It's time to listen to some acid music! I'd recommend either this, or this. One of them leads to a headache, and the other one to a hidden giveaway (and potentially a headache too). However, only those of both art and science can find it.

You will find two English words, which together describe an activity people do in some video games (this should work as a confirmation you got it right -- if you get "qkrft aaeiz", you did something wrong). Use these words (all lowercase) to complete a bit.ly address. For example, if the words are "peel" and "potatoes", go to bit.ly/peelpotatoes.

The giveaway should end next Friday, at midnight CET. Oh, and for what game, you ask? It's what happens when you have a screwdriver, and then someone screws with zombies. Er, I meant, replaces screws with zombies.

(Disclaimer: although I am, technically speaking, a scientist, I got all my knowledge of this particular area of science from Wikipedia. So if the wiki articles I used were wrong, then you're zombied. I mean, screwed.)

EDIT: There's a typo in the music, because I'm a lousy pianist: to deal with it, you have to replace the first "L" that you decode with an "R". (In our example, you would have to use "peerpotatoes". Alternatively, use it as it is -- it's not an English word that way, but the address with "L" now works too. And remember, all lowercase.) Still, one person managed to solve it even without this clarification. ;-)

Please, if you are one of the cheaters from the infamous Serious Sam 3 giveaway trap, don't enter.


Solution:

Observations (things you should have noticed before even starting to guess anything):

  • The code was supposed to consist of two words describing a gaming activity.
  • The puzzle linked to two YouTube videos, one of which would lead to the giveaway. One of them is public and was uploaded last year, the other one was unlisted, uploaded around the time the giveaway started, and a short time after the start of the giveaway, an annotation was added to it, which made it totally clear that this video was the one linked to the giveaway.
  • The audio track contained five groups of three notes, a short pause, and another five tone triplets.
  • There were only three different notes in the whole track.
  • (bonus observation for "artists"; if you don't possess absolute pitch, you had to deduce this from the other pieces of information) The notes were C, G and A.
  • The video part consisted of a single frame of a spiral staircase.
  • The videos were described as "acid" music. In the first video, it was apparently referring to the genre; in the other one, not.

Solution:

  • The spiral shape of the staircase, "acid", and "scientist" hints lead to deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA. This is also supported by the fact that DNA consists of sequences of C, G, A and T bases. (Unfortunately, there is no "T" note.)
  • Triplets of DNA bases are called codons, and each of them encodes one amino acid (again, the "acid" hint).
  • Find a DNA codon table (for example here). Each amino acid has a corresponding letter.
  • Write down the notes, find the amino acid for each of the triplets, and read their letters. Don't forget to perform the transcription (i.e. replace all C's with G's, G's with C's and A's with T's).
  • (if you want, replace the first "L" with a "R" to avoid the error/typo; this was unnecessary, both the "wrong" and the "correct" address worked)
  • Capture the flag: http://bit.ly/graspflags
12 years ago*

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thanks

12 years ago
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My guess was boexi kicap from aac bcb abc cbc bba bbc bba aba aab bca

But it's wrong and i already have zombie driver so :P

12 years ago
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whats the game

12 years ago
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Saints Row 3

12 years ago
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Skyrim.

12 years ago
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Mass Effect 3.

12 years ago
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Half Life 2 Episode 3

12 years ago
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A bundle pack of all the games listed plus all the games that you could ever want.

12 years ago
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steam complete pack, comes with every game on steam and every future release

12 years ago
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Whoohoo, another chuckie puzzle! :D
...aaaaand... hmm... ... ... ... ... (and set those ellipses on repeat for a while..)
[edit] oh crap... there's audio on that other track... well that makes things a hell of a lot easier! :D ...it probably didn't help having the other video playing at the same time... or maybe it never loaded the audio the first time for some reason... don't know why I didn't hear it before! [/edit]

12 years ago
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Got it! thanks for the giveaway :)
Though..you made a mistake. See the comment I posted on the giveaway page.

12 years ago
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You are correct, I misplayed a bit.

To deal with the error, you have to replace the first "L" that you decode with an "R". (In our example, you would have to use "peerpotatoes". Alternatively, use it as it is -- it's not an English word that way, but the address with "L" now works too. And remember, all lowercase.)

12 years ago
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I've got absolutely no idea on how to continue. . .

12 years ago
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;)

12 years ago
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lol

12 years ago
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I don't even.

12 years ago
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Damn it, I know what I need to do, but I can't because I'm not that badass :(

12 years ago
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Ahhhrrhh i cant even watch the second video because i keep imagining other tones on certain parts D:

12 years ago
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What SS3 infamous trap? Now you got me curious...

12 years ago
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Some time ago, one of the SG members asked the Yahoo Answers community to solve a puzzle for him. He then received a false solution (it was given by the author of the puzzle, but that was unknown at the time). That solution led to a "false", but very tempting giveaway by the same gifter, in which he was asking people to enter only if they genuinely solved the puzzle.

As the only way of finding that giveaway was using the false solution posted on Yahoo Answers, basically everyone who entered disregarded that request and cheated, because they didn't solve it themselves. (There were one or two exceptions that were innocent and ended there as a mistake, but I think this was soon sorted out, and they were "cleared of all charges".) Needless to say, there were no winners in that trap. It disappeared and became the stuff of SG legends, leaving behind only a blacklist on harddrives of those who realized it would be a good idea to download the list of entrants.

Also, bump. Five people solved this so far, two of which have entered. Don't tell me there are so few scientists with a taste for art around here!

12 years ago
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A little over one day remains, with 2 entries so far. Is the puzzle too difficult, or the prize too uninteresting?

12 years ago
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in my opinion, too difficult

12 years ago
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I'm sure it's too difficult; no prize is so uninteresting people wont enter it with those odds :)

12 years ago
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In that case, focus on the "acid" hint, and perhaps look at the staircase. :-)

12 years ago
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D'oh! It rings a bell now.

12 years ago
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not for me :D

12 years ago
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Heh heh, you said pianist.

12 years ago
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Oh wow, all this time I thought your DP was a duck looking to the right.

Anyway, bumping because this is an awesome puzzle!

12 years ago
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12 years ago
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Go directly to http://bit.ly/*puzzlesolution* -- that address will redirect you to the giveaway.

12 years ago
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Ohh... :P ok ty.

12 years ago
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Edit: derp.
Wee fun!

12 years ago
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can you explain it when is finished? ^^

12 years ago
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Yup, I will.

12 years ago
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Solution available, see the top post.

12 years ago
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artists and scientists?

12 years ago
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artists, as in musicians (performing arts)

12 years ago
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looks like twipps wins. Only 2 entries in this puzzle, and I didn't win. :P

12 years ago
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Closed 12 years ago by chuckie001.