2010 Fall Tournament

[LadyKestrel]

Rules of the 2010 Fall Adventure Games Tournament at Mystery Manor


It's good to see you here! Whether you’re a returning veteran player or a newbie to our tourneys, we hope you're ready to have fun with 6 weeks of brain-bending puzzles! Please take the time to familiarize yourself with these rules before participating.

If you’re new to Mystery Manor, all you have to do is register to play. However, we’d love to get to know you better, so take a minute, if you can, to post in our Guest Book forum and tell us something about yourself. Players from all over the world are eligible to play and try for our prizes.

TOURNAMENT DATES & GENERAL INFO
The tournament will run for 6 weeks beginning on Monday, September 20 and ending on Monday, November 1, 2010. Each week you will have 2 regular puzzles to solve, plus there may be another special puzzle for you to solve during the tournament. You’ll get more details about this on the starting day.

Each week's new puzzles will be posted on Monday around 7:00 PM Central Daylight Time (CDT), which is Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) minus 5 hrs. (GMT is also known as UTC.) Guesses for the week’s puzzles will be accepted until 7:00 PM CDT the following Monday. The answers to the puzzles and the scores will be posted soon after. For those who wish to syncronize their chronometers, the timezone can be set to CDT under preferences in your user control panel.

Although it doesn't happen very often, if the manor's server goes down, the puzzle time limit may be extended, especially if it affects the end of any week of the tournament.

All puzzle threads will be locked to avoid the accidental posting of answers for all to see. There will be a thread for general questions and comments in the tournament section, but please be careful not to post any hints there or anywhere else in the forums. If you do, you will be disqualified from playing for that week. When in doubt, direct your questions to Quizmaster or one of his hard-working slaves via PM.

QUIZMASTER
Your guesses during the tournament must be sent by Private Message (PM) to Quizmaster, our imaginary games master. We use QM to allow us all access to the same message box, so please don’t send any answers to anyone else on the staff, unless you are specifically directed to do so in the individual puzzle rules. You should receive an answer within 24 hours. If not, please alert QM.

PUZZLES
There are many different types of puzzles in our tournament, and a variety of scoring methods will be used. Please read the directions for each puzzle carefully. If they aren’t clear to you, contact QM for clarification.

When sending your guesses to QM, please try to limit the number of PM’s you send each day. (One PM with 6 guesses is much easier on the scorers than six PMs with 1 guess each.) Also, please put the puzzle name in the subject line. When submitting answers for both puzzles at the same time, please label them in the body of your message.

If your answer is the name of a game, please make sure it’s complete. If it is one of a series, make sure you identify it with a number or the complete subtitle. If you just give the name, it will be assumed that you mean the first one in the series.

Note: Adventure games for the PC will be used in this tournament, but be aware that this covers a broad spectrum and may include adventure games with action or RPG elements, text adventures, and/or children’s adventures. The games used will either be known by English titles or can be played with English subtitles. Games with an anticipated English release may also be used.

PRIZES
The prize for each of the top three scorers of the tournament will be the player's choice of a new game. In addition, at least 1 consolation prize will be drawn from the names of those not in the top 3 places, but a player must stay to the end of the tourney to qualify for this drawing. In the event of a tie for first place, a tie-breaking puzzle will be given to determine the winner.

Good luck and happy puzzling to all our players!

Sadistic Symbol Sudoku

1. Solve the Sudoku puzzle below. Sudoku is usually done with numbers instead of symbols, and you can find solving directions here.



Seriously Sadistic Symbol Search

2. Complete the following, as instructed in the image.



3. You have 6 weeks to complete this puzzle. Submit the name of the game in your final result in a PM to the Beast, NOT Quizmaster, anytime before the tourney's end on Monday, November 1, 2010 at 7:00 PM Central DS Time.

Scoring: You get one guess, and one guess only, for the game name; a correct guess will give you 250 points.

You do not need to submit your answers for the Sudoku or Symbol Search. However, if you want confirmation of your counts in the Symbol Search, you can "buy" hints as follows. Submit your symbol counts in a PM to the Beast, and he will tell you which of your counts are correct. Each of these results supplied by the Beast will be provided at a cost of 50 points, so, for example, if you request two count confirmations and subsequently enter the correct guess for the final game name, you will receive 150 points. No help will be given with the Sudoku.

