Truthfully, I’ve haven’t been looking forward to this review. Its kind of like when you had a party the evening before and left all the cleanup for the next day. You wake up in the morning, crawl out of bed and as you head toward the living room (ground zero) you have this feeling of dread wash over you. You wished you would have just stayed up later to clean because now everything has been sitting out all night and things have been broken and you’re not sure how to fix them. You survey the room, see the extent of the cleanup job, and suddenly have the inexplicable urge to turn and just run out the door and never look back. This puzzle is like that in the sense that it has many pieces and most of them weren’t kept together after the game ended so it has taken a lot of work to gather it all up again.

Unfortunately this is only the first of 3 or 4 puzzles between this game, The Missing Mr. E, and Game 2: Puzzle PiEces that I have this anxiety over. Fortunately though, I seem to have anticipated this a bit and left myself good enough notes that I should be able to stumble through this without too much pain. I have yet to look at the others to see if they will fair the same.

So lets jump in and get this started. I believe this puzzle was accessed by clicking on the “A is for Apple” pic on the wall above the bookshelf in the office which, after the successful completion of the previous puzzle, was now active.

At this point in the game I had some important information related to the storyline that I had to disseminate to the players in some way. This puzzle became the avenue to accomplish that. It is actually 5 puzzles in one, each type of puzzle representing a sentence.

I believe this puzzle, or at least the first part, is a type of rebus. At the time I created it I thought it was a pictogram or pictograph puzzle. I remember doing these kinds of puzzles when I was a kid and always enjoyed them. When creating it I found that it was difficult to put together. Sometimes the picture you need just isn’t easy to find.

Each picture or series of pictures represents a word. So in this first picture you have 4 words. It should be pretty easy to figure out what they are (you can click on it to see it larger). I wanted to use a picture for everything so I had some trouble finding a picture for the word “The”. The pic I used has actually been modified. I erased whatever word was on the knuckles and added my own letters. I mean really, who tattoos “the” on their knuckles?

The next series of pictures requires a little more work. You start with the first picture, a tea bag. Next the “+” sign indicates you should add the next pic, “MDX” to it. Next is the minus sign followed by a bag. So if you remove “bag” you find that so far you have “teamdx”. The next pic indicates you should remove “dx”. Then add the underlined word in the next pic, “coed” and finally remove the “co” leaving you with the word “teamed”.

The next pic is all by itself. Pretty self explanatory…”up”. This is followed by “panda” which becomes “and” after you follow the next pic and remove the “AP”. I suppose it might cause some confusion if you weren’t sure which “a” to remove. But once you realize taking out the first one gives you “nda” and the second gives you “and” it seems pretty logical which one is correct.

Up to this point you have the following message: “The US and China teamed up and”.

Continuing on with the next series of pictures gives you:

“Green Acres” minus “green” plus “Ted Koppel” minus “apple” (at this point you have “crestedko”) minus “osk” (now “creted”) plus “A” equals “created”.
“ABC” minus “BC” equals “A”.
“rest area” plus “chick chat” minus “at-at” minus “chick” equals “resreach”. I figured the players would realize the word is a bit scrambled and should really be “research”.

This is followed by:

“gold” minus “old” plus (”trout” minus “tt”) plus “P” equals “group”.
“last call” plus “superman” plus “p” minus “last supper” (so far you have “callman”) minus (”coleman” minus “cole”) plus “deed” minus “ed” equals “called”.

And you finish off the first sentence with:

“green light project” minus “green light” equals “project”.
“Coca Cola” – “COCA” plus “b” (the hand is representing the letter B in American Sign Language) equals “Colab”.

My original plan was to do the entire message like this. However, you can probably imagine how long it took me to put that one together. And I had 4 more sentences to go! I knew then that I had to figure out something different. That was when I decided to code each sentence in a different type of puzzle.

I really have no idea how I came up with the next one, but I like it. It’s just so simple yet not obvious. At least not right away. I imagine the players looking at it and saying “what the….?” But after you look at it for a few minutes I think the solution starts to become clear.

There are 3 parts. The first part is solved by following the roman numerals. I thought using roman numerals looked better than regular numbers and added a bit of difficulty to the puzzle. Following them gives you the words, “There were”.
The next part is obvious, “18″
The third part is a litttle trickier. Again you have to follow the numbers but it might take a little time to figure out which direction the word goes. It’s solution reads, “First three letters of scissors plus dentists minus first letter”. In other words, “sci” plus “entists” which equals “scientists”

Seeing a need to speed this up even more I looked for ways to code the remaining sentences faster. I decided to use semaphore for the third, American Sign Language for the fourth and morse code for the fifth sentence.

