Five Clues (again)
Ready Player One theme idea
I faintly remember in some video interview earlier on in the treasure hunt that the author may have described the Past & Future Box as being Ready Player One-themed. I feel like it was in the context of being asked which box would he be searching for. One year in, I think I heard him say something different—that he’d search for the Lion’s Share box since it’s the biggest. I can’t locate the exact sources for these—assuming I am even remembering correctly. I am looking and will link them if/when I find them.
The movie is different from the book and I believe that any connections in TTI to Ready Player One would involve the book since that is what is explicitly mentioned. Still, watching the movie again recently (my kids’ first time seeing, though one of them had read the book) at least got me thinking about how TTI’s author introduces the book.
Seeing this sleek box made me think of Ernest Cline, the brilliant author of the science-fiction bestseller Ready Player One. It’s a great book, and one I highly recommend.
One of the more confusing (for me) things to follow in the book are the sequence of challenges as they relate to accessing the clues/riddles to find the keys, acquiring the keys, locating the gates, and then opening the gates. Regardless, I wonder if the author wanted to use RPO to create some structure for how things are hidden in the word search. In the narrative, the amount of words for the description of the box and the history of Bitcoin track with descriptions of boxes and treasure items elsewhere in the book. With an entire page of an otherwise short chapter dedicated to Ready Player One, I continue to believe that it is likely an important part to the solve.
Here is an idea for a structure, organized as five clues based on Ready Player One.
Clue 1: Anorak’s Invitation
Clue 2: Copper Key/Gate
Clue 3: Jade Key/Gate
Clue 4: Crystal Key/Gate
Clue 5: Extra Life Coin
Clue 1: Anorak’s invitation
The key events of Ready Player One are initially set off after the death of Gregarious Games/OASIS founder-creator James Halliday. Using a cryptic video invitation to search for a hidden easter egg, “gunters” (egg hunters) figured out that there was a letter/word play (notched letters) in a resource called “Anorak’s Almanac” that led to finding the first of three keys.
In the case of TTI, I have wondered if the reveal from non-easy-word letters (and a few O’s) is a similar invitation. I also have felt that the only substantive part of this remaining letters approach to the Word Search (after finding 4+ letter words) is: THERE ARE FIVE CLUES IN THIS WORD SEARCH.
I suggest this because it feels hard to reconcile all of the other inconsistencies in this approach—for example completely leaving out the first row, some of the spelled out words be included in a larger message (like LINE), letters spilling over to another row, etc.). This also, however, makes it harder to consider why only the “O” in the scrambled WORDSEARCH is included but not the two O’s around the E of LEMON or the O’s on either side of LIAR/RAIL. It requires making up rules to exclude them; the only thing I can think of is that certain Os have a structure/pattern to them.
On the right (and the case of the scrambled WORDSEARCH), there seems to be an intentional rectangle formed by the corner O’s. Below LEMON the O’s appear in a cluster as they do on other parts of the Word Search, also making me think there could be some intentionality.
So even to pull out this message of THERE ARE FIVE CLUES IN THIS WORDSEARCH, it requires some arbitrary rule-making. That being said, I’m ok if this message—in a meta sort of way—is one of the five clues.
Clue 2: Copper Key
In the book, there is first a set of clues that lead to the key; then, after completing a challenge you get the key and a clue to find a gate; and then after finding the gate you do another challenge to open the gate. Throughout these various steps for the Copper Key, the main 80’s nostalgia references for me include:
Dungeons and Dragons (RPG tabletop game): This is explicitly named in the TTI chapter thought the specific module (Tomb of Horrors) is not. TSR is the name of the publisher of DnD and there are several T-S-R clusters in the Word Search. There is also a vertical DND.
Joust (Atari game): A scrambled JOUST appears in the word search
Dungeons of Daggorath (computer game): This is not related to Dungeons and Dragons outside of its theme. Coincidentally, the computer it is played on is a TRS-80 (similar letters to TSR).
WarGames (film): This title is explicitly mentioned in the narrative. I remember seeing a community member very early on exploring connections between the Tic-Tac-Toe grid from the movie and the Word Search, but I’m not sure if anything came of that.
