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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 15, 2011
avatar
Ryusui: Damn, you're right.

Okay, then: lemme rephrase. Does the Twitter clue actually indicate the solution for the last five digraphs, and if so, why is it impossible to place them properly in a Playfair grid?
Yeah, can't reconstruct it using Playfair, but you don't know for sure that TG OG DO TC OM maps to BZ IB RG BE GT as the wording was cryptic.

That's why I hate riddles.

EDIT: I think T GOG DOT COM leads you to BZ IB RG BE GT's plaintext if you can figure out what the hell that means. The web location www.tgog.com is crap (an overpriced domain name for sale).
Post edited November 15, 2011 by Magnitus
Posted November 15, 2011
avatar
bazilisek: I already have that typed up, actually. The solution will be revealed, I promise.
Cool, thanks. Only about half an hour to go till the deadline if I'm right.
Posted November 15, 2011
avatar
Ryusui: Damn, you're right.

Okay, then: lemme rephrase. Does the Twitter clue actually indicate the solution for the last five digraphs, and if so, why is it impossible to place them properly in a Playfair grid?
avatar
Magnitus: Yeah, can't reconstruct it using Playfair, but you don't know for sure that TG OG DO TC OM maps to BZ IB RG BE GT as the wording was cryptic.

That's why I hate riddles.

EDIT: I think T GOG DOT COM leads you to BZ IB RG BE GT's plaintext if you can figure out what the hell that means. The web location www.tgog.com is crap (an overpriced domain name for sale).
its probably contest@gog.com ...
Posted November 15, 2011
avatar
Ryusui: Damn, you're right.

Okay, then: lemme rephrase. Does the Twitter clue actually indicate the solution for the last five digraphs, and if so, why is it impossible to place them properly in a Playfair grid?
avatar
Magnitus: Yeah, can't reconstruct it using Playfair, but you don't know for sure that TG OG DO TC OM maps to BZ IB RG BE GT as the wording was cryptic.

That's why I hate riddles.

EDIT: I think T GOG DOT COM leads you to BZ IB RG BE GT's plaintext if you can figure out what the hell that means. The web location www.tgog.com is crap (an overpriced domain name for sale).
Not sure if the grid is still valid, though. I tried reconstructing it but couldn't. Kinda stressed, though, what with the deadline.

This was my flash of inspiration, by the way. Still can't think of a keyword, though. Oh, well.
Posted November 15, 2011
Sent! (just in time)
But first time GMail give me an error.
I haven't any response from mailbot.
What to do? Send again?
Posted November 15, 2011
Arg!!! I tried all sorts of phrases... I hope they explain the twitter clue...
Posted November 15, 2011
The facebook clue explains why the twitter clue seems invalid.
Posted November 15, 2011
avatar
goldenwyrm: Sent! (just in time)
But first time GMail give me an error.
I haven't any response from mailbot.
What to do? Send again?
I hadn't response form the bot since the first contest, and I entered them all (except the cryptogram, i've been these two days with it and nothing. Hope they like the ads XD).
I suposed it just responses the first time ·_·
Posted November 15, 2011
It should be over now, right? I've got the solution typed up, I just want to be sure I can share it now.
Posted November 15, 2011
I have tried, frequency analysis, brute force, keywords, different type of algorithms before the clues came. But in the end, I didn't find a solution.
So ill look forward to see one :D
Posted November 15, 2011
avatar
bazilisek: It should be over now, right? I've got the solution typed up, I just want to be sure I can share it now.
According to http://www.timezoneconverter.com/ we're over the deadline.
Posted November 15, 2011
I also would like to see the solution. I'd like to know if it was right to shift the J into W's spot ala caesar.
Posted November 15, 2011
Alright, here goes. First, let's start with the thought process that puts you on the right path:

SPOILER ALERT: Very strong hints follow!

Do you know which was the most important clue of them all? The easiest one to miss, of course. This one.

There are Js in the crypttext, but they shouldn't. And there are no Ws, but they should.

And it just so happens that in the alphabet, J and W are exactly thirteen letters apart.

Now what did you have to do to make this particular hint readable?

*much headdesking ensues*

SPOILER ALERT: Actual solution follows!

Yes, the whole thing actually is a perfectly straightforward Playfair cipher, but the twist is that the ciphertext has also been encoded with ROT-13. Once you get this, it becomes easy. the last line of the Twitter hint (BZIBRGBEGT -> OMVOETORTG), which we know decrypts to TGOGDOTCOM. You can either try to unravel the key matrix from this on paper (but it's hard, I tried) or go the easy route and plug the two strings [url=http://www.quinapalus.com/cgi-bin/playfair]here. You get two candidates for the keyword, one of which clearly is a much better fit than the other. ROT-13 the ciphertext and paste it into this handy thing, provide the first name of the inventor of this particular cipher and you're golden.

See, that wasn't that hard now, was it? :)
Posted November 15, 2011
Since so many of you wanted to know, here's the actual email we had going around here at the office with an explanation of this.


THAR BE SPOILERS BELOW

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.

.

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.

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Original:
If you can solve this then youre very clever.
Will someone solve this thing sooner or never?
Encrypt via Playfair add some ROT Thirteen
And the solving gets tricky--for many I mean.

GOG puzzles are all in good fun
We hope you found this an enjoyable one.
Congrats to you, solver, for you are the bomb!
Remember: send to contest at gog dot com

Digraph'ed:
IF YO UC AN SO LV ET HI ST HE NY OU RE VE RY CL EV ER
WI LX LS OM EO NE SO LV ET HI ST HI NG SO XO NE RO RN EV ER
EN CR YP TV IA PL AY FA IR AD XD SO ME RO TX TH IR TE XE NA
ND TH ES OL VI NG XG ET ST RI CK YF OR MA NY IM EA NG

OG PU ZX ZL ES AR EA LX LI NG OX OD FU NW
EH OP EY OU FO UN DT HI SA NE NI OY AB LE ON
EC ON GR AT ST OY OU SO LV ER FO RY OU AR ET HE BO MB
RE ME MB ER SE ND TO CO NT ES TA TG OG DO TC OM

Keyphrase: CHARLES

C H A R L
E S B D F
G I K M N
O P Q T U
V W X Y Z


Playfair'ed:
NS VT OL LK EP CZ DO SP DP CS MZ PO CD CG DR HC GC DC
HP AZ HF TG GV GF EP CZ DO SP DP SP GI EP VQ GF CT LM GC DC
FG HL WT OY KH UH RX BL MH RB YB EP GD CT QY PR MH OD VB KL
MF PR SB UC WG GI VK DO DP HM AG ZD TC KR MZ KN BC GI

VO QO VY LF SB RL BC AZ HN GI QV TE NZ IZ
SC PQ DV PO EU ZU MY SP BH GF GK TV BK CF UG
GE UG MC RQ DP TV PO EP CZ DC EU DR PO RL DO CS EQ KD
CD GD KD DC BS MF UP EV MU SB QR OM VO ET OR TG

ROT13'd:
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

EDIT: I see you ninja'ed me, bazilisek. :: shakes fist of impotent rage ::
Post edited November 15, 2011 by TheEnigmaticT
Posted November 15, 2011
Dammit, I actually tried ROT13ing, but I didn't try plugging it into the site you suggested. I'd tried going there before, but hadn't gotten anything useful out of it.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)Contest Week(end) Day 4(261 posts)(261 posts)
(261 posts)