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tmaly
I am not really sure what this is.

The first thing that popped in my mind was the contest from the book Ready Player One

quirkot
Who doesn't love a nice scavenger hunt
Ajedi32
> 5 puzzles. Each gets more difficult.

> 5 clues. Take notes. Each puzzle is gone after it's solved.

> 5 places. Think numbers.

> Enter all answers at savethedate.foo.

> You must know where you've been to get where you're going.

Oooo, this sounds like fun.

caffeineninja
This JS instantiates a marker at these coordinates:

this.markers = [{ lat: -28.092472, lng: -52.419667 }];

which points to a field in southern Brazil. Anyone wanna go see what's there? :)

https://www.google.com/maps/place/28%C2%B005'32.9%22S+52%C2%...

VuWall-Matt
Enter the lat/long as your first answer on savethedate.foo, it links to an unlisted youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N9K898TtWQ&feature=youtu.be...

Turn on closed captions and help me figure out the next step.

ChrisBland
Magic I. See _ a beach, -yes. _ I explore daylight

working on it now

caffeineninja
From the description:

>You can always count on a good time at the beach...

amingilani
Same boat. My head hurts. Red Herring: there are 5 punctuations in the sentence
Sodman
Possibly related to the big '5' that appears on the savethedate.foo site after entering the latlong?

If you take out the other text, we're left with "._,-.-". Removing the comma leaves us with 5 characters "._-.-" Morse code?

jawns
I think "you can always count on a good time at the beach" refers to actual counting.

And here's the transcript, with some numbers:

    0:00Magic
    0:03I.
    0:06See
    0:10_
    0:12a
    0:16beach,
    0:19-yes.
    0:21_
    0:25I
    0:28explore
    0:30daylight
piker
What's the red thing in the upper-left?
XaspR8d
I was thinking maybe it was part of a chip bag. Then you could run that fancy subpixel-motion sound extraction algorithm on it pretty easily (fitting with "See What Cannot Be Heard").

But the timecodes are probably a more likely thing...

samirparikh
its lat,lng with the . representing the decimal point
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XaspR8d
Ahh thanks. Any idea on the next one? :P

EDIT: Nevermind 3 should be easy for most HNers. Wrote that before I even saw it.

xigency
It shows a 17 on the page. Just a note.
prakashk
So far: 5 - Brazil, 17 - England, 18 - Poland
ChrisBland
Ascii 7 bit encoding - 52.1821, 20.9965
iplaw
Yep
caffeineninja
checked out caves.jpg with a hex editor, i'm thinking the next clue is embedded in the jpeg, which is causing the corruption
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VuWall-Matt
Here's 4: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B2BGioksxQiRc2hpTDJ1...

Looks like caves.jpg has something wrong with it, but I'm not sure what to do with it.

tantalor
Interesting: the author of the image is "Pei Xiu"

Pei Xiu (224–271)... was a minister, geographer, and cartographer of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pei_Xiu

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iplaw
Using this thread to say that the page names may mean something, but I didn't notice initially.

5 -

17 -

18 - Poland

prakashk
5 - Brazil 17 - England 18 - Poland
nneonneo
caves.jpg is broken for me too. I'm on mobile - has anyone checked the JPG metadata?
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wallzz
yes the image is broken
yellowait44
There is an hexadecimal block hidden in caves.jpg:

