1.03 Tachyon Midi Ether Co-Keypad 1

Order

1.04

Location

Teams will probably have to leave the lab to find midi ring components or old midi rings. Geeky places like the Computer History Museum, Exploratorium, or the clock-fixing shop in SF seem like appropriate locations. Note that those repaired/replaced rings have to get back to the time machine somehow. So plot continuity may require the teams to return to the lab to hand over the rings. Or maybe the teams could hand off their handiwork to designated couriers (GC in disguise). Or maybe they only need to send information back to Prof. Chronus. Or maybe there's some sort of remote scanner/duplicater out in the field. (Erik's opinion: better to not have them return to lab; handing to "courier" (GC) sounds best.)

Type

Mandatory Puzzle

Plot Setup

The solution to the previous puzzle tells Prof. Chronus to examine the machine's Midi Ether Co-Keypad Ring(s), which turn out to be defective. ("Wesley never was any good at midi rings...luckily I did my dissertation on them!") She needs 20 replacements...and luckily there are 20 teams! (Or maybe she needs 100 replacements and all the teams need to work together to collectively get that many done, though some teams may be faster than others.)

Props

The physical ring puzzles.

Plot Point to Convey

The machine is partially fixed after rings are installed.

Puzzle Solution

May simply be the correctle assembled device, images of the correct configurations, or something similar.

Manager

Probably Wei-Hwa

Other Notes

Though the "there are 100 configurations and we need all of them" has the benefit of teams feeling like they're collaborating, this is actually a place where we may need to _spread_ the teams (since we've got them going to outside locations. In particular, if the next location is Dr. When's childhood bedroom, having all 20 teams go there at once is logistically bad. Perhaps there should be a "spreading" puzzle in between Midi Ring A and Midi Ring B.