t
t
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test
test
"Leon's big toe just missed clearing the top step of the porch. As he fell to the ground, his backpack lurched up over his head, spilling its contents onto the porch and the open doorway. His pursuers were delighted.
'GAAAAAMMMES! GAAAAAMMMES!' they groaned and quickened their shuffling towards the house.
Leon knew what he was giving up by tossing months worth of word scrambles, crosswords and cryptograms at the undead horde chasing him. But it would buy time he did not have at present, so he emptied the rest of the contents of his backpack onto lawn in front of the house.
The creatures scurried to get their rotting hands on the booty and quickly fell upon each other, fighting for scraps of paper and wooded graphite.
Leon had already raced through the house, grabbed the car keys and raced away in the pickup truck by the time his pursuers remembered their original quarry. His costly stunt had financed a temporary stay of sentence. But Leon knew he could not run forever.
He would need as much time as possible to prepare to make his stand. By Halloween, though, the creatures would be too strong. 'Fine then, Midnight Madness-October 22nd. I'll be ready,' Leon murmured to himself as the truck rattled down the dark dirt road.
"Leon's big toe just missed clearing the top step of the porch. As he fell to the ground, his backpack lurched up over his head, spilling its contents onto the porch and the open doorway. His pursuers were delighted.
'GAAAAAMMMES! GAAAAAMMMES!' they groaned and quickened their shuffling towards the house.
Leon knew what he was giving up by tossing months worth of word scrambles, crosswords and cryptograms at the undead horde chasing him. But it would buy time he did not have at present, so he emptied the rest of the contents of his backpack onto lawn in front of the house.
The creatures scurried to get their rotting hands on the booty and quickly fell upon each other, fighting for scraps of paper and wooded graphite.
Leon had already raced through the house, grabbed the car keys and raced away in the pickup truck by the time his pursuers remembered their original quarry. His costly stunt had financed a temporary stay of sentence. But Leon knew he could not run forever.
He would need as much time as possible to prepare to make his stand. By Halloween, though, the creatures would be too strong. 'Fine then, Midnight Madness-October 22nd. I'll be ready,' Leon murmured to himself as the truck rattled down the dark dirt road.
GAAAMMMES! GAAAAMMMMES!
Here is another request for word about this year's MM ... if there is one. Or none. Let us know. Thanks!
Please tell me MM is going to happen again this year? I'm desperate for some embedded word puzzles!
FROM - ctelleNYC I can't wait for the next MM. Any word yet?
x/c
Any Word on the 2005 MM?
In response to the request for SMS tech info...
The SMS server was quite simple really. I borrowed a Sierra Wireless Aircard 750 from a friend. This is basically a GSM/GPRS cellphone in PCMCIA card package. The same type of setup can be done with any GSM cellphone and a serial cable attaching it to a pc.
I used a software called NowSMS which is free for 60 days. It has a lot of features but I only used one, which is executing a program everytime an sms message comes in with the message as a command line argument. It then sends as a reply anything that the program writes to standard output.
Then I wrote two pieces of software. One is the main game application that keeps track of all the teams, the combination guesses, the hints, etc. This program also has a sockets server running that waits for incoming sms messages. The second piece of software is a little sockets client that the NowSMS software executes when it gets a message. The client program sends the message to the main application, writes the response to standard out and exits. Everything is multi-threaded in case the sms messages overlap, but I don't think this ever happens.
That's all.
hi everyone,
first, a big thanx 2 everyone who made this happen.
2nd thanx 2 our capitan 2 let me know about this amazing experiance. This was the coolest thing i did this summer. Cant waut 4 da next one.
Yea baby! On of our Teammates made this (Sorrel!)
Some friends and I are seriously considering puting on another game sometime before the next Midnight Madness. It is unlikely to be as good as this one since we haven't done one before but it should still be fun. If any of you would want to play please send me an email and I'll let you know if we get our act together. jed2000 gmail
I can't believe how much work went into MM. Thanks to game control for providing so much fun. I am just now beginning to get my head out of MM and back into real life. There was a point after sunrise in Charles Shurs park when I had to ask myself why I was still there. It was infectious I couldn't stop. When we finally made it up to Belvedere I wanted there to be more game. Thanks again.
New York. At 9am the sun is already hitting the upper-east-side hard,
predicting another one of those oppressive new york august days. my team
is sitting on the sidewalk on 77th street, eleven supposedly grownup
people slouching over a laptop and a large sheet of paper full of
cryptic scribbles. The impromptu sit-down must surprise the resident's
of new york's wealthy quarter, who try to not stare as they pass us with
pedigree dogs on their leash. but after an all-nighter racing against
the clock and eighteen other teams, we couldn't care less about new
york's posh or their sunday morning walks. we were just one SMS message
away from getting into the final stage of the competition.
Twelve hours earlier we are walking along central park's dark paths, on
our way to the assembly point. In the secretive fashion of 'Midnight
Madness', the exact location was only sent out to the participants two
days earlier, over email. The closer we get to the park's center, the
larger the influx of of players. The average profile of the late night
walkers is pretty homogenous, and not surprising if you consider that
we're talking about a scavenger hunt involving electronic gadgets, a
central messaging program and analytical puzzles. if your guess was
'20-something geeky types', you would have been pretty right on.
At the starting point, players update their cell phone's contact lists
with the team member's numbers, some of which they're never met outside
their email inbox. getting to know other people is not even on the
agenda, and they remain dark shadows on the other end of the fountain.
suddenly, out of nowhere, one of the game's organizers emerges - clad in
black sunglasses in spite of the night's darkness. he summons one of
each team and exposes this year's rules:
the teams got 4 envelopes containing the initial clues. we open them to
find a strange array of objects: a poem, a maze, some digital art, and
an electronic device that looks like a hairclip from a bad 80s science
fiction movie. LEDs lined up on the device flash in preset sequence, as
if trying to tell us something. We pass the clues around with raised
eybrows, and the next time we look up, the sunglasses-clad man has
disappeared into the night as fast as he surfaced, and most of the teams
are on their way.