4e 75 6d 62 65 72 73 20 61 72 65 20 61 6d 61 7a 69 6e 67 2e 20 46 6f 6c 6c 6f 77 20 74 68 65 20 63 6f 75 6e 74 2e 0d 0a 0d 0a 0d 0a 20 20 56 20 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 0d 0a 3e 20 31 20 20 37 20 20 38 20 20 35 20 20 34 20 20 31 30 20 31 20 20 32 20 20 36 20 20 33 20 20 36 20 20 31 2e 20 39 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 34 2e 20 32 20 20 39 20 20 34 20 20 32 20 20 37 20 20 39 20 20 38 20 20 35 20 20 36 20 20 35 20 20 32 20 20 37 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 34 20 20 31 30 20 39 20 20 37 20 20 34 20 20 32 20 20 35 20 20 39 20 20 36 20 20 38 20 20 31 30 20 37 20 20 39 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 38 20 20 35 20 20 33 20 20 35 20 20 33 20 20 35 20 20 34 20 20 37 20 20 32 20 20 39 20 20 36 20 20 31 20 20 38 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 32 20 20 37 20 20 31 20 20 33 20 20 34 20 20 31 20 20 35 20 20 38 20 20 34 20 20 39 20 20 38 20 20 38 20 20 33 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 36 20 20 31 20 20 39 20 20 34 20 20 35 20 20 35 20 20 37 20 20 33 20 20 31 20 20 32 20 20 36 20 20 31 30 20 34 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 31 30 20 38 20 20 37 20 20 31 20 20 32 20 20 34 20 20 35 20 20 38 20 20 32 20 20 35 20 20 37 20 20 39 20 20 31 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 32 20 20 33 20 20 35 20 20 37 20 20 31 20 20 34 20 20 36 20 20 39 20 20 35 20 20 33 20 20 34 20 20 35 20 20 36 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 39 20 20 31 20 20 34 20 20 34 20 20 38 20 20 33 20 20 37 20 20 36 20 20 32 20 20 35 20 20 31 20 20 36 20 20 37 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 32 20 20 31 20 20 39 20 20 33 20 20 37 20 20 34 20 20 35 20 20 37 20 20 33 20 20 36 20 20 38 20 20 37 20 20 38 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 38 20 20 33 20 20 38 20 20 35 20 20 38 20 20 34 20 20 36 20 20 31 20 20 35 20 20 39 20 20 31 2c 20 31 30 20 36 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 36 20 20 33 20 20 35 20 20 37 20 20 37 20 20 31 20 20 31 30 20 34 20 20 38 20 20 36 20 20 33 20 20 35 20 20 39 20 3e 0d 0a 20 20 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 76 0d 0a

  Numbers are amazing. Follow the count.

    V -----------------------------------
  > 1  7  8  5  4  10 1  2  6  3  6  1. 9|
   |4. 2  9  4  2  7  9  8  5  6  5  2  7|
   |4  10 9  7  4  2  5  9  6  8  10 7  9|
   |8  5  3  5  3  5  4  7  2  9  6  1  8|
   |2  7  1  3  4  1  5  8  4  9  8  8  3|
   |6  1  9  4  5  5  7  3  1  2  6  10 4|
   |10 8  7  1  2  4  5  8  2  5  7  9  1|
   |2  3  5  7  1  4  6  9  5  3  4  5  6|
   |9  1  4  4  8  3  7  6  2  5  1  6  7|
   |2  1  9  3  7  4  5  7  3  6  8  7  8|
   |8  3  8  5  8  4  6  1  5  9  1, 10 6|
   |6  3  5  7  7  1  10 4  8  6  3  5  9 >
    ------------------------------------v
tantalor
Here is better format:

  Numbers are amazing. Follow the count.

