# A maze of .rars **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [May 7, 2008, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381 "2008-05-07T01:50:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381/1 "2008-05-07T01:50:56Z")
Right, friends. I’ve devised a small puzzle for you. If you enjoy this one, perhaps I’ll make another one sometime of a bit more significant length. As it is, this one is only a few riddles strung together. The game: [http://rapidshare.com/files/113105776/The\_opening\_gambit.rar.html](http://rapidshare.com/files/113105776/The_opening_gambit.rar.html) First, download this rar file, and you’ll need WinRar to open it up. I know this requires a bit of trust, but I swear to you that these files are merely innocent, benign rar archives and graphics files. There is no virus, no porn, no illicit or otherwise bad stuff contained herein. So you’ve downloaded this file, titled The Opening Gambit. Open it up. Inside, you will find a few more archives: Question the First Question the Second Question the Third Question the Final WINNER HOORAY Open up Question the First. Inside, you’ll find a picture, which you should open and – wait! It seems to be password protected! Whatever shall you do? Well, at the end of this post, you’ll find your first clue. With that clue, you can figure out the password that opens the first picture. That picture contains another clue, which will be the password to the file in Question the Second. The file in Question the Second contains a clue to the password in Question the Third. The file in Question the Third contains a clue to the password in Question the Final. And the file in Question the Final contains a clue to the password in WINNER HOORAY. When you can open up Winner Hooray, you will be a winner – hooray! You’ll need Winrar, as I said. Aside from that, you’re on your own. There’s at least one more thing you’ll have to get. And for our first clue: All hail Cecil Adams, our \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381/2 "2008-05-07T22:46:00Z")
Damnit…I was looking forward to this, but no, not on the fricking company computer. “No .rar files!” Eff you, ya fricking IT dickweeds… ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381/3 "2008-05-07T22:52:17Z")
Should I be all worried about capitalization? Do I need to try each guess multiple times with different Cap methods? ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381/4 "2008-05-07T22:59:37Z")
[QUOTE=Soul] Open up Question the First. Inside, you’ll find a picture, which you should open and – wait! It seems to be password protected! Whatever shall you do? [/quote] Use a RAR archive password cracker! 😃 > [@Hal Briston](#): > > Damnit…I was looking forward to this, but no, not on the fricking company computer. “No .rar files!” > > Eff you, ya fricking IT dickweeds… Well, to be fair, 99.99% of pirated software comes stored in RAR files. It’s not the format’s fault, but still, that’s probably what they’re thinking of. ---
**Author:** ![Soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381/5 "2008-05-08T17:50:45Z")
All passwords are lowercase, no spaces. In the event of a two-word pass, just mush them together. firetruck, not fire truck or Fire Truck, for example. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381/6 "2008-05-08T21:44:09Z")
The first was easy enough. The second…I’m stumped. I don’t even know what (or who) that’s a picture of. ---
**Author:** ![Koldanar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@Koldanar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koldanar)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381/7 "2008-05-08T23:30:56Z")
[QUOTE=JSexton] The first was easy enough. The second…I’m stumped. I don’t even know what (or who) that’s a picture of. [/QUOTE] Bah…I’ve tried everything I could think of from the boards for that one…spoiler it? ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381/8 "2008-05-09T03:58:34Z")
[QUOTE=Koldanar] Bah…I’ve tried everything I could think of from the boards for that one…spoiler it? [/QUOTE] I’ll give you a hint: What’s Cecil’s custom title? He outranks charter members, that’s for sure. ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381/9 "2008-05-09T06:39:00Z")
[QUOTE=JSexton] I’ll give you a hint: What’s Cecil’s custom title? He outranks charter members, that’s for sure. [/QUOTE] That’s a clue to the first puzzle - any clues to the second? Grim ---
**Author:** ![Koldanar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@Koldanar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koldanar)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381/10 "2008-05-09T14:06:24Z")
[QUOTE=JSexton] I’ll give you a hint: What’s Cecil’s custom title? He outranks charter members, that’s for sure. [/QUOTE] See I looked for his account on the boards, and cannot find it; so I am stuck right now ☹ ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381/11 "2008-05-09T14:11:38Z")
[QUOTE=Koldanar] See I looked for his account on the boards, and cannot find it; so I am stuck right now ☹ [/QUOTE] Set your search for the name “cecil” uncheck the “exact name” box and make sure you’re searching “Any Time” instead of “6 Months.” ---
**Author:** ![Soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381/12 "2008-05-09T15:47:15Z")
A general hint: this game requires knowledge from several spheres. Some of you have already picked up on Cecil’s custom board title, Perfect Master but you will have to have some knowledge of sports, video gaming, and lolcats to make it all the way to the end. A hint for the second: The character shown is from a famous video game, and check the filename of the picture you’re trying to open. Wake up and smell the… An extra hint if the above isn’t enough: The character shown is the G-Man, from the Half Life series. At the beginning of HL2, he has a monologue: Wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the… ---
**Author:** ![Koldanar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@Koldanar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koldanar)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381/13 "2008-05-09T16:08:52Z")
I’m now stuck on the last one (my search was set for 6 months…bah) I got to the gmask.jpg, and downloaded gmask…but i can’t find anything on how to undo the image. ---
**Author:** ![Soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381/14 "2008-05-09T16:12:55Z")
[QUOTE=Koldanar] I’m now stuck on the last one (my search was set for 6 months…bah) I got to the gmask.jpg, and downloaded gmask…but i can’t find anything on how to undo the image. [/QUOTE] Gmask is a difficult program to learn how to use from scratch. I suggest taking an image already on your computer and applying a few masks to it just to see what each one does. There’s more than one mask applied to the image, but nothing too complicated. [This](http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Dojo/4051/ramfaq01.htm) is a fairly decent tutorial. Good luck with this one – it’s the hardest part of the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![Koldanar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@Koldanar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koldanar)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381/15 "2008-05-09T16:46:25Z")
Ah, got it! ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381/16 "2008-05-09T17:31:52Z")
LOL what a silly game 🙂 Good for a nice slow afternoon at work tho, good work! ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-maze-of-rars/448381/17 "2008-05-09T17:51:50Z")
Got to the last one as well. Can’t really download software at work, especially software designed to hide furry porn.