Answers from the MIT Mystery Hunt
This repository contains a list of answers from the MIT Mystery Hunt from 1994, 1997, and 1999-present. These are all the hunts for which the puzzles bear some resemblance to recent puzzles, and all of the answers are available.
The files mystery????.txt contain a list of puzzle answers from the
corresponding year, as well as the type of puzzle. Usually the type
is "Puzzle" or "Meta", although there are some exceptions as described
below.
Notes on puzzles from individual hunts:
- 1999 - One of the metapuzzles yielded a (presumably unintentional) misspelled answer. The correct spelling is used here.
- 2003 - In one round, the puzzle answers were physical objects. These answers are not included, but the metapuzzle answer is included. Answers to training puzzles are classified as "Training". Both untrained and trained answers are included and classified as "Puzzle".
- 2005 - In one round, the puzzle answers were physical objects. These answers are not included, but the metapuzzle answer is included.
- 2006 - The ante puzzles are classified as "Ante".
- 2008 - One answer was given away for free; it is classified as "Free".
- 2012 - Some cluephrases (which were not puzzle answers) are included; these are classified as "Clue".
- 2014 - The mid-hunt runaround puzzles are classified as "Runaround".
- 2020 - The tiger answers are not included in
mystery2020.txtsince they could not be called in; however, they are included inmetapuzzles.yml. - 2021 - The answers from the 100000 procedurally generated puzzles in the Infinite Corridor round are not included. The metapuzzle answer is included in
mystery2021.txt. Some answers in another round needed to be backsolved; these are classified as "Meta" inmystery2021.txtbut appear as normal answers inmetapuzzles.yml. One answer was given away for free; it is classified as "Free". Attack of the Lobsters is classifed as a regular puzzle despite being bolded on the hunt's puzzle list. - 2022 - Answers that could be called in on the Once Upon a Time in the Quest page are classified as "Quest". Some puzzles had multiple answers that were supposed to be called in simultaneously, but these are listed as separate answers. Fruit Around is classified as "Puzzle" rather than "Meta" since its minipuzzles do not have separate pages.
- 2023 - Some answers consisted of multiple lines of text; lines are separated by a forward slash. A few answers could be called in twice, but they are only listed once.
The file metapuzzles.yml contains a list of metapuzzles from
2000-present and the answers that feed them. The tag field refers
to the identifier used by /dev/joe's puzzle index. For example, a
puzzle with the tag mit20001m is indexed at the page
http://devjoe.appspot.com/huntindex/puzzle/mit20001m.
As mentioned above, in 2003 and 2005, there were rounds where the
answers were physical objects; the corresponding metapuzzles are not
included in metapuzzles.yml.
The order of the puzzle answers in metapuzzles.yml does not necessarily reflect how they were presented during the hunt; in fact they may be in an order that makes the metapuzzle easier to solve.
Incomplete lists of answers from 1995, 1996, and 1998 can be found at https://devjoe.appspot.com/hunt95/, https://devjoe.appspot.com/hunt96/, and https://devjoe.appspot.com/hunt98/. I do not know of any source for answers from 1988-1993, and hunts from 1987 and earlier do not bear much resemblance to recent ones (the answers were often numbers, for example).
Thanks to Alex Schwendner and Elia Robyn Lake for compiling lists of answers from 2004-2008 and 2011-2012, respectively.
https://puzzles.mit.edu/answers.tsv has answers from 1999-2016.