2.05 Mix Tape Puzzle

Order

2.04

Status

::POLISH-READY::

Location

A used record store on the Peninsula.

Type

Mandatory Puzzle

Plot Setup

Machine is still not fixed; Doctor When needs Chronos' password to her supercomputer. He doesn't know it, but she gave him this mix tape long ago and hinted that she had hidden her most important secrets in it - which could very well be her password.

Props

Mixtape with insert.

Plot Point to Convey

Chronos loves When - plus, the machine is fixed now.

Short Description

Teams get a mixtape with 18 songs, each with the word "time" in the title, plus an insert with (out-of-order) artists and years and a poem from Catherine.

Detailed Description

Teams receivea mixtape created by Catherine Chronos when she was in high school and given to Wesley shortly before they graduated. They're told that Catherine had said it contained one of her biggest secrets, and Dr. When thinks that's probably the password to her computer. Enclosed with the mixtape is a poem that Catherine had written to young Wesley. All of the songs turn out to be time-related, and the puzzle solution implies that Catherine had a crush on Wesley.

Puzzle Answer

ILOVEWESLEY ("IHEARTWESLEY" is also acceptable.)

Puzzle Solution

(Erik has sent Wei-Hwa a Word file to insert/convert to the wiki.)

Budget

Tapes and inserts, plus some tape players for teams that don't bring them. Estimate: $100.

Credits

Design: Erik Stuart

Manager

Erik

Hints

General hints:

- Catherine’s poem gives a “roadmap” of how to solve the puzzle. (She wanted Wesley to solve it, after all!)

- To identify the songs, teams can use their own knowledge or a service like Shazam, or can do an internet search for lyrics.

- Many teams will be tempted to re-write the artist/year column to match the order of the titles (or vice-versa). This is a useful step – but not at the start; it only helps after you get the first hidden message.

- Time After Time indexes into “Lauper, Cyndi” twice, producing an L and a U.

- It’s possible to skip the first hidden message and simply add the shifts to the song years and read it as ASCII. This is fine.

- It’s important that the “shift” that you add to the year be positive/absolute values (note the “absolutely” hint in the poem).

- The “ask? Keys…” hint may be missed by some teams, and, if so, the relevant step may be hard to get. Consider hinting to teams stuck here that Catherine might have put a clue as to the encoding mechanism in the poem, and that they should consider reading it out loud, slowly. If they still don’t get it, I advise pointing out the ask-keys hint.

- Going by instinct, teams may get the wrong “chart-topper” songs. Common errors might be “True Blue” and “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”. However, the solutions are unique – there’s only one #1 single in the correct time period (1982 - 5/20/86) using each of the four clue words.

- Some teams may not see the poem as a roadmap – in particular, they may look for hints throughout the poem at any point in their solve process. This may lead to various wrong turns, such as seeing the “four timeless chart-toppers” reference as an instruction to pick the correct four songs from the mixtape – perhaps the ones that were #1 singles. Encourage them to use the poem “in order”.

Response to Correct Answer

DR. WHEN: "Great Scott! Why didn't she tell me back then? Things would have been so much...better. I just typed it in and it works!" [Proceed to Quantum Time Vibrations event or Art History event, depending on each team's timing.]

To Do

Puzzle ready for production.