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Treasure Quest heats up: The BOOLEAN KEY appears!

by eli

Treasure Quest is rolling, with 17 players who successfully completed the challenges of the Chrono Key! But it's not too late; these codes won't expire anytime soon. Keep searching, and see if you're up to this next key! Remember, if you've got questions, or you're stuck, talk to the other Questers here in this thread or ask a question, you never know what might help!

============================================ ~~~~~ THE BOOLEAN 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 BOOLEAN KEY appears before your eyes, you hear an Earl say:


Athenians in modern Greece have something for your shelf;
It's half about a brilliant man, and half about itself.
Comics help you find the way, but only when misspelled
Rustle up this complex set of theories built and felled.

Note: in the thread below, Questers and 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

Submitted by vadnala on Thu, 08/16/2012 - 1:14pm

Nothing, 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

Why don't you do something useful to get points? Like review things & write meaningful reviews or rate things you've actually seen instead of spamming each Treasure Quest post?

So I searched Javascript xor, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking for - an encryption device, an encoder? Who knows! Javascript seems like a language that I need to learn. When I finally found what I thought would be a good encoder, it asks me for a 'key code'. HELP

Submitted by 0liviap0pp on Sun, 10/02/2011 - 1:58pm

Awesome! Another great riddle!

We're looking for another item, right?

Funny how this correlates exactly to what we're learning in school :)

These are fun! Unfortunately, I got excited and completed the entire thing....so now I don't have any more to do until November.

No, I mean in the math related and programming stance, not the history. Well, technically both.

Hint: Just look up Javascript *** (* stand for the three letters). You should be able to find a program.

Hey ompopp! What do you mean by the three letters?
::Edit:: Whoops! I bashed my heads together, looked at some public player pages, and found I was acting on the wrong hint. No JavaScript yet.

Hey guys, sorry about that, the gate disappeared for a while! Wish I could say it was a mysterious and intriguing new layer to the puzzle, but it was just an indexing error. The gate is back, so if you can't find it, you that's your problem again!

To answer some questions, the key is again hidden in a real item in our catalog, and the gate is again hidden in a fake item in our catalog. And you won't have to read or write any JavaScript to solve this puzzle.

3 Players have already cleared the Boolean Gate! WILL YOU BE NEXT?

Seriously, this is killing me. I remember the name of the gate (fake item in catalog), the description, the search I did to find it originally, but I cannot get back to it. Are you sure it's working?

Yup, I tried it, and it works.
Do you remember the name of the item? Try typing that in the search.
Wish there was more of these every month! These are so fun!!

Submitted by 0liviap0pp on Mon, 10/03/2011 - 6:16pm

Yup, the first riddle can be found in the catalog, and then proceeds just like the other one (another riddle at the key, and then the gate item, and then a riddle to find the last gate code).

Submitted by ashflowtuff on Mon, 10/03/2011 - 9:12pm

I found the gate item earlier today, but didn't have time to figure it out, and now I can't get back to it. I swear I'm doing all the same searches I did earlier, but I can't find it. Anybody else having problems?

I know what you mean, even though I didn't have that problem.
Just tried my search from before for entertainment purposes (looking at the item) and now it's not working..I can't even find the gate either.
That's weird.

Submitted by mengland on Tue, 10/04/2011 - 7:46pm

just a confused player thinking they had to learn Javascript to solve the cod

Submitted by cherylo on Tue, 10/04/2011 - 9:00pm

Argh, so frustrated. I know who Bertie is, I have tried three versions of the name of the item in question, with and without definite articles, and no love. ::banging head on desk some more::

Cherylo, I bet you're thinking about the Universe, like I was at first, but there is another name.

Eli, is something wrong if I'm 0 for 2 on the promised emails?

Smv, there is a Boolean Key....look at the actual picture of the key (the JPEG) and see if you can find any obvious hints.

Same with me, I haven't received any emails (which I am supposedly supposed to receive two) yet either.

Thanks for the hints. I was thinking of Universe and variants thereon. Still not getting it yet, but I'll keep trying.

Also, I am currently listening to Ready Player One by Ernest Cline read by Wil Wheaton. Thanks, Eli, for getting me interested in it via this contest/puzzle program. It is fantastic!

Edit: it's the infamous post-and-solve method. Gate, here I come.

Submitted by smv on Wed, 10/05/2011 - 4:38pm

Anyone know how to get the key, people? I'm stuck. Big time. No find key for me yet.
::Edit:: Wait a minute! Is there even a Boolean Key item? I found the gate, but relentless searching on Google for material on aadl.org brought up nothing related to the Key.

Submitted by eli Staff on Wed, 10/05/2011 - 10:35pm

Treasure emails will be coming by the end of the week, thanks for your patience questers! And smv, as always, when you're really stuck remember to LOOK CLOSELY!

