Like A Water Balloon Filled With Rage.

[rionaleonhart]

(EDIT: My brother has shown me that I am in fact in the wrong. I am a fool, and I apologise to Professor Layton for casting aspersions on his puzzle expertise.)

DEAR PROFESSOR LAYTON:

NO. AN ANALOGUE CLOCK'S HOUR AND MINUTE HANDS DO NOT PASS OVER EACH OTHER TEN TIMES BETWEEN TWELVE NOON AND TWELVE MIDNIGHT; THEY PASS OVER EACH OTHER ELEVEN TIMES

Comments

[dots]

If I'm remembering/guessing right, the American version is something like "in a 12 hour period, how many times will at least 3 of the numbers on a digital clock be the same" i.e. 12:22, 11:11, 3:33, etc. I would assume that's the one that replaced yours.

[rionaleonhart]

Ah, thank you! I assume, from the apparent lack of bitterness with which you relate this, that it doesn't suffer from a similar flagrant factual error.

EDIT: I'm looking at some of the US puzzles now, and it seems that many of the ones that were changed for the UK release originally involved writing letters. Perhaps the letter recognition wasn't very good?

[dots]

As far as I remember, there are no flagrant errors, only "oh, I forgot 11:12 to 11:19 counted, whoops" sorts of feelings, which Professor Layton has everywhere!

I do seem to remember some issues with the letter recognition, but I also had problems whenever I tried to write the numbers 4 or 6 that it would recognize them as something else, so maybe my handwriting just doesn't translate well to a DS screen.

[marginaliana]

Ahahaha, having just a couple of weeks ago participated in a giant puzzle weekend thing, I so very much feel your pain about puzzles with slightly wrong answers. It is the most frustrating thing in the universe.

(Also, I kind of love the idea of Carr, Brooker, Mitchell, and Hammond in a Yellow Submarine type story.)

[rionaleonhart]

I know! If you can't get the answer because the puzzle is hard, that's still frustrating, but if you can get the answer and then get told you're wrong it's maddening.

(I think they were all on the ship for some sort of programme. Commission it immediately, BBC; it would be fabulous.)

[wolfy_writing]

A couple of nights ago, I dreamt that Jimmy Carr was almost run over by a car.

In the ocean. The ship he had been in with Charlie Brooker, David Mitchell and Richard Hammond had sunk, and they were all treading water, and the car came CHARGING TOWARDS HIM OVER THE WAVES.

Hammond managed to barrel it out of the way before it hit him.

I would not be entirely surprised to see that happen on an episode of Top Gear. Some sort challenge along the lines of "Jeremy has made another amphibious car and we'll be racing it against a boat! Also made by Jeremy." And both would have Special Celebrity Guests in them, and Richard would end up with the boat, Charlie Brooker, David Mitchell, and Jimmy Carr, and it would sink, and they'd nearly be hit by a Toybota, before Richard managed to avert disaster.

Admit it, stranger things have happened on Top Gear.

[rionaleonhart]

I think it may have turned out that Jeremy was driving the car in the dream. Certainly, included Richard Hammond immediately made the 'almost run over in the ocean' aspect much more plausible.

"Jeremy has made another amphibious car and we'll be racing it against a boat! Also made by Jeremy."

Jeremy made both of the vehicles? That's terrifying. (Of course the boat sank; Jeremy sabotaged it so the car would win.)

[wolfy_writing]

Jeremy's argument was that if the car had to suffer the disadvantage of being made by him, so should the boat. He then took some sheets of metal and welded them together so they would only leak a little, allowing Richard to get out into the middle of the ocean before it sank.

[rionaleonhart]

I am so glad that you noticed it as well, because my inability to find any outrage via Google was beginning to make me wonder whether I'd somehow miscalculated. I am appalled by your sloppiness, Professor Layton.