More past finds

Wow, it's been a while since I did this. Probably because I figured I'd mined Google Groups as much as I could at this point. This is a quintet of posts about finds I made from 1997 to 2010.

It occurred to me the other day that I no longer remember how I acquired my Supercharger. Or is it Superchargers? I can't remember now whether I have just one or two. Anyway, I started searching old e-mail files to see if I could find mention of them. No luck so far, but I rediscovered two Usenet archives of the rec.games.video.classic newsgroup I had sitting on the desktop of one of our computers that I'd downloaded from the Internet Archive.

So I loaded the first one up and searched for "Seitz". Then I searched for "Supercharger." Then I copied the results for each of those, pasted them into the same file, and sorted by the line number of the results. Unfortunately that didn't reveal much. (Or I wasn't diligent enough to finish the process. I forget already.) So then I substituted "brag" for "Supercharger" and started going through them.

That led me to these (plus some that were already on this blog).

• 5 August 1997: Supercharger Tapes Brag
• 14 September 1998: Atypical brag
• 29 December 1999: End of Year Brag
• 21 August 2000: Brag: Spacemaster X-7 and CV games
• 13 October 2010: eBay brag?

You'd think that first post from 1997 would answer the question, but no. I found several tapes, but only one was one I didn't have. In fact, I already had the Stella Gets a New Brain Supercharger compilation CD by then. I found an old e-mail saying I got some of those tapes for free from someone because I'd gotten a Supercharger but didn't have a way to test it.

So the search for how I got the Supercharger(s) continues, but it's looking like I may not find the answer. At least I know how I acquired the games now.

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Grand Banquet

Monday, April 23, 2018

Jumpman's Grand Banquet

Tonight was our night for answers. Pints & Pixels was hosting a pizza night for all the Grand Puzzle's gunters. The bar was usually only available for private parties on Mondays anyway, so they simply scheduled their own. Pizza from Domino's (and mini-cupcakes from Sugar Belle) meant they didn't have to have kitchen staff, but the bar was open. Soft drinks were free; hard ones were not.

Our crew was me and my wife as my "+1" and Walter and his brother as his "+1". We were met at the door by Sherry Wallace, who is co-owner of the bar with Richard "Jumpman" Moss. It turned out she was the one who created most of the actual puzzles. So thanks to her for all her hard work. She had all the gunters sign a copy of a Ready Player One movie poster as a surprise for Richard. Walter also got a ticket for the door prize drawings. Because I'd finished in the High Five, I was getting something special instead.

The pizza arrived right after we did. I still had some tokens left from a previous trip, so the boys played a few games while they set up. Then everyone got their pizza and started eating. After a while, Richard began. First he introduced all his helpers. I didn't get all their names, but their was the lich who I think was also the Game Tech for the final Jumpman challenge, the Princess Bride reader and his helper who'd they recruited that night when so many people came through to do the lines, the guys that made the props, the Float Shop artist who'd also made plates for his puzzle, and, of course, Sherry. She wound up the thanks by presenting Richard with the poster.

A table full of prizes, door prizes, and thank you gifts.

Next we were presented with the prizes. Shadow, in fifth place, got a "squashed Jumpman box" (the laminated copy of the box cover from the Huntsville Escape Rooms challenge), the Clue game from which the pieces were used for the clear box puzzle at Toy Box Bistro, and a $5 Pints & Pixels gift card. I believe Shadow was the person I saw doing the Princess Bride lines the Tuesday night I finished the final challenge, so he made kind of a mad dash at the end to be fifth.

I, Liberator, as fourth place, got a "squashed Jumpman box", a copy of the Space Invaders Dice! game, and a $15 P&P gift card. I'd never heard of the Space Invaders Dice! game, so that was very cool. None of us can remember exactly what third place got, but it may have been a set of keys based on the movie and a $25 P&P gift card. Second place got two of the Tiny Arcade games and a $50 P&P gift card. I found out at the end of the evening that the guys in second and third were hosts of Rocket Punch, a locally produced podcast.

Then we got into the individual puzzles. In the first puzzle that lead to Lucky Dice Cafe, the "heroes spin" line did indeed refer to HeroClix, not comic book spinner racks. It seems the owner is a nationally ranked HeroClix player. They'd also originally planned to have the end of the first line, "you need to go" point gunters to the restrooms, which is where the posters would be. They thought Lucky Dice already had lots of posters in their restrooms, but it turned out they didn't have any in them, so they left them out in the main part of the store.

There wasn't much revealed about the next several puzzles that we hadn't already figured out. One detail many of us had missed was that the lich in the video (who was someone other than the lich we played against) was walking like an Egyptian as he went through the background. I also asked how many beat the lich without changing sides. Only one other gunter at the banquet raised her hand.

Then we got to that cursed box at Toy Box Bistro. It turns out the letters inside spelled out "Ulysses Grant", complete with a space for between the words. And the "U. G." in "U. G. White Mercantile" stands for Ulysses Grant, which I didn't know. When they beta tested the puzzle, there were only four tiles in the box: U, G, and two blanks. The beta testers declared that too easy, so we got more tiles.

Shortly thereafter, we discussed the damnable Ruby Key. It turns out the phrase on the key unscrambles to "IT's what we all do down here." This is in reference to a line in IT by Stephen King: "We all float down here." The Float Shop in Lowe Mill was where we had to go. What had been intended as a clue for those unfamiliar with the story, the capital I and T, had wound up messing us all up. We had been so close in correctly assuming each word was the length of the letters we got in the scramble. It also turned out the punctuation marks (apostrophe and period) were within the words they went with, even though the rest of the characters weren't already in those words. It turned out the grand prize winner, Mr. Tumnus, had figured it out eventually, but only after he'd stumbled upon the Steve at the Float Shop. He got a bonus prize of a Pints & Pixels cap for getting it.

The last puzzle of note was the word search at Haven. Walter pointed out I'd missed an uncircled letter: a J. I brought this up and Sherry handed me the word list to double-check my work. It seems I'd missed "Jem" (as in Jem and the Holograms) as one of the words.

