neowin.net

Magic happens...

Austin, TX was cancelled.

Can anyone sum up what we know so far?

this is box 2 we dont know anything about this thing

concerning this puzzle box we know nothing for certain, but we assume its about magic, or something related

CREDITS TO MANISH FOR MAKING THIS

here are 4 boxes. Each with 4 "Easy", "Medium" & "Hard" puzzles to solve. Every week starting from the 8th Jan. 2007, a new box will open.

Point Summary:
Solving 1 "Easy" puzzle = 10 points
Solving 1 "Medium" puzzle = 20 points
Solving 1 "Hard" puzzle = 50 points

Therefore, max. points for each box (just by solving puzzles) = (4x10)+(4x20)+(4x50) = 320 points

Points are also available by:-
Registering = 20 points
Referring others = 10 points per person referred (max. 200 points available by referral, i.e. you will only be awarded for referring 20 people)

Therefore, max. possible points = 20 + (320x4) + (10x20) = 1500 points

More details on how to play

Prizes:
Available prizes

The "Meta" puzzle has only 1 winner. The first person to complete the "Meta" puzzle successfully will have their name printed on every AMD Athalon 64 FX chip manufactured until 31st March 2007.

Box 1 -- 08.01 Time passes...

Video link

Easy Puzzles:

Sundial: HELIOS

* Following times can be seen in an image of the Sun: "2:30", "5:00", "12:00", "1:30", "8:00", "7:00"
* Move the sundial to those times

Watch Spring: FIVE

* Click on the watch to reveal the spring
* Spring snaps into place when the beginning of the spring is moved to just below the first "T" of in the first column
* By observing the letters the spring directly crosses through, we get "how many waves"
* In the video, Loki waves 5 times

Mantle Clock: HONEY

* 2 times can be derived from the Box 1 video: "694 + 42 = 7:36" & "114 + 224 = 3:38"
* When observed upside down, they spell "bee gel"
* a.k.a. HONEY

Gears: TIME TRAVEL

* Place gears into correct position as shown:
* This reveals a question: "what did he write about?"
* The video features a picture of a man between the years "1866" & "1946"
[indent]Google or Wikipedia (or whatever) reveals man is H.G. Wells
* He wrote about TIME TRAVEL

Medium Puzzles:

Airport: CARTOGRAPHER

* Video reveals a clock with 1-12 in the wrong positions: at 12:00 = 9; at 1:00 = 6; at 2:00 = 4; at 3:00 = 11; at 4:00 = 8; at 5:00 = 12; at 6:00 = 3; at 7:00 = 5; at 8:00 = 10; at 9:00 = 7; at 10:00 = 1; at 11:00 = 2
* Look at the departures in numerical order, i.e. Stockholm at 1pm is the first, & the departure time corresponds to a number on the weird clock
* Find this number letter in the place name, e.g. 1pm = 6, therefore you need the 6th letter in Stockholm - "H"
* Reorder the letters in departure time order

Cuckoos: BIG BEN

* Click on the clocks & a cuckoo pops out & indicates the value to fill in under its clock
* A broken cuckoo = 0
* The 2 missing values can be filled in using the numbers "3" and "7" found in the video
* This reveals co-ordinates "51°30'02.61"N 0°07'28.66W" to BIG BEN

Pocket Watches: GREEN

* I'm telling you which watches to click on by using a telephone dialpad system, i.e. 1 = 1st watch
* Click on 1, 3, 7 & 9, i.e. the watches on the corners of the square
* Click on 2, 4, 6 & 8
* Click 5
* Either from the obvious colour you see or the colour of the disk in the video with a $ in it, you get GREEN

Current Events: HORIZON

* Connect the photos, from left to right, to these dates: "2/14/06", "1/11/06", "10/23/01", "4/27/98", "5/9/06", "10/2/00", "12/31/96", "11/7/95", "10/29/93", "11/26/96". E.g. 1st photo = "2/14/06"
* That crosses out the following numbers: "3795211"
* Using the video, the Las Vegas sign shows "866", therefore if we join the numbers - "866 3795211"
* This number can be dialled & Loki asks "what line separates the earth from the sky?"