Clue 3: Jade Key
Of all of the things involved with the Jade key and gate in the book, only Zork seems to be connected in TTI. The main nostalgic tie-ins for me from the book for this key/gate include:
Zork: This title is explicitly mentioned in the chapter. “Welcome to Word Search” feels very similar to the opening line from the game “Welcome to Zork.” We have the word 19 and I understand that there are 19 treasures to search for and place in a case in the game.
Cap’n Crunch: I can’t think of any connection other than to the Blue Box from Chapter 1. Apparently a Cap’n Crunch whistle giveaway item from a cereal box could mimic the payment tone used for long distance calls (same way as the Blue Box device that the two Steves who co-founded Apple did - definitely not above board btw!).
Blade Runner: I’ve never actually seen this movie (!) - the original or the more recent title (not sure if it’s a remake or something in the series). It’s not mentioned in the chapter, but I am not sure if there are any words or other things in the word search that are related to this film.
Black Tiger: This video game I think was an arcade cabinet game originally and maybe it had some ports on some home consoles. I had never heard of it before. Someone on YouTube (of course) has posted a playthrough on what I imagine is an emulator version.
Clue 4: Crystal Key
The main callout in the TTI chapter to things related to the Crystal key challenges is the Atari game Adventure. Here are the things I have noted:
Rush’s 2112: I don’t fully recall the details of this part of the challenge - it had something to do with a planet themed after this album and finding a guitar (I think). I think it’s interesting how there is a TWELVE in the word search and it is backwards (12 backwards is 21).
Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy + Schoolhouse Rock: There was some puzzle involving a reference in the Douglas Adams book (42 as the answer to everything/life or something like that - I’ve never read the books!). The other part of the puzzle had to do with the Schoolhouse Rock TV spot series and their “Three is a Magic Number” song. I can’t necessarily find a 42 but there are a couple of THREEs in the word search.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail: This film is mentioned in the narrative. The word ROUND could be in reference to the Knights of the Round Table who are part of the story. And then I don’t fully understand the “Vigenere Cipher”, but I do think it’s very suspicious how some clear words (COW, BELL, SHY, QUIP, are seen when it is applied to the table using the key of LEMON (which apparently is a classic Vigenere key to use and also is in the Word Search).
I remember earlier in the year when a community member had pointed out the connection to KING and BRAVE in the decoded cipher version being very close to where ARTHUR and LANCELOT appear scrambled. That’s wild to me (I had an AI tool help me do the deciphering; I am not sure why some letters are different colors).
Adventure: This title is mentioned in the chapter narrative. What I didn’t know until about 5 minutes ago is that there was first a text-based game called Colossal Cave Adventures (which I became aware about via the community). Then some folks created Zork as an improved text-based game. And then as a separate thread, the Atari game was created as a graphical version of Colossal Cave Adventures. So basically, I was not aware until just now that there is a strong tie between Zork and the Atari Adventure game (having the same starting point). Very cool!
Clue 5: Extra Life Coin
In the book, while following a slightly incorrect “solve”, the protagonist stumbles upon a kind of bonus level. He is meant to achieve the highest possible score in Pacman (explicitly named in the chapter too). The machine is actually set with the second highest possible score of 3,333,350 (these three digits all appear in the word search). One of the elements in the book is that the arcade machine in the challenge actually has an “Out of Order” sign on it. That would be a pretty cool reference/signal to work with things that are “out of order” (for example, working with letters that are not in order or scrambled or boggled).
If this were my primary focus/box, I think I’d explore the Dungeons and Dragons and Adventure/Zork connections the most. I remember early on the TTI Unofficial Podcast folks had a Zork-driven solve at Mammoth Caves in KY (which has been acknowledged as the inspiration for Colossal Cave Adventure). Just a quick map search of the area and I see that KY road 70 (MS 68 out of 70 for the Bitcoin?) goes through there. There is a town Arthur and a historic railroad. And there are a and bunch of business with the word “Adventure” in the name (perhaps to be expected). Anyways, I think it’s worthy of continued attention.
