Yeah, I know it's not the same thing, but I can't exactly make a FLCL giveaway. :(
Well, hmm, two questions:
First of all, how did you find this? :) Just curious... :)
And I was wondering - do you have any regrets in your Steam library? Like, maybe you bought a game, then later you discovered the developer was a jerk, so you wished you hadn't given him your money? Or maybe you bought something right before it went free-to-play? Or maybe you wasted three hours trying to get a game working, so you couldn't get a refund? Or maybe you don't care about questions, and just want the free stuff? :)
Good luck! :)
p.s. Since you solved the real puzzle, don't forget to bump the topic! :) bump
the last one was the best! ;)
I counted the spaces and the same numbers repeated all the time but they didn't make sense as a cipher so I realized it will be a picture :p
I don't really have any regrets, the games I bought or was given were generally fun, and the lame stuff was for free so I don't care...
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Aha, nice job! :)
Since people have mentioned it's not 2000 digits of pi, I was thinking some of them would notice it's actually 1909 characters, and wonder why I chose that specific amount. :) It's 83*23, for some reason or other... :)
I don't know if anyone's used google image search on the the hint jpeg in the last itstoohard link, but the picture is of the Arecibo Observatory in 1974, which is a vague reference to the Arecibo message. Guess you didn't need any of that stuff, though. :)
Good to know it's not broken after all! :) Good luck! :)
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Ha! I made it! Brillian puzzle, I'm applauding to you, maestro!
So, how did I made it:
On previous stages I looked for differences between original PI and your text, to solve previous puzzles... But Kdiff grouped some digits highlighting characters that are not exactly different, so I decided to make word document with correct markings. I did it, and I even marked by different colors cases when different number was before letter and when it was after letter (WHY? Why did you do it? I broke my mind trying to use it somehow, and now it seems to not have any meaning at all). After making a file - it still made no sense to me, but I noticed that some markings go one after another, and some other have space between them... it looked like pattern, so I decided I need to check it. Find&Replace marked places as @@, unmarked as spaces, copy&paste to notepad, change window width... bingo!
As for the regrets... I do sometimes regret about buying games, when I buy something, don't have time to play it, and then it becomes free (or very cheap). If I have time to play game before it gets free/cheap - it's okay.
Yeah, that's bad, I'd like to participate in such giveaway)))
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Oho, congratulations! :) And I've seen some great puzzles on Steamgifts, this one is nothing special...
Maybe it's not a bad idea for a starting point, but anyone can have an idea - I was too lazy to do anything interesting with it... :( The original version I was working on last year used hexadecimal digits of pi, with a lot of bundle trash giveaways involved, but I gave up on all that stuff - too much work. :)
I would have thought using pi in base 10 would at least make the Shadow of War giveaway obvious - just get rid of the digits, people... :) But somehow only 27 people have entered that one.... Although, even the pity giveaway "hiding" in the youtube link only has 45 entries. Maybe the games look like garbage... :)
Ahh, yeah, that alternating stuff wasn't hiding anything, but that's a good idea for one more message, pity I didn't think of it... :( This puzzle was already getting a bit crowded, but there's definitely room for one more giveaway in there. :) Oh well...
Hmm, I didn't think of that... So you only need to change the width of the window until something appears, knowing the precise width is unnecessary. :) Maybe that's a flaw in the puzzle, since a few people have noticed it's not exactly 2000 characters, without discovering the reason. I guess either you have the inspiration or you don't... :)
I seem to buy a lot of stuff that ends up in a Humble Monthly bundle shortly after, so hopefully with IGN as the new owner, their bundles will turn to crap and I won't have that problem any more... :)
I checked the videos section just to be sure, but even if you could buy FLCL on Steam, region restrictions would probably prevent you gifting it to anyone... :( I seem to remember a lot of people couldn't see the store page for http://store.steampowered.com/app/518460/Fatestay_night_Unlimited_Blade_Works/ for that giveaway, whenever that was... Sigh. :(
Good luck! :)
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Your puzzle is special in one way - you managed to fit 4 giveaways in one code, I don't remember seeing such tricks before, that's why I like it.
And the quantity of entries... Well, I honestly don't think this is because puzzle is too hard or games not good enough - just people too lazy these days.
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Yeah, you are probably right about people, I know I'm too lazy to look at puzzles any more, which makes it harder to make them... Just don't know what people are doing lately, probably all sorts of interesting ideas I should learn about...
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Best giveaway and a nice puzzle, though I think this puzzle is going to be out of reach for non programmers and non-super users.
I'm not surprised that you can encode all those GA into the puzzle, and I know that the last piece of information lies in the position of the differences, but only thought of turning it into an image recently.
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Aha, congratulations! Yeah, I think finding this giveaway by hand would be possible, but really slow... Not sure if anyone is that crazy. :)
For some reason I kept expecting people to notice all the lies in the "2000 digits of pi" statement. :) I mean, many people noticed not really digits to find Shadow of War + Nioh, and some noticed not really digits of pi to find Pillars of the Earth, but not really 2000 was supposed to help with this final piece. :)
I mean it wasn't necessary to see 1909 = 83 * 23, but every little bit helps. :) Maybe people thought it didn't matter, or that I ran out of digits of pi somehow... :) Oh well. :)
Glad you noticed before the giveaway ends! :) Good luck! :)
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I will kindly request to be considered the 3.9th solver/entrant of this giveaway!
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Sounds fair enough, but I'm not sure how to send you .9 of a game if you win... :)
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Nailing 4 out of 5 letters means 0.8, but since C and D are at such proximity, one character distance, I added 0.1 to it.
I guess, I will accept your recognition/acknowledgement and will just settle with being considered a honorary participant as my prize, regardless of winning or losing.
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