Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Puzzle #47 is my blind spot

Ok, if you're playing (or might play) Dumb The Game at all, don't read the comments for this post unless you WANT to hear me thinking out loud and begging Syl and Pusher for clues on #47 Dependency. I'm just... completely buffaloed on this one still, ladies. Here, since you've both solved it already, I'll put my thoughts and discoveries so far in the comments section. PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE will you let me know if I'm on the right track or give me another hint (or two - apparently I'm blind on this one). Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease?

16 comments:

Ms. Huis Herself said...

Ok, here's what I've got so far. The 5 pictures are seals/emblems of (starting top left and going clockwise): Greece, Norway, Ukraine, Croatia, Lithuania. I know it can be solved without the background image, but if you get the background image, it's much more intuitive. The title DOES relate to the puzzle. I've tried to see if the numbers relate to latitude/longitude, population, rainfall, conversion of money... (Can you tell I'm clutching at straws here?)

According to Pusher, the numbers are backwards for Brits. Ummm... they use , and . reversed from the way we do for money and stuff, right? They drive on the other side of the road?

According to Syl, if I think the background can't possibly be what I think it is, it is anyway. The MGM lion? What?

So, there. Now you've gotten to see what probably completely unrelated thoughts have been tumbling around in my head in regards to this puzzle. I hope in return for your amusement you will pretty please give me another clue? Point me in the right direction? (Point and laugh? I dunno.)

Anonymous said...

Okay, since you obviously are not as much a slave of Hollywood in all its grotesque, summer blockbuster glory as Syl and I, the picture in the background is from "Independence Day".

Anonymous said...

Hey, don't suppose you've figured out "Skater Math", have you? I have the data sections, but I don't know what the actual *riddle* is. Hint me?

Ms. Huis Herself said...

Haven't looked at that one yet, but I'll open it next time I succumb to the addiction that is Dumb The Game. We'll see who ends up hinting whom...

Syl said...

So, you're good on #47? Or do you need more?

Ms. Huis Herself said...

Glanced at it once and was interrupted... still pondering at the moment, but haven't spend any real time on it yet. Nothing has popped into my mind yet, so if you've got a good clue, I'd still love to hear it. I'm sure once I get it, it'll be like "Duh! How could I have missed THAT for so long!"

Ms. Huis Herself said...

Durrr. I finally got it. Thanks for your help! I was reading all about the movie, trying to figure out what, if anything, it had to do with the countries listed. And then I started thinking about what Pusher said about the numbers being backwards... and then it hit me about the numbers being backwards. And how it made so much sense with the picture and the countries and the numbers that it HAD to be right. And then I checked Greece on Wikipedia and it matched. And then I knew what to do.

Yay! Thanks EVER so much for your help. I'll look at Skater Math next to see if I can return the favor.

Anonymous said...

I'm so impressed with the whole thought process you went through! Most of that wouldn't have even occurred to me.

Syl said...

I checked out Skater Math and I think I at least have the direction to start in. But it doesn't sound like that's working for everyone, anyway. I did find the list and might just brute force it like some others.

Help on Puzzle Mix, #56? This is an early one, but I just don't get it.

Ms. Huis Herself said...

That took me a little bit and looking at the hints, too. Have you tried following the directions?

Syl said...

I just don't know what they're getting at. I tred last night, but couldn't get anything out of it.

I did try Skater Math last night and got the game but couldn't find the appropriate point values for all of them. I tried to brute force it by entering the names of all 43 contestants, but that didn't work either. Sorry pusher, I'm stuck on this one now too.

Ms. Huis Herself said...

Well, you do have to add water, just like it says. Umm... hint that helps without giving it away... Ted tack (the second little slip of paper)... was where I started because it was almost it... just missing a little something. Let me know if you need more or more blatant cluing.

Haven't had a chance to try Skater Math myself yet, other than that I found the names and results of the contestants (probably same page you did, Syl), but no luck with point values either. Guess we'll have to look more or try other track.

Ms. Huis Herself said...

Ok, I got Skater Math, by the same method Syl tried, not by any great intellectual leap of my own. I found some of the scoring on a Tony Hawk game, but one wasn't quite right... and it didn't quite seem to match any of the scores on the results webpage, but I thought I'd try the brute force method as well.
Here's a clue... once you find the results page, look for a skater with a last name that would make Jaysan giggle.

Syl said...

Ok, I got Skater Math from your hint (spelled it wrong before) and I did finally get Puzzle Mix. Thanks.

Not sure how Skater Math was supposed to work, but it's done.

Ms. Huis Herself said...

Yeah, looking at the hint stuff, a LOT of people had similar gripes... hard time with the puzzle, ended up brute forcing it, and nobody was satisfied with "solving" it like that. Oh well, at least we got it done!

Anonymous said...

Aargh! Okay, I FINALLY figured out Skater Math! You can't just add up the scores from Skater Pro, you have to treat them as a combination move. The combination moves for Skater pro are scored thusly: Add the scores for the individual moves and multiply by the number of moves in the combo. Therefore pop shove it (125) plus kickflip (100) plus nosegrab (300)=525x3=1575. This was a bitch. (Partly because a lot of the lists I found listed the pop shove it at 100 points, which really, really didn't help.) And now I know way more about Tony effing Hawk's Pro effing Skater than I ever wanted to.

Also? Why isn't the answer to Arizona Love "Leno"? Aargh.