I asked about the Jumpman level editor he used. It's called Jumpman Under Construction. The Jumpman link on the Facebook page linked to a page that then linked to the software. I'd not clicked on all the links in the Journal -- especially ones I'd already heard of -- so I'd missed that.

I asked if they'd considered changing the letters on the word search puzzle they had facing the outside of the window at Haven Comics. They said no. Later, during closing remarks on the contest, they pointed out that they didn't provide red herrings in the clues because we the players provided ourselves plenty of red herrings along the way. I hadn't thought of that, but it's absolutely correct.

After all questions had been answered, they drew tickets for door prizes. One person got a lot of the props, including three Rubik's Cubes, the map plates, The Princess Bride wedding poster, and I forget what else. Walter won a $20 gift certificate for Supper Heroes.

The final announcement of the night was to mark our calendars for September 10. Jumpman's Grand Puzzle II would start then. And it's going to be based on the '90s. I might be in trouble. I was an adult by the '90s, albeit a young one, and not as in touch with pop culture as I had been in the '80s. And my oldest child was born so late in the '90s he doesn't remember them, so we may be at a disadvantage all around.

My loot.

I'm happy to say that as we left, each player got a copy of the props from the game: a choice of Steve on a white or clear background, the three keys and the gold coin. I spoke to Richard about a couple of last things while the boys tried out Fix-It Felix. Then it was back home to our mundane life.

I'm so thankful to Richard, Sherry, and the rest of their crew for putting this together. It's obvious a lot of time and a fair amount of money went into it. I mentioned the movie Midnight Madness way back in the first contest entry proper. Since seeing that movie, I had dreamed of participating in a contest like that, but figured it would never actually happen. Now, not only has it, but I might get to do it again! The most appropriate word is obvious: Awesome!

For the previous entries, see the Jumpman's Grand Puzzle label.

[Later update: The second puzzle was delayed due to a turn in health of one of the organizers. Then Pints & Pixels announced they were moving. Then the 2020 pandemic started, so it's unknown whether there will ever be a second quest or not.]

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

Since finishing the contest, I've been reflecting on what I've learned. Some of it useful in life; some just for the next time, should there be one.

Don't underestimate others

My family would probably disagree, but I did not take this contest as seriously as I could. Particularly the first night at Pints & Pixels. We hung around and played games instead of moving on. Meanwhile, several others hit both The Deep and Supper Heroes that night, letting them hit the First Gate at Honest Coffee first thing the next morning. In the grand scheme, I don't think this hurt us, but continuing like that would have put us further behind. There were natural breaks where we had downtime due to store schedules. Wait for those as a time to slow down.

Be observant

I tend to think of myself as an observant person, but we all get caught up in our assumptions. My whole family missed the sugar cubes in the background of the first clue. We concentrated on the record and didn't stop to think, "Why did they choose Belle for this clue?" We almost derailed ourselves from the start!

Later, on the clue leading to Toy Box Bistro, I again concentrated in the foreground and not the background. I'll never know how long I would have spent figuring out the location because Walter got it so fast.

Two (or more) heads are better than one

I don't know how I would have done without what became my team, particularly my wife. She got several clues before the rest of us.

But it went beyond her. Would we have noticed the sugar cubes without Walter's coworker? Would I have figured out the clear plates that made a map without Walter? I don't know.

I know in the early entries I was irritated at bringing others in. I wanted to do it all myself. But along the way I eventually realized teamwork was the way to go.

Be patient

I was often in a hurry, particularly on weekdays when I had to get back to work. That could have cost me at the Second Gate with the map challenge. I was thinking "I'll take pictures and figure it out later." That would have been extremely difficult. Unlike most, that was a puzzle that had to be figured out there with it in front of you. Thank goodness Walter didn't have to be at work right away then and we stuck around.

Not this...

...but this!

Summary

The fiasco at U. G. White Mercantile, where I initially walked past the clue without seeing it, best exemplifies these points. I was not observant, so I missed the clue. And I was not observant because I was in a hurry and didn't practice patience. And it was only after consulting with another player ahead of me, who I might have initially underestimated, that we went back. And it was as a group that we finally found it. Lessons to keep in mind.

Final Scoreboard

On the last day of the contest, Thursday, April 19, 2018, one final gunter passed the third gate. I'm kind of hoping that since only five of us finished, they'll give a little something to us as prizes for fourth and fifth place, too.

Those that finished

Stay tuned for a final entry on Monday about the Grand Banquet, where all will hopefully be revealed.

For additional entries, see the Jumpman's Grand Puzzle label.

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 6, Level 3

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Stage 6, Level 3 (Third Gate)

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, we had a prior commitment Tuesday evening, so we showed up at Pints & Pixels a bit after 6:00 PM. I figured I'd have to put my name on the list and wait for a while to get my turn. However, when we got there, no one else had signed up. Apparently, since the prizes had been won, the other three people that had gotten to the final challenge on Friday weren't interested in completing it.

Richard Moss was having some technical difficulties, so I wound up playing it directly on the laptop without using the CRT monitor he had. That was a shame, but it was okay. I still got to use the USB Atari joystick.

I'd played an emulated copy of Jumpman a little bit after going home the night the winner was crowned, but that was it. I'd not had time to practice over the weekend. I did find some time to read the original manual and watch a YouTube walkthrough. That was when I discovered where the name for the contest, Jumpman's Grand Puzzle, came from. In the original game the levels are divided between three buildings, each with a different difficulty level. The final level of each building was titled "Grand Puzzle" I through III.

It turned out Richard was actually using a level editor I hadn't heard of and now, sadly, can't remember the name of. (See the final entry for it.) That explained why some of the levels I'd seen the winner play weren't seen in the walkthrough video. One thing I quickly learned is that to walk off a ladder, you had to be aligned just right with the platform you wanted to walk on. I believe that was different than the original game, and a little frustrating, but I got used to it.

So I had to play the Grand Loop. In the original game, that would be 30 levels, but Richard wouldn't say how many levels I had to go through. The first time through I made it to the third screen before losing a life. Then I kept repeating the same mistake of jumping off the screen and dying. I think I finished that level, but didn't make it through to the end.