    V -----------------------------------
  > 1  7  8  5  4  10 1  2  6  3  6  1. 9|
   |4. 2  9  4  2  7  9  8  5  6  5  2  7|
   |4  10 9  7  4  2  5  9  6  8  10 7  9|
   |8  5  3  5  3  5  4  7  2  9  6  1  8|
   |2  7  1  3  4  1  5  8  4  9  8  8  3|
   |6  1  9  4  5  5  7  3  1  2  6  10 4|
   |10 8  7  1  2  4  5  8  2  5  7  9  1|
   |2  3  5  7  1  4  6  9  5  3  4  5  6|
   |9  1  4  4  8  3  7  6  2  5  1  6  7|
   |2  1  9  3  7  4  5  7  3  6  8  7  8|
   |8  3  8  5  8  4  6  1  5  9  1, 10 6|
   |6  3  5  7  7  1  10 4  8  6  3  5  9 >
    ------------------------------------v
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caffeineninja
All you need to do is sum up the numbers on each row/column. Horizontal will produce the latitude (except after the 1,), and vertical will produce the longitude.
xt00
I think for the chess game we have the play the game backwards.. I am trying to play the game forward, but not clear what is the delineation for the comma or period in the lat lon.. maybe black can put white into check?
hathawsh
Hint: it can't be a valid game since one of the kings has been removed. :-)
neogodless
Number maze. Move East and South. Possibly along the lines of 1, 2, 3... haven't quite solved the meaning of moving through the maze yet.
espeed
number paths wrap down and right...first move down and right 1 step, then down and right 2 steps...?
sja
14.2981, 101.2189

Start from top-left, move the number of spaces given by the number of your current square:

down right left down right right up down down right down

It's a maze; worked backwards from the numbers that have commas and points next to them.

Number: 19; Title: Thailand https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMNGiEkdfeZKK5uus5iOmt-...

justinv
V2hlcmUgaGF2ZSB5b3UgYmVlbj8

base64 decode "Where have you been?"

jobead
Image name is base64 encoded: V2hlcmUgaGF2ZSB5b3UgYmVlbj8 = Where have you been?

So, maybe where the chess pieces have been moved from?

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wmblaettler
I cannot reply the sibling comments yet, but "where have you been?" could refer to where we were for the past 4 clues: 5 - Brazil, 17 - England, 18 - Poland, 19 - Thailand
xt00
It looks like the king on the white side is sitting dead on the side?
wallzz
we should concentrate on the numbers in the board
bleezy
Can someone confirm what chess pieces are on the board? It looks like black has knight, rook, king and white has rook and queen?
bobowzki
Damn I was going to bed before I found this. Now I need to solve it. Did anyone solve the chess board?

I feel the pawns on the left are somehow significant 4-3-2-1...

mariehaynes
How did you figure out the directions? (i.e. down, right, left...)
mariehaynes
This has been bugging me for days...trying to figure out how you knew to go down, right, left, etc. I finally figured it out.

Start at the end. That's a 9. The only way that we could have landed on that 9 is either moving down or right. So, look at each number on that path and see which one would have got us there. There is an 8 that is 8 squares above 9, so that's the second last number. Now, how did we land on the 8? There is a 1 that is one square to the left, so the next number is 1. And so on.

truesy
looks like a maze which shows you where to enter and leave. must not cross your own path, and the .s and , would work well in creating a geolocation
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wallzz
should we play the chess and use the moves as an entering point ?
iplaw
So you have 12 groups of numbers, two with decimals, one with a comma. Just need to figure out where to put them. :)
atanasb
There are two numbers with dots after them as well as one with a comma. Any ideas?
wallzz
the numbers when sum up should represent a location at the map
piker
Numbers after the comma add up to 90.
iplaw
Special instructions: FBMD01000a9c0d0000ec4f000055df0000b5e80000fcfa00005cb2010013ef020069fc02003d110300942b0300b0ce0500
venkatagiri
it looks like a grid where you enter from the top left (>) and exit to the bottom right (>).
TheKyleAmbert
Numbers up to the first decimal add up to 54, which feels navigationey...
westondeboer
FBMD01 000a 9c0d0000 ec4f0000 55df0000 b5e80000 fcfa0000 5cb20100 13ef0200 69fc0200 3d110300 942b0300 b0ce0500

Is the converted meta data for facebook

wallzz
so the images have been uploaded to facebook ? I wonder why google do this
VuWall-Matt
Okay, for four open caves.jpg in Notepad. Inside is some hex:

