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Treasure Quest continues with the deceptively simple IRON KEY!

by eli

Despite the local absence of winter, Treasure Quest keeps on moving through the seasons with this month's Key Drop: THE IRON KEY!

============================================= ~~~~~ THE IRON KEY APPEARS! ~~~~~~ =============================================

Image removed.
What do you want to do?

1. Go to Treasure Quest Leaderboards
2. Visit the Key Gallery
3. See Your Character
4. Attempt to Enter a Key Code, Gate Code, or Treasure Code

As a vision of the IRON KEY appears before your eyes, you hear a Japanese boy's voice say:

For one young boy in Mabase, another made-up place,
Love, she rides a Vespa and a Rickenbacker bass.
Chase the Mighty Pirate King, who knows where he might be;
Listen to The Pillows' sounds and seek the Iron Key!

Note: in the thread below, Questers are sharing info with each other and getting hints; if you want to solve this puzzle without any help, don't keep reading as there are SPOILERS below!

Comments

How do you romanize the honorific? Now I'm not really sure I have the right honorific...

it's a "his." No i was trying to get 100,000 points for the super package. i only needed a couple hundred, so i was just commenting to get there.
all the badges i had left, i had no idea

I got the nickname. Attaching the honorific to key is not working. Do we romanize just the honorific or the full nickname? I am confused. Update:Oops! It is the gate not the treasure code. Got it!

It might help to understand that Japanese uses a syllabary, not an alphabet, and that the entries in the checkerboard represent the romanized 'letters' of that syllabary. Another idea is to make sure you read about using encoding symbols other than numbers. (Keep reading the whole article.) Lastly, Japanese is classically written from top to bottom then right to left, not left to right. One or more of those might help.

Thanks cherylo. That helped me especially the last hint. I think I am on the right track now. Trying to encrypt the gate code...not working so far...21letters?

I'm still a little confused on how to set up the cipher for the treasure code.
I got how it works and all that, but I can't seem to figure out how the key code fits into all of this.

Us Questers are so extreme. I noticed a lot of people (including me) entered the codes late at night (10 pm, 11 pm). lol

DId I go a little too far when I added all of the gate items to my library wish list?

No you didn't, Morgsush, because I also added all of the Gate items to my wishlist.

Hiya Questers! I'm in Australia this week so I can't be as obtusely helpful as usual, but if you're stuck on the treasure code, don't forget to LOOK CLOSELY at the Gate image! It contains a really big hint that should help you confirm you're setting up the cipher right. And, as CherylO very helpfully pointed out, the target language is a little different. We would probably say the gate code has 4 syllables, but in the target language it has 5. KEEP ON QUESTING!

-[:eli]

How do you find the honorific and once you find it, how do you romanize it? I'm not sure I have the right honorific.

I thought I had the right honorific; I thought I had the right name; I thought I romanized correctly. No combination of any of that is working. Any other hints to that gate code?

When trying to find the gate code, I thought I was stuck on the honorific, but the part that was actually tripping me up was the spelling of the bot's name. Make sure you spell it the way it would be said in Japanese, not the way it's said in English.

arggggghhhh!!!!!!!!!! this is so frustrating! i need help with the KEY, which everyone else seems to have gotten easily enough. last name first.... yes i need help. i think i got the names of the two but how to put them together..... please help

You're on the right track with the romanizing. One catch is that one of the names can be romanized more than one way, and in this case, your chi will guide you.

-[:eli]

