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July 2004 Games
The July Issue of GAMES is on the streets. Feel free to discuss
Comments
This is in regards to an old back issue of GAMES, not to the 7/04 GAMES issue, but I didn't know where else to post this. Apologies to all for this (and any suggestions to where to post general GAMES stuff?). Anyway, I was looking over my old issues and came across the Oct-Nov 89 issue and looked at the "100 and Counting" contest which was also a number trivia contest (though without a final equation, and with questions that were far simpler than those in the recent Calculatrivia contest). I then tried to find the contest results and discovered that GAMES must have printed them in the Feb-March 90 issue, which was the last issue before they went out of business till July 1991. I never got the F/M 90 issue (probably as a result of the difficulties GAMES was having). My question: does anyone out there have the F/M 90 issue with the "100 and counting" contest results? Yes, I'm going through the contest again for fun.
Posted by: Dennis | May 21, 2004 2:17:41 PM
Dennis, I am pretty sure I don't have it (every issue but, it seems), but I remember the contest all too well. I was just a teenager, and me and my dad spent a long time solving it. We had 99 of the 100 questions, and were stuck on the question "the first 2 digits of the social security number of everyone born in Guam". By default, we knew what the answer should be because there was only one number (of the 100) left. But if any of our answers were wrong (such as "in thousands of dollars, the salary of the Governor of New Mexico!"), then the Guam answer could have been anything. This was about 5 years before Internet (in its mainstream form), so I called Guam! We got them all correct, but so did 850 (or so) other people, and we were not shrewd or schooled enough to submit more than one entry. No prize, other than pride...
Then there was the Lewis Carroll nonsense poem which was one of the questions, which I shall never forget:
Yet what are all such gaieties to me
Whose thoughts are full of indices and surds?
x squared plus 7x plus ____
Is equal to eleven-thirds.
[I remember the answer, but I don't want to spoil your retro fun.]
I think that people who don't 'get' puzzles must think that people who do puzzles are weird. But I still get chills thinking about that contest, and of course, Ultimate Calculatrivia - which is El Dorado...THE puzzling gold standard forevermore.
Posted by: Michael | May 21, 2004 5:56:21 PM
Dennis, I have the issue with the answers in it.
Posted by: Andrew | May 21, 2004 9:01:49 PM
Thanks guys! I will try on my own with this puzzle for a little longer to see how far I can go with it. Already I have a duplicate answer (same # used for two different questions) so obviously I need to look at it some more. Yeah, puzzle solvers are pretty weird, but here's to my weirdness! I'd be interested to hear any other thoughts/memories about this contest.
Posted by: Dennis | May 22, 2004 9:20:21 AM
Anyone else stumped with the postcards in "Wish You Were...Where? 5"? I might be willing to share some information if some one has any to lend me regarding #10, the aerial shot of what looks like a bay area.
Posted by: John | May 22, 2004 2:17:33 PM
#10 has me stumped as well.
But I dont think its the bay area.
I would be willing to trade some information for a hint, ANY hint, for #4. What is that yellow building?
courthouse? Library?
Posted by: joan | May 30, 2004 9:16:05 PM
I have nothing solid, but I'm pretty sure it is a courthouse. Unfortunately there are over 3000 counties for it to be in. This is probably a smaller one or the building would be bigger. I'd guess the picture was taken close to 1960. For license plate buffs, it's a state with white plates about then (and not all were). No mountains or hills on the skyline that I can see. It may even say "____ COUNTY" in the facade above the windows, but if you can read it, you have a clearer copy than I have. I was doing similar checking with the sign on #13, and I went to a newsstand with a few copies of GAMES, and every copy has a slightly different dot pattern!! So any letters you may THINK you are seeing are probably random positionings of halftone dots, whose registration may shift slightly as the presses roll. I don't know the answer to this one either. One of the others, which I do know, was in the national news sometime in the last two weeks!
Posted by: Bob Lodge | May 31, 2004 2:58:16 PM
I just got back from the post office, where I found today my August GAMES. (New thread, perhaps?) I hope you'll all take a look at my article on Page 66, a little concoction I sent to them a while back, a logic game for four players. I'd especially like to hear from anyone who actually finds three other people to play it with.
Posted by: Bob Lodge | Jun 2, 2004 8:35:16 PM
What are the contests in the gnu issue, Bob?
Posted by: Jim Miller | Jun 4, 2004 9:45:25 PM
Cover is another eyeball bender set, super close ups. Contest is to SUBMIT an eyeball bender pic, or as many as you wish, actually. $500 prize.