4e 75 6d 62 65 72 73 20 61 72 65 20 61 6d 61 7a 69 6e 67 2e 20 46 6f 6c 6c 6f 77 20 74 68 65 20 63 6f 75 6e 74 2e 0d 0a 0d 0a 0d 0a 20 20 56 20 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 0d 0a 3e 20 31 20 20 37 20 20 38 20 20 35 20 20 34 20 20 31 30 20 31 20 20 32 20 20 36 20 20 33 20 20 36 20 20 31 2e 20 39 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 34 2e 20 32 20 20 39 20 20 34 20 20 32 20 20 37 20 20 39 20 20 38 20 20 35 20 20 36 20 20 35 20 20 32 20 20 37 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 34 20 20 31 30 20 39 20 20 37 20 20 34 20 20 32 20 20 35 20 20 39 20 20 36 20 20 38 20 20 31 30 20 37 20 20 39 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 38 20 20 35 20 20 33 20 20 35 20 20 33 20 20 35 20 20 34 20 20 37 20 20 32 20 20 39 20 20 36 20 20 31 20 20 38 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 32 20 20 37 20 20 31 20 20 33 20 20 34 20 20 31 20 20 35 20 20 38 20 20 34 20 20 39 20 20 38 20 20 38 20 20 33 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 36 20 20 31 20 20 39 20 20 34 20 20 35 20 20 35 20 20 37 20 20 33 20 20 31 20 20 32 20 20 36 20 20 31 30 20 34 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 31 30 20 38 20 20 37 20 20 31 20 20 32 20 20 34 20 20 35 20 20 38 20 20 32 20 20 35 20 20 37 20 20 39 20 20 31 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 32 20 20 33 20 20 35 20 20 37 20 20 31 20 20 34 20 20 36 20 20 39 20 20 35 20 20 33 20 20 34 20 20 35 20 20 36 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 39 20 20 31 20 20 34 20 20 34 20 20 38 20 20 33 20 20 37 20 20 36 20 20 32 20 20 35 20 20 31 20 20 36 20 20 37 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 32 20 20 31 20 20 39 20 20 33 20 20 37 20 20 34 20 20 35 20 20 37 20 20 33 20 20 36 20 20 38 20 20 37 20 20 38 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 38 20 20 33 20 20 38 20 20 35 20 20 38 20 20 34 20 20 36 20 20 31 20 20 35 20 20 39 20 20 31 2c 20 31 30 20 36 7c 0d 0a 20 7c 36 20 20 33 20 20 35 20 20 37 20 20 37 20 20 31 20 20 31 30 20 34 20 20 38 20 20 36 20 20 33 20 20 35 20 20 39 20 3e 0d 0a 20 20 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 2d 76 0d 0a

Convert it to a string and you get:

??Numbers are amazing. Follow the count.

  V -----------------------------------
> 1 7 8 5 4 10 1 2 6 3 6 1. 9|

|4. 2 9 4 2 7 9 8 5 6 5 2 7|

|4 10 9 7 4 2 5 9 6 8 10 7 9|

|8 5 3 5 3 5 4 7 2 9 6 1 8|

|2 7 1 3 4 1 5 8 4 9 8 8 3|

|6 1 9 4 5 5 7 3 1 2 6 10 4|

|10 8 7 1 2 4 5 8 2 5 7 9 1|

|2 3 5 7 1 4 6 9 5 3 4 5 6|

|9 1 4 4 8 3 7 6 2 5 1 6 7|

|2 1 9 3 7 4 5 7 3 6 8 7 8|

|8 3 8 5 8 4 6 1 5 9 1, 10 6|

|6 3 5 7 7 1 10 4 8 6 3 5 9 >

  ------------------------------------v
morhope
its not showing the best here but > and < are pointing into #1 in top left and away from 9 bottom right maybe a clue?