"Midnight madness" is a scavenger-hunt game run by a group of
volunteers. It was incepted (is that a word) in 1996 by Mat Laibowitz
and Dan Michaelson, who were then columbia university undergrads. In
their senior year they wanted "to create something different. something
that's not work, or tv, or video games." tells me leibowitz, now an MIT
media lab grad student, over email. The game's name is taken from
michael j. fox's 1980 film debut with the same name.
The game's organizers are electronics wizards, and have been known to
build custom devices that propell their hunt's narrative. This year, for
the first time, all of the standard communication goes over SMS, to a
computer program located in the game control room (which is, naturally,
located at a secret location). The program also sends confirmations and
errors back to the teams and accepts guesses on the final code, and
allows the people running the game to keep track of the team's progress.
Midnight Madness is, obviously, not your regular scavenger hunt. You
won't see kids in boy scout uniforms sticking their hands into hollow
tree stumps. The organizers have, instead, made full use of the city's
every nook to create original clues and riddles. On 81st street a
seemingly normal book in a store front window is really a fake with a
clue hidden in the cover design. Elsewhere, a building permit notice
hides the road to the next password. And in a shady bar under the
queensboro bridge, an erratic digital clock encodes the path to a museum
down the avenue. Josh Lifton, one of the organizers, says that "the
preparations start about two months before the game, and the last three
days are non-stop work". During the game "some of us are in the field,
placing clues and fixing broken ones, while the others are manning the
phones in the control room".
The participating teams, too, are not really decoding the messages using
candles. Many of them came equipped with bicycles, skateboards,
binoculars, headlamps, and portable computers. When we're stuck on a
synonym for "ditch", one of the teammmembers pulls out his laptop, and
like a sinai tourist looking for cellphone signal, he walks the
manhattan night with his laptop at chest height, looking for unencrypted
wireless access. cheating you say? not according to the race's rules,
which state only two limitations: no motorized vehicles, and no
tampering with clues.
the passwords are collected slowly, and before we can even take our
first shot at the final code, the sun has already risen over the city.
right now we have 5 guesses, and we can't use one of the suits at all
until our last one. as we walk tiredly up 1st ave, some of us decide to
not let the sleep deprivation get the better of our guesses and starts
coding up a program to track the legal combinations of the code based on
our previous guesses. we sink onto the sidewalk and huddle around the
open laptop. twenty minutes and 4 guesses later, we have the passphrase,
and we're on our way to the game's final leg, back in central park.
when we arrive at 10:30am at the finish line, there's only one other
team basking in the sun. but looks deceive. "if you were here two hours
ago, you would have been welcomed by much louder cheers" tells us one of
the organizers, herself enjoying the summer sunshine. eight teams beat
us to the goal, and already left. the game ends with an anti-climatic
registration, and without much celebration. and even here, at the finish
line, the teams don't meet. the next time we'll hear from each other
will probably be on the bulletin board of the game, where everyone will
remain as faceless as they were before we set out into the park, a day
before.
Can we get a translation on that? I can't seem to find anything that'll translate a hebrew webpage into english...
Looks like Team Baby Blue made it into the press across the Atlantic:
http://www.haaretz.co.il/captain/pages/ShArtCaptain.jhtml?contrassID=11&subContrassID=0&itemNo=469222
-GC-
If you really want one, I'll make you one... it's not that it's expensive, it's just a little tedious...
I figure most of the MM folks can make a few circuits...
Game Control: Any chance of auctioning off that clock from Subway Inn? If you want to keep money out of the picture, you can always donate the proceeds to some charity or something.
FROM - FountainRedI was really impressed with the SMS system? Could you provide a little info into what it took to put it together?
That's great, thanks so much. Makes explaining the whole ordeal so much easier.
Thanks again for all your hard work on everything!
Jeez.. these look so simple laid out like this.. argh!
-K
most of the clues have now been posted on the site - accessible through the home page (and link below).
where applicable, the solutions are included with the clue (in the same .pdf).
and a request : we weren't much able to document many of the clues in their natural settings... so, if you have any photos of the clues (and/or any photos in general) please e-mail them to game control.
gc.
http://www.midnight-madness.org/mmvii/clues.html
Speaking of MM the movie, isn't Mat from game control a dead ringer for Leon? However, game controlers Debra and Shawna are way hotter than game control bimbos Candy and Sunshine.
If anyone wants to see Midnight Madness the movie, I have a copy... e-mail me by clicking on my name above.
some starts on the HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR (yes our!) FUN AND GAMES:
-----------------------------
[a call for hint #2 on Mr. Burns, well on into the morning]
"game control."
"hi, we did what you told us to do - we wrote 'Mr. Burns on fire' and we've been staring at it for the last half hour and we can't figure anything out?!"
"uh... that was 'light mr. burns on fire'"
-----------------------
player [at 'who's on first' to another player] : "dude, there's nothing - and there's a dead rat down there. it's nasty"
-----------------------
watching team purple haze hone in on the solution to the meta-game with such blazing precision
-----------------------
[a call to gc, 2:58am]
"game control."
"hi, we just solved the crow's nest clue..."
"oh ya?"
"well ya - we found finley's walk, and there's the lighthouse right there... but we're here and 2:57am just passed and nothing happened."
[to quote one of the game masters "we're good, but we're not that good"]
-------------------------
michael phelps... as a thing.
