The following is an account of the digital scavenger hunt chain-of-riddles I sent my brother, Alex, for his 23rd birthday in 2013. I was inspired by Numbers Stations, various ARGs and methods for hiding secret messages in different file types like when text is embedded in an image file or methods for converting an image into sound and back again. I wanted the scavenger hunt to be fun, mysterious, and at least a little challenging.
In the mail, my brother receives a Heroclix figure of The Riddler. On the bottom of the figure is a sticker with a QR code which points him to a shared Google Drive folder containing RIDDLES.ZIP and a readme file. The sticker also instructs him to download RIDDLES.ZIP to his laptop and supplies him with the password to unzip that file. The password is “mcmxc” which is the roman numeral for 1990, the year Alex was born. My original idea was to affix a micro SD card to the base of the figure but because it’s 2013, I could not be certain that he would have a device that could read the card.
The README file.
Within RIDDLES.ZIP is a trail of files gated by password protected zip files.
Catch the Magritte reference? The first file, 1.JPG, has a QR code which sends him to a secret page on my website. That page contains the clue to unlock 2.PDF’s password protection. “The number one song in America on August 16, 1990 was ______ by Mariah Carey.”
2.PDF has three questions about Alex’s birth date. Answering those gives him the password for 3.ZIP.
3.ZIP contains 4.JPG, 5.ZIP, 6.WAV (1:50 of strange high-pitched noise), and a program called PicSecret.
4.JPG is a magic eye image that I made using easystereogrambuilder.com. There’s text hidden in that image. This was the biggest snag in creating the whole sequence. The hidden image is really hard to see and I had to mess with it for hours to even get it that legible. The hidden message is “jordan 23”. 4.JPG contains a second secret message. The program PicSecret is one of many ways to hide text inside an image file. This method is known as JPG Steganography. Running 4.JPG through PicSecret with the password gets Alex the password for 5.ZIP, “bukowski”. Charles Bukowski was a writer born on August 16th in 1920, 70 years before Alex.
5.ZIP contains a program called MultiMode Cocoa and instructions on how to use it to convert 6.WAV into an image. Slow Scan Television (SSTV) is a method of sending an image over radio waves as audio used mainly by HAM radio operators. It’s a lot like sending a fax. After waiting for the program to play out the 1 minute and 50 seconds of horrible screeching, Alex receives the following image:
Turning the Heroclix dial on the Riddler figure to the right position gives Alex the password to run 1.JPG through PicSecret. The secret JSTEG message hidden in that image is a code for $25 at Amazon. I really like the idea of giving him the pieces to solve the final puzzle right in the beginning (the Riddler figure and 1.JPG) but the knowledge to unlock it at the end.
Alex Sent me a text that said “Wooooooo! Thanks Jon!” attached to the following image:
Let’s quickly run through that again. He received a Riddler figure attached to a combat dial with a QR Code on the bottom. That gave him a ZIP file to download. A JPG with a QR code led to a webpage with a clue to unlock a PDF. The PDF contained clues to unlock another ZIP file. A magic eye puzzle in a JPG gave him the password to run that same JPG through a steganography program to get the password for another ZIP file. That gave him a program to turn a WAV file into a JPG via a slow scan television process. That image gave him the settings for the Riddler figure combat dial which was the password to run the first JPG through the steganography program to receive his birthday present.
I had a lot of fun concocting this scavenger hunt and I know Alex had fun solving it. I hope it made him feel a little bit like Batman.