There was still no one else there to play Jumpman, just one guy trying to get through The Princess Bride lines, so I got to immediately try again. This time I did better. In fact, I eventually found myself on the final screen that said, "YOU WIN"! I think there were only about five levels to play through. And that was that. I was fourth. I started in the High Five and I ended in the High Five. In the meantime, I'd dropped down, but never left the top ten. So far, I'm the only original High Five contestant to end there as well.

I talked to Richard a bit after winning. I told him the misdirection I got at Huntsville Escape Rooms about the lock combination. He said that maybe they should post the Journal page to ignore any such hints.

I also asked how many people defeated the lich without switching sides. He said they hadn't kept track, but it would have been less than half. Apparently the lich had been instructed to play to win if on the Player 1 side. Regardless, however, he wasn't supposed to attack the other player until after the first level. If the player asked to switch, he was supposed to still play reasonably well, but not his top game. My takeaway was that I should be proud to beat him in the first set of three without changing sides.

I also provided one piece of feedback, but was trying to save the rest of my questions for the Grand Banquet next week. Oh, did I not mention that? Coming Monday is Jumpman's Grand Bandquet at Pints & Pixels. They're going to provide pizza and soft drinks, plus have a cash bar available. It's only open to contestants and one guest each. So look for an epilogue entry on Monday.

Later that day they updated the scoreboard. Looks like I may be the only one still interested in finishing the challenge now that the announced prizes have been awarded.

For additional entries, see the Jumpman's Grand Puzzle label.

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 6, Level 2

Sunday, April 15, 2018

Stage 6, Level 2

I realized over the weekend that Huntsville Escape Rooms was only open 3:00-6:00 PM Sunday and was closed Monday, so I needed to go by there on Sunday. We had an appointment Tuesday evening that was going to probably make me late to Pints & Pixels as it was, so a stopover at the escape rooms would have made me even later.

Walter was working and we had some shopping to do, so it was just me, my wife, and the two younger kids. We went in and I gave the pass phrase from the word search handout: "Oh my God, I'm such a geek." I think I showed the Emerald Key as well, but the employee at the counter didn't take it. He handed me a Wordlock with a laminated copy of the Jumpman box art locked on it. (Sadly, I forgot to take photos while the lock was still on it.) The back had the familiar days and times on it.

I asked if there were any instructions. He replied he couldn't give me a hint, but I should look at the Journal. Darn it, I'd left all my notes at home. I called my son at home and had him get my printout and look for entries that were four or five letters long. (The fifth wheel of the lock had a blank.) I tried all those that we I could and none worked. The fact that there was no R on the first wheel turned out to narrow things down.

My wife pulled up the Journal page and started handing out suggestions, as my son hadn't done a very good job of spotting possibilities. I also spent some time looking at the word search clue again, but was trying to think of what would go with "settle" in "Then the dials you'll turn and spin, / Until the answer settles in." Finally, after what had to be at least 30 minutes fooling with the thing, I figured it out. The word was "spin." I felt foolish, but the employee had given me a complete red herring about checking the Journal. I returned the lock and we were on our way. There was nothing left to do until Tuesday.

For additional entries, see the Jumpman's Grand Puzzle label.

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 6, Level 1

Friday, April 13, 2018

Stage 6, Level 1

Just before noon, I set out for Haven Comics. I happened to arrive the same time as the owner, Josh Olive, who I know from mutual friends back in college. I went inside as he was gathering things in his car. I was greeted by a familiar face and after exchanging greetings, I told the employee I needed a handout. As expected, it was a copy of the word search. But it turned out the first two lines on the poster were only one-third of the next riddle.

When most are gone those that remain,

Will send you on your way again.

But if you wish to solve you'll speak

“Oh my God I'm such a geek!”

Then the dials you'll turn and spin,

Until the answer settles in.

I had already solved the word search using the photo I'd taken a week before. The words were mostly from the links on the Jumpman's Journal Facebook page. The exceptions being "synthesizer" instead of "Yamaha DX7," and the partials "Atari" and "Commodore" from "Atari 2600" and "Commodore 64" (or "Commodore VIC-20"), respectively.

Even if you didn't figure out where the words came from, you could probably spot enough of them to figure out the pattern: horizontal words at the top and bottom, vertical along the left and right, and diagonals to take up the middle. "Those that remain" are the uncircled letters which, when read left to right, top to bottom, spell out H-U-N-T-S-V-I-L-L-E E-S-C-A-P-E R-O-O-M-S. Hardly a surprise since I'd already spotted the Steve there.

I spoke to Josh about the contest, as he said he hadn't been keeping up with it. I passed on my son's theory that the Pints & Pixels folks weren't happy with how bad the escape room folks were at keeping secrets. Which reminded me, I'd neglected to show the Emerald Key when I asked for the handout and they'd forgotten to ask, so I showed it then to prove I had it.

Speaking of secrets, I'd noticed something about my photo of the word search during the past week. There was a second Steve behind the poster that didn't quite line up with the one facing the inside of the store. What, then, might be seen from the outside? I checked it out as I left. It turns out there was another word search poster behind the one inside. Except it was a mirror image so that it would appear to be the poster inside showing through. This poster, however, was missing any surrounding text, including the bit about "ask for a handout." Without the handout, a contestant might have the next location, but they wouldn't have the password they needed. That was rather evil. Although if they'd been totally evil, they could have changed the remaining letters in the word search and sent the contestant who tried to proceed without going inside -- presumably because Haven wasn't open when they came by -- to an entirely different location. But they weren't that evil.

By the time I started checking my photo of the outer poster I was back at work. I started thinking about too much about it and the word "But if you wish to solve you'll speak." Did the poster outside mean Huntsville Escape Rooms was a complete decoy? Was I supposed to say "Oh my God, I'm such a geek" at Haven? Although I wasn't Facebook friends with Josh, I messaged him to say I had suspicions and if they were correct, he deserved an acting award. He responded he already had some for performances in local theater. Figures.

I texted Walter my suspicions so he could check when he went by that afternoon. He did, and said no, there was nothing else to be done at Haven. I'd worked myself up over conspiracy theories for nothing. Well, that's a relief, I guess.