{with a really long torso - or should i say "what body part is examined inside the doctor's office?")
-------------------------
"...sour apple?" "no." "uuuuuuh, pineapple" "nuh uh. right letter though..." "papaya? peach? ... pear? oooooh ya... pear."
-------------------------
[upon our SMS outage, team XX happens to have just solved the last clue in a zone... they are issued their first guess but have to call in for the results. they get cut off three times and are then told to send in their guess by SMS then call in for the result... they do...}
"game control."
"hi we want to check the results on our guess..."
"ok, your guess came through - you guessed "toad toad toad toad?"
"yup."
"uh, that would be no correct symbols in any correct positions"
"crap."
-------------------------------
seeing team pink's awesome dedication to the spirit of good game play.
-------------------------------
gc : "so what have you figured out?"
team : "well, we've arranged the 3 cubes on the bottom in a concentrically increasing array wherein the seams of the boxes are aligned toward the axis formed by the square root of the sum of the other two cubes numbers when aligned with the other threes' top left corners... are we on the right track?"
[or something like that...]
-----------------------
"it was perfect. the book cover was so unbelievably perfectly banal."
-----------------------
"... so did you realize that if you took all the capital letters from the each of the paragraphs in the matchmaker clue and then rearrange them you get a 1-877 number? ... we left a message."
-----------------------
getting pumped with baby blue as they figured out the meta-solution live on the line...
-----------------------
seeing all teams start... and all teams finish.
-----------------------
lucking out with a most perfectly perfect night (and morning) for running through the city.
-----------------------
"so... how are we doing?"
Scorpion Zone:
1) Amazing on First - If you filled in the maze from start to finish, including all possible options and dead ends, the colored in area would spell 1683. At 1683 First Ave was a closed bar called Who's On First.
2) The Rat - At Who's On First there was a cave like construction area with a fake rat located in it. The fake rat had a tag with the next clue. This clue asked the teams to guess which of the teams listed in the team list was a fake team. The fake team was Silver. Teams had two hours after arriving at the start to figure this out. Fans of the Midnight Madness movie might have noticed that Team Silver's captain was Noel, which is Leon spelled backwards. Leon was the gamemaster from the movie.
3) Crow's Flight - The idea of this clue was to follow a path around the part. The path starts at the park entrance where you got the map. The name of the train was crows flight and it flies by the minute, so you should walk in the direction of the minute hand as the crow flies. Along this path you will find the next location on the schedule. At this point you will start walking in the direction of the minute hand for the time from the schedule for this spot. If you follow this train to the end you would have found the letters O-V-E-R-P-A-S-S and the last location should have pointed you out of the park, north along the FDR promenade until you hit an overpass. This is where the next clue was.
4) Mr. Burns - The picture of Mr. Burns in the Altoids tin, does just that, it Burns. If you heat it up or light it on fire, it will burn away revealing 86th street. When you get there you were searching for a giant pear, as the jelly beans in the tin were pear shaped.
Toad Zone:
1) The LED stick acted like one vertical line in an led sign. If you copied down the patterns in a sequence it will spell out 168 E. 91st. The final trick was that the text was at an angle. The angle was equal to the angle the stick was at when held by the string attached to it.
2) Permit - A fake building permit had the following six words followed by four blanks after each word: IRRELEVANT, DITCH, QUANTITY, MAIL, EXPENDITURE, THROW. To solve this you needed to think of 4 letter synonyms that differe only by one letter from the one on top of it. There should be only one set of words that fit this pattern. MOOT, MOAT, MOST, POST, COST, CAST. The different letters are A-S-P-C-A.
3) Pet Letter - The key is the sentence Look After Tim. Everywhere the letter T-I-M fell in the text, regardless of what letters are between them, the following letter was important. All of these letters when put together spell out VINEGAR FACTORY.
4) Maria de Stenfield - The first sentence "I Can Make Connections" points out that "I" Can make connections. Lower case I's have dots. This is a conenct the dots puzzle using the i's in the text. When connected, each paragraph forms a digit and it spelled 1717 First. At this address was a laudromat that had a detergent box with the next code word. This box went missing somewhere during the game.
Centipede Zone:
1) The first puzzle was a simple rebus that led to Alexander Hamilton Park.
2) The picture of a pine tree and a tummy led to Pinetum area in the park.
3) The picture of Diana Ross led to Diana Ross playground.
4) The text said to ascend, and it was on a picture of Mr. Belvedere. This meant to go up to Belvedere Castle.
Lizard Zone:
1) Bridge Text - The text hinted to look under the bridge. The location was found by looking at the words located under each occurance of the word "bridge" in the text. It pointed to the Roosevelt Island Tram.
2) Dot Pattern - At the Tram Plaza there was a sculpture made of perforated metal. When the rose image was lined up with this metal, it revealed a hidden picture of the sign from the Subway Inn, a nearby bar. Some teams solved this without using the metal, simply by staring at the picture and focusing on the picture in the dots.
3) Clock - The times presented by the clock were actually coordinates in a 12x60 grid where the hour hand was one axis and the minute hand was the other axis. If a dot was drawn at each clock point, the words Mt. Vernon Hotel were spelled out. Note: we had intended to print the instruction sheets on two pages with a grid on the back of each page. This would have helped with this. There was a screw up at kinkos and they printed the wrong file.
4) Ode to O - The title tells you that the letter "o" is important. The first stanza contains one "o" per word and the same number of words per line as the second stanza. If you looked at the letter in each word in the second stanza in the position that the "o" occurred in the matching word in the first stanza, you would find "Blow off some steam at Scores". The final password was hidden near a steam pipe across the street from Scores.