The Beast's Überpuzzle Answers:

MM_Sudoku_Answer2.jpg

[LadyKestrel]

Week 1 - Detritus Island
This small pirate island has accumulated 14 pieces of flotsam and jetsam from other adventure games. Name each of the items that don’t belong in this scene and give the title of the game from which they come. You can earn bonus points if you can name the game in which this island appears, but your answer must be very specific and you get only one guess.

Scoring:
You may make up to 3 guesses for each item.
1st correct guess = 10 points
2nd correct guess = 5 points
3rd correct guess = 3 points
Bonus = 1st guess only = 15 points

Submit your guesses via PM to Quizmaster by Monday, September 27 at 7:00 PM Central Daylight Time (GMT -5).



Detritus Island Answers:
Woman facing away - Culpa Innata
Pink car - Day of the Tentacle
Hut between trees - Next Life (Reprobates)
Portal opening - Keepsake
Lighthouse - Shadow of the Comet
Sculpture with two dancing figures - Amber: Journeys Beyond
Hot air balloon - Schizm
Stone tiki statue - Nancy Drew: Secret of Kapu Cave
Candy cane - Sam & Max: Ice Station Santa
Trunk with legs - Discworld 2
Ax in stump - Murder in the Abbey (The Abbey)
Shrunken head on pole - Runaway: A Road Adventure
Ketchup bottle - GAG
Lobster man on right - Mystery of the Nautilus
Original island scene - Tales of Monkey Island, Chapter 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay

Week 1 - Pirate Booty
Aye, me hearties, there’s treasure in them there adventure games, and it’s up to you to dig it up! The written clues below refer to items that could be considered treasures. Each item is also part of a game title, and the numbers tell how many letters are contained in each word of the title.

You will receive 10 points for each correct first guess, 5 points for a correct second guess, and 3 points for a third. The maximum points you can earn for this puzzle is 200. Send your answers to Quizmaster by 7:00 PM Central Daylight Time on Monday, September 27, 2010. Now get digging!



Pirate Booty Answers:
1. The Sacred Amulet
2. Diamonds in the Rough
3. A Fork in the Tale
4. Law & Order: Dead on the Money
5. Agon: The Lost Sword of Toledo
6. The Dagger of Amon Ra
7. Jewels of the Oracle
8. Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail
9. The Crystal Key
10. The Sacred Rings
11. Obsidian
12. The Scroll
13. Ankh
14. The Lost Crown
15. Overclocked
16. The Sacred Mirror of Kofun
17. Amber: Journeys Beyond
18. Keepsake
19. Watchmaker
20. Secret of the Silver Earring

[LadyKestrel]

Week 2 - A Crash Course in Cryptograms
A cryptogram is a puzzle where a sentence is encoded by substituting the actual letters of the sentence with different letters or symbols. The challenge of the puzzle is to 'decode' the sentence to reveal the original English sentence. (Yes, spelling does count!) Each cryptogram below has a different code.

Part 1 - Decode each sentence.
Part 2 - Anagram the letters in the colored squares in each sentence to reveal 8 adventure games.

You have 3 chances to get the sentence correct, 10 points for the first guess, 5 for the second, and 3 for the third. You will earn an additional 5 points for getting the anagrammed game correct. Submit your answers to Quizmaster by Monday, October 4 at 7 PM CDT. The total number of points you can earn for this puzzle is 120, and for that you'll get a gold star.



Answers to Crytograms:

1. I'm a silly dilly pumpkin with a flippy floppy hat. I can shake my stem like this and shake my vine like that. Keepsake

2. Autumn time is a bushel of fun. Fable

3. Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. The Messenger

4. The leaves are changing with the time of year. Nacah

5. Fall arrives and the leaves change to beauty. Rent-a-Hero

6. In autumn, the leaves turn colors and fall from the trees. Alida

7. It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the spring who reaps a harvest in autumn. Forever Worlds

8. Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting, and autumn a mosaic of them all. Sanitarium

Week 2 - Photo Philter Phun
Your visual perception is being accessed this week. Below are ten heavily filtered game screenshots. Can you identify the games? Submit your answers in a PM to Quizmaster. You may submit up to three guesses per day for this portion of the tournament with no penalty for incorrect answers, but you must adhere to the following deadlines:

• On Thursday, September 30, at approximately 7:00 PM Central DS Time, these screenshots will be replaced by the same screenshots with less filtering, and
  
• On Saturday, October 2, at approximately 7:00 PM Central DS Time, they will be replaced again by the same screenshots with no filtering.

