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April 24

Early-mid 2000s web-based puzzles

I'm frankly shocked that I'm having a hard time figuring this out...

I remember these web-based puzzle games from the early-mid 2000s which took the form of a series of static pages, each with its own puzzle. They were known for being pretty hard and often required diving into the html code, various javascript tricks, references to other websites, a bit of nerd trivia, as well as more traditional puzzle tropes. I remember there being a couple really popular ones and a whole lot of knock-offs/successors. Part of me wants to say there are roots in net.art, but I wouldn't bet much on that.

This is a terrible description, which is probably why I've had a hard time googling. Here's hoping.. :) --— Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 02:32, 24 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe something listed in our article on puzzlehunt? ---Sluzzelin talk 10:20, 24 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It this the kind of thing you mean [1]? Not sure how old it is, but it has all sorts of meta-puzzle tricks, playing with URLs/html, etc. Also maybe this one [2]. I have no idea what these are called, but I recalled that Reddit seemed to like them, so I just googled /reddit hard web puzzle html code/ and these two likely candidates were the second and third hits. SemanticMantis (talk) 18:31, 24 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@SemanticMantis: Notpron! That's the one. Thanks! ...Now if I could just figure out #14 :) — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 01:03, 25 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

14 ? What's the solution to level 2 ? (tried "u" for unlock, "k" for key or kick, up arrow, escape, etc.) StuRat (talk) 15:58, 26 April 2015 (UTC) [reply]

When you mouse over the door handle, it says "The door is closed. Trick it or reach LEVEL3 in a different way! (Address? Where is the hand pointing?" - the hand is pointing to the URL, and you can get to level 3 by replacing "level2.htm" with "level3.htm" - I actually can't stand this format of puzzle, to much "cheating", meta-puzzle, and computery bits for my taste. I vastly prefer this sort of thing [3] (try before you read the solution!), but to each their own :) SemanticMantis (talk) 16:44, 26 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yea, that is rather "cheating". StuRat (talk) 17:11, 26 April 2015 (UTC) [reply]