The next chance at the final challenge wouldn't be until Tuesday, so there was no rush to go by Huntsville Escape Rooms. Besides, we had other things to get done over the weekend. We'd get there.

For additional entries, see the Jumpman's Grand Puzzle label.

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 5, Level 2 concluded

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Stage 5, Level 2 concluded

Since my younger children were feeling neglected, we all went to Pints & Pixels for dinner. We took two cars so they wouldn't have to stay if we went late. Walter hadn't gone through the final scene much, so I played the audio for him in the car. Then he fed my lines for the first and maybe second scenes.

Once we arrived, while the family got a table, Walter and I went and registered. They were back down to just the original Dread Pirate Roberts. Three of us rolled 20-sided dice to decide the order. The first guy rolled a 3. I rolled a 10, but Walter rolled a 12. Which wasn't exactly what he wanted as he wasn't confident on getting through the final scene yet.

Unfortunately, while Walter was doing his scenes, someone -- I think it was the first guy to play Jumpman that night -- won the game and the contest. He couldn't believe it, but Richard presented him the golden egg. I didn't catch everything at the time, but was able to watch the video later. The winner seems like a good guy, so I'm glad he won.

Meanwhile, Walter successfully completed all three scenes. Then I was up. I made it through the first scene fairly well. I had one screw up, but didn't actually have to burn a cue card. I think I may have had to use one during the second scene, but by now I'd at least memorized the order of "so clearly I cannot choose the wine in front of me/you." The third scene was a little tougher, but it turned out it ended as soon as I, as Miracle Max, presses on Westley's chest to make him say, "True love." So all the effort to learn the rest was for naught, but I was glad to have made it through.

I spoke briefly to the tester. It turns out they picked him for the job because he loves the movie so much. I asked if that was still the case after having to go through it so many times, but he said yes. I was then presented with my green key, which read "Safe -- Marvel -- And Others." Obviously, Haven Comics, Etc. was the next stop. (Safe = Haven; Marvel = Comics; And Others = Etc.) But they closed in 20 minutes, which is about how long it would have taken to get there. So we went ahead and ate. Walter and I had waited until after completing the challenge to order our food.

We stayed and played some games, including four-player Pac-Man Battle Royale with Walter, the two youngest kids, and me. Then we went home. I put the kids to bed and watched the video of the winner. The scoreboard was updated. It only contained the name of three winners. I'd heard that there were six people competing that night, so I asked for clarification and got it. Only three of the six completed the challenge. I might still yet manage to end in the High Five, as I had started, if I was very lucky.

Although they limited the graphic to the top three, they updated all the scores in text. I was now #7 with 24,700 points. I'd scored 2,500 points for being the sixth or more person to get the Emerald Key. I was actually tied in points with Beck C137 at #6, but presumably they'd obtained the key before me.

They also announced that night that A) the challenges at Pints & Pixels would not be available on Sunday and B) the contest would end on Thursday, April 19.

For additional entries, see the Jumpman's Grand Puzzle label.

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 4, Level 1 concluded; Stage 5, Levels 1 & 2

Wednesday, April 11

Stage 4, Level 1 concluded (Second Gate)

We had a work lunch out today for two coworkers getting married soon. I excused myself early to be at Lowe Mill when they opened at noon. I'd already found the best place to park and enter to get upstairs. After heading the wrong way and running into a former coworker, I finally found it. And it was closed until 1:00 PM. So back to work it was.

As I was debating whether to go back out at 1:00 PM, Walter called. The next location was the second gate, meaning we had to sign in and the order was important. I said I'd come now. He asked if I'd go by the house and grab his key, because he forgot it. So I did.

I got there and went upstairs. The artist was there, but no one else, including Walter. I handed over my key. The previous entry was for 12:46 PM, so apparently he'd opened early. I forgot to note my number, but there were about a dozen names ahead of me. I asked if Richard Moss had told him what had happened. He hadn't, so I filled him in on them posting a special clue.

While doing this, I texted Walter, who apparently I had missed downstairs. He came up as I was trying to figure out the clue. It was four clear plates with lines on them and Steves in the corner. I tried overlapping them along the lines a bit, but that didn't do anything useful. Then Walter had the bright idea of stacking them all on top of one another. That produced what was obviously a street map of downtown. There was a small dot showing the next location. Comparing to Google Maps, we eventually deduced it was a location around the corner from Pints & Pixels.

Not this...

...but this.

Stage 5, Level 1

Impossible to get a decent photo

That was our next stop. It turned out to be a poster in the window saying we were invited to the wedding of Buttercup and Humperdink during the typical days and times for Pints & Pixels.

Stage 5, Level 2

Walter was working that evening, so I went alone. I'd been listening to clips from the three scenes the props seemed to indicate since Monday. And I found a copy of the script online, too. So would a couple days study of a movie I only just watched for the first time last year be enough? Spoiler: No, it would not.

Because so many cleared the red gate this day, they enlisted a second helper to go through the scenes with gunters. He was the one I got. I muddled my way through the first two scenes, using cue cards to get the next line far too often. Richard Moss sat in for a while and gave me some extra cue cards for my performance on the lines I did now. But I didn't know the third scene well enough, as I'd studied it the least, and I was quickly out.

I got a second chance, but I realized as I started my mouth was dry and I was getting a headache. I was probably getting dehydrated. I did even worse than before, despite the tester's encouragement. And that was it for the night for me.

Meanwhile, two gunters advanced to the final test. I saw one of the officials bring something appearing to be two blue badges on strings to Richard Moss. "No way!" he said. Unfortunately, yes way. The two of them alternated playing an emulated version of Jumpman in the corner for the final challenge. They actually had an Atari 2600 joystick hooked up to the computer, so it was either the Commodore 64 or Atari 8-bit version of the game. Not that I've played either. The most I've done is play the Jumpman Junior cartridge on the Colecovision a little bit a long time ago.

So I went home. It turned out they had streamed the final game, so I watched highlights of it after getting home. Neither finished. Now I just had to pray no one else could finish either before we completed the Princess Bride challenge and could get to the final one.

When the scoreboard was posted, they made a mistake. The scores were listed with the correct amounts, but they put Washburn ahead of me despite me having 200 more points. The above is a corrected version of the scoreboard I made myself. They never corrected the graphic, just the text posting. I take a little pride in never actually falling out of the top 10.

