Tortoiseshell Puzzles | Puzzles by Nathan Curtis

Pathfinder #5

Submitted by Nathan on Sat, 07/28/2012 - 3:02pm

When I said I had other kinds of puzzles in the pipeline, I meant it. It's just that…well, I'm still writing clues for a cryptic, I'm still gridding two Marching Bands puzzles, and I need to edit the Some Assembly Required for taste. If I had something else ready for prime time, I'd post it, but sadly, I don't.

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Spiral #14

Submitted by Nathan on Sat, 07/21/2012 - 11:22pm

A bit late in the day, but still posted on Saturday. And given that I did a last-minute rewrite of the entire puzzle, I'm okay with that. Enjoy!

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Pathfinder #4

Submitted by Nathan on Sat, 07/14/2012 - 8:42pm

I swear, I'm not just going to post Pathfinders and Snake Charmers from now on. I've got some other puzzles in the pipeline, but they need some additional work. Anyway...here you go.

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Snake Charmer #6

Submitted by Nathan on Sun, 07/08/2012 - 4:29pm

A day late, I'm afraid. I blame…oh, let's say the heat. Yeah.

In other news, I have made hints available for A Banner Occasion, so if you're stuck a puzzle or two, you might be able to get a nudge. I will likely be posting one more round of hints before I make the solutions available, but you can also feel free to use the contact form to ask for hints on any of the puzzles.

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Pathfinder #3

Submitted by Nathan on Sat, 06/30/2012 - 12:02pm

I was about to post Pathfinder #4 when I noticed I hadn't yet gotten to #3. I guess that means I have a buffer of unposted puzzles again?

ETA (6/30): There was an error in the grid; there is no entry #27. I have corrected the error and uploaded a new file. Thanks to sueonview for catching the error.

ETA (7/2): There was an error in the clues; the entry labelled 18W should instead go south. I have corrected the error and uploaded new files. Thanks to sueonview and Anonymous for catching the error.

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Snake Charmer #5

Submitted by Nathan on Sat, 06/23/2012 - 7:16pm

Now that A Banner Occasion is out of the way, I can get back to my regular posting schedule for the time being. But speaking of my extravaganza, there are still spots to be claimed on the leaderboard, and soon I will be posting hints for individual puzzles.

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Flags of Our Fathers

Submitted by Nathan on Sat, 06/16/2012 - 9:30pm

I've been putting so much time into the extravaganza I posted on Thursday, A Banner Occasion, that I haven't had the chance to format a regular puzzle for the weekend. So instead, I will give you a taste of that extravaganza, in case you haven't seen it already. Here is "Flags of Our Fathers," which is a variety cryptic. I won't say much about the gimmick in this puzzle, except that it leads to an eight-letter word as the answer. I will post the solution some time in the future, so as not to give away the puzzle answer for those who are working on the extravaganza. Happy solving!

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A Banner Occasion

Submitted by Nathan on Mon, 06/11/2012 - 9:59pm

As promised, here is my Flag Day extravaganza, A Banner Occasion. Many thanks go to my testsolvers, including Ann Kok, Carolyn Cloud Stanley, Jim Sempsrott, Jimmy Williams, Ken Levin, Lance Nathan, Mark Navarrete, Rachel Tanenhaus, and Randy Rogers. This time, I am not publishing the solutions right away. Instead, I have provided answer verification forms on this page, which you may use to check answers to puzzles, and sometimes verify steps along the way. If you wish to verify the answer to the metapuzzle, or if you have any questions about individual puzzles, you can use the contact form to get in touch with me. The top solvers will be recognized on this page. Good luck!

I am also putting up a donation button. In addition to the time I spent writing this extravaganza, I have also worked to provide you with new puzzles nearly every week. Your donation, if you feel so moved, will help me to produce more quality puzzles in the future. And whether or not you choose to donate, I appreciate your stopping by to check out my puzzles. Thank you!

Top solvers:

Dan Katz
Eric Prestemon
Nathan Fung
Mark Halpin
Brian Boyer

Hints

Banner Ads, hint 1

Check where the links go. The page for the puzzle is static; the links always go to the same places.

Banner Ads, hint 2

Play connect-the-dots.

Betsy Ross, hint 1

Each answer to a clue in the central column can be made by overlapping answers to clues from the left and right columns, and changing the overlapping letter.

Betsy Ross, hint 2

Take the different letters in the overlapping section of each answer; these will spell three further clues when ordered correctly.

Betsy Ross, hint 3

And the answers to these clues are related to each other in the same way that the clue answers relate in the main part of the puzzle.

Capture the Flag, hint 1

The images are all cropped sections of US state flags; they can be paired with answers to clues in a manner thematic to the title of the puzzle.

Capture the Flag, hint 2

Specifically, the state abbreviation corresponding to a flag gets "captured" by the answer to a clue to form a longer word. Some of the images are taken from the reverse of the flag (or have been flipped, if you prefer); in these cases the state abbreviation appears backwards in the longer word.

Capture the Flag, hint 3

Once you have extracted a letter from each long word, these letters can be formed into two phrases: one which provides a clue for another word, and one which indicates an object which appears on yet another state flag.

Capture the Flag, hint 4

The letters corresponding to the reversed flag images, which are all consecutive in the puzzle, spell the object found on another state flag, and the remaining letters spell the clue to another word.

Color Guard, hint 1

Not sure where to get started? The name of the show designer is a clue for where to look.