Snake Zone:
1)Love Poem - Each line of the poem is a seperate riddle. The first line, "You are the chats inside my drab laboratory." In the phrase draB LABoratory, you find the word blab which is related to chats. The second line, "Though I am the yucky in the cosmic kaleidoscope." contains ICK in the cosmIC Kaleidoscope, which is related to yucky. The third line, "I am the light within the greaT ORCHestra" contains torch, a light. The final line, "And I am the child surround by darK IDeas." contains kid, a child. If you take all these words and follow the final paragraph of the clue, you will take the you word, BLAB, and remove its last letter and put it in front of the I words, ICK, TORCH, and KID, but with their first letters removed, you will get BLACK ORCHID, the name of a bookstore.
2) The book - The book in the window of the black orchid had the following picture on it: FEDORA, SAX, TIE, and THREAD. The title "Disavowal" tells you to take out the vowels. You then get, FDRSXTTHRD, which is FDR SIXTY-THIRD without the vowels (y being a sometimes vowel).
3) Dog Run - At the Dog Run at sixty-third and FDR teems found a bag of five white cubes, 3 with red writing, and 2 with green writing. When place in water (there were two dog washing tubs at the dog run), the cubes would flip over and float with a particular side facing up. The red cubes showed the address and the green ones showed the street, 420 76th street.
4) Cork Board - In the service entrance at 420 E. 76th teams found a cork bulleting board with a bin of pins. The pins could only be inserted in certain parts of the bulletin board, other spots the pins would not go in all the way. The spots where the pins could be stuck in the board spelled out 71st and FDR which is where the final code word was located, spelled in coins in a fountain.
The only time there was a tip jar was in MM4, which I had nothing to do with.
I understand why a tip jar makes sense, and could ultimately help improve the game, but it just doesn't fit my idea of the game.
We try to do everything as cheaply as we can. I use electronics that have gone "missing" from somewhere, We try to print everything on someone's inkjet. I find the fact that we have to hack everything together as cheap as we can an essential part of the process.
Not that 100 little white boxes, a fake rat, and a hotel room on the upper east side are free, but thanks to the generous donations of the half of game control that is not starving grad students, we got it done in style. If these donations were not available, we would have set up game control in a parking lot, and used a real dead rat. Everyone owes them thanks for not having to read the clue off of a real dead rat.
A couple of additional comments based on what others are saying:
--Purple Haze, kudos for beating so many of us with so many rookies. Wow. For future reference, though, the "embedded text" puzzles appear all the time. They are often controversial, too. We discarded "t-i-m" as a solution to Petsitter early on because that exact sequence appeared only twice in the letter. We only got it after a very helpful hint. But "under the bridge" was pretty clear to us (eventually) because the "tram" part had to be intentional.
--We were frustrated by the building permit, probably mostly because we came up with what seemed to be at least as plausible four-letter synonyms in two cases. We used the correct technique but it didn't work, of course, because we had the wrong words. Then we wasted a bunch of time with other potential techniques.
--Mat, I agree with you about charging, but maybe next time there could be a "tip jar" at the finish line (as there was once) to just help defray the not-inconsiderable cost of producing the clues and everything?
Us: Purple Haze consisted of all MM rookies, except for one guy. We had 13 people. Some of us LOVED it; others weren't prepared for how much racing and scrounging there would be. Should we get to play again, I believe future Purple Hazes will be leaner, meaner machines.
Structure: Hands down, the best part of this game was the original and wonderful structure. This was very, very, very well thought out. First of all, four parallel puzzle paths spread out teams and broke up the game, which eliminated the congestion we had feared. (It also benefitted our somewhat large team-- thanks!) Having some space from other teams allowed us to be more comfortable and hang loose. That was fun and great.
But more significantly, the fact that teams used up tokens when guessing made for *very* interesting strategizing about which order we should attack the puzzles; certain tokens were more important than others. During the two hours of leisure we had at the start of the game, we did a little research into optimal strategy for Mastermind. This allowed us to deduce the combination after three guesses, but the token/inventory structure required us to complete 3.5 categories. Perfect! Devious! And quite brilliant.
Texting: The SMS server that tracked our score worked well. Thank you for programming the inventory feature (though I think there may have been a bug with token decrementing?). We got faster responses through that system than over voice lines. I also imagine it provided you with a wealth of data about teams' progress. Might you be willing to post that raw data...?
Favorite puzzles: For me, these were the LED blinker (unusual and cool, with a clear answer) and the Altoids tin. The Altoids tin was fun, and its answer gave a clear and unambiguous *specific* location to search. Seeing that giant pear on 86th was definitely a high point. The digital readout in the window of the Subway Inn was also a very good puzzle -- we should have thought about coordinate pairs long before! I also liked the floating blocks, but we didn't need to solve that one.
Least favorite puzzles: the "embedded text" puzzles, for lack of a better term. These included the "under the bridge" puzzle, the petsitter's note, and the Ode to O. Personally, I fell for a lot of false plausibles with the bridge puzzle (is it under the bridge somewhere on Roosevelt Island? should we "cross the river?" is it "past the water?" how about the German consulate?), though that was partly because we solved the Subway Inn first, and didn't make the connection to the metal grate in that smelly plaza. The other two (petsitter and ode) just seemed a little obscure and inadequately clued for me. (The t-i-ms aren't contiguous? Why would I think to do that?) But then again, I've never played this game before.
Best oh-duh moment: Disavowel. We banged our heads against the book jacket copy for a long time, trying to remove vowels and add new ones.
It took a hint from GC to remind us of the visual elements we had ignored.
Easiest puzzle: the work permit word ladder. That one was solved in about one minute by our math babe.
Hardest puzzle: definitely the Carl Schurz Park run-around. I still don't understand how that was supposed to work. We just let our clock run out. Will solutions be posted?
