# MIT Mini-Hunts- superb puzzles **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 29, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177 "2009-03-29T13:35:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/21 "2009-04-10T11:58:50Z")
Ximenean, for ‘Den’, are you adding spaces after each pair of digits, or after each group of five digits, or what? I can get as far as decoding the first line to WHAT… or TAKE… respectively using these methods, but then it seems to break down. I’ve solved ‘Game Room’ now; the table on [this](http://www.chessvariants.com/d.font/utrecht.html)website proved helpful. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/22 "2009-04-10T12:29:26Z")
Re your question about the “Den” puzzle - a fairly significant hint, in case anybody else is playing at home and hasn’t got as far as **hammos1** yet (is anybody else playing? :p) A space after each letter, variable number of digits. It is curious how the per-digit approach spells out vaguely plausible words. Such is the nature of the code in question, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/23 "2009-04-10T13:12:20Z")
Pretty sure it’s just you and me left, **Ximenean**. 😉 Thanks for the hint- I never would have considered that approach, as intuitively it seemed to present too many possibilities. But working with the restrictions you mentioned, it decodes quite handily. I’ve now found Victor’s key, hurrah! I think I first looked at Acronym in 2005, so four years to find the solution- not bad. I’m going to lie down now with a cold towel on my forehead, and contemplate moving on to ‘Mostly Clueless’ (the ‘Wikipedia’ puzzle in that one looks like a bastard, though). ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/24 "2009-04-10T14:44:14Z")
Cool, well done. I’ve not got anywhere yet with the TV Room substitution code or with Laundry Room, and I only have vague ideas about Garden and Office. I think I might see the rather clever answer to Theater, and I think I have Study although it almost seems as if there ought to be more to it than that. But I’m not looking for any hints… yet. ---
**Author:** ![ixca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@ixca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ixca)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/25 "2009-05-29T23:55:55Z")
Hey- got together with some friends to solve the ACRONYM challenge. Completed everything except: Foyer Theater Office Laundry Room I’ll take any hints you guys have. We’re banging our head against the wall (though feeling pretty good about doing Den) ---
**Author:** ![FestiveHarpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9a140/32.png) [@FestiveHarpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FestiveHarpy)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/26 "2009-05-30T05:32:12Z")
Could someone spoiler Logic? I’ve spent too long on that. I wrote a little Java program to try every combination of letters, which fit the above criteria, and none of them make sense as solutions. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/27 "2009-05-30T08:07:40Z")
Logic: For me, the real key was these two clues: Exactly two of the letters are consonants. In reverse alphabetical order, the letters spell a common English word which is not a verb That really narrows things down a lot, if you try to find letter sequences that actually meet those conditions. Theater: I presume you have consulted the cast lists for all the movies? And observed that (minor hint) in all cases, two or three of the listed people appear in the same film?Big hint:Observe that, for example, Alec Baldwin appears in a film with William H. Macy, but not with Bill Murray Office: I presume you have arranged the books in order. But in many cases there is ambiguity over the order. The preamble contains a hint. Laundry Room: Looking at Machine B’s words is what cracked it for me. Bear in mind the sort of subject matter that Dan Katz tends to use. Foyer: Straightforward if you can do cryptic crossword clues. For example, the first one is eight letters and the clue is “Pet Fair vote goes awry”. The clue suggests you might be looking for a word that means “pet” and is an anagram of “fair vote”…If you’re not familiar with cryptic clues, maybe find someone who is? ---
**Author:** ![FestiveHarpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9a140/32.png) [@FestiveHarpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FestiveHarpy)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/28 "2009-05-30T09:10:56Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > Logic: For me, the real key was these two clues: > > Exactly two of the letters are consonants. > In reverse alphabetical order, the letters spell a common English word which is not a verb > > That really narrows things down a lot, if you try to find letter sequences that actually meet those conditions. Ahh, that’s a good way to think about it. I think I figured it out - in any case, I found three letters which in reverse alphabetical order form a common word, and obey the other constraints. ---
**Author:** ![ixca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@ixca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ixca)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/29 "2009-05-30T17:20:32Z")
Thanks Ximenean… Let me say how far along I’ve gone… For Theater I’ve chained movies in the style “degrees to Kevin Bacon”, and noticed 3 actors cannot be linked. Haven’t made any sense of the actual thread of movies or actors yet. For office I noticed each word can be linked to a particular number. In most cases, there is a pair of entries that correspond to one number. Again, stuck after this. For Foyer I really just have to get creative. There’s no excuse. These are hard though as I have no “crosswording” experience! For Laundry Room I know what number I’m supposed to crunch into which machine, but that number is not on its current list. I’m guessing the words for each machine correspond to something like a book chapter or something like that? Need to think about this some more… Thanks for the help, I can’t go to sleep at night! ---
**Author:** ![ixca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@ixca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ixca)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/30 "2009-05-30T17:28:28Z")
Actually, for theater I just went back to the drawing board and noticed a three letter word. Feel excited although it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Must be part of another puzzle, I guess! ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/31 "2009-05-30T20:28:58Z")
> [@ixca](#): > > For Laundry Room > > I know what number I’m supposed to crunch into which machine, but that number is not on its current list. I’m guessing the words for each machine correspond to something like a book chapter or something like that? Need to think about this some more… Yeah, at first I thought that the words might come from some common text, perhaps _Alice in Wonderland_ since “Alice” was mentioned. But each word relates to a separate thing. ---
**Author:** ![ixca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@ixca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ixca)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/32 "2009-05-30T21:31:35Z")
Office and Theater made sense until I got Foyer, which was sneaky… I’m down to Laundry room… For a minute I thought the text might be “smart text” on a particular machine (i.e. cellphones) but I can’t see how, say, 36 could give you “Tom” ---
**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/33 "2009-06-18T15:25:54Z")
A couple of hints for ‘Laundry Room’. A general hint: If you entered 82 into any of the machines, you would receive the following error message: _Response unknown until March 7, 2010_ Some more possible responses from Machine C: 63- Dances 56- Terms ---
**Author:** ![ixca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@ixca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ixca)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/34 "2009-06-18T15:46:09Z")
Thanks, Hammos1! I’ve solved all the rooms now. A general question though. The introduction to the puzzle states “Once you have all four keywords, the location of Victor’s key should become clear”. I’ve got the 4 words, but the location is not apparent… What am I missing? ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/35 "2009-06-18T21:55:55Z")
> [@ixca](#): > > I’ve got the 4 words, but the location is not apparent… What am I missing? Consideration of the title of the puzzle? ---
**Author:** ![ixca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@ixca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ixca)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/36 "2016-04-02T22:37:00Z")
> [@hammos1](#): > > Pretty sure it’s just you and me left, **Ximenean**. 😉 > > Thanks for the hint- I never would have considered that approach, as intuitively it seemed to present too many possibilities. But working with the restrictions you mentioned, it decodes quite handily. > > I’ve now found Victor’s key, hurrah! I think I first looked at Acronym in 2005, so four years to find the solution- not bad. > > I’m going to lie down now with a cold towel on my forehead, and contemplate moving on to ‘Mostly Clueless’ (the ‘Wikipedia’ puzzle in that one looks like a bastard, though). Hey Hammos, did you ever get down to solving Mostly Clueless? I`ve solved wikipedia, tourism, and multitasking (i think), and I`m particularly stuck on musicianship (i know what the songs are, but not what to do with them) and japanese puzzle crazes (Ive got the answers to the clues, but don`t know what to do with them) at this point. could you spare a hint? ---
**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/37 "2016-04-11T20:51:58Z")
For ‘Japanese Puzzle Crazes’, once you’ve put all the answers into the grid, you need to complete it as if it were a Sudoku puzzle. I can’t remember for the moment how ‘Musicianship’ works, but I think I’ve got some notes on my other PC. I’ll have a look. ---
**Author:** ![ixca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@ixca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ixca)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2016, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177/38 "2016-04-12T04:20:14Z")
I wrote that soooo last week. Its solved 😉 Thanks though!! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mit-mini-hunts-superb-puzzles/491177.md?page=1)