Pei Xiu outlined six principles that should be observed when creating a map. He then defended his position and each of the six principles with a short explanation as to how they provide better accuracy in map-making and cartography. The first three principles outlined the use of scale (fan lu), direction (zhunwang), and road distance (daoli), while the last three principles are used to properly calculate distances on uneven terrain as represented on a flat, two dimensional map

jobead
ah interesting...like a maze! if we get a count from somewhere, we hop that many steps, and you end up at the exit at the bottom right.
wallzz
should we count the numbers or something ?
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wmblaettler
Count the characters in each word, _ means 0
ceocoder
That takes us to this[1] Google doc with this embedded video[2]

[1] https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11uA9a5wgoY9w9vOyx3C7...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8uV0dCTKrE

zaxophone
The "Transmission" video is using TunesToTube.com.

It is a bunch of numbers being recited (though I don't know the significance of the static image):

"053 050 046 049 056 050 049 044 032 050 048 046 057 057 054 053" It then pauses and repeats for exactly 5 minutes.

Translated (by others in this thread), it turns into 52.1821, 20.9965, which brings you to the number 18, in Poland. It also links to this Google Drive folder titled "Latest Discoveries":

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B2BGioksxQiRc2hpTDJ1...

This has a few photos of statues of the Buddha and a couple of temples. I find the photo that looks corrupted the most interesting, as I think there is data hidden in there (similar to 4chan.js if you've ever heard of that).

The file names of the photos are shrine.jpg, statue.jpg, spire.jpg, pillar.jpg, and cave.jpg.

refrigerator
51.3015, -3.0178
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amacalac
I believe:

latitude: MagicI.See_abeach, longitude: -yes._Iexploredaylight

Not sure what the encoding is. I've tried the "letter to number" encryption which gives:

13 1 7 9 3 9.19 5 5 1 2 5 1 3 8, 25 5 19.9 5 24 16 12 15 18 5 4 1 25 12 9 7 8 20

Simply adding the numbers, grouped before + after decimal point leads to:

42.2920, -49.120

but this isn't the correct answer

midhir
Video appears to be at least 50% speed :)
iplaw
There is muffled audio at the end of the video. What is it from? That's a clue.
morhope
The image is did not produce anything on google image search.

magic I. See_abeach,-yes.-I explore daylight

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chowes
There's a road on the right hand side - you can see cars driving by.
wmblaettler
The crop circle after the first clue also shows us a number: '5'
cableshaft
That might not be a clue. It's 5 puzzles, so maybe it's just counting down 5,4,3,2,1.

EDIT: Haha, oops, nevermind.

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caffeineninja
MagicI.See_abeach,-yes._Iexploredaylight

we need to convert these to numbers to get the lat/lon of this location.

amacalac
13 1 7 9 3 9.19 5 5 1 2 5 1 3 8, 25 5 19.9 5 24 16 12 15 18 5 4 1 25 12 9 7 8 20
siddarthd2919
Is there a specific way you inputed the latitude and longitude?
ekr
any idea why "-28.092472,-52.419667" would not work? does it need special formatting, or is my firefox incompatible?

EDIT: thanks, the adblocker was the issue.

iraphael
same issue on chrome, so not a firefox thing. I think we're missing something
devty
it could be your adblock whatever plugin you use to disable trackers
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CiPHPerCoder
This reminds me of another puzzle which requires being able to afford to travel to specific geographical locations (Cicada 3301). I really hope this isn't how Google intends to find new employees.
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jafhdjkashdfj
Thailand, https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMNGiEkdfeZKK5uus5iOmt-...

Pic is called base64

(upvote this so we can start a new subthread)

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xur17
File info decodes to: Where have you been?
dkonofalski
Conversion of the filename is "Where have you been?"
batrofin
Well, we've been to brazil, england, poland, and thailand so far?
ltowel
place the 3 black pawns and 7 white pawns to add to the appropriate numbers?
jat255
My guess would be black/white corresponds to lat/long? (or vice versa)
siddarthd2919
or maybe position the white rooks and black rooks in their spots to remove those numbers from the board?
dkonofalski
If we use chess notation, could that give us a lat/long using the special instructions from the last puzzle?
jat255
5, 17, 18, 19, numerically
jobead
do these somehow correspond to chess move notation?
typicalbender
Do the number of pawns correspond to the puzzle number?
piker
Like scrabble with the piece values? e.g. white rooks are -14 and 10?
dkonofalski
Note the pawns on the left hand side of each color, maybe?

