Mystery Hunt
Jan. 19th, 2009 09:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidOne plus of commuting to Arisia was that I actually got outside during the weekend, which meant I was able to stop by MIT's famous IAP Mystery Hunt on Shabbat for the first time ever. I went to 26-314 to see if there was anything I could do to help Team Left as an Exercise for the Reader (organized by Rhysara; I also knew team members Bubblebabble and Queue), other than deliver non-junk-food snacks :-).
I found lots of people sitting around peering at laptops, and quickly realized that the Mystery Hunt is extremely not optimized for Shabbat observers; I can't imagine how people would get much done on these sorts of puzzles without laptops and writing implements. (Which is a bit sad, I suppose, but does make it clear that my default local event MLK weekend is not going to change). Rhysara showed me one puzzle that was mostly done, but I'd barely started to wrap my brain around it when it was time for the space ship competition, which sounded like a lot of fun, so I joined the two others from the team in going over to La Sala de Puerto Rico for the competition. Along the way, I learned that there'd been advance notice about needing a space ship that could perform certain tasks; I was just relieved to hear that they hadn't had to come up with a whole robot (essentially) since the previous evening!
The tasks hadn't been fully described, which made it that much more challenging to have an effective space ship. As it turned out, there were five tasks, and for each task, a team could earn 5, 10, or 15 Dollarbucks, depending on how well they did.
1. navigate a path through the asteroids (rocks) in a certain time (shorter = more points)
2. fire a projectile a certain distance (farther = more points)
3. aim a laser at a target (more precise = more points, note that it wasn't set up in a bull's eye target)
4. rescue five personnel (toy army guys, like the ones in Toy Story) by airlifting them away (using some kind of rope and hook contraption, essentially) (faster = more points)
5. hit two targets strongly enough to light up, on the side and top of a box
This last was the hardest for our spaceship's design. I'm really proud that I was able to suggest modifications (to the ship and in approach) that let us get one of the targets to light up (not only another 5 points, but it also gave us a sweep, successful at all five challenges!). I was pretty much a cheering section other than that, but it was fun, seeing all the space ships (ok, robots, essentially) teams had made.
It was an interesting scene, with all sorts of robots there, ranging from something inspired by The Luggage to an etched cube with interesting lights and music, to a Miss Piggy-piloted spaceship, and more. They were supposed to have something to do with the team name, which explains the penile ship...
Rhysara did a great job with our ship ("our" in the loosest sense of the word...), which looked like it was still in its box, given the team name, with a paper saying "some assembly required" on it. She made the not-a-box, decorating it with tape from GalEx, which had come from Amazzon.com (tying into the game theme), with an Earth customs declaration, stars stickers declaring "Reaver Tested, Browncoat Approved," and more. Very subtle, and impressive. (I'm looking forward to Rhysara's photos at some point!)
We went back to team headquarters, and I realized I needed to leave to make it to the noon Arisia panel I wanted to make. It was a lovely walk over (overheating enough that I had to take my coat off, a pleasant change from the arctic temps of the previous couple of days), and I thought about going back to the Mystery Hunt after Shabbat, but of course once I got to the con, it somehow ate all my time... :-)
I found lots of people sitting around peering at laptops, and quickly realized that the Mystery Hunt is extremely not optimized for Shabbat observers; I can't imagine how people would get much done on these sorts of puzzles without laptops and writing implements. (Which is a bit sad, I suppose, but does make it clear that my default local event MLK weekend is not going to change). Rhysara showed me one puzzle that was mostly done, but I'd barely started to wrap my brain around it when it was time for the space ship competition, which sounded like a lot of fun, so I joined the two others from the team in going over to La Sala de Puerto Rico for the competition. Along the way, I learned that there'd been advance notice about needing a space ship that could perform certain tasks; I was just relieved to hear that they hadn't had to come up with a whole robot (essentially) since the previous evening!
The tasks hadn't been fully described, which made it that much more challenging to have an effective space ship. As it turned out, there were five tasks, and for each task, a team could earn 5, 10, or 15 Dollarbucks, depending on how well they did.
1. navigate a path through the asteroids (rocks) in a certain time (shorter = more points)
2. fire a projectile a certain distance (farther = more points)
3. aim a laser at a target (more precise = more points, note that it wasn't set up in a bull's eye target)
4. rescue five personnel (toy army guys, like the ones in Toy Story) by airlifting them away (using some kind of rope and hook contraption, essentially) (faster = more points)
5. hit two targets strongly enough to light up, on the side and top of a box
This last was the hardest for our spaceship's design. I'm really proud that I was able to suggest modifications (to the ship and in approach) that let us get one of the targets to light up (not only another 5 points, but it also gave us a sweep, successful at all five challenges!). I was pretty much a cheering section other than that, but it was fun, seeing all the space ships (ok, robots, essentially) teams had made.
It was an interesting scene, with all sorts of robots there, ranging from something inspired by The Luggage to an etched cube with interesting lights and music, to a Miss Piggy-piloted spaceship, and more. They were supposed to have something to do with the team name, which explains the penile ship...
Rhysara did a great job with our ship ("our" in the loosest sense of the word...), which looked like it was still in its box, given the team name, with a paper saying "some assembly required" on it. She made the not-a-box, decorating it with tape from GalEx, which had come from Amazzon.com (tying into the game theme), with an Earth customs declaration, stars stickers declaring "Reaver Tested, Browncoat Approved," and more. Very subtle, and impressive. (I'm looking forward to Rhysara's photos at some point!)
We went back to team headquarters, and I realized I needed to leave to make it to the noon Arisia panel I wanted to make. It was a lovely walk over (overheating enough that I had to take my coat off, a pleasant change from the arctic temps of the previous couple of days), and I thought about going back to the Mystery Hunt after Shabbat, but of course once I got to the con, it somehow ate all my time... :-)
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Date: 2009-01-20 02:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-20 02:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-20 02:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-20 02:33 am (UTC)A solid week of sleep sounds absolutely lovely.