1.08 Send Me Back

Status

::FINAL-READY::

Location

Name And Address: Letterman Digital Arts Center Park in Presidio,

See "Location: Letterman" for details

Type

Mandatory Puzzle

How To Give To Teams

Over the phone the lab assistant says words to the effect of,

As soon as we're done re-calibrating the time machine, I'll refocus the Temporal View-O-Scope to 13.8 billion years ago and we'll see what the Doctor is up to.

Hold it...I just remembered that I can't give you access to the Temporal View-O-Scope live feed where you're at.

However, there is excellent access to temporal fault lines quite nearby you at the park outside the Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio near the statue of Eadweard Muybridge. Head on over to the intersection of Gorgas and Oreilly and by the time you get there I'll have a lab assistant in the field set up so you can watch us retrieve the Doctor to 2012! (Since it's raining our two asssitants may be keeping dry in a gold Mazda Protege parked in the lot at the corner of Gorgas and Oreilly.

If it's raining the lab assistant may be in the Starbucks next to the statue or in the building lobby.)

SUPPLEMENTAL EMAIL

Research Project Title: View The Doctor At Big Bang

Objective: Go to location where the signal is strong enough to watch Doctor When at the Big Bang through the View-O-Scope Computer Remote Access Program

Location: Statue of Eadweard Muybridge within the park containing the Letterman Digital Arts Center Recycled Water Pond, San Francisco; the park is bounded by Gorgas Ave., Lyon Street, Letterman Drive, and Oreilly Ave.; statue is just north of the Starbucks in Building C; probably best to go to intersection of Gorgas and Oreilly (Actually...since it is raining our lab assistants may be keeping dry in a gold Mazda Protege parked in the lot at the corner of Gorgas and Oreilly.)

Upon Completion: Speak with the lab assistant onsite

Parking: Best parking is lot whose entrance is on Oreilly just south of Gorgas (double check that it's free on Saturdays); street parking on Gorgas, too; do not use the parking spaces underneath the buildings.

Need To Park: Yes

Personnel Required: All

Bathrooms At Location: In the nearby Starbucks

Snacks At Location: Nearby Starbucks and other restaurants in the Presidio

Plot Setup

• Iconoclast scientist Doctor When has attempted to demonstrate his time machine before an audience of VIPs.
• But it malfunctioned due to a faulty key component. The players have helped fix that.
• The malfunction is causing the Doctor to bounce around randomly in time from era to era, facing untold dangers!
• Repairs also required access to the Doctor's supercomputer, but the team successfully hacked the password.
• Along the way they learned someone named "Buffy" was important to him back in high school.
• The players found a strange pattern in the eras that Doctor When has bounced to...which indicates that the next place he'll materialize is the Big Bang!

Props

(No new puzzle-specific props)

Plot Point to Convey

• The View-O-Scope can be focused into sort of a "live feed."
• The Doctor may have caused the beginning of the universe (not vital the players pick up on this one)
• The "portable tachyon detector" lets the traveler know when the View-O-Scope is focused on him/her.
• The Doctor doesn't want to be returned to 2012 quite yet...he wants to go to "Paine Memorial" (whatever that is) at 2:00 PM on May 31, 1986 first.
• The Doctor is in some danger from the Big Bang.
• The Big Bang also causes signal interference.

Short Description

Garbled silent video message from Doctor When instructing where to send him.

Open Time Period

(See "Location: Letterman")

Staff Instructions

Handout Instructions: Say words to the effect of,

Welcome! From this location you can tune in to live feed from the Temporal View-O-Scope. Just use the program that the Long Now mechanics gave you and enter access code 645639. Come back and see me when you're done with the live feed.

Teams will watch this video and then come back to you.

Before 6:30 PM, tell them:

I saw the remote feed, too. We have to help Doctor When fix the timeline! You need to decode his final message. Please use code 222076 on your View-O-Scope Computer Remote Access Program. After you have figured out where he wants us to go, call Prof. Chronos on your speakerphone.

After 6:30 PM, instead tell them:

I saw the remote feed, too. We have to help Doctor When fix the timeline! You need to decode his final message. Please use code 621922 on your View-O-Scope Computer Remote Access Program. After you have figured out where he wants us to go, call Prof. Chronos on your speakerphone.

Discreetly keep count of the number of teams with whom you have had a second interaction...so that you know when you can close down the site!

Hints: Teams may call in for hints. But if you familiarize yourself with the hint information below, feel free to give hints.

Answers: Teams have been instructed to call in their answers. If they try to give their answer to you, remind them to follow their instructions.

Detailed Description

The video is presented through a Javascript app that allows players to rearrange the pieces and play back the sequence. Once the video is reconstructed, Doctor When's pantomime must be interpreted into a message.

Puzzle Answer

SEND ME TO PAINE MEMORIAL MAY 31 1986 2:00

Puzzle Solution

Video is in 22 segments, each about 7 seconds long. Playback starts at segment 1, then proceeds smoothly to segment 2, and so on. Initial sequence is scrambled, and players must rearrange segments until they are in the right order.

The correct sequence is as follows:

12 02 10 00 14 06 15 01 19 21 11 05 20 03 16 07 18 09 08 13 17 04

Credits

Sean: prototype

Manager

Sean

Hints

Ask teams what they have done, probing details if necessary (often this will get a team unstuck by themselves).

Doctor When always looks at the camera while holding a meaningful pose. Also, the static abates momentarily during these poses. Other times should be considered transitional and not part of the message.

Response to Correct Answer

The team calls in to the Institute.

First a lab assistant should ask the team for their answer.

• If it's wrong, say words to the effect of, "That doesn't make any sense. You should recheck your analysis."
• If it's correct, say words to the effect of, "That's fascinating. I'm sure Prof. Chronos will want to hear this. Please turn on your speakerphone and I'll transfer you over to her."

PROF. CHRONOS:

Hello again. Are you on a speakerphone...can your whole group hear?

PLAYERS:

Yes, we are. The Doctor wants us to "SEND ME TO PAINE MEMORIAL MAY 31 1986 2:00," whatever "Paine Memorial" is.

(NOTE: they may say "200", since there is no colon in the puzzle message.)

PROF. CHRONOS:

"Paine Memorial" was the name of our high school. I just can't imagine what he would want back there. I guess it has something to do with fixing the timeline. But what an odd date--that was the date of our science fair. He must need something from 2:00pm that day.

I'll set the time machine to opening a portal for him just before we lost contact and then send him back to school! Let me hand you over to a lab assistant while I work on that.

Other Notes

Ran out of time to implement more sophisticated design proposals:

• divide the video spatially into a grid
• run each clip in a loop, but each synced to a different starting offset