So the third sentence translates to:

The fourth to:

And the 5th to:

That URL no longer leads anywhere. It was only active during the game and it led to the next puzzle. Once there the players learned the next number in the sequence which was 4.

I don’t have much else to say about this puzzle. I don’t have any strong feelings about it. It served its purpose which was to communicate important background information from E to the players. I was able to deliver it in a variety of unique and interesting ways although none of them proved to be very difficult to solve. The same thing goes for the next puzzle, Doctor Letter. It was also quickly solved by the players but it also included a hidden clue that I’m positive was overlooked by every single player. It was pretty subtle. Read about that one in the next review.

I realize that some of you are probably saying “Wait, if this is game 2 then why is it called Game 1?” Great question. Although it’s true that this is the second contest, it is the first game in a three part game series called the Mr. E Series.

After the success of Puzzle Master I was eager to get going on another contest. I decided it would be fun if the puzzle answers themselves were clues that helped solve a larger puzzle. I thought that it would be more exciting for the players. That way they could feel like detectives solving a crime.

In addition to this I designed the game so that each correct answer gave the players a number. These would be need later in the game in order to solve the mystery.

I’m not sure how the Mr. E story line got into my head but I spent several days just writing down all my ideas. Eventually they all sort of came together into an international mystery involving a scientist, his associates, and an ultra-secret department of the US government.

My intent was to create a conspiracy theory. I wanted it to be plausible and contain some elements of truth. I even named the character Fletcher, giving a nod to the Mel Gibson character in the movie “Conspiracy Theory”. I used Edwards as the last name because I needed something that started with an E, to go along with Mr. E (which most of you realize I’m sure is a homonym for “mystery”).

I decided that I wanted to promote this game somehow and get as many people interested as I could. I posted on puzzle message boards, I wrote a press release, and also took my first steps into videography. I discovered that Windows Movie Maker, a video editing software was free and already installed on my PC. So I learned how to use it. I scoured the internet looking for pictures and sound that I could use to convey the mystery of the game. Considering it was my first video ever, I’m still pleased with it today although I think the ones I’ve made for the games since then are MUCH better.

Overall, I really love the storyline. To me it’s exciting. A scientist, fearing for his life because of a secret he’s stumbled across. He doesn’t know exactly what it means but he knows that others have been killed in an effort to keep it from becoming public. He disappears and goes into hiding but leaves clues hidden in puzzles for someone to solve, gathering bit by bit the knowlege that would be needed to discover what the secret is. I think it would make for a pretty good movie or at least a book.

The game started on April 1st, 2008 at 8AM PST. It would turn out to be the shortest Cluechaser game ever. The last puzzle was solved by two players named towerofbabel and e8 working together a mere 3 days 6 hours and 22 minutes after it began. This was about 1/10th the amount of time as the previous game. I didn’t mind the short play time too much. I had designed it to be easier because I wanted more people to play it, finish it, get drawn into the storyline, and be eagerly awaiting the next game. It worked pretty well because more people did play than before.

Now that you know the history, join me for the next few weeks as I tear apart Game 1: The Missing Mr. E and explain each puzzle, how it works, how it was created, and share any stories behind it. You will also have the opportunity to try and solve it on your own and experience for yourself the excitement of unlocking the first few tantalizing clues to the mystery.

Let’s start by watching the trailer video:

First, some notes about this video. The warning at the beginning was not originally there. I added it later at the request of my wife. You see, during the creation of Game 1 a couple of strange things happened. After I started uploading the puzzles to the web and putting the game together I added a hit counter to each page so I would know when a player started on the next puzzle. This way I could track everyone’s progress. Since the game hadn’t started I had all the counters set to zero. Imagine my surprise when one day I see that there was one hit on several of the pages.

Luckily one feature at my disposal was the ability to see on a map where the visitor came from. I zoomed in and discovered that the visitor was from somewhere within Washington, DC. Since the game was about things like government coverups and conspiracy theories and secrets between USA and China this “visitor” caused some hairs to stand up on the back of my neck. Of even greater concern to me was the fact that all the puzzle pages were in a password protected area. No one should have been able to access the puzzles unless they had the password or knew how to hack their way in. Was this the FBI or CIA checking me out? Needless to say, I was concerned.