The beginning: someone told us that a late start is traditional. But we didn't know that. So after several people rushed to get there by 8:45pm, we were pretty bummed that we didn't have any puzzles to do for 2.5 hours.
The end: Ah, the vicissitudes of fate. How stunning our meltdown. Let me first say this: there were a couple of frustrated calls to GC at the very end-- when we were off-course at Bethesda and completely exhausted and couldn't maintain a cell connection with Game Control-- and for that I apologize. I hope we didn't piss anyone off. Honestly, we thought we were doing terribly.
Our team was shocked, SHOCKED, to learn that we took second and were in the lead for a while. Based on the number of deposited Altoids tins (3) and obelisk envelopes (7?) that we found, we thought that we were in, like, 10th place, and we got pretty tired and demoralized by 8am. We had expected the finish line to be the obelisk, which added to our oh-god-it's-a-centipede exhaustion. We strolled Central Park assuming a majority of teams had already finished, and when we went off-course, half the team cut out for sleep. That was 5 minutes before we were directed to the Marionette Theater. Earlier, GC had told one of our members that we were doing well, but I think that comment was dismissed as simple encouragement. Rookie mistake, I guess. A guy named Josh gave us some advice at the beginning of the game, telling us that there's always a high point and a low point. It seems our low point came at 8:15am. Anyway, sorry for the attitude.
8:40 Team Cerulean
8:41 Team Purple Haze
9:35 Midnight Blue/Ochre/Off-White
9:38 Black
9:39 Lava
9:46 Clear
10:08 Puce
10:55 Baby Blue
11:03 Fuchsia
11:07 Lemonade
11:15 Red
11:23 Goldenrod
11:25 Agent Orange
11:34 Buttercup
11:42 Spicy Mustard
12:22 Pink
Representatives from Team Silver were seen at the finish line as early as 7:00.
Ever since I worked on the first MM, I had realized that if a team were to pretend to be multiple teams, they could receive multiple hints for each clue. I have thought of ways to prevent, and even ways to secretly make this strategy backfire. But I figured that the first team to attempt this strategy should get to try it.
Leave it to former Game Controller Kamalesh to try it. As you may have realized, Team Midnight Blue, Team Ochre, and Team Off-White were working together from the beginning.
This should have been a huge advantage, especially since they could have three times as many guesses at the mastermind puzzle. Working together like that would have given them 9 guesses at the mastermind puzzle after solving only 2 zones. That is more than enough to solve it easily. Luckily, you still had to solve clues in the other zones to use them in your guesses.
But Cerulean and Purple Haze were too good.
Now that I have put this strategy into the open, if I work on this game again, I will be work on counter-measures.
But for now, I applaude the strategy.
Thanks to every one for playing. This is the first year that every team finished.
A special thanks to the rest of Game Control. I had spent a lot of my time working on the SMS system and the mastermind logic (working on my thesis, handed in 8/12 only a week prior to MM, notwithstanding), but luckily Shauna, Deborah, Doron, Josh, and Talia came up big with the clues and production, both original clues of their own, and turning my vague ideas like... um, i think a clue where you connect the dotted i's would be cool... into a well-written match-maker ad, complete with cheesy clip-art.
The SMS system was a big success. It helped with game control duties, cut down on calls, and allowed the mastermind puzzle and rat puzzle to be automated. I had not expected to use up all the dollars on the account, sorry for that interruption as I raced from deli to deli to find a refill card.
Every year some of the clues go missing. We try to react as quickly as possible. The rat was so brilliant and it sucks that it disappeared. So was the detergent box at the Laundromat. It would be great to have some spotters, but as a GC member from MMs 1,2,3,5,6, and 7, I am fundamentally against charging for participation. If GameControl were larger, we could send someone around constantly, but we need as many people behind the phones as possible. Maybe, if he survives the intense training program, the addition of Adam "Danger" Susman to Game Control will make that possible.
I am about to post the final results, a clue list with solutions, and the final version of the software simulator I made to test the mastermind logic.
The mastermind logic was designed to allow smart and lucky teams to solve it by completing two zones, smart but not so lucky teams to solve it with three zones, and everyone else to have to solve all the puzzles. Having the requirement of solving clues in a zone to be able to use it in a guess, was to make it more than a race to solve as many clues as possible, as in making the order of the solving of clues important.
The zones were named after the 5 Deadly Venoms from the Shaw Brothers movie of the same name, obviously.
We used to have a team size limit, but we also had 35 teams last year. So we had hoped to cut down the number of teams by removing the limit. More teams means more production, more LED sticks to make, etc.
Congratulations to all teams, and to Cerulean for crossing the finish line first.
-mat
The most frustrating thing about the crows flight is we always felt like we were "on the cusp" so we didn't use any hints on it until we had already been in the park for close to 3 hours... yaaarg...
The crow's flight one required that you use the minutes from each of the times to go from letter to letter (and each letter corresponded to a train stop). So, picture an analog clock instead of digital, and let the minute hand guide you.
Unfortunately, we found the letters after chasing after an idea we had from a previous puzzle, so our approach to this one changed dramatically, and it caused us to waste a lot of time on it, too. We also didn't mark our map with where we found the letters, so finding the right order was difficult later.
OK, I'll bite:
Good: Aesthetically, loved the flashing lights clue and the Mr. Burns clue. At first, I hated the "zones" but later they grew on me, and some on our team were terrific figuring out the logic of guessing. Registering the clues by SMS was great (though later on, we experienced some kind of phone interference or technical difficulties). Liked the floating dice, though we only figured it out after leaving the area and had to provide our own water.
