Yet another birthday thing... [solutions posted in 1st comment]

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~~It's~~It was my birthday! And ~~only 2 more days, then~~ since yesterday my Steam existence is 2 years old! I haven't been here for that long, but still... time to get some celebratory trains going! :D

Small group & Whitelist GA
Small train for everybody (Lv 0-1+)

To get to the bigger, better and faster (?) train, you'll have to solve one of these...

Numbers, for those who miss them by now fixed Q4, try again if that's where you were stuck
Something with text hints at the end of this post and in the puzzle
More text new hints
Videos! pretty much the easiest one
Uh, text again more hints added

All lead to different stations, but all are on the same route. You may get off at any point (maybe find a hidden pathway?). Levels 1-4+ may enter, open till Monday, August 17, 10 PM GMT+2
I hope everything works, let me know if something seems off. All puzzles should be pretty easy, didn't have time for anything elaborate; train includes some unbundled games, so have a look ;)

And now, time for cake! :3

(thanks for all the birthday wishes :D)

Some (by now probably outdated) statistics for you about the main train with the puzzles (including hidden GAs):

Total number of GAs: 15 (11 bundled, 4 unbundled)
Average entries per GA: 15.8 (3 with less than 5 entries, one of them unbundled)
Total points to spend: 240
Average solvers per puzzle: 25.8

Updated hint for P2:
Think about what the description is, and what it's usually accompanied by when you see it somehwere - that's what I'm after for the others (the puzzle is really just about finding out what they are). Also, if you've solved one of the other puzzles and have been to the train, you've come across one of the answers (not the question though) - from there, it's only a few clicks to 2 more answers ;).
And if that's the last puzzle you haven't solved yet, don't forget there's always bruteforcing if you can't figure it out ;)

9 years ago*

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164 Comments

nellyneko

reserved for things :3

... like ~~random key drops~~ SOLUTIONS I hope the formatting works

Puzzle 1 - Math stuff

1 3 7 15 31 63
- (current number x 2) + 1
1 1 2 4 12 60 780
- (previous number + 1) x current number
1 4 13 42 136 440
- (current number x 3) + previous number - number before that + number before that - ... (alternating +/-)
15 23 35 53 80 special thanks to perrolijo for finding my error early on :D
- ((current number + 1) / 2) + current number
7 5 6 4 8 2 3 3 7 8 6 7 OR 7 8
- That was a sequence from Pi google might've told you already ;)

Puzzle 2 - Animals?

The Lamb - Dessa
The Whale - Sims
The Pelican - Menomena
The Crow - Dessa
Lioness - Songs: Ohia
They were all song titles, I was looking for the artists. If you googled the "description" ("The Fox (What Does The Fox Say?)"), you should've seen that it was a (I thought well-known?) song. I was hoping that would be enough to tell you what the rest are.
Quick solution: Google the title together with "lyrics", all of them should be on the first page of the results.
Roundabout solution: I mentioned Sims in the main train, recommending one of his EPs and linking to his bandcamp page. On that page, if you clicked on "more from Doomtree" (I put "more" in italics in the hint given in the main post), you can either go through the albums looking for some of the other song titles, or just google them together with "Doomtree". This should've brought you the two Dessa songs.
For Menomena, I posted a hint with a video (though unrelated) with the band's name as the title. On a second level, this video was also supposed to tell you once again that it's song titles I've given you (00:11 "Isn't it the name of a song?").
And finally, if you've found out that those are songs and google "Lioness" and "song", you get the last solution (second result for me, a YouTube video).

By the way, I love all of these songs, and not all of them are hip hop ;)

Puzzle 3 - ME!

Good morning, that's a nice Tnetennba
- Just google the question, this should be about the only thing to come up (a quote from one of my favorite shows)
Every year on my Birthday, (almost) all that's on tv in Germany are documentaries about the Berlin Wall.
- Okay, those documentaries are probably more about the separation and all of that, but the construction of the wall began on August 13, 1961, so it's the most important part of why they're on tv on THAT DAY.
  *How to find the answer if you're not German: Check Wikipedia for August 13, then Ctrl + F "Germany" and look for things that could be worthy of documentaries (there isn't much there); Or just google the date + Germany
My work involves CATs and a lot of guesswork. I'm a translator.
- CAT = Computer-assisted translation (or computer-aided translation), as found (pretty far down) on the disambiguation page on Wikipedia.
- L10n = localization (from the hint) - because, yes, I'm involved in localizations. What kinds of localizations, you ask? Oh, just apps and video games :P
What is this called? ə schwa (or shwa)
- easy to find if you just google "upside down e" ;)
Ah, four questions is enough for now, isn't it? yes no
- Would have accepted a bunch of answers :)

Puzzle 4 - YouTube

Where were the keys? hatbox
- Also would have accepted a bunch of variants (hat-box, one of the hatboxes etc.)
What ingredient makes Father Ted agree to have some cake? Cinnamon
- Because we all know that Ted loves cinnamon, right? ^^
What object are they arguing about before they go underwater? the duck
- Also would have accepted "a duck", "duck", "rubber ducky" etc.
What's missing on the first pizza? anchovies
- Although that wouldn't have bothered me.
What is Dickie's big present? a nuclear power plant
- Also possible without the article.

Puzzle 5 - Movie titles

A celestial body made from recyclable material. Paper Moon
Everybody wants to be a certain actor. Being John Malkovich
- As most of the title is the actor's name, and he hasn't played that one big role everyone knows him from yet (afaik), I couldn't get more specific. But it should've been easy to find with the hint (2nd result if you google "movie actor get into head")
Explosive emperor. Napoleon Dynamite
- Also relatively easy to google with the hint ("movie llama president" - 4th result)
School for people who want to wear uniforms. Police Academy
- A true classic XD
Colloquialism for a kind of neck injury. Whiplash

Hidden GAs

The code to Magick was hidden in the source code of the train's first GA (Contraption Maker), but most people who found it already had it
The code to Hatoful Boyfriend was hidden in the picture I shared in the GA for Secrets of Raetikon (the album cover, above the rabbit's head/left of its left ear)
The code to Craft the World was given out, letter by letter, in the puzzles (that's the main reason why they're numbered)

Thanks everyone who participated, it was fun hearing from everyone in the little threads all over. I hope you had fun getting to know me a little (these were all things I enjoy), and hopefully you didn't get too frustrated - the puzzles weren't actually supposed to be very difficult, sorry ^^'

9 years ago*