2009 MIT Mystery Hunt

[rhysara]

How I spent the The 2009 MIT Mystery Hunt or

Comments

[kirkjerk]

Did we make both team goals?

[kirkjerk]

And anyone want a customized tank? ;-)

[rhysara]

Speaking of which, I have the box and manual and all the random parts we took off sitting in my car waiting to come visit you ;)

[rhysara]

I am happy to report that we came in neither first nor last!

[inkmark]

I'll send those pictures to you pretty soon. I'm working from home tomorrow, so I should have plenty of time. :)

And it's the tag, not the tag.

Spaceship

[zandperl]

I worked on our team's spaceship so that part of this entry was of particular interest to me. I was quite impressed when I saw the attention to detail of your box, so it's nice to read more about both the design and how you did. What team are you, btw?

We (GUT♥) were told upon our completion of the spaceship trials that we were the first team to successfully complete all of them, though only with 45 points - a bit more detail here, and a video of our trials on YouTube. I'm guessing most teams just focused on doing enough of them excellently that they didn't need to complete all. Our spaceship crew decided we wanted to be able to complete all of them for bragging rights. ^_^

Re: Spaceship

[rhysara]

We're "Left as an Exercise for the Reader".

Thanks for sharing the link to your post and to the video. I too find myself strangely interested in hearing all about the spaceship competition for similar reasons. We were also bound and determined to get all five events, after all we're a small team with limited on-site solving resources so the ability to prepare something ahead of time made us feel like we were (for that event at least) on an equal footing with some of the bigger teams and we were determined to make the most of it.

Re: Spaceship

[zandperl]

Yeah, we're a smaller group too, with the goal of having fun over solving massive puzzles. I kept thinking to myself as I put in hour after hour assembling the spaceship that I could be spending my time more productively - and then reminding myself that I was having LOTS of fun doing this, so how could it really get any better? :)

We didn't build the spaceship ahead of time, but we planned it, drawing ideas and parts from team members, and doing the assembly and tweaking on-site.

Re: Spaceship

[rhysara]

My OCD would never have let me wait until we were on-site to build the spaceship. Not to mention I was so stupidly excited about the impending hunt that getting to do something ahead of time was a bonus that allowed me to stretch the hunt out over two weekends.

On the other hand, the stuff I was supposed to be doing (for work, etc) kind of fell by the wayside as a result.

[also_huey]

Y'know, I've watched you post these things every year for the last idunno-how-many, and while I can't help but think that I'd be about as useful as tits on an escalator, I always think "dude, I wanna go to that".

[magid]

You totally should, then! I wasn't able to be there very long, and had some restrictions on activities, and still was able to help a little.

[rhysara]

Your interest has been noted. Do not be surprised when you start receiving e-mails designed to tempt you into joining our team.

Besides, Boston is, um, lovely, in January. (and actually if you wanted to be involved but didn't really want to come to Boston -thought it is better in person- you could always join our team and solve remotely).

P.S. Please to be joining our team. kthnx.

[sauergeek]

Remember, he's from the northern bits of the Midwest (Chicago, Detroit) so a Boston winter shouldn't faze him much. Tempt away!

[jcberk]

Thank you for writing this! I've never played on a small team, but I've visited friends' small team while on the running team, and it's always nice to hear that the small teams have at least as much fun as the big ones