The contest results is for the Most Average contest. They got 1486 entries, but the winner sent in 300 of them! (That's $69 postage!) The tiebreaker was not needed.
I had thought to do the same thing with just over 100, but let the last weekend make it too late for them to be assured of being received in time, so fortunately I backed out and saved my $23. I did send in one entry, which may or may not have been late.
There is a really neat article about jigsaws.
Posted by: Bob Lodge | Jun 5, 2004 1:57:32 AM
Has anyone figured out the entire "Postcard" contest?
Posted by: Steve | Jul 14, 2004 11:44:47 PM
I have 19 of 20. Damn that #13 (University)! Has anyone found it?
Wendy
Posted by: Wendy | Jul 15, 2004 6:35:29 AM
Hey Wendy,
I went to #13! However, I'm not tellin' if that means you're winning! I've got 18...damn that #4!
Posted by: Steve | Jul 15, 2004 9:00:32 AM
I can't believe that there is a website devoted to Games readers! I have been hashing out this postcard puzzle for weeks now...I've got 17 that I'm pretty sure of (including that #13). I'm still buffaloed by 2 4 and 10. Ah well, only a few more days until I resign myself to losing to Wendy, eh? Thanks for the great site!
Posted by: Mark | Jul 16, 2004 1:48:37 PM
Hello postcard contest people! I am willing to trade for answers to 1 and 20. Any takers?
Posted by: Stephen | Jul 23, 2004 9:55:45 PM
So now that it's too late, what WAS the answer to #10? (the marina)
Posted by: Bob Lodge | Aug 5, 2004 6:53:59 PM
Here are my (unofficial) answers:
1. Savannah, GA
2. Trakoscan (Croatia)
3. Fiji
4. Carthage, MS (Leake County Courthouse)
5. Singapore
6. New Brunswick
7. Mackinac
8. Lake Champlain
9. Adelaide, AU
10. Nanaimo (British Columbia, Canada)
11. Bourbon Street
12. Patmos
13. Yale (Pierpont House – Yale Visitor Center)
14. Orange County, CA
15. Curacao
16. Thailand
17. Carcassonne
18. Saudi Arabia
19. Great Smoky Mountains
20. Mexico City
Posted by: Laurie | Aug 6, 2004 7:10:55 AM
Yup, those all look right. Jim from Minnesota and I got 19 out of 20, and I picked Juneau, Ketchikan, and Seward for #10. Now that I've read your answers and checked out online maps of Nanaimo I have to say you have a correct entry.
How did you manage to find Nanaimo, by the way?
Funny that in a contest that featured two nearly impossible postcards (Nanaimo and Carthage) there were also two that were so easy my 14-year-old brother recognized them on sight (Thailand & Bourbon Street). You'd think they'd make them all as hard as possible.
I was unable to find pictures online of any of these postcards themselves, though I did find the source photograph for the Pierpont House card.
Posted by: Andrew | Aug 7, 2004 2:21:11 AM
Having lived in the Seattle area, I was very familiar with the name Nanaimo, but it was one of hundreds of possibilities, and the only one I didn't have. For my entry I put Chicago (early pic) for #10. Hey, might as well give them a laugh.
My best coup was #1. I remembered and recognized cypress trees, from a childhood trip to Florida, and for some reason that "Garden of Good and Evil" film about Savannah hit me, so I Googled Savannah, and about the 3rd click was looking at that same fountain! Less than 5 minutes total from my first look at the postcard!
Posted by: Bob Lodge | Aug 7, 2004 11:30:17 AM
I'm pleased that my early deduction here about #4 being a courthouse in the south or southwest turned out correct. I'm a big-picture guy, leave details to others :)
Posted by: Jim Miller | Aug 8, 2004 4:22:26 AM
I found Nanaimo by chance. I had trouble finding #15, so I started searching for islands. One of my guesses was Vancouver Island (I was far away from #15), and I found a picture of Nanaimo that looked very close to #10.
A search of "Nanaimo aerial" confirmed #10.
#4 was easier than I thought it would be. I was searching Yahoo images for "county courthouse", and couldn't find it. I tried "county 'court house'" and found it quickly. The space between court and house made a huge difference.
Posted by: Laurie | Aug 9, 2004 6:54:36 AM
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Commenters please note: do NOT discuss ANY contest information for a currently active contest outside of what is printed in GAMES magazine.