Scoring for correct guesses before the first deadline of Thursday, September 30, when the first set of new screenshots are posted, will be 10 points each.

Scoring for correct guesses between the first deadline and the second deadline of Saturday, October 2, when the second set of new screenshots are posted, will be 5 points each.

Scoring for correct guesses between the second deadline and the final deadline of Monday, October 4, at exactly 7:00 PM Central DS Time, will count for 3 points each.

The maximum number of points you can earn for this puzzle is 100. If you do so, you will pass with flying colors!

As a kindness to you poor suffering students, we offer the following: All screenshots for this portion of the tourney are taken from the Winecellar.

Set 3:



Photo Philter Phun Answers:

1. Fairy Tale About Father Frost, Ivan and Nastya
2. Intrigue at Oakhaven Plantation
3. Erevos
4. Alice: An Interactive Museum
5. Vampire Diaries
6. So Blonde
7. Road to India
8. The Legend of Lotus Spring
9. Night Cafe
10. Gold and Glory: The Road to El Dorado

[LadyKestrel]

Week 3 - Adventures in B-Sharp
Here are some selections of game music for your listening enjoyment. You must identify the adventure games in which these pieces can be heard. You have 3 chances to guess each one correctly, and you'll receive 15 points for a correct first guess, 10 points for a second, and 5 points for a third. The bonus is worth 20 points, but you may submit a guess for it only once. The maximum number of points you can earn for this puzzle is 170. Send your answers to QM by 7:00 PM CDT on Mon., October 11, 2010.

~Game Music 1~
~Game Music 2~
~Game Music 3~
~Game Music 4~
~Game Music 5~
~Game Music 6~
~Game Music 7~
~Game Music 8~
~Game Music 9~
~Game Music 10~

A sample of a haunting upcoming game:

~Game Music Bonus~

Adventures in B-Sharp Answers:
1 ~ Grim Fandango
2 ~ Beyond Atlantis (Atlantis 2)
3 ~ Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (Gabriel Knight 1)
4 ~ Sanitarium
5 ~ Murder in the Abbey
6 ~ Sam and Max Episode 1 (or any other episode)
7 ~ Phantasmagoria
8 ~ Overclocked
9 ~ Scratches
10 ~ Ceville
Bonus ~ Hauntings at Cliffhouse

Week 3 - Harvest of Hats
Since September was Fall Hat Month, we've harvested a collection of millinery from various games. Tell us in what games you can find these fetching fedoras and chic chapeaux. Your first correct guess earns you 10 points, a second 5 points, and a third 3 points. Submit your answers to Quizmaster by Monday, Oct. 11 at 7:00 PM CDT.

Harvest of Hats Answers:
1. Agon: The Lost Sword of Toledo
2. So Blonde
3. Runaway: A Twist of Fate
4. Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
5. The Cameron Files: Pharaoh's Curse
6. Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis (vs Arsene Lupin)
7. Bone: The Great Cow Race
8. Gilbert Goodmate and the Mushroom of Phungoria
9. Time Stand Still
10. Nancy Drew: Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon
11. Ceville
12. Discworld 2: Mortality Bytes
13. Secret Files 2: Puritas Cordis
14. Hans Christian Anderson: The Ugly Prince Duckling
15. The Secrets of Da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript
16. Mata Hari
17. Nostradamus
18. 80 Days
19. Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail
20. Journey to the Center of the Earth

[LadyKestrel]

Week 4 - Anchor Chain
Like the links in an anchor chain, the names of the games listed below are connected. The last two letters of each title are the same as the first two in the next, and the last one loops back up to the first. Spaces and punctuation have been omitted from the titles.

You will get two chances to guess each game correctly. A correct first guess is worth 10 points and a correct second guess is worth 5. The maximum number of points for this puzzle is 120. Your answers must be submitted to Quizmaster by 7:00 PM CDT on Monday, October 18, so weigh anchor and set sail for Good Luck Point without delay!


