Static Sky's Cipher Game

Originally posted by Ian McLean

Oh, BTS points.

Well, that is where we are

Here you go, everyone; I wouldn't want anyone to suffer a night without a puzzle! Enjoy!




Clockwork Orange

Originally posted by americandingbat

Originally posted by Ian McLean
It was a little experiment of mine - can a cipher be made where portions 'overlap', and information is 'shared' between multiple encrypted glyphs?

This is what fooled me. I was working on the assumption that only two beans per number were significant, so that they wouldn't overlap

Quite a reasonable assumption. The vertical line of beans on the left, and the horizontal line of beans on the bottom, really helped contribute to that interpretation.

Originally posted by Ian McLeanThe vertical line of beans on the left, and the horizontal line of beans on the bottom, really helped contribute to that interpretation.

exactly.

As I said, it was a very elegant puzzle. No loose ends to pull on

EDIT
to add a hint for the current puzzle, because I didn't know this until recently, so maybe other people don't know it either. Or maybe I'm just always the last to hear

If you hit the "escape" key it will freeze the animation in a single frame

[edit on 2/25/09 by americandingbat]

Thanks for the precious hint, ADB! My eyes were blinking already…

In the last puzzle I've made the terrible mistake of despising the beans picture. I simply took off the numbers and worked on them… After reading the solution soon I realized that it would never take me anywhere…

Once again, lessons learned:
- never ever despise any details even if they look like caffeine overdose
- take a bean, I mean, a coffee…

Oh… this rolling letters are giving me headaches…

Or grab a screen shot.



I tried to catch it just as the first block read "A", but 'twas not to be.

I've already injured two trees, I'm sure, by trying to scribble some sense out of this.

The top light is moving to the left while the bottom (wider) light is moving to the right.

If I had a scanner handy I'd post the pages that I have so far.



No I wouldn't.







[edit on 25-2-2009 by Tuning Spork]

reply to post by Tuning Spork


I ended up saving it to my desktop and opening it in a program that separates out the individual frames of an animated gif so that I could check them all.

I used Preview, but that's a Mac program. Adobe Reader might work, since we use Preview for opening pdf's too

reply to post by americandingbat


Unless I'm mistaken, all of the boxes run through the alphabet in order.

For instance: If one box in the screen shot reads "P" while the one to the right of it reads "B" then, in the next moment, when the first box reads "Q" the one beside it will read "C".

I'm guessing, right now, that the right-to-left movement of the top row's light syncs with the left-to-right movement of the bottom row's light.

That could be a very wrong guess, though.

[edit on 25-2-2009 by Tuning Spork]

reply to post by Tuning Spork


I think that's right about the boxes. I hadn't checked on the lights though. I'll have to do so.

Great job on "Bean There Done That", Tuning Spork! And Ian, you've got some kind of skill! "Clockwork Orange" looks fantastic! And of course, it's at 500 points to start! Good luck everyone. I don't even know where to start on this one. LOL.

I'm sorry I forgot to post a points update yesterday. I'm used to doing it at work, in the mornings lately. But never the less, "Clockwork Orange" is at 700 points now. And as usual, I'm getting nowhere on this one. It turns out I kind of suck at solving these. :bnghd:LOL

Anyways, thanks for playing and good luck to everyone! Cheers!

In something like an hour and a half, "Clockwork Orange hits 800 points. I have a feeling this one could last for some time. I can't even figure out where to begin.

I tried finding a connection between the puzzle and the top two rows of letters on a keyboard. Nothing's clicked yet.

"Clockwork Orange" is at 900 points now. I hope somebody is doing better on this one than I am.

Thanks Static Sky.

I will give one hint, to correct an earlier possible misstatement:

HINT 1: There are 25 letters in the ciphertext alphabet.



Have a fun weekend everyone, don't spent too much time frustrating yourselves!

reply to post by Ian McLean


A HA! I can't spot a Q. Interesting. I think.

1000 points and counting folks! "Clockwork Orange" is proving to be a very enigmatic puzzle. Well done, Ian McLean.

Happy Monday, everyone! Hope you all had an enjoyable weekend. I'm glad this puzzle is turning out to be a little 'tougher' than the last, which was less difficult than I thought. Here is the current puzzle, once again, with an additional hint added:



Clockwork Orange



Hints

1. There are 25 letters in the ciphertext alphabet.
2. There are 18 letters in the solution.

So "Clockwork Orange" went to 1100 last night and will hit 1200 points before the end of today. It's getting up there now! Good luck everyone! Cheers!

In about 5 minutes, Ian McLean's "Clockwork Orange" hits 1200 points! If I may offer an observation that you may or may not have noticed yourself.

This afternoon, I was playing with hitting the 'Esc' botton on my keyboard to stop the letters moving. I noticed that every time I stopped the little 'reflective glares' on the metalic looking frame of the cipher in the same place, the letters also stopped in the same place.

I wonder if this is important or not. Do the reflective glares of light tell us something? I don't know if this is designed to tell us something or just a symptom of the looped animation. Make of it what you will. Cheers and good luck!