in order according to html color code value?
Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 7:31 pm
darkphan
Veteran
Joined: 01 Aug 2004 Posts: 113
Did I miss something? it seems that Sin_Vraals spreadsheet has the puzzles for the rest of the trail...
Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 12:15 am
Display posts from previous: All Posts 1 Day 1 Week 2 Weeks 1 Month 3 Months 6 Months 1 Year Sort by: Post Time Post Subject Author Ascending Descending