Anchor Chain Answers:

1. ALIDA
2. DARE TO DREAM
3. AMERZONE
4. NECRONOMICON
5. ONCE UPON A CRIME
6. MEMENTO MORI
7. RIDDLE OF THE MAZE
8. ZEDDAS
9. ASTRONOMICA
10. CASTLE OF DR. BRAIN
11. INHERIT THE EARTH
12. THE ARRIVAL

Week 4 - Sailing the Ocean Blue
In fourteen hundred and ninety two,
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
He did not know these boats, it's true.
The question is, of course, do you?

You must name the games in which these boats and ships appear. Your first correct guess earns you 10 points, a second is worth 5 points, and a third is worth 3 points. The maximum number of points you can earn here is 150. In order not to rock the boat, make sure you submit your answers to Quizmaster by Mon., Oct. 18 at 7:00 PM CDT. We wish you all smooth sailing!










Sailing the Ocean Blue Answers:

1. 80 Days
2. The Colour of Murder
3. Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle (Runaway 2)
4. Liath
5. Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None
6. The Secrets of Da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript
7. Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror
8. Dead Reefs
9. Destination: Treasure Island
10. Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail (Leisure Suit Larry 7)
11. Jack Keane
12. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Final Cut
13. Jazz and Faust
14. The Mystery of the Druids
15. Secret Files 2: Puritas Cordis

[LadyKestrel]

Week 5 - Octobeerfest
Below are 10 game titles containing the letters BEER, minus everything but the BEER, of course! Your task is to figure out what the 10 game titles are and submit them in a PM to Quizmaster by 7:00 PM CDT on Mon., October 25. Alas, poor mortal fools, you only get one guess per game, but each correct guess will be worth 10 points to you. Bottoms up!

PLEASE NOTE: The game name originally posted for #7 was from an earlier version of the puzzle, and it has been changed. If you have already answered the previous one, it will be counted as correct. If not, please use the game that currently shows.
Also, the spacing for #8 has been fixed below.
Click on the attachment below to enlarge.

Octobeerfest Answers:
1. Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller
2. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
3. Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender
4. Belief and Betrayal
5. Gilbert Goodmate and the Mushroom of Phungoria
6. King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder
7. Broken Sword Sleeping Dragon
8. Blue Heat: The Case of the Covergirl Murders
9. The Last Half of Darkness: Beyond the Spirit's Eye
10. Byzantine: The Betrayal

[LadyKestrel]

Week 5 - Rollicking Rebuses
Below are 9 rebuses, a type of puzzle where you decode a message consisting of pictures representing syllables and words, in this case, 9 game names. You merely have to figure out the game names and submit your guesses by PM to Quizmaster by 7:00 PM CDT on Mon., Oct. 25. You may have up to three guesses for each game name, with scoring as follows: 10 points for each correct first guess, 5 points for each correct second guess, or 3 points for each correct third guess. You can earn a maximum of 90 points for this puzzle.
Note: If you have trouble seeing the pictures, save the rebuses to your desktop and enlarge them there. If for some reason this isn't possible for you, please post in the tournament chat thread to let us know.

Rollicking Rebuses Answers:

1. Open-N+springs+weedeater-weed+null Hope Springs Eternal
2. Lighthouse
3. Essay+K+red+ground Sacred Ground
4. Die+mounds+sine-E+the+ruff Diamonds in the Rough
5. Sew+fees+world Sophie's World
6. Caw+sand+rag+allergies-G Cassandra Galleries
7. Pear+uh+dice Paradise
8. Black Circle
9. Wheelbarrow-wheel+hill Barrow Hill

[LadyKestrel]

Week 6 - Howling at the Moon

You’re alone in the dark, and there’s nothing to light your way through these 15 adventure games except for the fickle, the inconstant moon.

Part 1: Bad Moon Arising
You must identify the games in each of the moon shots below. You will get three chances to guess each one correctly, and your guesses will be worth 10, 5 or 3 points respectively.

