InvisiClues for the PXC Card Catalog Trail

The following information is a collection of hints and solutions to the Card Catalog's puzzle trail. It is presented in the old Infocom InvisiClues(tm) format which means that several hints are offered--starting from simple nudges to nearly complete answers.

Q: What is the welcome message?

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It's in code, isn't it?

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It's a pretty common code--in fact, one of the most used (some might say overly-used) codes in all of ARGdom.

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Don't spend too much time on it. Get outside. You don't want to die and rot in the glow of a computer screen.

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It is ROT, a rotational cipher.

[>>]	Try http://rot13.com/

Q: What's the second coded message?

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This time, it isn't ROT.

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If you look carefully, you can make out words, sentences, and capitalization.

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Start with simple, known letter grouping and words.

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If a word ends in apostrophe-something, it is likely an S or T.

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A lot of the words (especially some of THE three letter words) start with the letters I and E.

[>>]	"There was a young man from Dunbar..."

Q: What is the gift?

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It could be an animal, mineral, or vegetable.

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It has a trunk and horn, but isn't a car.

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What animal has a trunk?

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elephant

Q: Huh? Jump?

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It's a pangram.

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A pangram is a sentense that uses every letter in the alphabet exactly once.

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How's your anagramming? The leftover letters are: C I K L Q U Y

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quickly

Q: Binary?

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Yep, it's binary. It decodes to text, obviously.

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In fact, it decodes to plain ASCII.

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If binary is 8 bits, then why does 8 not evenly divide into the number of digits?

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Have you noticed how one bit in ASCII is always the same? Isn't it a bit redundant?

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It's 7-bit ASCII.

[>>]	interabang

Q: I can't figure out these queens.

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This is a pretty common puzzle with a long history. Have you tried looking up an answer?

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Wikipedia has some information.

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cromulent

Q: I can't figure out these other queens.

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It's the same as the previous, but with an extra row an column.

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Have you tried Wikipedia?

[>>]	tricorderiffic

Q: How do I figure out the base metals?

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Well, there is heavy metal, speed metal, death metal...

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They are grouped on the periodic table of elements.

[>>]	Gold, silver, burrito, and adamantium.

Q: That's a lot of candles.

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It's a basic summation.

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k = 496

k=1

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x(x+1)/2 = 496

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Q: What was it that Spock said?

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He's dead, Jim. Wait, no, that was Bones.

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Was it Evil Spock or Good Spock? Did he have a goatee?

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Was it Evil Spock or Good Spock? Did he have a goatee?

[>>]	Why are you wasting my time?

Q: Three columns...

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The first colum is a three digit number, with the lowest 9 and the highest 238. Why is "9" represented by "009?"

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Seeing as this is the Perplex City Card Catalog, what in the Perplex City game uses 3-digit numbers?

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The first column is obviously a card, but what are the second and third?

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lines and words.

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"Your next word is the first four primes."

[>>]	twothreefiveseven

Q: Sudoku

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Yes, it is a difficult one, but there is only one answer.

[>>]	... .3. ... ..6 1.. 843 9.. ... 7.6 ..2 81. .5. 4.. ... ..2 .5. .62 9.. 8.5 ... ..9 397 ..1 5.. ... .8. ...

Q: The sudoku is solved, but what are the ovals?

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Each column (basically) has a red and a blue--a pair of digits.

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Okay, so one column doesn't have a blue. What digit can never be in a sudoku puzzle?

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Look to ASCII.

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It's an uncommon word. It's so scientific that many basic dictionaries do not contain it.

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It has its roots in optic medicine.

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exo______

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exotropia

Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?

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To get to the other side.

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There was a car coming.

[>>]	To prove to the possum it could actually be done!

Q: Resistance is Futile!

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No, it has nothing to do with the Borg.

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Before the Borg, "resistance" meant something else.

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Try looking at electronics.

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Resistors use color codes to determine their values.

[>>]	72,000,000

Q: What's this grid with numbers outside?

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It is called a nonogram.

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The numbers indicate consecutive filled-in spaces in a given row or column. More than one number means multiple groups of filled-in spaces with one or more blanks between.

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The result is a word.

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gridiron

Q: I see a bunch of hex. What's that?

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Check the page title. It mentions Von Neumann. He was famous for a number of things.

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One of the key things he is reponsible for today are computing systems where instructions and data reside in the same space. This means that data can modify code and code can modify data.

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The hex might be an encoded message, but it might be more. It looks like there is text in there, but there is so much more. If you look carefully, you will see that it is a null-terminated string.

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If it's not just data, it has to be...?

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Most files have a common few bytes at the beginning--a header that lets the computer know what type of file it is.

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This file's code indicates it is a MS-DOS *.com file.

[>>]	obfuscatory

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