Satellite Maps

Owner:

Butters

Presentation:

Teams receive:

• A 24x36" map of the United States divided into a 4x4 grid

• 16 6x9" satellite photos of various locations with some of their borders shaded red and/or yellow

• A note reading "Dr. Null: Enclosed, please find pictures and notes about potential locations. If you place the pictures on the map, you should be able to determine the correct destination."

• 16 slips of paper containing clues to the locations:

  • THE NEAREST POST OFFICE IS IN METEOR.

  • THE MOST MAGICAL PLACE ON EARTH.

  • THIS UNIVERSITY CAMPUS IS IN ONE OF THE LARGEST STATES.

  • AN OFFICE COMPLEX WHERE SOFTWARE IS WRITTEN.

  • THE EASTERNMOST STATE CAPITOL

  • IF YOU LOOK CLOSELY, THIS ISLAND NATIONAL PARK IS VISIBLE ON THE MAP.

  • THIS SOUTHERN CAPITOL DERIVES ITS NAME FROM A LANDMARK USED WHILE NAVIGATING ITS RIVER.

  • IRONICALLY, THE FAMOUS BRIDGE IS ACTUALLY RED.

  • THIS LARGE ALASKAN CITY IS HOME TO AN AIR FORCE BASE.

  • A LOS ANGELES LANDMARK.

  • THE MOST VISITED URBAN PARK IN THE UNITED STATES

  • THAT’S NOT THE KENNEWICK TOYOTA CENTER.

  • THIS CITY WAS NAMED FOR A GOVERNOR OF THE TERRITORY OF KANSAS.

  • A BIG VOLCANIC ISLAND

  • THIS CHICAGO TOURIST ATTRACTION IS 3300 FEET LONG.

  • THE SEAT OF MECKLENBURG COUNTY

Walkthrough:

PHASE 1: Assemble the Maps

Teams should quickly notice that there are 16 spots on the map grid and 16 photos, and that each photo is conveniently in the exact size of those grid spots. As such, they need to place the photos on the map. But how? Each photo is of a location in one of the grid spots. Teams should start out by figuring out some of the obvious ones (Microsoft, Walt Disney World, Manhattan, San Francisco, Hollywood, etc.).

As they do this, they should notice two things:

1. It's possible to make the red/yellow borders match the borders on surrounding cells (and on the border of the map).

2. This always happens when North in the photo is oriented to match North on the map (up).

All of the pictures are from cities or locations large enough to be called out on the map (that is, it's either a from city that's named in large text or an island/geographical feature large enough to be seen directly on the map). If they compare the images to maps available online, they should be able to notice obvious features soon enough

There is exactly one square where no orientation can be determined from the red borders alone. This is Isle Royale in Michigan, which has red borders on all four sides. The orientation is North == Up, the same as every other picture. In playtests, this hasn't been a problem.

PHASE 2: Extract Data

The teams should now have most/all of the map in place. How to extract an answer? If they look at the red borders around the map cells, they should notice the word "FLAG". If they investigate the photos, they should notice that each one has been slightly altered to introduce a semaphore letter somewhere in the photo. Some are more obvious than others and should get them started. If they find all of the letters and read them left to right, top to bottom, they should get "YANKOVICCITYSONG", which should clue them to look for a song by Weird Al Yankovic with the name of a city.

If they do a Ctrl+F for city and submit "Spatula City", they get told that that's not a real location. If they look at the list (or are themselves fine connoisseurs of music) they should quickly notice that the correct answer is ALBUQUERQUE.

Solution:

ALBUQUERQUE

Partial Answers

FLAG: Are there any flags you can find in the pictures?

FALG: Try reading another direction.

SEMAPHORE: Keep Going.

SPATULA CITY: That's not a real place.

BEDROCK ANTHEM: That's not a real place.