Bad/Indifferent/Not sure/Vague comments: I am not sure what happened with the rat, but I know several teams arrived to find it missing. We assumed that we somehow got it wrong, left, and found out later that we were right, to find it missing again (or still) when we returned. Then we saw Game Control come and place the clue. At the time I was convinced that some unscrupulous team was taking it.
We really hit the wall with the Crow's flight clue. There seemed to be a ton of ways to tackle this and I'm still not sure I understand the clock part. Can someone explain it here?
With "Dear Petsitter" we got "Evian Factory" well before the real solution.
With the matchmaker clue, I was thrown by a big red herring in the "R" paragraph: "I insist that you immediately find / Miz S, also known as me." So I tried diagramming based on s and sequences of m and e. When the first line was pointed out to me--D'oh!
I haven't appreciated handrails on stairs this much in.. well.. since last MM.
Next year, someone please remind me to stretch before slipping into my post-game coma
Resource allocation was, in fact, key.
As was making sure the hints were used in the most efficient way possible. Whenever we would find a clue, the time would be noted and we'd call ASAP for a hint (if needed)
Whenever we needed to call in for a hint, we would call around the the remote squads and make sure it wasn't needed elsewhere first, and to make sure that everyone knew we were using to, to start their 30min clocks for the next clue available.
There's a lot more strategy that we embraced, but we can't go giving away all our secrets ;)
-Kevin
Go team cerulean! Woo!
Also, there's not enough convo on this board!! Make sure all the teams know about it, tell everyone that you know who played to come and spill their thoughts on the BBS :)
I was interested to hear Adam mention hint allocation. I think that the effective use of hints was a key factor in game success. Some teams massively underused their hints to their great detriment; others, clearly split and uncoordinated, would call in for a hint five minutes after a teammate had used one up. I think that this may have been the reason for one team who was initially doing very, very well to fall behind.
Adam / Kevin-
That's really interesting to learn how your team was organized. There can be no doubt that enthusiasm is key! Its really easy to get bummed by a clue, but you've got to just keep brainstorming ideas!
p.s., I think that in about a weeks time "Cerulean sexcamp" is going to be a googlewhack!
FROM - ChrisNew York - 24.215.167.21I would love to have the clock that was in the window of Subway Inn. Any chance that you guys could auction some of these puzzles on eBay? Even extras of any of the other puzzles would be cool, such as the rose picture, the blinking lights, etc.
FROM - KevinI think it helped alot, that for the past 3 months, we'd all been meeting and hanging out at the summer share on weekends. We've all gotten to know each other really well and we work well together (Dinner's gotta get made somehow! Those trips out to the watering don't plan themselves either!)
So, yea.. we all just had a blast with each other, friendship really helped out a lot :)
-Kevin
Ryan: the 17 members of Cerulean were largely composed of shares in the Catskills summerhouse "Sexcamp". Although we had loose plans on how to organize already in place, those plans were laid on the assumption that we would play a linear event, so they went right out the window when we learned the rules.
We had no fixed HQ, but I acted as a central wrangler for hint allocation and resource management while working on clues myself. Folks would call in with progress reports and I/we would redistribute our assets accordingly. When a clue needed help, I would decide whether it made sense to spend a precious hint or just send one of our sober minds over to the trouble spot. NOTE: the effects of pot are crippling in Midnight Madness ;-)
We had no "fixed" squads either, but reshuffled based on the types of clues/brains (analytic, wordy, visual, etc.), energy levels of our players, sexual urgings, and pure whim.
I think that ultimately it was that we made an effort to keep our spirits high, not get frustrated, and keep moving at max speed. Even when we would show up to find that there were less than 17 clues (at times 2, at times a dozen), which we thought meant we were way behind, we would still go all out. Turns out this was misdirection, as at the Met obelisk when we assumed we were in 6th or 7th place, but we still sprinted through the park...thank god! I can only imagine what I looked like to those Upper East squares walking those disgusting little inbred show dogs. HAHA!
God! I want more!!!!
Adam-- how big was Cerulean? I was impressed that your team was big enough to have your own color guard! How did you organize such a large crew? Did you have a single location for your HQ, where people would shuttle clues back and forth? Or did you essentially just break into four separate teams?
Jed reminds me of another suggestion: set a max team size. Seems like the fairest way to do it. We were bumming about having a large team because it would have been detrimental in a linear game. Wrangling so many people and voices around a single clue would have been frustrating and difficult. But we just couldn't say no to all our friends! Turned out that by focusing on keeping things organized we were able to turn that into an asset in this year's model.
GC: will you send out some sort of notifcation of how teams did? And a solution set for all those puzzles?
Oh also I really liked the SMS system. I think it should also be used for the hints to avoid the pain of trying to get through to game control.
Thanks Game control for another awesome game!
Good: All the puzzles I thought were really good. I especially like the ones that involved the physical space like the picture of the rose that you had to hold up to the mesh and I imagine how the park one should have been solved by actually going along a line from letter to letter.
Bad: I can appreciate how the four puzzle paths kept the game spread out and made for constant action. but since we had such a small team it made it really hard to keep up. Next year we will just have to get more people.
The worst: Having to wait a whole year to play again.
GC: I have thought of nothing else for the last 25 hours. Your trials haunt my sleep, my labor, my love life.
THANK YOU!!!!
The GREAT: the four categories were a master stroke. Although I have not played before, I understand the process tends towards the linear (and the inevitable herding of teams). Thank you for devising such a brilliant method of scattering the players!
The Really Great: the mad dash through Central Park! Where did those calories that fueled my sprinting come from? Pure excitment generated by your wonderful work fo course. Great plan to make those clues easy enough for battle weary warriors. I knew I studied Central Park for something!
