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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 13, 2011
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wormholewizards: But you must explain the answer. That's the hardest part.
Well, if you found a successful decyphering tool, you just write that. It's not stated anywhere that that's against the rules.
Posted November 13, 2011
All things considered, I think I'll wait for an official answer to my questions. It would be regrettable to be disqualified because I fixed some typos in the decrypted text. :|
Posted November 13, 2011
Don't have time to work on it right now, but just wanted to say this is the best contest.
Posted November 13, 2011
Phew...I guess, I will skip this one. I really liked Neal Stephenson`s "Cryptonomicon", but - as fascinating it was to read about these things - unfortunately I am not able to do the decrypting on my own.
Posted November 13, 2011
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GOG.com: send the full plain text (and an explanation how you deciphered it!)
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logorouge: Question: Do I need to put in the spaces/punctuations/proper lower & upper case?

Edit: Also, do I leave your typo in the text or can I fix it?
The typo is deliberate, as a milksop to preventing bruteforce, but you can fix it or not as you will. ;)
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wormholewizards: But you must explain the answer. That's the hardest part.
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Profanity: Well, if you found a successful decyphering tool, you just write that. It's not stated anywhere that that's against the rules.
Exactly. Although "I bruteforced it" is hardly an exciting answer. :P
Post edited November 13, 2011 by TheEnigmaticT
Posted November 13, 2011
Still better than no answer at all.

Tried bruteforcing trough this - no dice. I guess I'll just write this whole thing down and do it tomorrow at school, get more brainpower on it!
Posted November 13, 2011
Looks fun, but unfortunately I don't have the free time during week days to do either the brainy or artsy challenge. If only this had been put up on Friday...

Oh well, best of luck to those participating.
Posted November 13, 2011
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Tsugirai: By the way, the ENIGMAticT should definitely use Enigma instead. Just sayin'.
Wonder was this a clue or just as straightforward as it looks.
Posted November 13, 2011
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Tsugirai: By the way, the ENIGMAticT should definitely use Enigma instead. Just sayin'.
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Profanity: Wonder was this a clue or just as straightforward as it looks.
I don't think that Enigma can be broken with a pencil and paper. The system I used can.
Post edited November 13, 2011 by TheEnigmaticT
Posted November 13, 2011
God, I hate you....I have no idea how to solve cryptograms, but I'm not an artsy person either so once again I'm screwed on the puzzles. I'm still waiting for an acknowledgement from the entry I sent in for the day 2 contest though.
Post edited November 13, 2011 by vDub
Posted November 13, 2011
Think I'll pass... After a full days fun with the kids at the Zoo, my brain is waaay to tired to solve this puzzle. Gotta relax with some good old game like Baldur :-) Cheers and good luck to you all
Posted November 13, 2011
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TheEnigmaticT: Exactly. Although "I bruteforced it" is hardly an exciting answer. :P
Heart pounding, I glanced from one cipher link to another, hoping for a glimmer of similarity to reveal itself. Seconds turned to minutes, eroding the final 48 hours I had to complete my task. Enigma? Rail Fence? Caesar? It had to be out there, I couldn't give up!

Yet one by one, the results came back, unintelligible gibberish from start to finish. I was barely conscious of a single drop of sweat trickling down my nose. A deep sense of dread took root in the pit of my stomach. Was I destined to fail?

It happened in an instant. Distracted by the looming deadline, I barely skimmed the results of my latest attempt in order to click the next cipher's link as soon as possible. In horror, I watched the results replay in my mind: row after row of clear, unambiguous words, bursting with meaning. I clicked Back frantically. The results page was blank! Back again to the cipher submission form - blank again! I had thrown away my only chance!

But wait! A sliver of hope remained. Fingers trembling, I switched back to GOG's contest page. I summoned all my remaining reserves to select the cipher text with surgical precision. Edit-Copy, then back to the cipher page in a flash. The keyboard trembled as I struck Ctrl-V with full force. Submit.

My eyes were closed. I could not bear the thought of failure. Slowly, reluctantly, I eased them open again. A glorious page of flawless prose filled my gaze. The code was mine. The cipher, solved.

Some mock my efforts. Brute forcing, they call it. Lazy and mundane. I cannot feel anger toward them. I simply shake my head with a smile, knowing how closely I danced with disaster one dangerous afternoon.

(not a true story...yet)
Posted November 13, 2011
I went with the advertisement alternative. Just sent in my idea. It is not really an ad, but I hope the gog staff will like it anyway... the coding thing is still too hard for my brain.

@wvpr: Yep, this IS an exciting story for brute forcing... you should try writing novels (if you don't have written some already... ;-)
Post edited November 13, 2011 by Nordwolf
Posted November 13, 2011
Line 5: IB DB IL YS FO EY OP NM UA TV DI GR AM VM
Posted November 13, 2011
I agree that it's likely Playfair, and it looks like W's have been replaced with something else (possibly VV?) prior to encrypting, since it is the only letter not present in the cipher text (if a letter appears in the plain text, it must at least be possible to see it in the ciphertext - and it seems unlikely that one letter was missed every time).

I'm still finding it awfully hard to get started without any idea of what the plaintext is, though. I've spotted a couple of patterns, but I haven't been able to map them to anything meaningful yet.
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General discussion (archive)Contest Week(end) Day 4(261 posts)(261 posts)
(261 posts)