The 1998 MIT Mystery Hunt
For many years, only the errata page and fragmentary info about
this hunt was available. That material included:
- A page for puzzle
9.ZZZ (with hint in source code) which differs from the
version received with the other puzzles.
- A page of errata
which includes parts of some puzzles
- The original COM version of the file for sophomore puzzle
6.666. This was replaced with a text-based version of the
puzzle, as mentioned in the errata, but only the original file
was available. Warning: this file is
a COM executable that doesn't initialize itself
properly. It probably won't do anything useful and I cannot
promise it won't harm your computer!
And I had this
page available with deductions which could be made about the
puzzles from that info.
In 2023, archive documents came into my possession containing
most of this hunt, but it's a bit jumbled. Some puzzles were on
external web pages which are reproduced, without titles, on
following pages of the packet. Some of them were on external web
pages and not reproduced within the packet, but are available as
separate files. You can see the puzzle packet and solution
packet here. The other files have been incorporated into the
puzzles linked via pages below.
To make it easier to view, I've reconstructed a hunt site for
these puzzles with linked solutions, where available. Where I've
inserted explanatory material in the puzzles, it appears in smaller red text. The
solution pages are, in many cases, completely original, as only
about half the solutions (but most of the individual puzzle final
answers) were provided.
When solvers completed all four years' metapuzzles, they were
provided with this
diploma for the final runaround (solution).
What's Missing
These items are needed to complete the archive of puzzles and
solutions.
- The Junior Year meta mentions a puzzle 19.345, which would
have had the same answer as the included puzzle 6.551J. But
19.345 isn't mentioned anywhere else. Does the puzzle exist?
- 19.4 Tetraphilia: Many of the clues are not solved.
- 9.ZZZ Abstract Dream Analysis: We do not know how to get from
the clue phrase extract from the wacky wordie answers to the
final solution. We do not know if the file of blanks found in
the MIT archive represents a second part to the puzzle or an
alternate version of the puzzle, nor how to fill the blanks.
- 8.137 Physics and Information Theory of the Vacuum: What was
the word extracted from the thesis?
- 24.967 Comparative Linguistics: We do not know how to get from
the list of languages and typos to the final solution.
- 19.1289 Decoding Advanced Cryptography: We don't know the
meanings of two of the decoded letter sequences. We don't know
the anagram of the encrypted version of the letters at the end
which clues the final answer.
- 19.2582 Research: Missing many of the clue answers
- 19.2837 Transformative Linguistics: We are missing much of the
trivia involved in the clues.
- 19.567 Thesis Preparation: Missing the descriptions of Athena
minicourses offered in 1998 that the numbers were meant to go
with
- 24.917 Faux-netics: Missing some clue answers and an
understanding of the final clue the answers were supposed to
form.
- 6.535 Roamin': We don't know what solvers got after calling
the phone number, or the final answer.
- 18.617 Number Theory: We don't know what solvers got after
calling the phone number, or the final answer.
- 21L.2557 Puzzling Literature: The runaround path, the
extracted letters, and whatever you do with it afterward and the
final answer are all missing.
- 19.667 Grid Puzzles and Their Variations: The entire solution
is missing.
All Puzzles