Hard Puzzles:

Starfield: WASHINGTON

* Click on the book on the left hand side & the first time is unknown ( ? ), which the video reveals to be "3:15"
* Use A=1, B=2 & so on, to turn the hour part of each time into a letter - "CONNECT THE MINUTES" is revealed
* The minutes part of each time will give the position of the minute hand on a normal clock, which gives the direction on how to connect the stars, i.e. "3:15" = ":15" as the minute part, therefore connect the star directly right of the Start point
* Provides an outline of the state of WASHINGTON

Calendars: INTERROBANG

* Loki mentions the following months in a particular order: "June", "January", "April", "March", "May" and "February"
* This order corresponds to the order on the scrap note next to the calendar, i.e. June = 1.
* Mark in the dates on the months using the note, to give a cube
* This gives "?!" a.k.a. an INTERROBANG

Repair Table: WRINKLE

* The video reveals the following images: "dalmations", "trombones", "mice", "ball", "route sign", "playing card - Jack" & "cat"
* Each images has a number associated with it: "101 dalmations", "76 trombones", "3 blind mice", "8 ball", "route 66", "blackjack 21" & "9 lives of a cat"
* Fill in these numbers on the digital clocks
* Using morse code, where - is a dash & | is a dot, WRINKLE is uncovered

Hourglasses: CANDELABRA

* Click Start 3 times so all hourglasses have run out of time
* Click on the 12-sec & 4-sec hourglass switch, & click Start
* Click on the 7-sec & 4-sec hourglass switch, & click Start
* Click on the 7-sec & 4-sec hourglass switch, & click Start
* "GRAINS" is revealed
* The video features hourglasses with @ symbols everywhere, which hints towards emailing "grains@vanishingpointgame.com"
* Emails back with an auto response

Meta Puzzle:

* By completeting all the above puzzles, a video is unlocked
* At the end of the video, "/on_the_run" flashes a few times
* This revealed "http://www.vanishingpointgame.com/on_the_run"
* Next step was to contact Loki...
* Emailing her at loki@vanishingpointgame.com leads to an email message saying:
Quote -
Life is a mix of work and play. You've found play...

~L
* Emailing her at loki@microsoft.com leads to an email message saying:
Quote -
Hmmm. Not quite what I had in mind. Try harder - then listen closely.

~L
* Then some genius had the idea to ring MS & ask to be transferred to Loki
* This connects you to the following message: "Awesome work. All knowledge eventually needs effective diagnosis."
* Put the first letters to give "AWAKENED", which led to "http://www.vanishingpointgame.com/awakened"
* The number given on the site requires you to provide a fax number
* You receive a fax
* It also reveals Loki's name is "L. Kitsume"
* This AT&T building is now an AMD building & the phone number is "408 749 4000" & use extension "x55654" from the fax
* The following message is heard:
Quote -
Hi, this is Loki. Or rather her electronic footprint left behind on this machine.
Funny how the inanimate world retains traces of things long after they've disappeared, isn't it?
If you're calling about the murmuring rock project, it's on hold indefinitely, unfortunately.
* Google or Wikipedia (or whatever) murmuring rock & you encouter the word/name Lorelei
* Implying Loki's real name is Lorelei Kitsume & that's basically where we're at
* Also a bunch of white squares have been found in the individual puzzles: location and zoomed in versions

If anyone here is in LA please reply we need your help in the chat room!

2 minutes guys...

does anyone know if a neowin-correspondent is going to any of the events like they did with Vegas?

Nothing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where is the chat room?

wait for the video to play at the 'real world event'
then we'll see

Hrm ... box didn't unlock. Maybe everyone was right, and it's not going to unlock until after all of the events.

Edit: Oops, there it is.

Box is open.

here we goooooooooo

Puzzle Box 2 is OPEN and the theme is MAGIC!

huh? photos this time, no video?

Click the rabbit foot on the floor opens a map to rabbits foot pennsylvania