What's the name of this online puzzle series?

December 23, 2012 3:32 PM

Help me find a devilishly difficult online puzzle that I had worked on ~4 years ago. Difficultly: I remember a few of the levels and not much about the name. It's not the "Impossible Quiz" flash game.

It was a series of increasingly difficult puzzles/riddles where I think you would enter the answer into a box and it would redirect you to a new URL for the next level, though it is possible you would enter the URL yourself.

I specifically remember there being one that was a number that was a PLU code - it may have been a number and you had to enter in "white asparagus" or whatever it was, or it may have been a picture of asparagus and you had to enter that PLU code. I also remember a dark blue image in which you needed to find a hidden pixel to click or number in (now that I think about it, all of the answers may have been numbers, but maybe not either... [I know, I know..]) that was a deep ocean or maybe a night sky scene. I also seem to remember there were up into the hundreds (maybe like 250?) of these puzzles, each one leading you to the next. Ciphers also seem like a likely choice of puzzle.

It's not an alternate reality game -- all of the answers would be able to be found online or from your own knowledge (as far as I got anyway), like looking up the PLU code. No traveling to Paris to scan a QR code or looking in the woods geocaching-style.

I don't remember the name of it, but I want to say it either was related to the creator's name (for some reason this sticks out in my mind more) or perhaps another superlative sort of name LIKE the Impossible Quiz - the whole point of it was that it was sort of ridiculous in difficulty in a sometimes arbitrary/artificial way (see: "pixel hunt").

Anyway, I'd like to try it out again, does anyone have any idea what the hell I'm going on about?

posted by jorlyfish to grab bag (11 answers total)

Was it godtower or notpron?
posted by GDWJRG at 3:57 PM on December 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

Neither of those are quite right, though notpron looks more like it... Right vein of stuff though, you're on the right track.

Although if I don't end up figuring out what I'm talking about (or even if I do, really), I'll have to do those as well!
posted by jorlyfish at 5:28 PM on December 23, 2012

Sounds a lot like Jadedmedia, but that's older and no longer on the interwebs.
posted by bfranklin at 6:55 PM on December 23, 2012

Is it the Tim Tang Test?
posted by Cue the Strings at 7:16 PM on December 23, 2012

I think this was a lot earlier, but was it Weffriddles?
posted by peep at 7:52 PM on December 23, 2012

Are you thinking of The Stone?
posted by grrlaction at 8:09 PM on December 23, 2012

It sounds like Weffriddles to me too.
posted by SisterHavana at 8:16 PM on December 23, 2012

Thirding Weff, but I remember also doing another online puzzle around that time or perhaps a bit later, called PuzzleDonkey. PuzzleDonkey seems to have been repurposed into a Facebook app. The original website (puzzledonkey.co.uk / puzzledonkey.com) is no longer working, either (and I can't seem to find a cache of it at archive.org either). But if it wasn't Weff, it may very well have been PuzzleDonkey.
posted by juliebug at 9:52 PM on December 23, 2012

Tim Tang Test is it! Maybe I should have mentioned garish colors, but I wasn't sure if I was misremembering that.

Thanks everyone... I'll definitely have to check out the rest of these as well. I didn't know this was such a.. thing.
posted by jorlyfish at 8:45 AM on December 24, 2012

At the risk of piggybacking, I just looked at the Tim Tang Test. Level 3 seems to be nonsense (to me; I'm sure there's a satisfactory answer). I don't know what's being asked or how to interpret the image that's presented to be solved.

So, where can I learn to deal with brain-teasers where you first have to identify the question, before you can answer it?
posted by JimN2TAW at 2:25 PM on December 24, 2012

Jim -- no worries! MeMail me and remind me what the level is if you want and I'll try to come up with a good hint. I think I'm past that unless I'm just on multiple parts of the same level.

I think the best way to improve is to do more of them. I know when I am doing more crossword puzzles for example, I kind of catch on to how crossword puzzle writers think and can "get" some of the more word-play-ish clues faster. You'll learn the "language" of how these puzzles work. Keep in mind the page title, the blue clue below the picture, and the music playing. Even looking at what the clues you can unlock are can be a hint... l'm on a level now that has cyan droplets, and one of the buyable clues is to reveal specifically what they are referring to (water? rain? drops? tears?), so now I am thinking of as many logical things they could be referencing as I can.
posted by jorlyfish at 8:13 PM on December 24, 2012