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General discussion (archive)Contest Week(end) Day 4(261 posts)(261 posts)
(261 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted November 10, 2011
On the last day of the weekend, we have two different contests for you all, giving you a final chance to win big before we resume our regular and humdrum week tomorrow.

For the brainy among you, we have a cryptogram. Decipher the hidden meaning behind the text below, send the full plain text (and an explanation how you deciphered it!) to us with the subject line, "GOG.com 2011 Cryptogram Contest". From all of the correct entries, we'll pull one lucky winner who gets 10 free $5.99 or $9.99 GOG.com games.

AF IG BY YX RC PM QB FC QC PF ZM CB PQ PT QE UP TP QP
UC NM US GT TI TS RC PM QB FC QC FC TV RC ID TS PG YZ TP QP
ST UY JG BL XU HU EK OY ZU EO LO RC TQ PG DL CE ZU BQ IO XY
ZS CE FO HP JT TV IX QB QC UZ NT MQ GP XE ZM XA OP TV

IB DB IL YS FO EY OP NM UA TV DI GR AM VM
FP CD QI CB RH MH ZL FC OU TS TX GI OX PS HT
TR HT ZP ED QC GI CB RC PM QP RH QE CB EY QB PF RD XQ
PQ TQ XQ QP OF ZS HC RI ZH FO DE BZ IB RG BE GT

If you're feeling artsy instead, we have an alternative for you. It's coming up on the holiday season, and we'd like you to put on your advertiser hats. Make us an outdoor ad that you think would be an awesome GOG.com holiday advertisement. Whether you want to make a billboard by the side of the road, a clever bench, a bus stop ad, or even silkscreen an entire bus with an awesome GOG.com advertisement, let's see what you think this year's GOG.com holidays should be about. Email your best GOG.com advertisement to [url=mailto:contest@gog.com?subject=GOG.com 2011 Advertisement]contest@gog.com[/url] with the subject line "GOG.com 2011 Advertisement" to enter. We will select some of our favorites from the entries and each winner will get 5 free $5.99 or $9.99 games from our catalog.

Since both of these contests represent something a little harder than the previous ones, we'll give you until 6.59 EST on Tuesday (15.11.11) to come up with your entry. We'll announce all of our contest winners on Wednesday, so keep tuned.

Put on those thinking caps, and let's see what you've got!
Posted November 14, 2011
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F5inator: *headdesk*
My sentiments exactly. The Twitter and Facebook clues, if anything, have served only to confuse us further: the Twitter "clue" suggests a plaintext/ciphertext pair that is impossible for a Playfair cipher, and the Facebook clue suggests that "I" replaces "J" even though both are present and "W" is missing.

TheEnigmaticT's ROT-13'd message suggests there's "another possibility." The only possibility that springs to mind right now is that they're screwing with us.

The only non-confusing clue we've gotten (apart from the straight admission of Playfair's use) is that the encrypted message comes out to a poem: the clue uses an ABBA rhyming scheme, though that could also be a red herring.
Posted November 14, 2011
In what school I can get to known with playfair? In a gym, university or higher degree?
Posted November 14, 2011
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fexen: Worse is the feeling after they show up the answer and you realise it was so easy yet still you couldn't figure it out on your own.
I hope for tomorrow
True that.

I've been thinking: "Your knowledge of GOG's product is key" - presuming that this is a clue for the key, does this refer to GOG's product in general (i.e. good old games) or a specific title?
Posted November 14, 2011
My assumption concerning the I/J clue is that the substitution was made before the cipher was applied. If that were the case, the substituted letter could be in the ciphertext without being in the plaintext. Of course, that still doesn't help much. At this point, I'm tempted to write my own program to brute force the thing based on the chunk of decrypted text they gave us. I wonder how long that would take me.
Posted November 14, 2011
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Ryusui: My sentiments exactly. The Twitter and Facebook clues, if anything, have served only to confuse us further: the Twitter "clue" suggests a plaintext/ciphertext pair that is impossible for a Playfair cipher, and the Facebook clue suggests that "I" replaces "J" even though both are present and "W" is missing.
What if both I and J are in the matrix?

Btw. I'm pretty sure that guys who solved the puzzle have found the keyword.
Post edited November 14, 2011 by fexen
Posted November 14, 2011
Huh? This is worse than Penumbra fighting system. Looks like it isn't worth the price because you don't know if you actually win something. Too bad I didn't know about previous contests. :/
Posted November 14, 2011
He are my interpretations of the clues, supported by others who have posted.

1) Playfair cipher ("W" omitted from matrix)
2) the plain text has "eyes" in place of "jays" since the cipher text has both
3) Partial plain = cypher match
TG = BZ
OG = IB
DO = RG
TC = BE
OM = GT

However, plugging the plain = cipher text into the decoding technique from [url=http://www.umich.edu/~umich/fm-34-40-2/ch7.pdf]http://www.umich.edu/~umich/fm-34-40-2/ch7.pdf[/url] doesn't seem to work for all pairs in clue 3 . TG = BZ and OM = GT, in particular, don't seem to fit into a Playfair matrix (how can TG be opposite corners of different rectangles and TGBZOM is too many letters for a horizontal / vertical solution).

I'm no longer interested in winning any games from this but I do want to find out the key and cipher explanation so this can at least be a complete learning experience. Please, GOG, clue [pun intended] us in when this thing is over.

Finally, hats off to those who solved this without any clues....heck, even those who solved it with the clues :).
Posted November 14, 2011
What riddles me most what is (are) the word(s) encrypted here:
RC PM QB FC QC
because it (they) appear in both the first and second row.
Posted November 14, 2011
Well, dang.
I tried, including learning a bit about Playfair ciphers (and others) but I can't figure out the key.
I've already used up all my time for the artsy bit, and the deadline's tomorrow, so I think I'll focus my time on some more important tasks.
Good luck, everybody else!
P.S. Will the GOG.com staff kindly put up the solved cryptogram and key used so we can all slap our foreheads?
Posted November 14, 2011
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godsbutler: 3) Partial plain = cypher match
TG = BZ
OG = IB
DO = RG
TC = BE
OM = GT

TG = BZ and OM = GT, in particular, don't seem to fit into a Playfair matrix (how can TG be opposite corners of different rectangles and TGBZOM is too many letters for a horizontal / vertical solution).
From the twitter hint:
"For poems enciphered symmetrically"

So maybe is this:
TG=GT
OM=BZ
OG=BE
TC=IB
DO=RG
Posted November 14, 2011
A symmetrical cipher is one where both parties use the same key.

/wikipedia
Posted November 14, 2011
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mobutu: From the twitter hint:
"For poems enciphered symmetrically"

So maybe is this:
TG=GT
OM=BZ
OG=BE
TC=IB
DO=RG
The twitter clue makes the most sense as a partial solution to the end of the cipher text.

TGOGDOTCOM

or...with proper spacing

[A]T GOG DOT COM

I could be misinterpreting the clue, but I don't think I'd be the only one :).
Posted November 14, 2011
"Most notably, a Playfair digraph and its reverse (e.g. AB and BA) will decrypt to the same letter pattern in the plaintext (e.g. RE and ER)."

And with this, I give up. Maybe someone else will be able to solve it ...
Posted November 14, 2011
.....ARGH! I managed to somehow get a few words to make sense, then the rest utter gibberish. (cry time)
Posted November 14, 2011
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godsbutler: [A]T GOG DOT COM
Interesting, my first thought was that T could be the last letter of the word 'visit' - "visit GOG.com"
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General discussion (archive)Contest Week(end) Day 4(261 posts)(261 posts)
(261 posts)