The Troubles: sure your SMS ran out of funds. Sure all four contacts were at times all unavailable. Sure you weren't there to make sure Rats did not vanish in a cloud of whisky and bar smoke. But that's the price we pay for not paying a price, right? If you charged an entry you could cover those bases a bit easier. That said, maybe something to consider for next year? Give a few kids some $$ to run around checking on clues all night?
THANK YOU!
-A
Many thanks to game control for a superbly well organized game, and for another "great all-nighter" of puzzling. Curses to game control for coming up with such fiendishly difficult puzzles!
The good:
The structure of the game worked really well. The SMS were a robust way to make sure everyone had mobile technology... cell phones are less likely than badges run out of batteries, or get radio interference. The "mastermind" organization was brilliant... you could solve the first part without completing all four legs. The clever disguises for the clues were excellent... I spent an hour staring right out "Disavowel" without noticing the codeword. Similarly, the building permit was excellent. My favorite clue was the altoids tin... wandering along 86th we were sure we had the flavor of the gummies wrong, until, like a vision, we noticed the giant pear in front of Gristedes.
The bad:
I thought all of the puzzles this year were on par with the most difficult puzzles of previous years. In my opinion, the crow's flight express was the hardest... with the combination of hidden letters, clock times and park geometry, there were lots of ways to combine the elements which seemed plausible (even after the hint "you're on the right track, things will just line up"), but only way is right. On the other hand, if my team came in first place, I probably wouldn't have thought the puzzles were that tough. No doubt people will grouse about the late start... I wouldn't mind so much if teams had a practice puzzle to munch on in the park. I raring to run and solve clues from about 6:00pm!
The ugly:
The rat clue was missing by the time we got there... maybe a non-player curious as to why dozens of people kept dashing downstairs took it? So was Diana Ross in the Pinetum in the park... I suspect that one disappeared becuase someone in the park fancied it.
Finally, I feel there were less opportunities for team interactions due to the game play area. Thanks again to game control... over the past few years, Midnight Madness has become the highlight of my summer. I'm still surprised you guys don't charge $500 admission to play!
And as my teammate likes to say, show me the mustard!
Does anyone remember the title of the book at Black Orchid? Disavowel? Disavowal? Who was the author? Thanks.
Congrats to all -- about half as many teams but every single one of you made it to the very end. Now, what about favorite or least favorite clues? Difficulties in game play? Suggestions? How did you like the text messaging? Let's hear it... post-game analysis is valuable stuff we can ignore for next year.
Thanks for playing!
GC
Wow, what a game. I'll be sleeping this one off for a long time. Thanks Game Control for all of the hard, hard work that went into making this -- I have a craving for pears now. Purple rookies take second WOOOOO!
Toldja guys I'd be waiting at the finish line for you. Great game guys. That was awesome.
Congrats to everyone
Mad props to my team, cerulean. You guys were awesome.
-kevin
If you'll remember from last year, even the electronic beacons were reasonably protected from the elements, in case of a storm. (Except those at the park...) I doubt there will be any delays other than those which we have begun to expect, but just be wary of your cell phones since we will be using SMS in the rain.
Good luck to all teams, and we'll see you in the park.
I was referring to possibly another delay, like we had last year.
Thunderstorms will only deter the weak of mind and body, grasshopper. B R I N G I T ! ! !
Thunderstorms are expected tomorrow, will this affect the game?
Team Royal Blue is the only team that has yet to register a password.
If you are on Team Royal Blue, please contact GameControl.
The announcement that you have all been waiting for...
Midnight Madness 7 will start at 9pm at the Bethesda Fountain in Central
Park. The fountain is located in the center of the park approximately even
with 72nd street.
See you all there.
Final Team List:
Team Agent Orange (Han)
Team Baby Blue (Ma)
Team Black (LoPrete)
Team Buttercup (Huang)
Team Cerulean (Susman)
Team Clear (Purdy)
Team Fuschia (Dupre)
Team Goldenrod (Doan)
Team Lava (Hillstrom)
Team Lemonade (Campbell)
Team Midnight Blue (Rao)
Team Off White (Hollinghurst)
Team Pink (McCaleb)
Team Puce (King)
Team Purple Haze (Chaneski)
Team Red (Moldawer)
Team Silver (Noel)
Team Spicy Mustard (Wiesel)
The following teams have not registered, please contact gamecontrol for an assigned password:
Team Ochre (Howard)
Team Royal Blue (Andrea)
Good Luck
So if you're gonna be hungry, why not pop on over to Ikea, I hear they've got some meatballs and lingonberry dish that you guys absolutely adore.
Certainly sounds a hell of alot better than bunnies and pancakes topped with.. what the hell was that mess you proposed to eat me with? Blueberry Syrup and Some Hot Mustard... yum yum. Eat like that and you'll have a tummy ache for the whole game! Crazy fucking swede :)
It might be good with some of that punch you served at your party on the roof, that was tasty. (seriously)
Late Breaking News...
Team Midnight Blue has split into Midnight Blue and Off-White.
Team Viridian has combined with Team Purple Haze
Team Off White Is Going To Be Hungry On Saturday. There Is Nothing Tastier Than Bunny and Pancake. I'm Bringing Blueberry Syrup and Some Hot Mustard. Jude Is Bringing the Spit. Dave Has The Cherry Wood. It Will Help With The Flavor!
A team specific email with instructions on how to complete the registration process has been sent to the captains. The teams and captains are:
Team Agent Orange (Han)
Team Baby Blue (Ma)
Team Black (LoPrete)
Team Buttercup (Huang)
Team Cerulean (Susman)
Team Clear (Purdy)
Team Fuschia (Dupre)
Team Goldenrod (Doan)
Team Lava (Hillstrom)
Team Lemonade (Campbell)
Team Midnight Blue (Rao)
Team Pink (McCaleb)
Team Puce (King)
Team Purple Haze (Chaneski)
Team Red (Moldawer)
Team Royal Blue (Andrea)
Team Silver (Noel)
Team Spicy Mustard (Wiesel)
Team Viridian (Wecht)
If your captain did not receive the email, or are not on the list above, please contact gamecontrol.
