1.03 Tachyon Midi Ether Co-Keypad 1

Order

1.04

Status

::PROTO::

Location Status

Done deal; agreed to by Dorian Claire

GC Point of Contact

Allen

Location Notes

Dorian Claire Antique Clock Repair.

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 co-keypad puzzles.

Plot Point to Convey

The machine is partially fixed after co-keypad designs are sent to the Institute, new co-keypads are manufactured and installed.

Short Description

Team designs new co-keypad based on specifications from Prof. Dorian Claire to replace damaged one.

How To Give To Teams

After solving Core Dump 1 at the Institute, Prof. Chronos tells them to go to Dorian Claire (see script). Her instructions include an email address to send their co-keypad design to and an Institute phone number to call if they have trouble. These should probably be a handout as well (along with parking & bathroom information).

Once at Dorian Claire's shop, a GC member pretending to be "Prof. Dorian Claire" says, "Unfortunately I've never created a complete tachyon midi ether co-keypad. But I have computed the starting specifications for one. Perhaps you can use the specifications to design the rest of the circuitry?"

He hands them a packet of co-keypad parts and specifications. The teams know from Prof. Chronos's speech back at the Institute to email their solution.

Puzzle Answer

A series of numbers that define the co-keypad design.

Budget

A set of three keypads is $4.75 from Electronic Surplus. Wei-Hwa bought 34 sets (in case some get destroyed during prototyping). Total price, $181.50 (including $20 shipping).

More will be needed for the cases.

Credits

Wei-Hwa - concept, prototype, implementation

Manager

Wei-Hwa

Response to Correct Answer

(Email from Institute)

SUBJECT: Co-Keypad Design
FROM: Prof. Chronos

That's fantastic! We're so much closer to getting the machine working again and then rescuing Doctor When because of your help.

Next I need to get into the Doctor's Brain-O-Matic 9000 supercomputer. But I don't know the password. He always had a bad memory, so he told me he used an important memory from childhood for a password. Perhaps if you visited his childhood home you could figure it out. He lived at XXX Cole Street in San Francisco.

If you need help, please call the lab assistants - but when you figure it out please call me at that same number. I may have follow-up questions so be sure you do it on a speakerphone and have the whole group in on the call.

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 Co-Keypad 1 and Co-Keypad 2.