Submitted by rimpopu on Thu, 10/06/2011 - 2:41pm

Found the key item, and accidentally found the gate too. Solved the gate code which was very easy but stuck on key code. I have been trying variations of universe like many here. I am going to keep trying some more but can use some hints.

You guys are thinking too big! The riddle tells you in exactly which domain you should be thinking; the thing that got the holes poked in it... within that context there is a very standard phrase to describe the everythingness you're getting stuck on.

-[:eli]

Smv, try thinking of the paradox and parts about the "naive set theory"...hope that helps. And I think you might be thinking too hard.....it's a simple answer, not strange vocabulary.

wzhang1, try a Javascript program....don't make it yourself, just find one. The clue about the hexadigits and 4 sets of 4 should be straightforward.

Submitted by wzhang1 on Fri, 10/07/2011 - 4:20pm

Any hints on how to combine the two codes? I got the key, I got the gate, but how do I use Javascript?

Submitted by smv on Mon, 10/10/2011 - 4:57pm

Post-and-solve, again. This time without the post involved. Key item took a little fooling around on Google to find(not the top hit at all) and the riddle with it was easy. At least the riddle with the gate item is clear.

Actually, suppressed items are things we don't have anymore, and the gate is not supposed to be suppressed, which means it won't show up in search results. We're fixing that right now, thanks for bringing it to our attention!

-[:eli]

It's fixed, Eli. I just looked at it. You know what would be funny to me? If someone stumbles across aadl.org and looks at the catalog, and realizes there are all of these codes and riddles and fake stuff , and it might be a bit confusing.

Submitted by mysterio on Thu, 10/13/2011 - 6:38pm

I'm stuck on the Gate riddle. I found a program online but I'm not sure on how to combine the codes and what the XOR key is.

Should be simple enough if you found the right program. There should be a place where you can enter the "key", and then the thing to be encrypted. Then just press encrypt and whabam, should be there (but you should figure out the 'the code's ten hexydigits, and that's the 4 sets of 4' to know what part of the actual encrypted code to type in as the gate code).

Submitted by halofriendly on Mon, 11/07/2011 - 9:55pm

So I'm coming into this game late...and I don't even know how to start this one. Anyone up for giving me a beginning hint? :)

Submitted by pk on Thu, 01/05/2012 - 9:34pm

This is so frustrating! I can't figure out which 10 digits to put in for the treasure code. I've got the two other codes, I encrypted them, but now what? I'm new to all this and am really baffled at this point...

Sorry you're frustrated, pk! Here's a big hint. The clue says "10 hexy digits, so the first 4 sets of 4." If you're not sure what 10 hexy (hexidecimal) means, well, that's why the second half of the clue is there!

-[:eli]

I figured that = tried both 10(dec) and 4 of 4, just in case - and also tried the encryption in both orders(keygate and gatekey). The encrypt tool provides a hex encryption - yes?

edit: I even tried two different encryptors - one that encrypts to a text string, one that encrypts to a numeric (hex) code

finally got it. If you're solving this one late (like I did), keep in mind there is more than one tool (more than two tools, too) out there. If one isn't working, try a different tool!

thanks for the russell comment. that at least gave me somewhere to start, and the thing about it being simple. thing is, these codes can be wrong if even a letter is missing or wrong. i saw a set theory(i'm on the key code) on the wiki page, but i don't think the code has set theory anywhere in it.

i think this key is the hardest because math that is not homework makes me want to sleep, that boring. have to fight urge to simply scan page instead of actually reading it

not working. looked at the wiki pages, entered everything that i thought might be it, still nothing. seeing no phrase that describes the 'everythingness your stuck on'

thanks. it is very simple. still on Russel page/ the axio____ set page. click every link. look at bottom. find universe

Months later.... Still not get it.

thanks.:) I feel a little pathetic. It was sooooo simple, like the crystal key. I would say i owe you one, but I already owe you a lot, for all those hints. lets say you have my eternal gratitude.

Submitted by wzhang1 on Tue, 07/10/2012 - 3:52pm

Are you sure the gate is still in the catalog? I want to look at the picture to see if I missed anything needed for the treasure code but I can't find it anymore. The item is called ** *** Gate, right?

Wow, thanks Questers, the Boolean gate is indeed missing! We'll figure out why it's not coming up in searches and get that fixed. For those of you who can't wait, you'll find the gate in the catalog if you remove the first zero from the binary version of the first capital.

i think the 'look closely' thing is a red herring. i mean when you look closely, you think you have the answer. I tried entering what was carved, didn't work. should I search the symbol?

Submitted by Morgsush on Sun, 07/22/2012 - 2:39pm

If you have four baskets of apples with four apples in each basket, how many total apples do you have (4 sets of 4= how many total symbols)?

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