2011 Microsoft Puzzle Hunt

[Suspence]

From this:
1 Down - ■, 9, 11, ■, 12, 14 (Solution: DOT)
67 Down - 3, 7, 10, 13, 15 (Solution: SLASH)
73 Down - 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 (Solution: DASH)

The best I can get is MONIE? It doesn't give me that "this is the right answer" feeling since there are still parts I've done nothing with, but it is still fairly intelligible.

I don't know what to do with the black squares in 1 Down, but if I fill in the rest these as detailed above, I get

[Zag]

hint: click this. http://seattlepuzzling.com/ph14/seattle/SamLovesT.pdf

Also, check your transcription of 73 down.

[Suspence]

I swear I would pay money for these to come as text rather than PDF

I fixed that in my post above, but I don't think MONIE is the solution. Unless Microsoft are big fans of early 90's female rap - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monie_Love
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[Zag]

[Suspence]

I was thinking that it could mean that all the black boxes in the crossword represent dots, but then I couldn't figure out why there would be two of them in the 1 Down clue, or why they would appear along with a list of numbers.

I don't think they are meant to represent missing numbers that we need to figure out, as there would seem to be better ways of doing this than a black square.

What is also eating at me is that I can see that anagram of "museum" in what ralphmerridew posted, and the "Crime Location" of this puzzlie is MOHAI, or The Museum of History and Industry in Seattle.

EDIT: Oh, and I'm still not sure why clicking this - http://seattlepuzzling.com/ph14/seattle/SamLovesT.pdf - is a hint.
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[Zag]

[Suspence]

Are you referring to the part about "You can get to the bottom of the case. Just start from the beginning and take it one line at a time"?

If so, I'd tried to get something useful from that a few times, and haven't been able to.

EDIT: What I was really missing was the clue numbers in the crossword. Had I stared at those for as long as I stared at everything else I would've figured it long ago. As it stands, I've finally worked out what to do with the black squares, which came to me the millionth time I asked myself what could possibly be between 11 and 12.

Rather than count the columns as I was (17 total), you just take the number of the Down clue from the first row of that column (a much more pleasing 15 total). The black squares represent the two columns that have an empty space in the first row - giving MORSE, not MONIE.

I'm assuming that's not the solution since 1) it's rather unsatisfying to have the solution be a word that was already rather obvious and that didn't even require solving the crossword and 2) Zag mentioned another step.

For now, sleep.
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[Zahariel]

MORSE was, of course, the first thing we submitted. The response we got was "Remember, titles matter!" Maybe that will help you more than it did us.

[Suspence]

I get ENCODED. Link to my solution
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[Zag]

Nice! I wish we'd had you on our team.

Next puzzle: Train Tracks --- Here is the audio

[Suspence]

[Zag]

But that's why there are several people working together on each one. Others got that right away, but we never got the leap that you made.

[Suspence]

I had been trying to do stuff with the Ts from the start, unsuccesfully. Once I was able to fill in the 17 boxes across the top, it came pretty quickly.

TRACK - DESTINATION - STATUS - Track Title - Time Mentioned
1 - DAVID RYAN HARRIS - ON TIME - For You - 6:15
2 - AL STEWART - 8 MINUTES LATE - Night Train to Munich - 7:45
3 - GLEN MILLER - ON TIME - Chattanooga Choo Choo - 3:45
4 - KELLY WILLIS - ON TIME - Red Sunset - 4:45
5 - KID ROCK - 8 MINUTES EARLY - Midnight Train To Memphis - Midnight
6 - SUPERGRASS - 8 MINUTES EARLY - Evening Of The Day - 3:15
7 - THE BANGLES - 8 MINUTES EARLY - Manic Monday - 9:00 (though she says she has to be to work my nine. The rest have mentioned the time of the actual train)
8 - WATERDEEP - ON TIME - Gospel Train - 9:15
9 - DOLLY PARTON - ON TIME - In The Pines - The engine passed at 6:00...The caboose went by at 9:00 (Off Topic - This shares lyrics with "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" with Nirvana. Will read up on that later)
10 - SHEENA EASTON - ON TIME - Morning Train - No train time, but he works from 9:00 to 5:00.
11 - DIRE STRAITS - ON TIME - Eastbound Train - 2:44
12 - ABBA - 8 MINUTES EARLY -,The Day Before You Came - No train time, but she must have left her house at 8:00, made her desk around 9:15
13 - ROGER MILLER - 8 MINUTES EARLY - Ain't That Fine - 3:45
14 - CISCO HOUSTON - ON TIME - Travel On - 6:08
15 - RICARDO ARJONA - ON TIME - Minutos - 9:23 from what I can Make Out.
16 - JIMMIE RODGERS - ON TIME - Two-Ten, Six-Eighteen - 2:10, 6:18, 10:44
17 - GETAWAY PEOPLE - 8 MINUTES EARLY - She Gave Me Love - 4:45
18 - THE MONKEES - ON TIME - Last Train To Clarksville - You can be here by 4:30
19 - SOFT BOYS - ON TIME - Mystery Train - 4:44
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[Scurra]

First five times spell FIRST in semaphore.
But I'm still working through them as well.


edit: I'm going to start from the bottom and work up...

