Ah, the intriguing, maddening, URL-changing riddle game. I love thee, I loathe thee....I generally find myself stumped by level 13 of, um, thee. On the one hand I adore the enigmatic, sometimes surreal nature of the genre, as well as the astonishing creativity of the potential puzzling; on the other, the strict format and occasionally absurd leaps of "logic" necessary to find the answers can be seriously irritating. At their best, URL-changers are wonderful, mentally stimulating journeys; at their worst, migraines in the making.
The N riddle game is somewhere in-between. I really like the minimalist design (black and white never go out of style) and simple, straightforward presentation of the puzzles. The first few levels are encouragingly easy and serve as a makeshift tutorial for the new player; soon, a comfortable rhythm of gradually increasing difficulty and clever puzzling has been established. But then...BLAM! A level whose answer makes no sense at all. At least not to me. So then, with the help of a magical puzzle genie (or, *cough*, a walkthrough), you find the solution. And you go on, and you're lulled into a sense of security with a few nicely thought-out levels....BLAM! It happens again! It's a real roller-coaster ride, folks.
It's really too bad, too, because about 80% of N is a lot of fun. Still, perhaps the 20% that I find aggravatingly difficult will be cotton candy and fairy dust to you. Prove me wrong. Seriously, please prove me wrong. Level 17 is driving me batty.
Walkthrough Guide
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Walkthrough:
Level 1:
Click 1.
Level 2:
It won't let you click this time
Try changing the URL to 3.html
Level 3:
III is Roman numerals for 3
Try typing IV.html for level 4
Level 4:
Write out the number of the next level
five.html
Level 5:
There are 5 o's. How many o's would equal 6?
oooooo.html
Level 6:
110 is 6 in Binary
What is 7 in Binary?
111.html
Level 7:
Sept? Is that short for September? Try "Oct".
Didn't work? Sept is French for 7.
huit is French for 8
huit.hmtl
Level 8:
Thgie? Ah. Eight backwards.
Try Nine backwards.
enin.html
Level 9:
Huh... Nothing there! Press CTRL-A to see if anything is hiding.
NINE. Number 10 is next.
TEN.html
Level 10:
Nothing there again?! Can't trick me this time!
Huh. There is nothing there. It's probably hiding in the source code.
Right Click, View Page Source.
"e_l_e_v_e_n shall follow"
e_l_e_v_e_n.html
Level 11:
eeleeveen. I think I heard that on The Lord of The Rings. Try "frodo.html".
No luck? Why have they put in extra e's... wierd.
Try the same for Twelve.
tweelvee.html
Level 12:
a_dozen. A dozen equals 12 right?
What does thirteen equal?
A bakers dozen!!
a_bakers_dozen.html
Level 13:
13, Unlucky. But who for?!
Unlucky for some, I guess?!
for_some.html
Level 14:
What does 196 mean? It's a big number eh?
Maybe it's the 14 is the square root of 196?
Then what is 15 squared?
225.html
Level 15:
Inspector Morse, do you have any ideas?
It's the Morse Code. Whats 16 in Morse Code?
..._.._-..-_-_._._-..html
Level 16:
Thats got to be Lord of the Rings Speak. Try Mordor.html
Hmm... No Luck. It's probably Welsh then.
Yes, that is 16 in Welsh. What is 17?
dau_ar_bymtheg.html
Got that from here.
Level 17:
1597? Whats special about that?
It's a Fibonacci number
What comes next in the sequence?
2584.html
Level 18:
Blank page? Wait, whats the title of this page?!
EIGHteen. Maybe the next page is similar?
NINEteen.html
Hmm. It appears to go straigh back to page 18! You might want to turn of Javascript.
Level 19:
___nineteen___? What's with the underscores?
___twenty___.html
Level 20:
Italicized 20 in the middle of the page. write "21.html" in Italics. It should work.
It didnt?! What is odd about the number 20 then?
It's an image. What is it called?
twnt.png? How can we write 21 in the same format?
twnton.html
Level 21:
Orziot Jiz. That is DEFINITELY Lord of the Rings. Try Smeagol.html.
That didn't work!? Wait, that looks like "21" written in a Ceasar Cypher. It looks like it's 5 characters out.
Hmm... Twenty_two with a 5 character shift didn't work. 21+5 = 26.
So, 22+4 also = 26. Try a shift of 4 letters instead.
psajpu_psk.html
Level 22:
has_9? What has 9?
Twenty two has 9 letters.
How many does 23 have?
has_11.html
Level 23:
The hour before. Before what? "Idol" on TV?!
This is Level 23
Or 23:00, the hour before...
Midnight!
midnight.html
Level 24:
fn four point... blah blah... Another long number.
Fn means Function right?
What functions have we had alread?
Square Root! 4.897... is the square root of 24!
Whats the Square rot of 25?
5
fn_five.html
Level 25:
Is that hex?
x19 is hexadecimal for 25.
So what is hex for 26?
x1a.html
Level 26:
Ooh nice background colour! But lets focus on solving the problem eh?
Maybe it's in the background?!
Whats funny about the source?
#1a001a... If 1a is 26, then 27 is....
1b001b.html
Level 27:
Great, Blank page. Lets go for the source again.
See anything funny? He spelt "Style" wrong.
Lets look at the Style sheet for Stylee.css
change to URL to stylee.css
Anything out of place? bbabb perhaps?
Looks a bit like binary. Swap the a/b's for 0/1's.
11011 is binary for 27...
bbbaa.html
Level 28:
28 has feb?
Then what does 29 have?
Isn't it a leap year this year?
Then feb has 29 too!
29_has_feb.html
Level 29:
Tent yew inn. That HAS TO BE The Lord of The Rings. Try Aragorn.html
Dang! I thought I had it then. Is that an anagram?
Of Twentynine perhaps?
What is an anagram of Thirty?
hit_try.html
Level 30:
You Win!
For now...
Thanks, .Ben
Posted by: .Ben
|
March 12, 2008 2:02 PM