bacon and Japanese station demon this to see what i think

AABBAABAAABBAABABBAAAABBBABBBABBAABAABBABAAABABABBABBAA AABBBBABABBBAABABAAABABBBBAABA BABAAABABBABAAA BBAAB AABBAAAAABABABABABAB ABABBBABAA BAAAABBAABABABABBAABABBAABABABAABBBBABAB ABAAAABABBABBABBBAABABBAABAAABAAAAABBAABAABBABAAABABABBABBAA AABBABAABABBAABAABBA BABBBABABBABBAAAABBABBAABBAAABABBAAAABBB AABBABAABABABAB AABBBAAAABABBBAABBBABBAABBBAAAABBBABABAB BABBBBAABABAAAB BABAAABABBAABABABBAABABBA ABABBABBAA AAABBBAAABABBBBBAAABABABABABABBABBABAAABBBAAB AABBABAABABABABABBAA AABBBBABABBBAABABAAABABBBBAABA BABAAABABBABAAA BAAABAABBA ABABBABBAA AABBABAABABABAB AAABBBABABBBAAA AABABABBAAAABBABAAABABBBA AAAABABABBAABAB BABAABAAABABBAABABBA BBAAB AABBBBAAABAABBABABAB AABBABAABABBAABAABBA BAABABABABABBBAABABAAABBB AAAABABABBAABAB AABBAABAAABBAABABBAAAABBBABBBABBAABAABBABABAB AABBABAABABABAB ABAAAABABBBBAAAABABBAABBA AABBB ABBAABBAABABBABBABAB AAABBBAAABAABBABAABA BAABAABABBABBAAABABBABAAABAAABBABAABAAABBABBB AABBABAABABABABABBAA BABABABBAAAABBABABABABAAA BAAABAABBA BAAABABBAA BAAABABBAA ABBABBBAABABBAAAAAAB AAABBBBAABAAAABAABBB AABABABBAAAABBABAAABABBBA AAAABABABBAABAB BABAABAAABABBAABABBA AABBABAABABABAB BABBBABABBABAAAABAAABABABBABBBAABBA BBAABABBAAAABBBAAABBBABABABAAA BABBBABABBBABBABABAB

Basically, you take the robot's name (the romanization of the Japanese name, which can be found in parantheses next to the English name on the wikipage), and add a honorific that means "god".

ohhhhhhhhh.... that clears things up, thanks!

i also think that i might have entered that on one attempt but kept the hyphen in, which made it wrong. the 'I got a game code' doesn't accept punctuation. :D

Especially the part where it says :
AABBAABAAABBAABABBAAAABBBABBBABBAABAABBABAAABABABBABBAA AABBBBABABBBAABABAAABABBBBAABA BABAAABABBABAAA BBAAB AABBAAAAABABABABABAB ABABBBABAA BAAAABBAABABABABBAABABBAABABABAABBBBABAB ABAAAABABBABBABBBAABABBAABAAABAAAAABBAABAABBABAAABABABBABBAA AABBABAABABBAABAABBA BABBBABABBABBAAAABBABBAABBAAABABBAAAABBB AABBABAABABABAB AABBBAAAABABBBAABBBABBAABBBAAAABBBABABAB BABBBBAABABAAAB BABAAABABBAABABABBAABABBA ABABBABBAA AAABBBAAABABBBBBAAABABABABABABBABBABAAABBBAAB AABBABAABABABABABBAA AABBBBABABBBAABABAAABABBBBAABA BABAAABABBABAAA BAAABAABBA ABABBABBAA AABBABAABABABAB AAABBBABABBBAAA AABABABBAAAABBABAAABABBBA AAAABABABBAABAB BABAABAAABABBAABABBA BBAAB AABBBBAAABAABBABABAB AABBABAABABBAABAABBA BAABABABABABBBAABABAAABBB AAAABABABBAABAB AABBAABAAABBAABABBAAAABBBABBBABBAABAABBABABAB AABBABAABABABAB ABAAAABABBBBAAAABABBAABBA AABBB ABBAABBAABABBABBABAB AAABBBAAABAABBABAABA BAABAABABBABBAAABABBABAAABAAABBABAABAAABBABBB AABBABAABABABABABBAA BABABABBAAAABBABABABABAAA BAAABAABBA BAAABABBAA BAAABABBAA ABBABBBAABABBAAAAAAB AAABBBBAABAAAABAABBB AABABABBAAAABBABAAABABBBA AAAABABABBAABAB BABAABAAABABBAABABBA AABBABAABABABAB BABBBABABBABAAAABAAABABABBABBBAABBA BBAABABBAAAABBBAAABBBABABABAAA BABBBABABBBABBABABAB

BABBAAABBBAAAAABAABB ABAAABAABA BAABBAABBBAAAAABAABB, BAABAABBBAABBAAAABAA ABABAABAAAABBABAAABB ABBBAAABAB BABBAAABAAABAAABAAABAAABB AAAAAAAAAB AAABAABBBAAAABBAABAA?
BABBAAABBBAAAAABAABB AAAAA AAAABBABAAABBABAAABAAABBB ABBBAAABAB BABBAAABAAABAAABAAABAAABBABBBABAABA...

ABABBABBBAABABB :D

First you figure out the cipher. Then try searching for that cipher on wiki, and it teaches you how to set it up. However, the set up Treasure Quest uses is different, so you have to use the hint the gate's picture has to set it up.

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Treasure Quest
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