I call it The Matrix.

I got the idea from the movie by the same name (obviously). Originally I intended this to look much cooler than it ended up as. I wanted it to look something like this:

But that’s okay, it served it’s purpose.
So where do you go with this puzzle? I can tell you that it didn’t take players very long to figure that out because this puzzle was solved the fastest at 1 hour and 4 minutes.

At first glance it appears to be a series of zeros and ones. Binary language perhaps? I hoped that might slow players down a bit as they pursued that angle (I was wrong). How about the different colors of black, blue, red, and green? Surely that must mean something. Sorry, another red herring. A clever deception that apparently didn’t fool anyone either.

Maybe the phrase “What hath God wrought” means something. Yes, now you’re on the right track. Typing this into a search engine and a short amount of investigation reveals that, among other things, this was the first message sent by morse code on May 24th, 1844 by Samuel Morse (see pic on left) marking the official opening of the telegraph system.

If you know morse code then you know that it is a series of dashes and dots that when combined together in certain patterns represent the alphabet. This could also be sent electrically by telgraph as a series of audible “dits” (dots) and “dahs” (dashes).

Now that you know this, if you look at the puzzle again it’s solution is perhaps more clear. In this case rotating the puzzle 90 degrees counter-clockwise reveals that the 1’s now look like dashes and the 0’s now dots. All you need is a handy dandy translation key (see right) and you can begin to solve the puzzle.

Soon you may notice that although you’re translating the code into actual words, together they don’t make much sense. Here is the second last stumbling block I threw in there. I coded the sentence in reverse order. I guess my hope was that players wouldn’t be able to understand the sentence until you completely solved it instead of solving half of it and guessing what the last half would be or something like that.

So once solved the solution now poses the player with a question. A riddle to be more precise. My last attempt to increase the complexity of the puzzle. And what is the riddle? Well, you’re going to have to figure that out for yourself. I have to leave some mystery and challenge for you. I can tell you that the correct answer reveals the next number in the sequence which is 19.

Do you have the skills to finish solving it? Let’s see:

I even like to play a little game while I’m sitting there.

I try to guess the production company based on their logo clip. You know what I mean. The easy ones are 20th Century Fox with it’s search lights, or MGM Studios with it’s lion, or Paramount Pictures with it’s flying stars and mountain.

Where am I going with all this? Well, it’s no secret that I enjoy making videos. I long for the day when I can afford some top notch editing software so I can really see what I am able to create. In the meantime I’m happy fiddling around with Windows Movie Maker. I decided that it was time for me to make my own production company logo clip. I can then attach it to the end of the videos I make. So I began the process. First by hunting down some 10 or 15 second long music that was original and memorable. Some production companies use music, like Disney, while others are silent, like Amblin Entertainment.

So I picked out a few different tunes. One I liked a lot because it included whistling and few things stick in your head like a good whistling song. How many of you can whistle the theme to The Andy Griffith Show? If you’ve seen it more than once you probably have the tune memorized. It’s that catchy. My second favorite had a more western sound.

Next I needed to figure out what the clip would look like. I started by looking at add-on clips that you can download for Windows Movie Maker but none of them appealed to me. So then I searched for free clips. I wanted something that invoked a sense of nostalgia. Something that would harken back to the old days. Like the 60’s or 70’s. Back when things were less complicated and more pure. I found one of a young kid running up a grassy yard toward a window that had home-made pies cooling on the sill. I thought it would work very nicely until I discovered that it cost $40 to purchase it. Back to the drawing board I went. I then decided to go back even further in time. Since I go by the name Cowpatty Bill I reasoned that maybe the clip should be about cowboys.

I dug deeper into the bowels of the internet and found a website that contained royalty free movies. One of the oldest movies they had was called “The Great Train Robbery”, a 1903 American action Western film by Edwin S. Porter. The entire movie is 12 minutes long. I watched it, looking for something I could use. I was just about to give up when, at the very end, there’s a scene of an old cowboy staring directly into the camera and slowly firing all 6 rounds from his gun. Aha!! That was it. I downloaded the clip, converted it to a .wmv file and imported it into my editing software. I selected just the scene with that old cowboy. I added some after effects, like making it a little more grainier than it already was, I sped it up 2 or 3 times so he fired his gun faster, and had it fade out. I then added the western themed music I had found earlier and finally the production company name at the end and ta-da… it was done.

I also created a variation where I used the whistling music but it just doesn’t fit as well as the western one.

So now, for your viewing pleasure, here is the production company clip for Cowpatty Bill….

Pre-game videos

There are two of these. The purpose of these videos is to help set the stage for the game by describing the alternate present that players will be immersed in. The first video is out now, the second will come out in a few weeks. Be sure to watch them.

Downfall Parodies

These are fun videos. Hitler considers himself a puzzle master and is desperate to prove it by getting his name in the Cluechaser Hall of Fame (which will be back up shortly). Through the three video series he (and you) will learn about some of the new twists to Game 3: Chasing Shadows. Hopefully you get a laugh or two out of them.
If you haven’t heard of or seen any Downfall parodies they are all over Youtube. People are taking clips of the German movie “Der Untergang” (Downfall) and adding their own subtitles; often with quite hilarious results.

Pre-launch puzzles

These aren’t videos but will provide you with the all important key to gaining access to the start of game 3. I will provide plenty of time for people to solve them and they won’t be difficult. They’re intended to be a little warm-up before the game.

Hopefully that will help clear up any confusion.

Game 3 will have a heavy emphasis on videos, the reason for which will be clear during the game. Also, because I like making them.

If you’ve got questions feel free to shoot me an email.

Cowpatty Bill

First of all, Game 3 is still on schedule to be launched sometime this summer. It will be the last game in the Mr. E series but not the final ClueChaser game. I’m already working on ideas for the next one.

Secondly, since some time has passed since the events of Game 2: Puzzle PiEces I will be giving everyone a brief refresher in what has happened and where we are in the story. I will be doing this in the form of some small build-up puzzles. They will be fairly easy puzzles that once solved, will reveal a portion of events that have happened over the past two games. They are also a nice way to get you back in the groove since ClueChaser puzzles seem to have their own “style” of puzzlery.

And finally. I thought it would be fun to add a little twist and include a “key” in each build-up puzzle. In addition to the plot summary you get with each correctly solved puzzle you will also get a word or a number (or some such thing, I haven’t decided yet) that will be needed to start Game 3. Without all of them you won’t be able to begin. I will provide a discussion area where you can discuss the puzzles with others but any posting of the answer will be removed.

Incidentally. the comment board will be different in game 3. It will be located at a different site. I found that having a comment board within ClueChaser made it much easier to be hacked.

So stay tuned. The build up puzzles will begin soon and will show up intermittently between now and the game start date.

Good luck and happy chasing!