UFO
- Clue Design
- Derek
- Development
- Derek
- Construction
- Derek, Lee, Andy, Ben, David, Nick, Tricia
- Staffing
- Derek, Scott, Jeff, Jessica
Presentation
As a prize for successfully completing the first disc golf puzzle, the teams receive a disc. This Frisbee has electronics at its hub. When they click the button on the disc, it lights up to perform a simple color wash, smoothly cycling through the rainbow colors (or as close as we could get with an RGB LED). The wash repeats until they turn the Frisbee back off (click the button again), or it times out (to conserve battery). The disc is otherwise uninteresting at this stage.
When the teams arrive at Mineral Springs Park (located on the route such that all teams arrive after dusk), they see a few LED beacons (Styrofoam spheres in plastic containers) attached to the metal baskets and some of the nearby marble "Cloud Stones" (an art installation). There's also a custom map available at the information board. The map has accurate locations for all the tees, baskets, and stones, plus enough terrain data to be used as an actual course map.
The teams discovered twenty-one blinking beacons on site. Nine of them are attached to nine of the thirteen cloud stones (conveniently, the same nine that contain words inscribed around the circumference). The remaining are attached to all but two of the disc golf baskets. Each beacon flashes up to three times of a single color, pauses, then repeats. The seven possible colors are Red (R), Green (G), Blue (B), Cyan (C), Magenta (M), Yellow (Y), and White (W).
When the teams make the connection between one glowing thing (the beacons) and another (the Frisbee), and turn the disc on at this point, the behavior has changed. The Frisbee now ramps from black to white and back, then starts blinking out a long series of colors.
The sequence of colors is listed here, and a map howing the location of each beacon is here. Below is a transcript of the words on each of the Cloud Stones and their corresponding beacons (from north to south):
| Y | HIGH WISPY MARES' TAILS, ICE CRYSTAL CLOUDS : CIRRUS. CHANGING WEATHER |
| BB | SHEEP FLOCK IN FAIR WEATHER : CUMULUS NIMBOSTRATUS : GRAY BLANKET, FULL OF RAIN |
| YY | STARS BRING : COLD NIGHT A PALE MOON BRINGS RAIN |
| R | GROUND FOG, SEA FOG, DRIZZLE : STRATUS. CLOUDS ARE NEAR |
| RRR | RIPPLED SAND, A MACKEREL SKY : CIRROCUMULUS. WIND SHEAR : RAIN LATER |
| GG | STRATUS : LAYER CIRRUS : CURL CUMULUS : HEAP ALTO : MIDDLE NIMBUS : RAIN |
| RR | THE STARS ARE NIGHT'S FLOWERS WHEELING PAST IN SIDEREAL TIME |
| WW | RAIN RIVER SEA CLOUD RAIN RIVER SEA CLOUD |
| CCC | COBWEBBY CIRROSTRATUS, HALO FOR THE MOON : RAIN IN A DAY OR TWO |
YY STARS BRING : COLD NIGHT A PALE MOON BRINGS RAIN R GROUND FOG, SEA FOG, DRIZZLE : STRATUS. CLOUDS ARE NEAR RRR RIPPLED SAND, A MACKEREL SKY : CIRROCUMULUS. WIND SHEAR : RAIN LATER GG STRATUS : LAYER CIRRUS : CURL CUMULUS : HEAP ALTO : MIDDLE NIMBUS : RAIN RR THE STARS ARE NIGHT'S FLOWERS WHEELING PAST IN SIDEREAL TIME WW RAIN RIVER SEA CLOUD RAIN RIVER SEA CLOUD CCC COBWEBBY CIRROSTRATUS, HALO FOR THE MOON : RAIN IN A DAY OR TWO