For additional entries, see the Jumpman's Grand Puzzle label.

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 4, Level 1 continued again

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Stage 4, Level 1 continued again

I was at Pints & Pixels just after their opening at 11:00 AM. I'd never been in on a weekday and had never seen them so empty. I wandered, mostly admiring the decorations on the walls. I spotted two other guys also looking, but they didn't seem to notice me.

Finally, half way through the restaurant I went into the hall that goes back to the restrooms and there was Steve. He was by the signature of the artist who painted the wall: Float. I looked back and managed to take a photo unobserved. Then I continued to the restroom and texted it to my family.

Not the problem photo, but a later one.

Unfortunately, the flash had made it hard to read, and they told me so. I looked through the rest of the restaurant to make sure I didn't miss anything. Then I went back to take another photo. One of the gunters was standing there, making no secret of what he was doing. I played a game of Robotron: 2084 while I waited for him to move on. Once he did, I took some more photos, but my flash didn't go off. After ducking around the corner to turn it on, I found the other gunter was back. I gave up being covert and spoke to him briefly while I took more photos.

Meanwhile, Walter had found the artist's studio in Lowe Mill: Float Shop. Lowe Mill is closed until Wednesday, so there was nothing else to do this day except work on the Ruby Key clue some more. They'd announced a special price for whoever solved it, to be given at a post-contest dinner, date and time to be determined. Even though I now had the next location, it didn't help. I still couldn't solve it.

That night, a scoreboard update was posted. The top two obtained the green key. The end game is here and I'm not sure I can catch up.

For additional entries, see the Jumpman's Grand Puzzle label.

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 4, Level 1 continued

Monday, April 9, 2018

Stage 4, Level 1 continued

There was an announcement posted to the Facebook page today. A player had accidentally overheard the staff talking about the location of the second gate on Sunday night. To his credit, he came forward. To level the playing field, there would be a new Steve posted at Pints & Pixels on Tuesday giving a clue to the location. (They're closed on Mondays.)

I spent all my spare time this day unsuccessfully working on the Ruby Key clue. Except for the evening, when I went to Rocket City Arcade to be on the Collecting Dust podcast, but that's a story for another post.

For additional entries, see the Jumpman's Grand Puzzle label.

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 3, Level 3 & Stage 4, Level 1

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Stage 3, Level 3

Walter, my next oldest son, and I headed down to Pints & Pixels Sunday evening. The plan was to double check U. G. White Mercantile didn't need to punch our movie ticket, then grab some dinner there while we waited for the contest to start.

And that's pretty much how it went. The cashiers at U. G. White said they didn't punch the tickets, so upstairs we went. We only had about half an hour, so we ordered chili because it was quick. And some onion rings. After ordering, we went back to have a look at the Fix-It Felix machine. And, it turns out, even though the event didn't start until 6:00 PM, they were already taking sign-ups. So lesson learned for next time.

The lich was still available for those still in the early stages, although he didn't show up immediately. Then there was a few of us waiting to to play Felix. Lastly, there were several people there for the next challenge. For them, there was the man in black, the Dread Pirate Roberts. On the table he was seated at, the photo of the props had been replaced with the actual props.

As announced on Facebook, they rolled a 10-sided die to decide the order they would play in. We didn't catch the details, but they sat at the table with "Roberts," presumably reciting lines. They had cards which I think represented chances to get prompts. Roberts sometimes held up a light, which I think meant they had missed the line. Hopefully we'll get a chance to find out later.

There was done discussion amongst the officials and they were alternating players between the tasks. Meanwhile, we were reviewing the Konami code. I'm a bit old to have internalized it in my youth, but a song about it by the Gothsicles, posted in the early years of the FuMP, had helped me memorize it. What I had forgotten is that you were supposed to hold both buttons while pressing start. I'm glad I reviewed it.

Finally, I got my chance. I was told I had a few minutes, that no token was required, and that it would only work during the title and high score screens. So I tried it. It didn't work. I tried again. It still didn't work. I started trying slightly different combinations. Was it the player one or player two start button? Eventually the game went into demo mode and I had to take a break. It went back to the screens in question and after a few more tries, I finally got it to work! I couldn't tell you exactly what I did that made it work, but I no longer cared.

Stage 4, Level 1

They gave me the red key. I took a look while Walter waited for his turn.

Taken in a hurry on the hood of my car.
That's the windshield washer keeping it from sliding off.

The text on the key was scrambled: 'aea wldh te TlI dh wwno eor.s

From the talk in the Facebook group, everyone had gotten stuck on this. The players who were there for the next step tonight had stumbled on the right location without solving the puzzle. I had hoped maybe I had some knowledge they lacked due to my age that would help, but no.

We went back to the car and pondered. We assumed the characters showed the word lengths. The two capital letters presumably were the first word of the sentence and a proper name or connection with I. I started writing a Perl script to give possibilities for the capitalized words. We spent the rest of the time allotted for the contest pondering to no avail. We drove by a couple locations looking for Steve's, but didn't find any.

When they posted the scores later that night, I had moved up from 10th to 8th. None of those who had passed the second gate had advanced last night. Pints & Pixels was closed until Tuesday, so we had a day to catch up, if we could.

Back at home, I spent the rest of the night, to the wee hours, writing Perl scripts to narrow it down. They didn't help much. Walter found a site today would help you unscramble anagrams, but it didn't differentiate case or handle contractions. I finally went to bed frustrated.

For additional entries, see the Jumpman's Grand Puzzle label.

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 3, Level 2

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Stage 3, Level 2

Contents of the box

A pox upon the damned, unopenable box! We spent all of Wednesday evening trying to figure it out. My wife pulled out our Scrabble set and tried to unscramble the letters. There are plenty of words one can make, but you always have leftover letters you can't do anything with. Meanwhile, I was trying to find code to create a Perl script to spit out all the possible permutations of the letters. My plan was to then take that file and run it through spell to weed out all the lines that weren't words.