15 - RICARDO ARJONA - ON TIME (!! in Spanish...)
16 - JIMMIE RODGERS - ON TIME 10:44 (O)
17 - GETAWAY PEOPLE - 8 MINUTES EARLY 4:38 (N)
18 - THE MONKEES - ON TIME 4:30 (G)
19 - SOFT BOYS - ON TIME 4:44 (S)

(I will make a guess that #15 will turn out to be 4:45 though since that would give an S for SONGS)

edit: Hmm. This was going well, but:

11 - DIRE STRAITS - ON TIME 2:44 (Q!) (edit: now think this is R)
12 - ABBA - 8 MINUTES EARLY 7:52 (I)
13 - ROGER MILLER - 8 MINUTES EARLY 3:38 (M)
14 - CISCO HOUSTON - ON TIME 6:08 (E)
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Zag]

[Scurra]

6 to 9 spell out WORD
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Scurra]

I just spend a lot of my time writing puzzles, so certain sorts of alphabets get locked in my head, along with different ways they can be presented. I don't think I've done this one myself though, and I am very impressed with the way they got the extracts to work, even though some needed "adjusting"...
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Scurra]

My guess is that it says FIRST WORD PRIME SONGS.
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Suspence]

TRACK - DESTINATION - STATUS - Track Title - Time Mentioned
1 - DAVID RYAN HARRIS - ON TIME - For You - 6:15 - F
2 - AL STEWART - 8 MINUTES LATE - Night Train to Munich - 7:45 - I
3 - GLEN MILLER - ON TIME - Chattanooga Choo Choo - 3:45 R
4 - KELLY WILLIS - ON TIME - Red Sunset - 4:45 - S
5 - KID ROCK - 8 MINUTES EARLY - Midnight Train To Memphis - Midnight - T
6 - SUPERGRASS - 8 MINUTES EARLY - Evening Of The Day - 3:15 - W
7 - THE BANGLES - 8 MINUTES EARLY - Manic Monday - 9:00 (though she says she has to be to work my nine. The rest have mentioned the time of the actual train) - O
8 - WATERDEEP - ON TIME - Gospel Train - 9:15 - R
9 - DOLLY PARTON - ON TIME - In The Pines - The engine passed at 6:00 - D (Off Topic - This shares lyrics with "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" with Nirvana. Will read up on that later)
10 - SHEENA EASTON - ON TIME - Morning Train - No train time, but he starts work at 9:00 - P
11 - DIRE STRAITS - ON TIME - Eastbound Train - 2:44 - R
12 - ABBA - 8 MINUTES EARLY -,The Day Before You Came - No train time, but she must have left her house at 8:00. - I
13 - ROGER MILLER - 8 MINUTES EARLY - Ain't That Fine - 3:45 - M
14 - CISCO HOUSTON - ON TIME - Travel On - 6:08 - E
15 - RICARDO ARJONA - ON TIME - Minutos - 9:23 from what I can make out - S
16 - JIMMIE RODGERS - ON TIME - Two-Ten, Six-Eighteen - 10:44 - O
17 - GETAWAY PEOPLE - 8 MINUTES EARLY - She Gave Me Love - 4:45 - N
18 - THE MONKEES - ON TIME - Last Train To Clarksville - You can be here by 4:30 - G
19 - SOFT BOYS - ON TIME - Mystery Train - 4:44 - S
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[Quailman]

[Zag]

I'm not sure why you interpret 2:44 as a Q. The hour hand, at 2:44, is closer to the 3 than the 2.

Edit: Q: You're saying that I still don't qualify as an old-timer?

[Suspence]

Yeah, I can see that being R, and that must be the intended answer.

I guess because for all of the other ones, you don't need to take the motion of the hour hand into consideration.

Here are the first words from the full lyrics for songs labeled with a prime number:

2 - Meet
3 - Step
5 - I
7 - Six
11 - It
13 - Well
17 - I
19 - Train

Not getting much, maybe it's the first word in each of the clips of those songs?
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[Scurra]

Yeah, that's why I went back when I realised my mistake. Although to be fair I was working backwards from the end at the time and didn't realise where I was going.

I assumed that they want the first words of the extracts, not the songs themselves. Which would help to explain the weird start points of some of them...

Using that method, I think I get:

(1 Saturday)
2 THE
3 TRACK
5 BEFORE
7 TRAIN
11 ON
13 TRAIN
17 BY
19 TRAIN

In which case the answer is [SWAYING]
(and that's a completely brilliant clue!)
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Zag]

That's it! ("Meet Virginia" was also accepted, because there were two different albums put out by the group with Train on it.)

Next: Twister

[Suspence]

Agreed that was a really cool clue on the last one.

OK, I think I've solved the current one.

Some of the words are one letter short of other words that fall into groups, one member of each group is in each color.

