Historical Clue Histeria

[The Zevling]

Wasn't this year's (09) clue a moonfish?

I haven't really paid much attention to the clues in the past, but I probably will start paying more attention next year.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by The Zevling

Wasn't this year's (09) clue a moonfish?

I haven't really paid much attention to the clues in the past, but I probably will start paying more attention next year.

Yep.

2003: I'm not sure if this one was the official one or not, but y=ax^2+bx+c.
2004: lines from "Stairway to Heaven"
2005: riddle about amethyst glasses, two baseball players who'd made unassisted triple plays, and pi. I don't remember the exact wording; search for the thread discussing it.
2006: See my earlier post here
2007: still from the game animation, zoomed in
2008: chain going to statues, among other things
2009: Moonfish picture and a riddle

The game has been figured out once or twice, and elements have been found, but never the entire thing.

[Molten]

Originally Posted by EricH

2003: I'm not sure if this one was the official one or not, but y=ax^2+bx+c.

Can you explain this clue? I searched and found no real answers.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Molten

Can you explain this clue? I searched and found no real answers.

The best I remember was that it was the scoring formula, or a relative thereof. Or the field shape (due to the massive ramp in the middle).

[Molten]

Originally Posted by EricH

Or the field shape (due to the massive ramp in the middle).

I thought it might be the ramp, but I can't figure out why they would have the formula for a parabola. Unless the ramp was parabolic? Oh well, they often don't make sense. Guess I'll just have to let this one go.

[ATannahill]

I believe the lines on the ground was a parabala.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by rtfgnow

I believe the lines on the ground was a parabala.

Nope, sorry. Semicircle bordered by straight lines. Centered at the edge of the ramp. Not that my team ever used that; we preferred to drive out, tweak our angle, and come straight back into the bins...

[Collin Fultz]

Originally Posted by EricH

Nope, sorry. Semicircle bordered by straight lines. Centered at the edge of the ramp. Not that my team ever used that; we preferred to drive out, tweak our angle, and come straight back into the bins...

Wasn't it the shape of the bins as set up atop the platform?

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by Molten

Can you explain this clue? I searched and found no real answers.

I had always heard that it was the scoring formula, but that's not strictly correct.

If that were the case, the clue should have been something like:

y = a(x-1)+b
or
y = ax - a + b

Where:
y = score
a = height of tallest stack
x = number of bins in zone, including those in the stack
b = bonus points from ramp

(The -1 is because the bins making up the stack did not count towards the total, e.g. if there were 6 bins in the zone but 3 of them were in a stack the score would be 3*3=9 instead of 6*3=18)

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Collin Fultz

Wasn't it the shape of the bins as set up atop the platform?

Nope, it WAS the scoring. Doing a little searching, I found some old threads, which took me to this post, which lead me to http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ht=quadrat ic

Search for "clue" for as old as you can go, by start date, and look for the threads started in late 2002. One of them has a list of 4 threads, the last of which is the first link above.

It's how you optimize your score.

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by EricH

Nope, it WAS the scoring. Doing a little searching, I found some old threads, which took me to this post, which lead me to http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ht=quadrat ic

Search for "clue" for as old as you can go, by start date, and look for the threads started in late 2002. One of them has a list of 4 threads, the last of which is the first link above.

It's how you optimize your score.

I remember about two weeks before kickoff this year, a couple friends and I were trying to figure out what in the world the challenge would be, based on the numbers they gave us and the moonfish clue. We put the numbers into Google Earth, and after a little work ended up getting some weird result off the coast of Australia. For the moonfish, we jokingly claimed we would have to go the either Mars or the moon, I forget which. We came somewhat close about the second one, I guess.

[Molten]

I think the parabola is officially the coolest clue ever. It makes this thread fully worthwhile to me. Thanks to all for the information.