Color Guard, hint 2

Specifically, the name of the show designer, when translated into Roman numerals. You may have to do a quick web search, but you should find a relevant site fairly easily.

Color Guard, hint 3

So you've identified the drum corps logos, but the extraction leads to gibberish? The show title should tell you how to order them.

The Flag Code, hint 1

There's not much to this puzzle that isn't spelled out in the instructions. If you're having trouble decrypting the items, try an online cryptogram solver like Decrypto.

Flag on the Play, hint 1

These are all songs from shows which won the Tony award for Best Musical, except that only the eighth notes have been included. (Some liberties have been taken, when it wasn't clear whether something was a quarter note or an eighth note followed by an eighth rest)

Flag on the Play, hint 2

The length of the title of each show is given by the blanks; the titles are the only information you absolutely need in order to solve the puzzle. Some shows can be uniquely identified from their length, if you feel like searching in that way. The lyric snippets can be used to narrow down the possibilities for others; "-PHRAGM" and "BARRIO" in particular have few relevant hits. Once you have enough of the shows identified, the extraction is unusual but thematic to the content of the puzzle.

Flag on the Play, hint 3

Still not sure what I mean about the extraction being "thematic to the content of this puzzle"? Read hint 1 again.

Flags of Our Fathers, hint 1

In several squares, you will have to fit multiple letters going one direction while a single letter crosses that square in the other direction. The multiple letters are not always the same, but they are thematic to the title of the puzzle.

Flags of Our Fathers, hint 2

The multiple letters in each square always form a synonym for "father". The letters crossing them spell a two-word instruction, which you should follow to arrive at the one-word answer to the puzzle.

Flags of Our Fathers, hint 3

When following the aforementioned instruction, you should arrive at legitimate words in both directions at each crossing.

Flags of Our Fathers, hint 4

Not sure if you've found all the squares with multiple letters? There are eight such squares, six in Across entries and two in Down entries.

Half-Mast, hint 1

The bars represent repeating decimals. It helps to know how repeating decimals work; for example, if the decimal expansion of 1/n is repeating after the decimal point with a period of 2 digits, then n must be a factor of 99. This can help to give you a handle on the value of the denominator in each fraction.

Half-Mast, hint 2

Despite the warning in the instructions, the first fraction in each part of the puzzle is in lowest terms. From this, you can determine that T is a factor of 999999 in 1), ER is a factor of 999990 in 2), and HMD is a factor of 999999900 in 3).

Half-Mast, hint 3

T=7 in part 1). ER=82 in 2). HMD=956 in 3).

It's a Grand Old Flag, hint 1

The first letters of the answers, in conjunction with the answer to clue C, should tell you what information you should be looking for to solve the puzzle.

The Jolly Roger, hint 1

You should start trying to solve for the ship's path using the variant Slitherlink rules spelled out in rules 1 and 2, using the other rules when you get stuck.

The Jolly Roger, hint 2

When you have determined the ship's path, you will need to use information about both the treasures buried on each island and the path itself to determine the answer.

The Jolly Roger, hint 3

In particular, you will need the number of segments on the ship's path that are adjacent to each island.

Pennant Race, hint 1

Start by figuring out which teams are in the playoffs. Rules 3, 6, and 10 should help to give you that information.

Pennant Race, hint 2

Once you have determined the scores of all the teams, use the scores and the locations of each of the teams to get a clue phrase.

Six Flags, hint 1

These are all rides at Six Flags theme parks; the map indicates which rides are at which parks, to help you get started. In addition to all being in the same amusement park chain, the rides have something else in common, which should lead you to the next step.

Six Flags, hint 2

Specifically, they are rides named for DC Comics characters. A certain bit of information about each of these characters is what you need to fill in the blanks.

The Star-Spangled Banner, hint 1

If you do things correctly, there should always be exactly one step which produces sensible results at any point in the process.

The Star-Spangled Banner, hint 2

When the steps are in the proper order, the second, fifth, and sixth steps will involve splitting one of the Words, and the ninth, tenth, thirteenth, and fourteenth steps will involve merging multiple Words.

A Banner Occasion (meta), hint 1

The intro text describes the metapuzzle as "one [final] vexillological vexation". From a metagaming perspective, what flag-related puzzle mechanisms have not been encountered in the previous 13 puzzles? Of course, even when you figure that out, there is plenty of work to be done...

A Banner Occasion (meta), hint 2

The intro text instructs you to "enter your answers in clockwise order," but it does not specify where to start in the given diagram. The shape of the diagram should be suggestive; each answer has something in common relating to that suggestive shape which should help to place it in the diagram."

A Banner Occasion (meta), hint 3

In addition to the aforementioned commonalities, which are used solely to orient each answer in the diagram, each answer has something else in common, which is used both to order the answers and to extract a letter from each answer -- to do the second, you will have to treat these common elements as flags.

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Snake Charmer #4

Submitted by Nathan on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 2:52pm

Sorry for being a day late; I just moved into a new apartment and didn't have internet access until today. But I also want to give you something to look forward to: on Thursday, June 14, I will be releasing a 13-puzzle extravaganza for Flag Day. Mark your calendars!

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Whirlwind #1

Submitted by Nathan on Sat, 05/26/2012 - 12:18am

This puzzle type was inspired by At the Beach, a puzzle from the 2008 Mystery Hunt by Mark Halpin, but he says he probably got the idea from a Games Magazine somewhere. Anyway, I like the format, so I made a puzzle. Enjoy!

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