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Show HN: AVP 42 – A Puzzle Website

avp42.com

25 pointsavp4242 comments

This shouldn't require registration. At least let me try a few levels first. In fact, I think you should just be thrown in a level straight away.

This doesn't even need an email. So what is the problem.

I couldn't be bothered coming up with a username and password for something that I only know is a "puzzle game", with no further information.

The problem is that most people won't even click the "Register" link. For me personally it has nothing to do with email though. It's an obstacle which I can't be bothered with, even if it's just username and password.

The advantage of making you register is tracking your progress (and analytics, for the benefit of the webmaster). I suppose it could give you the option to just set a cookie, but that has the disadvantage of being device-specific. Also, some browser crashes can wipe out recently set cookies.

I've solved level 4 but regardless of what I enter:

- the whole phrase with and without spaces

- each individual word

...and in upper and lower case, yet it still won't let me move to the next level.

I'm bored now and going to the pub.

Try sending an email to help@avp42.com with what you think the answer is and I'll look into it.

I fixed that issue with level 4. Anyone who wasn't able to get it should be able to now.

I am stuck in the 8, maybe is something related with the american culture and I don't know it because I'm spanish. The first part drives me nowhere, The second one is a christmas song The third one Legendary -> Barney? What I'm missing?

Is it Jesus Christ? Does anyone have the answer?

He is related to an inventor in one of those things :)

I am a Web Analyst and I see a big point here in using google analytics. Are you adding/removing hints based on the through-put rate, average-page-time per each level etc? This would give you bare data on where you need to add/remove hints.

I know what ^ operator means in python and I tried that on given binary strings, It says password is not number so I am trying hex, still no luck ! Hints please : Level 5

bytes

Haha, I'm on 11.. On the verge of it and I can see

YOUTRDLOGETMTEOTHENNEXTLEVIEL

"YOU GET ME THE NEXT LEVEL" in it.. Ffffuuuuu!

Need help on 16. I think I've figured out the first part from the hint, but I'm stuck on the second part. Any hints?

I figured out what to do for puzzle 4, but not the keyword I need. I notice the title is the word keyword, but not sure what that means.

.. You may already have all you need. ;)

Gah! The tool I was using has a version 1 and a version 2. Only version 1 worked, version 2 (the default) did not.

So I managed to get passed level 11 with a little hand-waving but am still not sure how to get to the answer properly. Any hints?

It's a word search. There are 11 countries. Find them all.

You're going to kill my productivity tonight! ;)

Isn't the answer on level 2 "robot"?

Robots can have names, too.

If anyone has any questions or needs help on any puzzles, I'd be happy to answer them in this thread.

For what it's worth, the level solution hashes in github are pretty googleable. (Easier to google than your name, I found!)

But why would you want to?

Marvin isn't your name.. It's Aakash? What the hell!

I'm very confused, I've solved the cipher for level 4 but I can't get to the next level by typing it in? Ahhh, you just type in the last word. Solved.

Any more hints on level 9? The ones given don't help me to figure out how to even start.

"Flip-flop", like in a circuit? Those could do a myriad of things to encode the message.

"the second word" .. is the decoded message the first word or is it refering to 8bit words or something?

I think you're trying too hard on the "flip-flop" clue.

You have a typo in level 2 - you have <title> after </head>

Level 7 should specify that C can't be 0. That held me up for a bit.

I have to register to try it. No-go.

Nah, the registration is nothing. Username/password, no email address.

Site is down ...

is not http://isup.me/http://www.avp42.com/

It's back up. Was giving bad gateway errors for a few minutes.

The questions need to accept more alternate phrasings.

I spent at least five minutes feeding alternate phrasings and spellings to 3 until it accepted one. They were all semantically/informationally equivalent. They would all have been accepted by, say, a fair pub quiz judge.

I'm feeling so dumb right now; I've tried so many Caesar's Cypher combinations for problem 3 and can't seem to find the right answer. Tips?

There are only 25 possible settings for a Caesarean cipher. You may be thinking of a substitution cipher, but the clue indicates a Caesarian cipher, as you correctly figured out. The problem is probably that you're feeding a correct answer in a phrasing that the system will not accept.

You could bruteforce all 25 possible keys ... but the key is right next to the Caesar cipher clue.

Can you send an email to help@avp42.com with some examples of alternate phrasings (to avoid spoilers)?

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