It took forever to find one and make it work, but I eventually did. But I was running it on my ISPs *nix server because I didn't have Perl installed locally on a Windows box. Once the output file crossed 100 Mb, I stopped the script. If I left it going, I would have exceeded my file space quota. So that was a dead end.

At some point either my wife or son unscrambled the letters to spell "gunter." I took the remaining letters and, using the blank as an M, spelled "asylum." Well, almost. I had used an extra U and was left with an extraneous S.

We figured the absence of Mrs. White was significant. Local businesses containing the name, other than attorneys and accountants with that surname, were in short supply, though. U. G. White Mercantile, which occupies the bottom two floors of the building that Pints & Pixels is in, seemed like an obvious choice. In fact, I realized there was a Steve sticker on their door and then another in the elevator to Pints & Pixels. So where we first thought Steve had been welcoming us outside on our first trip to battle the lich, now I wondered if that's not what it meant. Also, we had Scrabble tiles and it was Mercantile. Was that a stretch?

We talked about it at church dinner Wednesday night. I went to bed thinking about it. I woke up thinking about it. I made a post in the morning on Facebook asking if anyone would help. One friend did. I gave him the info without sharing any of my theories. He went off on a tangent, and I reined him in a bit. Then he came up with another interesting theory: Mrs. White could be Vanna White and the tiles could be a Wheel of Fortune clue. That seemed brilliant, but didn't help us on where to go and neither Vanna nor Wheel were links on the Facebook page.

Another possibility came to me. Mrs. White had escaped the box. Or did it represent a room full of people? An escape room. I pulled up the web site of Huntsville Escape Rooms. One of the rooms they offer is The Psych Ward. The backstory mentions Dr. Gunter! In the Ready Player One story, "gunter" is short for "egg hunter," which is short for "Easter egg hunter" because they're seeking "Easter egg" style clues hidden in documents by the contest creator. My "Gunter's asylum" guess didn't seem to far fetched any more, but once again, the letters weren't quite right.

I sent a message to the contest official asking whether maybe one of the letters in the box was wrong. He said no, they were correct. But I'm still convinced its not a coincidence. Maybe we'll pick up more Scrabble tiles in another clue later and spell a longer phrase including those words.

So at lunch, I have two targets: U. G. White Mercantile and Huntsville Escape Rooms. The latter doesn't open until 3:00 PM, so I opted to just drive by and see if there was a Steve sticker. There was! Then I went to White Mercantile and walked through the entire store. I saw nothing.

Meanwhile, Walter was stuck babysitting and couldn't go out. His co-worker had nearly caught up to us, so we decided to meet him at Huntsville Escape Rooms after I got off work. Miscommunication had them show up early and be told that while they were a location in the puzzle, we didn't have the necessary piece to do their puzzle yet.

We met them back at Toy Bistro. They were already looking over the box. After stewing over it for 45 minutes or so, Walter's co-worker's wife called Haven Comics, Etc. for reasons I don't remember. Probably because we all figured if the Deep and Lucky Dice are participating, Haven would, too. Haven confirmed they were a participating location, so without other prospects, off we went. Steve was out front, but once again, we didn't have the piece needed to do that puzzle. The puzzle was a word search set up as a poster, so I went ahead and took a photo. However it also said "Ask for a handout!", so I figured there was probably more to it than just the poster. I planned to return.

One of the words we'd gotten out of the tiles was "Saturn," although once again there were letters left over. So we decided to try the U. S. Space and Rocket Center. Out in the parking lot were scale models of the solar system, also spaced to scale. Maybe Saturn held a clue. But it didn't.

Next stop, cuing off the cassette tape, was Vertical House Records in Lowe Mill. We got there only to discover there was no Steve. Beaten at this point, we decided to head to Pints & Pixels to see if maybe that's where we were supposed to be.

We arrived and spoke with the officials. They were still set up waiting for anyone that still needed to play the lich at Joust. They asked where we had been and said we weren't ready to be back there yet, offering no hints other than to examine our clue some more.

We started going through the letters again when a couple with a red key showed up. After they spoke to the officials and started to leave, Walter's co-worker asked if they would help us. They started off with the woman telling us the letters on tiles weren't important. She said that's all the help she would give, but we wound up sitting down with them and talking. Eventually I gave my theory about U. G. White Mercantile and said I'd already searched the place. (Although I still knew I might have missed it.) He asked, "Did you talk to the lady at the front?" I hadn't!

We thanked them and rushed downstairs. I told the cashier we were looking for Mrs. White. She told us to look around. We started to explore and it came to me. The cassette amongst the weapons. There was a case full of knives and axes. I rushed over to it, calling to what was now my gunter clan. There was a cassette player with a Steve sign sitting on it. How had I missed it??? We'd wasted hours because I'd overlooked it during my lunch trip.

We got an employee to come over and take it out of the case for us. We cued up some of our phones to record it and hit play. After what seemed like a long silence, it began playing the opening organ chords of "Faith" by George Michael. Just as the guitar part started, it stopped. After a brief silence, another song clip played: "It's the End of the World as We Know It" by R. E. M. There were more after that. I eventually went and retrieved my iPod from the car to try to help identify some of them. Here's the list we ended up with.

1. "Faith" by George Michael
2. "It's the End of the World as We Know It" by R. E. M.
3. (One we couldn't identify, but I mistakenly thought was ABBA.)
4. "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins
5. "Thriller" by Michael Jackson
6. "Forever Young" by Rod Stewart
7. "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor
8. "La Isla Bonita" by Madonna
9. (Another we couldn't identify.)
10. (What sounded like another clip from the song #3.)

Walter wondered if there was anything on side 2. He took the cassette out and we discovered side 1 was labeled "Konami - Side 1." The back was labeled "Available Sun, Tues, Wed, Thur 6-8." The same times as the Joust, which we assumed meant it had to do with the Fix-It Felix machine that was next to it. We'd seen the sign on Tuesday saying both machines were unavailable at those times.

If you're particularly astute, you may have figured out something by now from the song titles. We were not particularly astute. We went back upstairs and tried to give Konami as the password, but that wasn't it. We went to the stairwell where it was quieter and tried to identify the last three songs.

