Don't think of the crossword as a crossword or you'll be stuck for hours more. There is only one part of the boxes (aside from the green marks) that is important the rest could be easily classed as a red herring.
This is not a bad one to start on, since it requires no special software. In general, these challenges are a good starting place if you have never done ARG style puzzles, since there is a simple oracle to check your answers (the passcode) and the puzzles are self contained.
If this sort of thing grabs your interest you may also want to try another game called The Black Watchmen which is a series of puzzles of this style, but starting off even simpler. It might be good training if you are so inclined.
Do not overthink this. You may be already in possession of the answer, and just haven't tried to plug it into the question. If anything, the crossword is just a form of error detection to make sure you have put in the correct words regardless of source.
@RiktigFeil as far as I can tell, the green squares are simply the beginning of the pattern. So that you know what to do, to complete the pattern of characters. There are really no other clues to give...just refresh the cryptobin page before each attempt and be careful with your case.
I got the media. Thankyou @TyphoonJim The 2nd word was indeed at my 1st source. 😁
The last part was really funny...the marks I made to count how many f/m/b's I had, actually made the thing practically solve itself. My exact thought was surely it can't be that easy. 😂
Although I did know this code very well, many years ago.
Nothing was new to me (but I hope helpful to someone else), so Occam's razor tells me I should suspect I actually have done the improbable - found a wrong word and made it fit. Or it turned out my diagnosed dyslexia was not kept in check, I had switched an O and an X.
My own hint, based on a hint someone else dropped about wikipedia -- given enough time you'll find that all the words you seek are in deed all in one simple list, no dictionary needed.
So happy to see this week has layers and layers of puzzles, hello Sphinx!
Personally, I'm leaning more towards a modification of the words of a certain Belgian detective:
"Has it occured to you that there are too many rephrasings of the same clue in this thread?"
(That being said - and having, after much initial frustration, finally solved the whole thing - it may help those still stuck on the first step to be a little skeptical of where the clues might seem to point at first glance; that lack of initial skepticism is what had me asking the wrong questions. Once I figured out the right question, things quickly fell into place.
Also, it bears repeating: if your first thought doesn't work, refresh your work space and try something else.
Also also: contrary to popular belief, the password is not always 'swordfish'. Or any variant thereon, for that matter. Y'know, just in case you were wondering.)
The edit time was 14 minutes after the original post time, and as far as I know it was only edited to remove stray HTML formatting that crept into the post.
Did you know: I read your post and I was so confused?! I was staring at it for ages and I think it was because I wholly agreed with your logic so much that I could not really accept that it was something else until I had failed miserably at attempting it.
so originally, I wasn't sure if you were being helpful or possibly sarcastic or giving a slight misdirection or what it meant! (only because I'm an idiot!) smh. I should have taken your advice literally 😅@starwort
Comments
honestly I haven't touched that code for YEARS.. but pfft. ahaha. nice one.
Don't think of the crossword as a crossword or you'll be stuck for hours more. There is only one part of the boxes (aside from the green marks) that is important the rest could be easily classed as a red herring.
All the characters below the boxes are important.
Q1 - Yes
Q2 - Yes
Q3 - Not that I'm aware of, I agree with you here, but I haven't solved step 3 yet.
Q4 - you were on the right path. 6 letters. it doesn't make a word, so don't try to make it into a word.
Just type it into the second cryptobin and you should be well on your way.
Is this the same Dr. Lanning as the one in "I, Robot"? @Anlashok
This is not a bad one to start on, since it requires no special software. In general, these challenges are a good starting place if you have never done ARG style puzzles, since there is a simple oracle to check your answers (the passcode) and the puzzles are self contained.
If this sort of thing grabs your interest you may also want to try another game called The Black Watchmen which is a series of puzzles of this style, but starting off even simpler. It might be good training if you are so inclined.
Do not overthink this. You may be already in possession of the answer, and just haven't tried to plug it into the question. If anything, the crossword is just a form of error detection to make sure you have put in the correct words regardless of source.
The green boxes are a clue toward solving that puzzle.
@RiktigFeil as far as I can tell, the green squares are simply the beginning of the pattern. So that you know what to do, to complete the pattern of characters. There are really no other clues to give...just refresh the cryptobin page before each attempt and be careful with your case.
I got the media. Thankyou @TyphoonJim The 2nd word was indeed at my 1st source. 😁
The last part was really funny...the marks I made to count how many f/m/b's I had, actually made the thing practically solve itself. My exact thought was surely it can't be that easy. 😂
Although I did know this code very well, many years ago.
so...by the process of elimination, I think I have found that there are only 17 possible keywords that the keyword could be...
unless my method is wrong. which I think it might be. as I've been stuck for the past several hours. sigh.
Turns out, I was asking a one worded question, but the wrong word! lol. that had me for awhile...
I met the Sphinx. But 27 words are missing.
I want a hint about this.
there are words that appear repeatedly, it will lead you to find 27 correct words
therearealotofwordshiddeninthisverylongstringofletters
Can anybody confirm whether the keyword is indeed 9 characters in length?
Not
Finally....
It isn't 9 characters
Thank you to @Shigurefox @4g3nth4aus3r @tkh7 @TyphoonJim @Tazz013 @F9b for responding.
Nothing was new to me (but I hope helpful to someone else), so Occam's razor tells me I should suspect I actually have done the improbable - found a wrong word and made it fit. Or it turned out my diagnosed dyslexia was not kept in check, I had switched an O and an X.
My own hint, based on a hint someone else dropped about wikipedia -- given enough time you'll find that all the words you seek are in deed all in one simple list, no dictionary needed.
So happy to see this week has layers and layers of puzzles, hello Sphinx!
Finally done after a lot of head banging...
It was great how this puzzle consisted of many small step-by-step parts :)
WWYS
I see that the main post has been edited to read this now:
The key is password, not pàssword !!!
Personally, I'm leaning more towards a modification of the words of a certain Belgian detective:
"Has it occured to you that there are too many rephrasings of the same clue in this thread?"
(That being said - and having, after much initial frustration, finally solved the whole thing - it may help those still stuck on the first step to be a little skeptical of where the clues might seem to point at first glance; that lack of initial skepticism is what had me asking the wrong questions. Once I figured out the right question, things quickly fell into place.
Also, it bears repeating: if your first thought doesn't work, refresh your work space and try something else.
Also also: contrary to popular belief, the password is not always 'swordfish'. Or any variant thereon, for that matter. Y'know, just in case you were wondering.)
Finally solved!
I can confirm the final code used is most definitely NOT a triliteral cipher. Wasted way too many hours down that rabbit hole.
Solved it, not sure if Wikipedia was updated since previous comments, but it was 100% accurate for me.
Yes I said that 36 hours ago, on page 8 of this thread. :-p
It said that right from the beginning.
The edit time was 14 minutes after the original post time, and as far as I know it was only edited to remove stray HTML formatting that crept into the post.
Not quite. Originally it used “Password” instead of “password”
Did you know: I read your post and I was so confused?! I was staring at it for ages and I think it was because I wholly agreed with your logic so much that I could not really accept that it was something else until I had failed miserably at attempting it.
so originally, I wasn't sure if you were being helpful or possibly sarcastic or giving a slight misdirection or what it meant! (only because I'm an idiot!) smh. I should have taken your advice literally 😅 @starwort