Jumpman's Grand Puzzle Introduction

Starting tomorrow, several entries will appear for Jumpman's Grand Puzzle. This was a contest done by local business Pints & Pixels, a bar featuring primarily classic video games, in honor of the release of the film Ready Player One. The film is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Ernest Cline. Both feature many references to '80s pop culture, although the book more so than the film. The novel prominently features the video games, music, and films of the era. As the contest started the day the film premiered nationwide, it's based on the book and not the film.

The brief version of the contest is this. A starting clue was posted online. That clue gives contestants a hint at where to go for the next clue, which gives them a hint for the next, and so on. Sometimes contestants have to wait for a business to be open or a location to be available for the contest. The contest was originally scheduled to last up to a month, but (small spoiler) it didn't take that long.

I wrote these entries as the contest was happening. For obvious reasons, I didn't want to publish it while the contest was still going. But to maintain that flavor, I'm scheduling the entries to appear in the blog in roughly real time. That means the entry for the Friday the contest began appears tomorrow, a Friday. Then a new entry will appear on Saturday, and so on. New entries will not appear every day because sometimes steps were completed and I then had to wait a few days to be able to complete the next step. I believe the entries typically end with a a clue as to when the next one will be. For convenience, entries are appearing at midnight, which is the beginning of the day they're for, rather than in the evening when I would have written them. (Or possibly I didn't write them until a few days later.)

I've labeled these entries with stage and level numbers. These are my own notation. The Jumpman's Grand Puzzle didn't have any official designations or names for each puzzle. At least, none they shared with the players.

In my nomenclature, a "stage" is a set of puzzles ending with either receiving a key or signing in at a gate. There are three keys and three gates, therefore there are six stages. The stages do not have consistent numbers of levels.

A "level" is deciphering a clue, reaching the correct destination, and receiving or finding the next clue. Sometimes I might decipher a clue immediately upon receiving it, but have to wait until the location is open to check whether I'm right. In those cases, I usually won't label the entry as being that level until the actual travel takes place.

The first entry links to the video, but for your convenience, here's the transcript as taken from the Official Contest Rules.

Hi, I’m Richard Moss, founder of Pints & Pixels -- a restaurant, bar and classic arcade in downtown Huntsville, Alabama.

In gaming circles I often go by the handle, “Jumpman”.

By now most of you have read or heard of the book Ready Player One.

 The film adaptation premiers tonight and we really hope it does the book justice.

In Ready Player One, James Halliday aka Anorak, an eccentric billionaire, sends players on a quest to find an Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in his massive online game.

The owners of Pints & Pixels have decided to run a quest of our own.  We call it, “Jumpman’s Grand Puzzle.”

 Like Halliday, we too are obsessed with geeky things and 80s pop culture, therefore those themes are prevalent throughout our quest.

To win our prize you’ll need to solve riddles and puzzles, play some old-school video games, and do a bit of performing.

Just to be clear, completing this quest will be neither quick nor easy. You will have many tests to overcome. Sometimes you may have to wait for places to open and you will not be able to skip ahead.

It's a progression quest where one thing leads to another and sometimes you will need information from a previous step to solve the section you’re currently working.

A difficult quest deserves a worthy prize. The first person to complete our puzzle will receive a special badge good for 10 tokens per day for one year at Pints & Pixels, a cabaret size commercial Pac-Man arcade game and a copy of Ready Player One signed by the author, Earnest Cline.

As in The Highlander, there can be only one … winner.

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To steal a line from Anorak in the book:

Three hidden keys open three secret gates
Wherein the errant will be tested for worthy traits
And those with the skill to survive these straits
Will reach The End where the prize awaits

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We wanted to give you a little help so we have set up Jumpman's Journal on FaceBook.

It will serve the same function Anorak's Almanac did in the Ready Player One: a sampling of some of the geeky 80s things we love.

Plus, it will serve as your “gunter” message board in case anyone wants to discuss the quest, share information or ask for help.

You’re welcome to team up if you like but as we said before - there can be only one winner.

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Now I’d like you to meet Steve.  You've probably noticed him hanging around Pints & Pixels. [See blue Space Invader-looking figure at right.]

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Steve will help guide you along your quest. Wherever the quest takes you, you’ll find Steve somewhere nearby.

If you find yourself in a location that has no Steve you probably need to re-think the previous clue.

Our quest will take you to some of our favorite spots all over Huntsville and the surrounding areas.

While questing, we ask that you please show respect for the property and employees of the places you visit.

And so without further ado, let's get this party started.

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To start the quest you need to go,
Where Fortuna's favors flow,
On ivory bones and heroes spin,
To battle hard and sometimes win.

Good luck.