Top GL'er Vegas - Lexprod

[MNOWAX]

The first Quickfire is a simple, yet very complex quickfire, you will have only two weeks to complete the making of this puzzle. You must make a puzzle using 25 words or less. It may not involve pictures, animations, or other items, just words.

Plot Holes

Williams Wood Martin Wahlberg Schwarzenegger Pitt Mathers Ledger Clooney Willis Thomas Ringwald Efron Burns Neeson Hopper Spacey Carrey Coogan Norton
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[Projectyl]

I have some holes, but I think I've got enough to see the answer:

The actors have appeared in movies that have numbers in the titles, in increasing order from 1-25, with some gaps.

Williams: One Hour Photo
Wood: (Something with "2" in it, by elimination)
Martin: Three Amigos
Wahlberg: Four Brothers
Schwarzenegger: The Sixth Day
Pitt: Se7en
Mathers: 8 Mile
Ledger: Ten Things I Hate About You
Clooney: Oceans Eleven
Willis: Twelve Monkeys
Thomas: (Something with a number between thirteen and fifteen inclusive in it)
Ringwald: Sixteen Candles
Efron: 17 Again
Burns: (Something with "18" in it, by elimination)
Neeson: K-19: The Widowmaker
Hopper: (Something with "20" in it, by elimination)
Spacey: 21
Carrey: The Number 23
Coogan: (Something with "24" in it, by elimination)
Norton: 25th Hour

So the "holes" from 1-25 are 2, 5, 9, (two of 13, 14, and 15), and 22. Converting to letters gives the possible sets BEIMNV, BEIMOV, and BEINOV. My money's on the one that anagrams to B MOVIE.

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"I am now telling the computer exactly what it can do with a lifetime supply of chocolate..."

[ChickenMarengo]

That looks like the right approach, but you've made a mistake:

Elijah Wood starred in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which takes care of B, so I think the answer should be Z MOVIE.

Steve Coogan starred in 24 Hour Party People.

[groza528]

Elimination Challenge 1: What's on TV?
During this challenge players were asked to create a puzzle inspired by a favorite television program. The genre of the program was not important, but contestants were instructed to demonstrate through their puzzles why the program was worth watching.


Point of Origin

[LordKinbote]

I'll start this one off.

The symbols are those that can be found on the Stargate in "Stargate SG-1".

A couple of options:

The symbols correspond to both numbers and to constellations/mythology.

The symbols also have a physical location on the gate, so we may need to know where the symbols are in relation to each other...I don't believe each set draws a letter or anything else relevant...unless they draw other Stargate symbols, but I don't think so.

[Amb*]

The first symbol is Saggitarius, but appears to be drawn in the wrong orientation.

[amb*]

Top Left Cell:
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Saggitarius (Rotate 90 clockwise)
Gemeni (Rotate 225-ish clockwise)
Orion (Rotate 90 Clockwise)
Norma (Rotate 180)
Eridanus (Rotate 180)
Monoceros (Rotate 325ish)

I cant see any cells where the symbols are inconsistently spun, so this may have to do with positions in a circle. Possibly constructing two dials when you get the symbols sorted out?

First four going down:
Saggitarius/Gemini/Orion/Norma/Eridanus/Monoceros
Saggitarius/Gemini/Orion/Norma/Eridanus/Monoceros
Saggitarius/Gemini/Orion/Norma/Eridanus/Taurus
Crater/Aquarius/Corona Australis/Taurus/Eridanus/Corona Australis

Other rotations:
Earth is never off beat
Aquarius maybe 225 degrees?
Corona Australis is not rotated at all

So I wouldn't mind getting these onto a couple of circles. But I dont have time Id love to have.

[Amb]

This is a draft of my thoughts - just in case the angles are important. I'm a tad tired, so this makes it likely I screwed it up

But its a start.

[groza528]

Well, I guess it's my turn to start hinting toward solution

Hint 1: The rotations are not important. Indeed, you would probably have a difficult time finding two reference sites that agree on the rotations. The reflection is an error on the part of the site I chose to take the images from (and bad on me for not doublechecking); it's not important either.
Hint 2: Although there are 39 glyphs on the gate, only 24 are represented in the puzzle, including the point of origin.
Hint 2.5: 24 is fewer than 26.
Hint 3: This is a cryptogram
Hint 4: The particular glyphs chosen are not of particular importance, but they were hand-chosen to give a good starting point (no pun intended).

I still have faith in solvers so we'll see where that gets you before I go posting the full solve.

[PuzzleScot]

I'm not playing the Vegas game, but thought I'd nosey in anyway...

Converting symbols to a unique character gives:

[PuzzleScot]

Oddly though, some words that are appearing seem to tie in to the stargate theme: SHIP; MILKY WAY; RESCUE; CAPTURE; NOVA; TRAVELS etc...
So near yet so far?

[groza528]

[PuzzleScot]

This is my best effort at a substitution cipher, but not making much sense I'm afraid.

[Scurra]

OK, my provisional guess is that they are going to be something like the season ending cliffhangers from each series of Stargate. Which does mean there ought perhaps to have been a spoiler warning?
(I have managed to make things like "ANTARCTICA", "REPLICATOR", "EYE OF RA" and "SUPERNOVA TO STOP APOPHIS" so far, all of which seem to fit.)

edit: working on theory that PuzzleScot's decrypt has B, D, G and M the wrong way around (at the very least.)

further edit:
After various permutations, I think these are the messages.

SGONET* RAVELS* TOANEA* RTHBOU* NDMOTH* ERSHIP* (s1?)
JACKWA* KESUPI* NTHEFU* TUREBU* TITISN* OTREAL* (s2)
THEREA* REREPL* ICATOR* SPLAGU* INGTHO* RSSHIP* (s3)
CARTER* CREATE* SASUPE* RNOVAT* OSTOPA* POPHIS* (s4)
ANUBIS* CAPTUR* ESTHOR* SGONEM* USTRES* CUEHIM* (s5?)
SGONEM* USTNTL*ETANUB* ISLOCA* TETHEE *YEOFRA* (s6)
THEREI* SANIMM* ENSEBA* TTLEOV* ERANTA* RCTICA* (s7)
FOURPO* WERFUL* ORISHI* PSREAC* HTHEMI* LKYWAY* (s9)
CARTER* SLOWST* IMETHE* TEAMAG* ESFIFT* YYEARS* (s10)

The ending for season eight seems to be missing? This was called Moebius (I think) and involved a convoluted timey-wimey paradox thing...
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_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[PuzzleScot]

Teamwork

It didn't even occur to me that the first 5 symbols => SGONE (= SG-One!) Saggitarius; Gemini; Orion; Norma; Eridanus!

I don't watch it, by the way, so had little chance to go further than I did...

My first attempt wasn't that bad then... (X->D; D->M; M->G; G->B; B->J)

Edit:

[groza528]

Solved! The answer is indeed MOEBIUS. And yes, perhaps a spoiler warning may have been in order