Global Reset

Recently, Harry Binswanger posted a logic puzzle to his mailing list that went something like this:

One hundred prisoners and a warden agree to play the following game. Each day, starting tomorrow, the warden will select a prisoner at random and lead him to a room that contains nothing but a lamp standing in the center of the room. The prisoner may do one of three things:

• Switch the lamp on if it is off, or switch it off if it is on, and then head back to his cell.
• Do nothing and head back to his cell.
• Announce: “All 100 prisoners have visited this room.”

If a prisoner makes such an announcement, and he is correct, then all 100 prisoners will be set free. If not, all will be executed. The game will continue until someone makes an announcement.

Knowing that they are about to play, what strategy can the 100 prisoners agree upon to ensure their freedom? Assume that the lamp is initially on and that all prisoners know this.

I found the answer pretty quickly when I realized that it didn’t really matter how long it took. If it takes 50 years, it I guess it still beats spending Life in prison.

Today, I stumbled upon an interesting variation that took a little bit more thought for me to solve. The twist (which might actually be the more popular telling) is that there are two switches, the initial position is unknown, and every prisoner must change the state of just one switch each time they go into the room. Not knowing the initial state makes this a bit more challenging, but the solution is extremely similar for my earlier phrasing of the problem.

Here’s one more that I found while searching for light switch puzzles that requires a completely different line of thought to solve:

Downstairs there are three light switches on panel. You are told only that one switch will turn on a light in the attic (which cannot be seen from the basement). With just one trip from the ground floor to the attic is it possible to determine which of the three switches operates the attic light?

Today, I stumbled across a puzzle game which has completely owned me: GODTOWER, THE SKILL OF GOD. Each level of the tower requires you to come up with the appropraite password (all-lowercase, no spaces). Something in the picture you see, the title of the page, or an occasional extra hint picture is going to lead you right to the answer. Some of the puzzles are easy, requiring only a second or two to figure out, but they are still very clever. As of this posting, I’m completely stuck on level 14. If you need any help getting there, leave a comment and I can drop some extra hints. Let me know how far you can climb the tower and whether or not you posess THE SKILL OF GOD

As a hint, if you don’t use Windows and a standard keyboard, you’re going to have to do some legwork to solve some of the puzzles.

Update - I’m now entranced by that damn arrow on lvl 18! If you have a subtle hint, I wouldn’t mind reading it in my comments.

That is the stupidest looking controller design that they could have thrown at us. It looks like some kind of Klingon short blade! My hand is cramping just imagining putting an hour or two of use into that abomination!

Stupid user interface aside, the tech specs on the PS3 are rocking. It’s funny that I read some people claiming this to be the “Year of MS” since they announced their big hubbub on MTV for the Xbox 360. Turns out that MTV special (much like every piece of shit show they air on MTV) was a huge letdown. Now Sony announces the specs for the PS3, and they are reaching for DOUBLE the processing power!

Ps3 Tech Specs via Kotaku

Last weekend I discovered a new medical condition that I need to warn everyone about. I haven’t quite come up with the perfect term for it yet, but let me describe how I caught the condition.

After hearing that my buddy had somehow achieved triple my high score in Lumines, I sat down for some aggressive playing to catch up. Erik had gotten 250k to beat my 80k, so I didn’t stop playing until I had wrestled 440k points from the game. This took me about 2-2.5 hours to accomplish. Now, that’s 2-2.5 hours of sitting in an armchair, arms locked in the same position, staring at the PSP screen. The only joints that moved were my thumbs. When I tried to get up to celebrate, I realized I had this massive pinch in my upper back and neck. I mean a serious ache, a deblitating amount of pain. And over the next few days, it actually got much worse. I couldn’t comfortably turn my head or stretch my arms out in front of me for most of this week.

Now, a contributing factor may have come from a painful neck twitch that I got while playing hackey sack on the previous day… But there is no doubt that the PSP/Lumines was the primary contributor to my pain.

Should we call it “Lumines Neck” or “PSP Neck”. Someone suggested “Luminitis”, but I think I’ll save that name to describe the condition I have whereby everything I see looks like a Lumines block that I can destroy… Or is that “Luminipsychosis”?

I’d like to know if anyone else is experiencing similar pains. Maybe we can get a class-action lawsuit going? :) I posted about it on IGN and found some comrades in pain.

prattkiddd writes:

Holy Crap!! My girlfriend was playing psp for like 30 minutes and she had an arm and neck cramp after. It was killing her. Wierd!!!! I thought she was joking around.

The only cure I know of so far is to stop playing PSP while the pain persists. I hope they make a pill for it so that I don’t ever have to stop again.

Hulk: Ultimate Destruction from 1UP.COM

For the follow-up game, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, a lot’s changed. With the movie tie-in out of the way, Radical has been free to hit the reset button and design a game around the character rather than a defined story. That means no more stealth segments playing as Bruce Banner, no more linear structure, and a massive focus on letting Hulk run around fighting anything he wants.

Click on this here link and check out the video on the sidebar. Granted, the Hulk’s desire for wanton obliteration seems a bit over the top, but I applaud the application of the GTA formula to as many games as possible.

I suppose the problem still is that if you make a completely open world, you didn’t really make a “game”, just a simulation that may or may not be fun. For example, the Spiderman 2 game featured a healthy amount of openness, but I didn’t hear many reviews say that kept it fun. My understanding was that although it was open, you had many time limits to cross the city in or chores you had to complete. You’re rescuing victims in Spiderman, delivering pizzas in GTA… I guess the Hulk could help do demolition work in the city.