-gc
Both are equally tasty. You'd have an easier time finding pancakes though.
This bunny'll be at the finish line before you have a clue where it is.
The real question is which I like eating more - pancakes or bunnies?
Well.. I'm not gonna tell you that just yet.
I'll tell you this though, my team finished in the top 5 last year, something which Team Black cannot say, out of 41 teams.
With a little snooping you can narrow it down.
Lets see if you can figure it out.
Please help!
We are two veteran midnightmadnessites who are teamless this year.
Are there any teams out there willing to take on a cool-headed young woman known for German precision and an energetic young man known for thinking inside, outside, and around the box?
We are guaranteed to contribute until the last puzzle has been solved!
Thanks,
Howard & Cristelle
how.huang@verizon.net
PancakeBunny--
yes posting a picture was the first puzzle of this long challenge...
And I admit I was stymied at first...
But mustard prevails in the end!
What team are you playing for, by the way?
FROM - lemon masterlemon land - 24.239.151.202two words. lemonade.
Your maladaptive coping mechanisms aren't fooling anyone. Just accept the reality of your impending failure now and save us all a lot of your yammering.
Team Black is a unified puzzle-solving machine. Though I do understand that you need to try to rally the troops in order to control your almost overwhelming fear of our Skillz! There's no in-fighting and never has been...
...speaking of has-beens, I hear Kamalesh will be heading up a team this year...glad we can beat you upon your return from Game Control!
:)
FROM - ThePancakeBunnyAs I recall from last year, team black just talks alot. No one needs to be afraid of them.
They hardly even qualify as competition, they argue and fight amongst themselves more than anything.
Let's all hear it for team black!
PTHBBBBPPTTTTTTTTTTTT!! :P
Team Midnight Blue -
The color at midnight....is Black!
Gamers -
Good to see so many teams signed up...too bad it's all for naught...stay home all you doubters as Team Black will cruise to victory this year!
Back in Black Baby!
xo Team Black
Team Black will take it all this year instilling fear into the hearts of team spicy mustard to the point where they change back to their true yellow color!!!! To all the other teams, have fun fighting for second place!
If he's representing that stinky mustard team... and he can't post an image correctly...
Something tells me all that build-up was... wait for it..
a bunch of baloney.
Let the puzzles commence! Team spicy mustard has spent the past year in secluded monastary in the wilds of anarctica, perfecting our skills in the art of unlocking enigmas, riddles and other conundra.
We have been strength training with massive mustard soaked Towers of Hanoi, reading ancient texts (written only in rebuses), running timed laps through hedge mazes, and finding knights touris on giant chess boards (by using real knights)!
Come one come all, and compete against the force that is Team Spicy Mustard!
Midnight Madness is an urban puzzle solving game.
Teams receive or find clues which, when solved, lead to new locations and more clues, and eventually lead to the secret finish line.
The first team to arrive at the finish line wins.
When a team solves a clue and arrives at the next location, they must call in an register that they have solved the clue. This will start a timer. If the new clue is not solved in one hour, the team may call in for a hint. If they still have not solved it in an additional half an hour, they can call in for a second hint. If they still have not solved it in another half an hour, they can call in for the solution. If a team is working on multiple clues simultaneously, this hint schedule applies to each clue, however, no more than one hint total may be given per half an hour.
Players can use any means of transportation provided by the city, including taxis, but team motor vehicles are not allowed. Human powered mobility devices are allowed.
Teams can be any size.
Tampering with the clues is strictly prohibited.
The starting location and start time (most likely around 9pm) will be announced shortly.
Teams are required to be able to send SMS (Text) messages for the duration of the game. Make sure you have enough capable phones and batteries. This does not replace voice communication.
You will also need the tools to survive the game, such as pencil and paper, flashlights, and a lighter.
Be prepared to spend all night playing.
If you have any questions please contact gamecontrol
FROM - PancakeBunnyBUNNY MADNESS
REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED. FURTHER REGISTRATION IS AT THE DISCRETION OF GAMECONTROL.
THE FOLLOWING TEAMS HAVE REGISTERED:
Team Goldenrod (Doan)
Team Purple Haze (Chaneski)
Team Fuschia (Dupre)
Team Buttercup (Huang)
Team Lava (Hillstrom)
Team Spicy Mustard (Wiesel)
Team Silver (Noel)
Team Pink (McCaleb)
Team Agent Orange (Han)
Team Lemonade (Campbell)
Team YTD-Please Send Color to GC (Sonnenreich)
Team YTD-Please Send Color to GC (Susannah)
Team Red (Moldawer)
Team Viridian (Wecht)
Team Royal Blue (Andrea)
Team Baby Blue (Ma)
Team Cerulean (Susman)
Team Midnight Blue (Rao)
Team Black (LoPrete)
Team Puce (King)
Team Clear (Purdy)
PLEASE NOTIFY GAMECONTROL OF ANY CHANGES.
New team:
Team ButterCup
Team Color Change:
Team Purple is now Team Spicy Mustard
Newly added teams:
Team Agent Orange
Team Pink
Team Lemonade
Midnight Madness will happen on August 21st.
Registration is open until August 14th.
Please register your team and team color by emailing gamecontrol at midnight-madness.org
The following teams have registered:
baby blue
black
cerulean
clear
lava
midnight blue
puce
purple
red
royal blue
viridian