I quickly went through all the ABBA songs. None of them matched. I thought song #9 might be "Invincible" by Pat Benatar, but Walter and I both listened and it didn't seem to match. We tried to make out what little lyrics there were. I should mention that none of the snippets were anywhere near long enough to use an app to identify. (Probably on purpose.) Walter's co-worker's wife searched YouTube.

Eventually the couple that had helped us came through on their way out. They didn't help us much more, saying we'd get it. We said we were trying to see if the songs spelled something. They were non-committal. We wondered how many Konami games were in the arcade. He said four, but that they didn't matter. Walter and I checked anyway and only found three. And eventually, 8 o'clock came and we were out of time. There was nothing to do but go home and puzzle over it there.

We got home and enlisted my wife. She thought maybe the song I thought was ABBA was Olivia Newton-John and started listening to her hits on YouTube. Finally, after another hour or two, we figured out that songs #3 and #10 were, in fact, the same song: "Xanadu" by Olivia Newton-John and ELO. Then, even though we'd ruled it out, I pulled up "Invincible."  The version on YouTube matched what we'd recorded from the tape. Apparently the version on my iPod was a slightly different mix.

So, for you non-astute readers who haven't figured it out, I'll tell you what my wife came up with first at this point. The first letter of each song spells out "Fix-It Felix." Like this:

1. Faith
2. It's the End of the World as We Know It
3. Xanadu
4. In the Air Tonight
5. Thriller
6. Forever Young
7. Eye of the Tiger
8. La Isla Bonita
9. Invincible
10. Xanadu

We also discovered that most of the songs on the playlist were featured in films, but possibly not all. This probably explains the movie ticket. [Later edit: Or, you know, because Fix-It Felix is based on the game in the movie Wreck-It Ralph?] So now we think we're stuck until 6:00 PM Sunday when we can play Fix-It Felix. Walter and I assume we need to enter the Konami code into the machine for the next clue. We'll see.

In the meantime, the scoreboard was updated again. I'm now down to #9. The good news is only one of the people ahead of me has added anything to their score. It was two people behind me jumping ahead that pushed me down. I hope we can make up some ground in the next portions of the contest.

For additional entries, see the Jumpman's Grand Puzzle label.

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 2, levels 2 & 3; Stage 3, level 1

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Stage 2, Level 2

So I joined my family for lunch at Supper Heroes this day. As expected, Steve was at the front greeting me. They'd already found the clue by the time I arrived and the two little ones couldn't help but point me to it before I even had a chance to look around. It was a laminated card with a clue printed on the back standing next to a small Doctor Strange figure. Doctor Strange's cloak of levitation is well known, particularly since the movie. The clue was printed in reverse so it could be read in the mirror behind the figures.

The Sapphire key will fit the gate,

Where beany brews your palates sate.

To spring the lock you'll need to know,

What honestly with starfish go.

We figured beany brews meant coffee. A Google Maps search for coffee shops revealed many, but the one called Honest Coffee caught my wife's attention due to the word "honestly" in the clue. My son tried to argue for another shop, but I figured her reasoning was sound.

So now we knew where, but it appeared we needed a password. While I was doing my own Google searches, my wife happened to do one for "starfish coffee." The first result was a music video of Prince singing "Starfish and Coffee" on The Muppet Show. I remembered the Muppets were one of the links on the Jumpman's Journal Facebook page, so I figured that was it. The chorus was:

Starfish and coffee

Maple syrup and jam

Butterscotch clouds, a tangerine

And a side order of ham

If you set your mind free, baby

Maybe you'd understand

Starfish and coffee

Maple syrup and jam

So I figured "maple syrup and jam" was the password. Thank goodness that was online or I never would have gotten it. Before we left, I moved seats to let my six-year-old sit in my lap. Unfortunately, I had the sapphire key in my back pocket and I felt it break in two. I hoped that wouldn't be a problem.

Stage 2, Level 3 (First Gate)

I left ahead of them to check out Honest Coffee, which was more or less on the way back to work. Steve greeted me once again, so I was in the right place. There were no more Steves inside, so I went to the cashier and told them I was looking for the gate. She accidentally asked me the wrong question, "What goes with coffee?" instead of "What goes with starfish?" Her fellow employee corrected her. My answer of "maple syrup and jam" was acceptable and I had to sign a log.

Unfortunately, there were six people ahead of me. Five of them had gotten there at 7:00 AM, which appeared to be when the shop opened, so they must have managed to make it to Supper Heroes last night. (The other had signed in less than an hour before me.) This was my wake-up call that it was time to get serious. I'd been rather casual about the contest, but now I saw others were not so casual.

I was handed a giant movie ticket and sent on my way. I had completed the first gate! This was also the first location where I didn't buy anything. In part because I was in a hurry and in part because I'm not a coffee drinker. However, I found out later my wife bought herself a cup of coffee while she was there, so our record of buying at least a little something at each place was intact so far.

Stage 3, Level 1

I didn't look at the ticket closely until I got back to the car. One side had the same number on both ends and said "Cinema" and "Admit One" on it, with five crowns in between. The other side was a certificate for 10 free tokens at Pints & Pixels. But more importantly, at the bottom, it had a URL: http://www.curse.com/whatever. Curse is a local web site developer specializing in the video game community. Walter says they've been bought by Twitch lately.

There was also a QR code on the ticket. It turned out I didn't currently have a QR scanner on my phone, so I downloaded one later. All the code said was, "Keep this with you at all times!", so I was glad I didn't worry about it right away.

So the URL led to a graphic. I didn't immediately decipher it, so went back to work. I saw my family's minivan in the mirror as I was about to pull out, so I skedaddled to let them have my parking place, as they were in short supply. My son made the connection to Toybox Bistro faster than I did. The background was the same as their web site, but the words on their logo were replaced with Egyptian hieroglyphics. That, combined with the Nike swoosh made me realize it was saying "Walk Like an Egyptian" (by the Bangles), which was a link on the Facebook page. My son had gone deeper and figured out the hieroglyphics were O-A-O. That sent him off on a virtual wild goose chase. (A wild Google chase?) It was only after I told him to watch the video that he realized those were some of the lyrics in the song. I knew that, but hadn't thought of it until he said it. So off he went to Toybox. I had to wait until after work.

