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MIT Mystery Hunt Puzzle Index: Puzzle Data

Instant Replay

This puzzle is missing a detailed solution on the Mystery Hunt web site, so here goes!

Each paragraph is a description of part of the action that might take place in a particular pinball game, as clued by the used of the word replay in the title.

  1. NORTH CAROLINA AVENUE. This is Monopoly, but the pinball's version of the board omits the utilities and all the non-property spaces except the first community chest and last chance, changing the outcome of a roll of 8 from Indiana. The cop target blocks access to the shot that allows you to roll and advance on the board.
  2. ORLANDO. This is World Cup Soccer. There are eight cities on the World Cup tour in the game, ending in LA, and after Boston and New York is Orlando.
  3. TRAP DOOR. This is Theatre of Magic. The four misses hit the trap door targets on either side of the center ramp, lighting Raise Trap Door on the ramp. Hitting the trap door gives a random basement award, one of which advances the clock directly to midnight.
  4. AMY. This is Congo.
  5. NEVER ENDIN' BIKE SUCKIN' SWAMP. This is Blackwater 100. There are eight sections to a lap, including the swamp with this sign, and the other seven are clued as having been completed.
  6. ORION. This is Transporter: The Rescue. The ship is the U. N. Orion.
  7. TED. This is Road Show. Again you're trying to get to Los Angeles, this time on a course that visits 18 cities. Ted is one of two big heads on the playfield, with a bulldozer blade sometimes blocking access to his mouth.
  8. HIDEOUT JACKPOT. This is High Speed (not High Speed II, which starts multiball after the initial red light run).
  9. EXCELLENT RAY. This is Dr. Dude. The Magnetic Personality, Heart of Rock and Roll, Gift of Gab, Mixmaster, and Excellent Ray are shots you need to start Multiball. After multiball ends, all scores are doubled until the end of the ball.
  10. ROOF. This is WhoDunnit?. I know it sounds like a game of Clue. This is probably intentional in the design of the pinball.
  11. DEAD HEADS. This is Elvira and the Party Monsters (not Scared Stiff, which has more dead heads; also in Elvira you are specifically waking them).
  12. AGAINST THE ROPES. This is Champion Pub.
  13. MEADOWLANDS. This is Sopranos.
  14. NEW TICKET. This is Jolly Park, easily the most obscure pinball machine used in this puzzle, but the clue that it's from Spain helps you find it.
  15. ASSAULT. This is Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. The female antagonist is the best clue that this is not Terminator 2. The last Command Centre award is Assault.
  16. COMIC BOOK GUY. This is The Simpsons: Pinball Party.
  17. RODNEY. This is Surf 'n' Safari (not Whitewater, which is not really zoo-themed).
  18. ORTHANC. This is Lord of the Rings.
  19. NO WAY OUT. This is Whitewater. No Way Out is the lock shot.
  20. YELLOW BELLY. This is Banzai Run. The first four riders you have to pass, who may be passed in any order, are Green Machine, Blue Beard, Yellow Belly, and Red Hot. Only after passing them can you challenge the King of the Hill for the win.
  21. MAGNA-SAVE. This is Black Knight 2000 (not the original Black Knight, which doesn't say those things, though both have Magna-Save).
But it is the names of the features that go in the blanks, not the games, that matter. Their initial letters spell NOT ANOTHER DAMN ACRONYM, which is ironically abbreviated on the internet as NADA, which is the answer.

Hunt: MIT Mystery Hunt 2008

Round/Puzzle# D4.1

Author: Bowen Kerins, Trip Payne

Puzzle page

Solution page

Keywords

acronyms
pinball

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