Part 2: The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress
Using the clues and your knowledge of the moon shots, you must identify a main character for each game that will fit in the white blocks in each row of the grid. The answers will be first or last names as indicated. Again, you will have three chances to guess these, and they’ll be worth 10 (1st guess), 5 (2nd guess) or 3 points (3rd guess).

Part 3: Blue Moon
When you are finished, the blue area will spell out a game name going down. A correct guess here will earn you 10 more points, but you get only one chance to give the correct answer.

Bonus: Dancin’ in the Moonlight
You can earn 15 extra points if you submit all the correct game names, the correct character names, and the vertical game title together in one PM to Quizmaster.

The maximun number of points for this puzzle is 325. All your guesses must be submitted to Quizmaster by 7:00 PM CDT on Monday, November 1, 2010.

Part 1




Parts 2 & 3:


Howling at the Moon Answers:

Part 1
1. Belief and Betrayal
2. Leisure Suit Larry: The Land of the Lounge Lizards (Leisure Suit Larry 1)
3. Emerald City Confidential
4. Erevos
5. Fairy Tale About Father Frost, Ivan and Nastya
6. Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None
7. The Black Mirror
8. Escape from Monkey Island
9. Discworld Noir
10. Dracula: The Last Sanctuary or Dracula Resurrection
11. The Legend of Crystal Valley
12. Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman’s Mine
13. Tony Tough and the Night of Roasted Moths
14. Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun
15. A Vampyre Story

Part 2
1. Danter
2. Larry
3. Petra
4. Koplot
5. Nastya
6. Patrick
7. Gordon
8. Threepwood
9. Lewton
10. Harker
11. Eve
12. Emmo
13. Tough
14. Poirot
15. Mona

Part 3
Dark Side of the Moon

Week 6 - Wicked Boxes
Evil lurks in adventure games, or at least on their boxes. The letters in the message below have been taken from the titles on the boxes of 20 horror adventures, and they can be matched with the pictures that come from the front of these same boxes. Your task is to match the letter(s) to a picture and submit them along with the name of the game to Quizmaster. (With the single letters that occur more than once in the message, such as s, w and m, make sure you mention in what word that particular letter is found.) You'll earn 10 points for a correct first guess, 5 points for a second, and 3 points for a third with a maximum of 200 points. The deadline for this puzzle is 7:00 PM on Monday, November 1, 2010.
Note: For ease of scoring, please submit your answers in numerical order for this puzzle.




Wicked Boxes Answers:
1-A Alone in the Dark
2-ED Dark Seed
3-TH Gothos
4-Y The Dark Eye
5-ET BloodNet
6-IC Prisoner of Ice
7-M (comes) Sanitarium
8-S (something) Silverlode
9-M (something) Necronomicon
10-S (this) Scratches
11-I Ripper
12-W (way) Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder
13-CO Shadow of the Comet
14-O Ooze: Creepy Nites
15-HI Shivers 2: Harvest of Souls
16-W (wicked) Wolfsbane
17-N Personal Nightmare
18-G Midnight Nowhere
19-K The Lurking Horror
20-ES Harvester

[LadyKestrel]

End of Week 6 Cumulative Scores:

HandsFree 2175
Clumsy 2160
Phlebas 2140
Pollo 2090
Shany 1990
After_hours 1460
TechnoSpike 1458
Taioo 1390
Andromus 1276
Tichelle 695
Dragon 468
Katsmom 450
Rosaboobie 350
Skeeter 349
Hatshepsut 330
Nakimura 240
Mystdee 190
Gelert 110



Congratulations also to Taioo for winning our consolation prize drawing!

The prizes for the tournament are as follows:
1st prize - up to $40.00
2nd prize - up to $30.00
3rd prize - up to $25.00
Consolation prize - up to $20.00

You may choose a downloadable game or a hard copy in that price range. Dave from Interact has a nice selection and reasonable shipping, but other vendors will be considered. Please PM me with your choice and your name and mailing address.

Prize choices:

HandsFree - Runaway: A Twist of Fate; sent out Nov. 4; received.
Clumsy - UHS Reader with 3 years of updates
Phlebas - Mysteries of Capri double pack (A Quiet Weekend in Capri/Anacapri: The Dream) - sent Nov. 4; received.
Taioo - Adventure Pack Volume 1 - sent Nov. 4; received.