Then, the very next day three guys came into the office where I worked and started looking around. They said they were with the fire department and just doing a routine check. It struck me as very odd. I thought about my Washington DC visitor and this got me even more worried. I told my wife about it and she tried to convince me to stop working on Cluechaser. I refused but compromised by adding the warning to the video.

In the end, nothing came of my mysterious visitors. Just coincidences I guess. I decided perhaps my DC visitor was really just myself. I may never know.

The second note regarding the video is that it begins to set the stage for an alternate reality that I needed to create for the players. It hints at things to come. Little of this is revealed in this game but it is in the following game, Puzzle PiEces.

And now, on with the video:

Intro video

Their discovery would become known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Bible enthusiasts and just about anyone who’s familiar with the Bible has heard them. If not, here’s a summary:

A total of 11 caves in the area were found to contain scrolls, mostly in fragment form, for a total of 972 documents. These are typically divided into three categories. About 40% of the scrolls are considered “Biblical” manuscripts, 30% are “apocryphal” or “psuedepigraphical”, and 30% are referred to as “sectarian” manuscripts.

The caves were numbered based on the order of their discovery. Items found were numbered according to which cave they were located.

Perhaps the most curious item of all was #3Q15 found in Cave 3 on March 14, 1952. It is known as the Copper Scroll.

I had heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls a number of times over the years but hadn’t done any research myself. If I had I would have found out about the copper scroll sooner. Instead it came to my attention through the fiction novel of the same name written by Joel C. Rosenberg. I googled it and was pleasantly surprised to learn that the scroll actually exists.

All of the documents found in the Qumran caves were written on either papyrus or parchment with the exception of the copper scroll which was written on, you guessed it, copper. A long sheet of copper mixed with a small amount of tin. It was extremely corroded and could not be unrolled without destroying it. It took about three years before a safe way was found to open the scroll. By cutting it into 23 strips the contents of the scroll could finally be fully viewed.

There is some speculation regarding the scroll’s date but most experts place it’s creation between 25 and 135 AD. The words were mostly likely written using a hammer and chisel method and are in a form of Hebrew that is different from other scrolls found in the caves. Also unlike the other documents the scroll did not contain literary work but rather a list describing 64 different locations. Locations where treasures of gold and silver estimated to weigh several tons were hidden. The last entry apparently refers to the location of another scroll that contains additional information about these treasures.

The opening lines of the scroll say this:
In the ruin of Horebbah which is in the valley of Achor, under the steps heading eastward about forty feet: lies a chest of silver that weighs seventeen talents.

As you can see, the reference is somewhat obscure. Adding even further to the mystery is the appearance of two or three Greek letters at the end of seven of the Hebrew sentences. Here are some additional lines of text taken from random parts of the scroll:

~ In the tomb of the third section of stones there is one hundred gold bars.

~ Forty-two talents of silver coin are in the proximity of the black stone at the threshold at the sepulchral chamber.

Curiously, of all the Dead Sea Scrolls, this is the only one made from any type of metal, presumably so that it would last a long time. However the text assumes that the reader would have intimate and recent knowlege of the locations. Because of the obscure references it would seem that the intent was for these items to be retrieved relatively soon after they were buried or hidden. It would appear that all of it is located in the same general area, perhaps a small village or a specific section of a larger city. Why the author chose to use copper to list the locations instead of papyrus may never be known.

Have any of the items listed been found? The general consensus is no. In 1955, three ceramic vessels containing a total of 561 silver coins were found under a doorway at the Qumran excavation site. Some argue that this is one of the treasures listed but there is no evidence to support this.

Where the treasure came from and who it belonged to is still a mystery. Experts continue to look for these answers. As you would expect, several theories have been offered.

Some believe that the items listed refer to Temple treasure hidden before the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD. Historical writers of the time such as Josephus however indicate that the treasures were still in the Temple when it fell to the Romans. Perhaps some were removed and the scroll was created to keep track of them.

One man, Jim Barfield believes that the scrolls refer to Tabernacle treasure, hidden for safekeeping before the previous destruction of the Jerusalem Temple at the hands of the Babylonians in 425 BC.

Since the scroll was found in a cave that contained other scrolls attributed to the Qumran community, one theory is that the treasures listed belong to them. It is difficult to explain however why a community characterized as abstaining from the possession of wordly goods would have amassed such a large fortune of gold and silver.

