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[Oscar]

For Scurra's crossword I believe these are the answers:
4a DENEBOLA
8a ARCANA
10a BRIGHT
11a MAD
12a NEWS
13a NANOGRAM
16a ALLY
19a WHAT
20a CANOE
21a MOON
22a STAR
23a RHAPSODY
26a DOGS
28a WAR
30a ETHNIC
32a WIENER
33a UNCLOTHE
34a NOT

1d HEARTACHE
2d TENG
3d DOCTOR
4d MAIM
5d NANDGATE
6d ICON
7d SNOWY
14d OCTET
15d MINOR
17d LAMPS
18d GOODNIGHT
20d CAREWORN
24d AGENCY
25d MOVIE
27d SAND
29d ROUT
31d HOOK

The colored squares then anagram to ENDGAME

The unclued parts give:
AGENCY
ARCANA
DOCTOR
GOODNIGHT
MEN
MOVIE
TENG
WIENER
WHAT (or possibly, NOT)
These are supposed to make 3 sets of connected words - Goodnight Vienna (Wiener) is a Movie, but that's the only set that makes any kind of sense to me. If they are all board or video games related then I have little chance of making sense of them...

[Scurra]

Well that's the hazard of writing a puzzle where the key aspect is supposed to be the three answers that come from previous puzzles - if you didn't solve them, then you won't have the key words...
The three answers to my earlier puzzle entries were:
VIENNA, MYSTERY and WHO
Knowing that, can you now make the three groups work? (You have got one of the connections correctly.)
But yes, ENDGAME was the intended final answer for this.


I have started to make some sense out of Esme's puzzle: I have the makings of an "alphabet" (or possibly 2?) with letters being added to half of the answers to make the other half of the answers. It's quite hard to do when you have no other assistance though - one reason crosswords work is that the checking letters often provide the prod you need to figure a word out. A plain list of clues, even with a linking trick, are harder to do, and there is nothing within the puzzle itself to help (for instance, because the clues are in alpha order, the answers cannot be and that's often a useful assist.)
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[esme]

[Scurra]

OK, fair enough. I shall bear that in mind.
I will note that I often get far too far into a solution before noticing blindingly obvious things that the setter has included (like alpha order), even though I do include the same things myself when possible!
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}