3.

7.

Maybe we add or subtract from 0 to get the numbers after the decimal?

sja
Collecting all the "places we've been" by named place, integer given to that place, and the lat/long solution

-28.092472, -52.419667; 5; brazil

51.3015, -3.0178; 17; england

52.1821, 20.9965; 18; poland

14.2981, 101.2189; 19; thailand

kernald
The description ("V2hlcmUgaGF2ZSB5b3UgYmVlbj8") translates to "Where have you been?"
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hadriendavid
$ echo V2hlcmUgaGF2ZSB5b3UgYmVlbj8 | base64 -d Where have you been?
siddarthd2919
so far : 5 - Brazil, 17 - England, 18 - Poland, 19 - Thailand
HebrewToYou
V2hlcmUgaGF2ZSB5b3UgYmVlbj8 --> "Where have you been?"
alejoriveralara
Chess pieces sometimes have values assigned to them: Pawns: 1, knight/bishop: 3, rook: 5, queen: 9. Might help (?).
abe_duarte
Since the numbers appear where the pieces usually are I think this makes sense.
jat255
Numbers on top half of board

  White     Black
  +10       -12
  + 8       - 7
  - 6       +15
  -11       - 2
  + 4       +19
            + 1
  --------------
  bottom half 
  +3        - 7
  +3        + 1
  +4        -19 
  +5        
  +7        
  +7        
  +5
espeed
"you" are black (have been capturing white pieces)...what legal moves could have led to that position?
jat255
How dare you assume my ethnicity! /s
XaspR8d
You're overthinking it.

The number of spaces in each row matches the lengths of something you've seen.

Answer is posted here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13476200

jobead
ok, so what's the final set of coordinates then? searching that on google maps and putting the center point into savethedate.foo did not work.
kaoD
They broke our expectations. I put in coordinates too, but it's just "Shoreline Amphitheatre".
XaspR8d
Yeah I tried that too! It bucks the trend and just wants you to enter the name.
xur17
Here are the numbers written out in text:

+10 ___ +08 -12 ___ -07 ___ ___ +15 -06 -02 -11 +19 +04 +01 ___

+03 -07 +03 ___ +04 +01 ___ ___ -19 +05 ___ +07 ___ +07 ___ +05

edit: copy and paste it into a fixed width text editor - the formatting is getting messed up here.

serkanyersen
something to note. 7 white pawns and 3 black pawns on the left.
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jafhdjkashdfj
Shoreline Amphitheatre

"Answer to last puzzle:

You can put the names of the countries into the spaces on the board and add/subtract from letter values appropriately.

This gives you:

L IN E

THEATRE

SHO RE

AM P H I

(Shoreline Amphitheatre)

5/17, 5/18, 5/19 are the dates of Google I/O, at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA. :|"

che_shirecat
Google IO on 5/18-20th, announced 1/12, launchDate in site JS is 2017-01-13T07:00:00-08
Ruphin
Note the remaining pieces on the board.

Two pieces = '.' one piece is ','.

Each row contains a value to fill these blanks: _._ , _._

anotherturn
good spot. Maybe all the space between, is a space?
piker
Where have you been? Black's in check so we must have just moved -- where from?
piker
I'm not sure it's possible to get to this position in chess from the starting point.
sja
As requested: answer to puzzle 4 (I think):

14.2981, 101.2189

Start from top-left, move the number of spaces given by the number of your current square:

down right left down right right up down down right down

It's a maze; worked backwards from the numbers that have commas and points next to them.