There are several other theories some which seem plausible and others that have no basis of fact to support them.

Is it a hoax? Some seem to think so. Someone certainly went to a lot of trouble to create the scroll. If it truly is a hoax, who was it supposed to fool? Surely the author didn’t have in mind sheep herders two thousand years in the future.

What do I think? I think the scroll is real. The fact that it lists the location of supposed hidden treasure is fascinating. Add to that the addition of Greek letters at the ends of several of the Hebrew lines and it reminds me very much of a puzzle you might find here on ClueChaser. It’s very clever.

But I have my own theory regarding the existance of the actual treasure. I doubt anything is still at the locations suggested by the scroll. My guess is the scroll has served it’s intended purpose. The treasures were buried and the scroll was created to record the locations. A short while later it was used to find and recover the treasures. A scroll made of copper would have value and perhaps it was unwise to simply throw away so instead it was discarded in the back of the closet, or in this case the back of a cave.

Perhaps one day we will know the truth behind the Copper Scroll. Until then we can only wait and let our imaginations run wild. Regardless it is certainly worthy of the title of “Ultimate Puzzle”.

I like this puzzle because of it’s simplicity. One player commented in an email to me that he had never encountered a puzzle like this before. Just an image from which you had to determine not only how to solve it but what it was you were in fact solving.

Interestingly enough it took 8 hours and 15 minutes for the first person to solve it which is 4 times longer than the first cipher puzzle.

I found the image online and then modified it by removing some things and adding others. I figured most might solve it by finding the original image and then seeing what changed. Because of that I modified it more than I needed to in hopes of incorporating some misdirection. I don’t think it worked though. One thing in my favor was that at the time, the website the answer pointed to was not well known and like many of the puzzle solutions, it took just the right person to understand what they were seeing and solve the puzzle.

The hardest part was removing anything from the picture that had numbers or letters or something that would cause too much confusion.

Although the answer is a url, I chose it because it is not your standard web address and therefore more confusing.

I don’t have a page that you can go to check your answer but I can hide it below and you can compare your answer to that. Or, you can just try going to the site indicated by the answer. It is still there, however the link to the next puzzle is no longer active. I can tell you that if you see something referring to Math.com then you found the right place. That puzzle will be discussed in the next blog post.

I hope you enjoy the puzzle. Keep in mind that the puzzles I create are very low tech. One goal I had was to not spend any money creating them so any graphics work that needed to be done I did with MS Paint. Many hate the program but I can do just about anything in it although often it is painstakingly slow.

You can click on the picture above to see it full size. Then you can try to solve it.

Once you think you have it solved, check your solution here:

This was my first attempt at designing puzzles. The picture you see had a lot to do with the key for solving the puzzle. However, I quickly discovered that the players were much smarter than me (not that it’s difficult) and the majority solved it by “brute force”, meaning that they looked for commonly repeated letters and exchanged them for commonly used letters in the alphabet and then used what they had to figure out the rest.

What amazed me the most was that I anticipated this and therefor reversed the order of the key for the part below the picture and used very few letters so the answer couldn’t be guessed without the key. I was still wrong. There are some pretty smart folks out there. It took just 2 hours and 6 minutes to be solved by the first person.

Now I will explain how to solve the puzzle (the way I intended for it to be solved). If you want to try it on your own, don’t read the next part.

If you’re like me and terrible at solving ciphers I will tell you that the picture is a graphical representation of the popular pangram “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. A pangram is a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet at least once. So if you remove the repeated letters you are left with 26 letters. If you then write the alphabet below that in alphabetical order you have just created the key for solving the cipher. I don’t remember if you substitute up or down but for the part of the cipher below the picture, you do the opposite.

I recall being very proud of myself when I created that and sad when no one seemed to figure that part out.

So have fun with it. Print it out, challenge your friends and family. Try creating your own cipher. But don’t send them to me. I love creating puzzles but I’m no good at solving them. Enjoy.

Solve the puzzle and check your answer by typing it into the field at them bottom.

I will go through them one by one, explaining how they were designed and any interesting stories associated with them. For those that played the games, this is a chance to relive the past and remember the excitement of head to head battle against some pretty smart people.

First up, the first ever Cluechaser interactive puzzle game contest, Puzzle Master.