After work I went straight there and danced like an Egyptian for the hostess. She led me to the box. Walter had already told me about having to dance and the box. The clear, plastic box contained five of the six player pieces from the Clue board game (all but Mrs. White), all the weapons from Clue, 13 Scrabble tiles (A, E, G, L, N, R, S, S, S, T, U, Y, & blank), and a small cassette tape charm. I was told I could not open the box or take it with me, but I could take photos. The box also had a transparent Steve decal on one side and a smaller Steve sticker on another. And a note reiterating what I had been told, "Do not open box." Walter had managed to miss one letter when he wrote them down, so I made sure I got photos of them all. He'd missed the third S.

This was another occasion where I didn't buy anything. We'd already had lunch at Supper Heroes and were having dinner at church. I told the hostess we'd eaten there before and were sure to be back.

Meanwhile, this cursed box caused it way too much trouble. We spent all evening trying to decipher it, but I'll save that story for the next entry. Also that evening, the scoreboard was updated on the Facebook page. We were already falling behind. I was down to 7th.

For additional entries, see the Jumpman's Grand Puzzle label.

Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 1, Level 3 & Stage 2, Level 1

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Stage 1, Level 3

Today was the day to duel the lich! Eating dinner and dressing for the part put us a little late. I wore my Liberator T-shirt, as in the rather obscure Atari coin-op featuring Atari Force, and my original Sony Walkman. It didn't work any more, but I just wanted it for looks. Walter wore his vintage, leather Members Only jacket and my newer Walkman (from the 1990s).

Walter vs. Lich

My two older boys and I headed out just before 6:00 PM, when the lich challenge opened. When we showed up at Pints & Pixels, someone was already playing Joust against the lich and there were several more waiting. The lich was a man wearing a skeleton T-shirt and half-skull mask, covered by a brown robe and topped with a steel crown. We stepped over to the registration table, where Walter and I gave our real and gunter (egg hunter) names and contact info. Then we waited for our turns to play against the lich.

Just as in the book, we had to beat him two games out of three. I lost my first game against him. In the second game I barely came out ahead. In the third game I was victorious and claimed my prize, the blue key. Unlike the book, I didn't ask to trade sides with him to see if that gave me advantage. Walter was annoyed that I'm that good at Joust.

Walter was next. He only won one game, and so had to go back to the end of the list for another chance. Thankfully we didn't have to go back to Sugar Belle to get the coin again. His brother and I played some games while we waited. On his second attempt, Walter did ask to switch sides, which apparently did make the "lich" essentially throw the game, and Walter won two games in a row and claimed his key.

On the registration table was a large photo. On the corner was a sign that said, "You may study this image but DO NOT REMOVE." So I asked to take a photo of it and they obliged. We later figured the photo had something to do with The Princess Bride. Two (poisoned) wine glasses, swords for Westley and Montoya, and the bellows used to somewhat revive Westley. We weren't sure where this was going yet, but I hoped we didn't have to repeat lines from the movie verbatim like Flicksynchs in the book. I didn't see The Princess Bride back in the day, so I was nowhere close to being able to repeat any but the most well-known lines. We watched it again when we got home and I noted that one of the T-shirts Richard Moss wore in the game's starting video was the quote about not going in against a Sicilian when death was on the line.

Next to the Joust at Pints & Pixels was a Fix-It Felix Jr. coin-op from the movie Wreck-It Ralph. And I couldn't help but notice the sign saying the games were available to play, except Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 6:00-8:00 PM. Those were the same days and times on the gold coin, so it appeared we'd be playing Felix in the future.

Stage 2, Level 1

We played a few more games before getting in the car, originally planning to go home, but Walter and I both read the clue on the key and started thinking about it:

Unfathomable an object lies,

Its magic six to draw you nigh

I searched Google for "unfathomable synonyms" and stopped near the end of the list when I saw "deep." The next clue was probably at The Deep, a local comic book store and the biggest one in town. I'd texted my wife the clue and she came up with the same answer on her own. We spent the trip there pondering what the "magic six" meant, but didn't come up with any good answers.

We arrived at The Deep right behind a couple we'd seen at Pints & Pixels. And there was Steve the Space Invader waiting to greet us by the door. We started searching the store and eventually I came across a Rubik's Cube in one of the display cases with a Steve sign next to it. A cube has six sides and it was originally known as the Magic Cube, so mystery solved. Unfortunately, there were about five other players in the store and one of them thought to ask to see it before I did. We had to show our key(s) in order to do so.

They spent a long time unscrambling it. Then another couple got it before we did, but they gave up after a little while. In the meantime, my wife texted me a link to a Rubik's Cube solving site. That came in very handy once I got the Cube. I went ahead and solved one side without help before setting up the virtual cube on the site to match. It then took it a while to calculate the solution, but the interactive way it presented it, letting me step through one step at a time and showing me how it should look as I went, was immensely helpful.

The actual P didn't quite live up
to the planned P
shown in the diagram below.

Unfortunately, we'd already heard the employee tell the other players that the pictures drawn on the sides had faded off from being handled. Once I got it solved, we could make out the Superman logo, an outline of the USA, Batman's cape, a P or igloo shape, and a circle. The image that was supposed to be on the yellow side was completely gone. There were some other markings, but we didn't understand their significance at the time. I took photos and we left.

Once we got home, I sent a message to the Jumpman's Journey page stating the trouble, but got an auto-response, so I made a public post to the page giving little detail. That elicited a response, but it looked like we weren't going to get the photos of the Cube I was hoping for. But then later Mr. Moss sent me a diagram of the cube.

Using the dots to break the images into groups, we quickly came up with "super + P = supper." Then "Greatest American Hero - grate - America = hero" and "cape". So "Supper Heroes cape". Supper Heroes was a local, comic book-themed restaurant we eat at once a year or so. That's only because it's way over past the other side of town, about 13 miles away. (Over twice as far as Pints & Pixels from our home.) But the "cape" part had us confused. Well, I guess we knew where we were going for lunch the next day.

As promised, they updated the scoreboard that evening. I made the "High Five" at #4.

For additional entries, see the Jumpman's Grand Puzzle label.