cvga

It might have been unintentional but since you said "witch" cart instead of "which" cart, I'll go with the Halloween theme and guess Haunted House.

Mines of Minos is quite a bit harder to find than Room of Doom.

Hello, anyone there? Can I get a BEAMRIDER? I also liked Enduro, Pitfall, Pitfall II, HERO, and Keystone Kapers a bunch.

You know the answer...it's Superman I had trouble finding this thread. I leave (went to Houston) for a couple of days and when I come back the whole thread was gone. Luckily, I finally found the contests section. OK, here's the answer. Of course, this means that I will win the prize for the second half of the contest. Since I'm feeling generous, I'll probably offer myself a really great game Anyway, here is the solution: If you look at the games and no shows you get (in order): Berzerk Cakewalk Ice Hockey Asteroids E.T. Inca Gold ***no one**** Universal Chaos Video Pinball Robin Hood Donkey Kong Oink ***no one**** Asteroids E.T. Taz I've had 14 treaters, 2 no shows, and the answer is Superman. As I mentioned before, Superman is an 8 letter word and the no shows are important to the solution. Hmmm, since there are 16 total pieces of information and an 8 letter answer, maybe each two pieces of info represent one letter of the solution. Now, why would I have picked some of the games I did (like Universal Chaos or Inca Gold) when they don't make particularly good Halloween costumes? The answer is that 1) I wanted the first letter of each cart to spell "Atari Video Cube" when unscrambled to throw people off the right solution and 2) I needed to find carts which had the correct rarity according to the Atari Age guide. Ahhh, rarity!!! Why didn't I think of that you're probably saying to yourself right now. What is the rarity of those carts.... The rarity is (in order) 1, 9, 2, 1, 1, 6, 0, 5, 1, 8, 1, 3, 0, 1, 1, 4 where 0 = no show Now, since I have 16 numbers and an 8 letter solution, I'll group the numbers in pairs of two: 19, 21, 16, 05, 18, 13, 01, 14 If I let 1 = A; 2 = B; 3 = C and so on I get... S, U, P, E, R, M, A, N or Superman That's how the riddle is solved...

I'll be out of town for a couple of days and probably won't have internet access. I'll spell out the solution when I return (on Wednesday) if anyone wants me to.

Yars' Revenge

I'll give you a new clue. - Asteroids and E.T. did not have to arrive together. They could have come separately or in the opposite order and the answer still would have been Superman. Heck, either one of them could have come dressed as Combat and it still wouldn't have changed the answer. I was sure someone would get it within an hour once the answer was given (Superman). I'm glad someone is still trying. I thought this thread might quietly die since no one had responded in the past couple of days.

It could be: Keystone Kapers Lock and Chase Bank Heist

Nope: let's see if we can speed this along a little. Here's another hint to get you going in the right direction: There's a reason why I had a specific number of trick-or-treaters. Remember that I also said the same trick-or-treaters could have come in a different order while still representing the same cart but they could not come in the same order and represent a different cart. Oh yeah, I also nearly forget that Superman is an eight letter word. Good luck! There's still another cart to be won!

BP: Cool. PM me an address and I'll send it out. Congratulations on the win. I forgot to ask if you happened to just guess it or got it from one of my context clues such as "my neighbor 3 doors down got it right away" (referring to the band). For everyone else: You can still win a great prize if you can figure out why the answer is Superman. The answer should be as simple as 1-2-3...

Wow, I'd never heard that before. Thanks for the info!

Hmmm. You know the answer is Superman. The clues lead you directly to the answer if you know how to interpret them. The games (instead of the times, descriptions, etc) are the most important pieces of each clue. I'm not sure what I can say without giving the answer (well actually the solution) away but I'll try to give out another clue tomorrow night if no one has solved it by then.

BigPlayer wrote: I have a bunch of different titles from Pitfall II and less rare that you can pick from. I have Infiltrate, MouseTrap, Popeye, Spiderman, Pitfall II, Challenge of Nexar (I think), Planet Patrol, and a bunch more. If there's something in that range you need, let me know.

Congrats. What display things did you find?

Not yet. Here's some tips for anyone actually trying to figure it out: - Pay attention to the carts instead of the descriptions of the trick-or-treaters. Most of the wording was intentionally there to help you identify the carts although some of it could be marginally useful in the explanation. The main thing is that I didn't want the contest to be too hard. While figuring out the carts is very important, I wanted everyone to be able to do so. - There is only one answer using the correct solution key (and we already know that answer is Superman). - It's possible that a completely different set of trick-or-treaters could have come and produced the exact same cart but it wouldn't be possible for this set of trick-or-treaters to represent a different cart (unless they arrived in a different order). - It is important when the doorbell rings and no one is at the door but no one has figured out why yet. Well, I've probably said too much. Someone will probably be able to get it now without any additional clues. I can't wait to see which atari guests show up for our traditional Thanksgiving feast

The first half of the puzzle is solved!!! Congratulations goes to Big Player!!! The answer to the contest is Superman. Now the tough part is figuring out why! Big Player: You probably already have Superman. I don't know how large your collection is but if you list a few games you're looking for that aren't too rare, I'll let you know if I have an extra.

I don't have much time (we're between hands of bridge) but wanted to check in to see if anyone got the answer. Good guesses but no one has the answer yet. Everyone is free to guess again.

Damn somepunk! You stole my guess. I'll have to go with 278933 now.

BTW, we had a neighborhood gathering tonight and I told a few people about this contest and the solution to see if they thought it was too hard. I don't think my next door neighbor has ever even heard of Atari although she has heard of Nintendo. Her neighbor thought the contest was a cool idea but said he would not be able to come up with the answer. However, my neighbor three doors down got the answer before I even had a chance to start explaining the solution. Go figure. By the way, no one has it yet so you can all guess again.

That's right you won't mention the name or I'll have to disqualify you from this contest! Hmmm, what if you switched to publicly rooting for Oklahoma or Miami...

Only 2 guesses in 2 days? All you have to do is guess the game to win a free cart including shipping! I'll even do my best to try and get you a cart you don't have and really want. Once you get the name, figuring out the solution should be a 'piece o cake'. The person who can explain the solution will also win a cart. Don't be shy. Take a guess. There's nothing to lose! Remember, if you are first to name the cart and provide the correct solution in your post, I'll let you choose the highly coveted 'Subterranea' by Imagic in place of the two carts. Good Luck!

Welcome MaxSpeed! Congrats on your purchase. And you are right. This is a great community!

You should be arriving home...about...right....NOW!

Agreed. The solution is not as simple as rearranging letters from each title but the games are important. The trick-or-treaters could have come in a different order while leading you to the same game but they couldn't have come in just any order. I had this contest planned earlier but after I saw the Frankenstein contest, I realized that I could tweak mine a little to produce the same effect even though that's not the answer. A little devilish maybe, but it is a Halloween contest :wink: Remember that there will be two winners. The first person to name the mystery cart wins and the first person to to explain the answer also wins. You may choose the mystery cart or an alternative if you already have it. As an added incentive, if the person who solves the mystery cart provides the explanation at the same time they name the cart, I'll let them choose Subterranea if they want instead of two carts from the yet to be defined alternative list mentioned above. However, if the cart is named before it is explained, Subterranea will not be awarded. Good luck and everyone can guess again (but only once LifeGuard).

Nope, not keystone kapers. Since we'll have two winners, the first person to guess the cart (no explanation is needed) will win and the first person who can explain how to arrive at that answer will also win. I don't want this one to take as long as the mastermind contest! Everyone is free to guess again. Good luck! cvga