Ah yes, my first attempt at creating a puzzle game. Nostalgia is sweeping over me as I type this. Interestingly enough, it took an amazing 32 days, 7 hours, and 28 minutes for players to solve all the puzzles and complete the game. The winner was UncleBen who almost quit after the 3rd puzzle but hung in there and came out on top. For his efforts he won a unique (and highly coveted) Cluechaser t-shirt, $20 cash, and his name in the Hall of Fame.

So let’s begin breaking them down puzzle by puzzle. Each blog post I will discuss them individually. You’re going to want to grab a seat, buckle up, and hold on. This should prove to be an interesting trip down memory lane. I hope you will share it with me.

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!

Many people make resolutions for the new year. Something they want to accomplish or a habit they want to break. Maybe a destination they want to travel to.
It’s easy to think about the empty year stretched out before us and imagine all kinds of possibilities.
The problem is that possibilities often don’t translate into realities. The majority of people hit a roadblock or two and give up on some or all of their resoutions before the year barely gets started.

For me, I plan to make 2010 a year of progress and completion. You see, many have bestowed upon me the lofty title of

I know it won’t be easy. Many of the items on my mental list have been there a long time. It’s time to blow off the dust and see what it will take to get them done.

One of the items on the list is to complete Game 3: Chasing Shadows. I’ve been “working” on it for a year and a half now. Many of you have been waiting very patiently. I appreciate that. There have been a few setbacks but that is no excuse. It will be ready this year. From what I can see so far, it will be the hardest one yet.

So whether you tiptoe cautiously into 2010 or hit the ground running I hope that later on as we look back on our lives, this one stands out as the year with the fondest memories. The year we’re most proud of.

We can do it. I know it.

If you don’t know Jesus, I pray that during the 2010 year you take some time to look into that. I didn’t become a Christian until I was 30 and even then it was only after much reading, studying, sole searching, questioning, and finally praying. Looking back on it I can’t believe it took me so long and how stubborn I was to accept it. I hope your journey is not as long and difficult as mine was.

Merry Christmas all you Cluechasers out there. Be safe. Be joyful.

Here are the clues to the “twuzzle” (twitter + puzzle) that were tweeted. See if you can solve it. Look for a hint at the bottom if you need it. Good luck.

Twuzzle #1

Part 1

23 clues

Clue 1: In this state It is illegal to rob a bank and then shoot at the bank teller with a water pistol.

Clue 2: In this state coins are not allowed to be placed in one’s ears.

Clue 3: In this state it is illegal for a man to purchase alcohol without written consent from his wife.

Clue 4: In this state women are prohibited from wearing patent leather shoes in public

Clue 5: In this state a citizen is forbidden by law to give another citizen a box of candy that weights more than 50 lbs.

Clue 6: In this state it is illegal to take more than three sips of beer at a time while standing.

Clue 7: In this state it is unlawful to refuse a person a glass of water.

Clue 8: In this state women may not drive in a house coat.

Clue 9: In this state canned corn is not to be used as bait for fishing.

Clue 10: In this state a parent can be arrested if his or her child can’t hold back a burp during a church service.

Clue 11: In this state it is illegal to wear a false moustache which causes laughter in church.

Clue 12: In this state it is illegal to lie down and fall asleep with your shoes on.

Clue 13: In this state dogs must have a permit signed by the mayor in order to congregate on private property in groups of 3 or more

Clue 14: In this state it is illegal to push a live moose out of a moving aircraft.

Clue 15: In this state it is illegal to fly over any body of water, unless one is carrying sufficient supplies of food and drink.

Clue 16: In this state more than 8 women may not live in the same house because that would constitute a brothel.

Clue 17: In this state it is illegal to gargle in public.

Clue 18: In this state a husband is responsible for every criminal act commited by his wife while she is in his presence.

Clue 19: In this state it is illegal for a kiss to last more than five minutes.

Clue 20: In this state it is illegal to use profanity in front of a dead body which lies in a funeral home or in a coroner’s office.

Clue 21: In this state it is illegal to drive a camel on the highway.

Clue 22: In this state R rated movies shall not be shown at drive-in theaters.

Clue 23: In this state animals are banned from mating publicly within 1,500 feet of a tavern, school, or place of worship.

Part 2

Use the clues to determine the special “day” and the date?

So you’re looking for two answers. The day and the date. Good luck!

Here are some hints:
Hint 1:
show

Hint 2:
show

Hint 3:
show

Hint 4:
show