FISH - The L, M, U, and N all come from one monkey
FOUNDER + L = FLOUNDER
SALON + M = SALMON
TROT + U = TROUT
SAPPER + N = SNAPPER

Spices - C L E S monkey
HIVES + C = CHIVES
COVE + L = CLOVE
SAG + E = SAGE
PARLEY + S = PARSLEY

Mammals - A L R H monkey
GOT +A = GOAT
CAME + L = CAMEL
HOSE + R = HORSE
SEEP + H = SHEEP

Fruit - R U M P monkey
GAPE + R = GRAPE
PLOT + U = PLUOT (Though I'd never heard of it before)
LIE + M = LIME
EACH + P = PEACH

Animal Noises - Escaped monkey - CHOW
LUCK + C = CLUCK
OWL + H = HOWL
INK + O = OINK
ME + W = MEW
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[Zag]

Nice! I know that our group got that fairly quickly, too. I hadn't participated in it, however, and when I looked at the answer later I thought it was a pretty brilliant leap. Of course, the fact that you got it, too doesn't mean that it wasn't!

Next one up (This is the last Seattle puzzle.) Wedding

[Suspence]

I think if some of the words weren't forced, like PARLEY and SAPPER, I would have been sitting there staring blankly for much longer than I was.
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[Zag]

I've added the answers that you guys have gotten so far to the first note of this thread. Unfortunately, I don't have the Whistle Stop Puzzles. Those were timed puzzles that you got when you were ready for a new city. (That is, you got the whistle stop and then the next city's puzzles.) I also don't have any answers for the meta-puzzle, but maybe Zahariel knows it.

[Suspence]

Yeah for converting to text easily:

[jesternl]

Something to play
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG
Dragon Age
Gamefly
Something to Surf:
Pirate Bay
Facebook
Remote?

Something to read
Time

[jesternl]

[Suspence]

Something just hit me...

I believe in each category, we're looking for something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.

It struck me the number of blue things, then YORK STATE OF MIND and TIME ROCK AND ROLL finished it off.

Something animated:
Old - CARL FREDRICKSEN
New - BUZZ LIGHTYEAR
Blue - JAMES P SULLIVAN
Borrowed - ?

Something to read:
Old - THE BIBLE
New - WITCH AND WIZARD
Borrowed - STEAL THIS BOOK
Blue - KELLEY (as in Kelley Blue Book)

Something to listen to:
Old - TIME ROCK AND ROLL
New - YORK STATE OF MIND
Borrowed -
Blue - SUEDE SHOES

Something that moves:
Old - MODEL T
New - TESLA ROADSTER
Borrowed - ENTERPRISE
Blue - MIRTHMOBILE

Something to play:
Old -
New - DRAGON AGE ORIGINS
Borrowed - GAMEFLY
Blue - SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

Something to surf:
Old -
New -
Borrowed -
Blue -

Found, but not yet categorized
ADVENTURE
SYNDROME
REMOTE
PIRATE BAY
FACEBOOK
GEOCITIES
HEAVEN
RECTAL
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Suspence]

[jesternl]

[jesternl]

Something that moves:
Old - MODEL T
New - TESLA ROADSTER
Borrowed - ENTERPRISE
Blue - MIRTHMOBILE

Borrowed is Enterprise (rent-a-car)

Something to surf:
Old - Geocities
New - Facebook
Borrowed -
Blue - Could also be facebook though?

Found, but not yet categorized

ADVENTURE
SYNDROME
REMOTE
PIRATE BAY
DRAGON AGE

HEAVEN
RECTAL

I also found WIZARD

[Suspence]

Should be part of WITCH AND WIZARD
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[jesternl]

Also, we have six groups, with 4 entries each, but 25 words found.
So, is the one extra word a coincidence, or a clue?

[ralphmerridew]

"Adventure" aka "Colossal Cave" is one of the oldest games (something to play)
"PIRATE BAY" is something borrowed (stolen) for something to surf.

[Suspence]

I was thinking that RECTAL might be a coincidence...

Something animated:
Old - CARL FREDRICKSEN
New - BUZZ LIGHTYEAR
Blue - JAMES P SULLIVAN
Borrowed - ?
SYNDROME - animated character in The Incredibles. Don't see how Borrowed fits...might need to move these around

Something to read:
Old - THE BIBLE
New - WITCH AND WIZARD
Borrowed - STEAL THIS BOOK
Blue - KELLEY (as in Kelley Blue Book)

Something to listen to:
Old - TIME ROCK AND ROLL
New - YORK STATE OF MIND
Borrowed - HEAVEN (album by The Corrs)
Blue - SUEDE SHOES

Something that moves:
Old - MODEL T
New - TESLA ROADSTER
Borrowed - ENTERPRISE
Blue - MIRTHMOBILE

Something to play:
Old - ADVENTURE
New - DRAGON AGE ORIGINS
Borrowed - GAMEFLY
Blue - SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

Something to surf:
Old - GEOCITIES
New -
Borrowed - PIRATE BAY
Blue -
FACEBOOK - either New or Blue

Found, but not yet categorized
REMOTE
FACEBOOK
RECTAL
LAMAR FLOWNET (don't know if this is anything)
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Zag]

You're gonna laugh! Do you want a hint?