Number: 19; Title: Thailand https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMNGiEkdfeZKK5uus5iOmt-...

neogodless
Sheesh I'm dense, I think I need an animated GIF of how you're moving through the maze. I can see 1-4.-2 but then do you keep moving right a second time, two spaces, to that 9? And then you move... nine spaces to... where?
sja
Nine spaces down, I believe

1-down

4-right

2-left

9-down

8-right

etc

wes-k
How did you work out the movement sequences?
sja
I'll draw it out when we finish up the game :) - what the guys above me said (process of elimination)
graeham
You work from the key stops (decimal and comma), then go backwards to the only steps that can get you to these stops.
kaoD
If you start at the bottom-right you can count either up or left. Going 8 places up lands on an 8 (this is the only square where delta from bottom right = number in the square) which means that square was the previous one.

Rinse and repeat.

wes-k
Deduction at it's finest - thanks!
dkonofalski
File name for #5 is base64. Converting the filename from base 64 gives you "Where have you been?"
anotherturn
Chess image. if you download it it's called base64.jpg
XaspR8d
Answer to last puzzle:

You can put the names of the countries into the spaces on the board and add/subtract from letter values appropriately.

This gives you:

L IN E

THEATRE

SHO RE

AM P H I

(Shoreline Amphitheatre)

5/17, 5/18, 5/19 are the dates of Google I/O, at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA.

EDIT: Haha, I guess we're faster than they expected or this leaked early, since completing it links you to https://events.google.com/io/ which just says "check back soon".

akappa
that was... anticlimactic, to say the least.
oldstrangers
What did you expect from a very simple ARG called 'save the date'?
amingilani
Anything except... sigh, I guess nevermind. I fell for it.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
jat255
I'm more impressed that they actually created those numbers to be seen by satellites
kaoD
They didn't. Go to the actual coordinates on Maps and they're not there.

It's Photoshop.

stcwhirled
Actually look at the videos on the ending page. You can see that they actually did create them. There are people in some of the gifs.
packetized
B E S U R E T O D R I N K Y O U R O V A L T I N E
sja
Well, that was a brief burst of fun! Wish the final payoff was a bit flashier, but c'est la vie. Good work, all!
dkonofalski
So what's the final lat/long to type into the site?
nikisweeting
Final solution is not a lat/lng, just put in "Shoreline Amphitheatre".
wes-k
"Shoreline Amphitheatre" is the answer.
sja
You type in "Shoreline Amphitheatre" instead of another lat/long
lnanek2
> Shoreline Amphitheatre

That's really too bad. I've been going to Google IO for five years and that venue they moved to last year, Shoreline Amphitheatre, was a disaster.

They had insufficient room for all the talks. So I waited an hour for the first talk I wanted to attend, just to get kicked out of line due to the room reaching capacity. Then I gave up my next time slot to wait in line 1 time slot ahead of time for the third time slot, but once I got in they kicked me out saying I couldn't come in one time slot before, everyone is kicked out at the end of each.

Throw in a really bad set of key notes - the Android one did have some useful content for developers, but everything else, Allo, Duo, Google Assistant was just Google's marketing arm exploiting a captive audience to try to get future users and wasn't anything useful for me as a developer.

Add in a ton of VR talks all citing their special remote control, but they didn't give us one of them, so we all kept developing on our Gear VRs anyway. This was the first Google IO I'd been to with no development hardware.

At the end I asked for a refund since I had really gained nothing as a developer and just spent a long time waiting in lines and not getting any content and Google refused.

As far as I can tell, it is their intention to make it a music festival from now on and not developer focused. Going to something like AndDevCon would be much more valuable. It's too bad, really, because professional conferences like GDC make sure to poll users to find session interest ahead of time and make sure they plan capacity correctly. Google IO was just useless amateur hour co-opted by Google marketing to exploit some captive press and potential users of their new chat apps no one likes.