Jumpman's Grand Puzzle - Stage 1, Level 2

Saturday, March 31, 2018

Stage 1, Level 2

We had a ton of stuff do to on Saturday, but we decided to check Vertical House first. I was convinced what record Belle was holding in the clue is irrelevant because they made it so small and hard to see. How wrong I was.

Unfortunately, we didn't get out of the house until almost lunch time, so we headed out planning to stop for lunch first. We ate at Local Taco, not too far from Lowe Mill, when I remembered they're doing Huntsville Comic Con there this weekend, so the place was going to be packed!

About this time, my oldest son, Walter, who was at work, texted me. "So I asked one of my co-workers for their ideas and the clue, and he just pointed out that the background is sugar cubes." I read this to my family.

My wife said, "Sugar and Belle. Sugar Belle Cupcakes?!?" Yeah, she was on to something. So after lunch, we headed back in the direction of home to Sugar Belle. We arrived and there was Steve by the door again to greet us.

We walked in and looked around. No clues were immediately obvious, although the Super NES Mini system set up in the corner seemed suspicious. It sat on top of a cardboard fireplace with "bricks" printed on it. The TV screen made up where the opening for the fire would be.

I finally approached the man behind the counter with the Super NES still in mind. "I'm looking for a place to put a record. Or maybe set a record?"

"No, nothing like that," he replied.

We went back to the corner and pondered and looked around some more. Then I ordered a cupcake for the two sons who were with me. Everyone else was still full from lunch. Out of ideas, I approached again, asking aloud if I needed to ask him where I should put a clue. He told me he needed a certain phrase. I went back to ponder some more.

Finally, I used Google to search "Simon and Garfunkel lyrics cupcakes." My big duh moment came when it showed me the lyrics of "Mrs. Robinson":

Hide it in the hiding place where no one ever goes

Put it in your pantry with your cupcakes

I knew that song. I should have thought of that!

The man had stepped out, so I asked one of the remaining employees, "Put it in your cupboard?" Yes, it turns out "cupboard" was the word they're looking for. They pulled a large, plastic, yellow "coin" from the cupboard, etched on one side:

In the Ready Player One novel, the first clue led to a virtual reality re-creation of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons module, Tomb of Horrors. The tomb was home to a lich (an undead wizard). The hero was challenged to a game of Joust, the coin-op by Williams Electronics, by the lich.

So, it appeared I had to go to Pints & Pixels on Sunday or Tuesday through Thursday between 6:00 and 8:00 PM to be challenged to a game of Joust. At least, I hoped that was what it meant because while I was nowhere near world record level, but I wasn't too bad at the game. But, Sunday is Easter and Pints & Pixels was going to be closed, so I could relax the rest of the weekend. There was nothing to be done until Tuesday. For once, I was finally grateful this was starting Easter weekend.

Later, while we were driving, I realized the guy in the skeleton costume in the background of the initial video must be the "lich". I laughed out loud at this realization and then had to explain to my wife why I was laughing.

While we were at Sugar Belle, I remembered to ask the employees how many others had come through. They told me less than ten. I knew one person had already mentioned a yellow coin on Facebook. Later Walter's coworker came by and got a coin. Walter told me that the Sugar Belle employees told him he was the third person. I think what they told him must just be the number of people that day. There had have been more on Friday.

At the time, I wasn't too happy with Walter about this. His coworker was able to jumpstart his quest, skipping the first clue entirely. Although his coworker also pointed out the sugar cubes that got us there, so I supposed it was a wash. Walter said he'd already planned to not give his coworker any more clues. He also went to get his own coin. He was 18 or over, so he could compete. I didn't give him the password, but did tell him how to figure it out.

So when Walter got home, he drug out one of our old computers, got Joust running on it via MAME, and hooked up my X-Arcade joystick. I hadn't used the X-Arcade in years and I had to admit, it was better than playing Williams Arcade Classics on the PlayStation controller. By Sunday afternoon, I'd managed to get over 100,000 points in a couple games. I hoped that was enough.

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