INVITATIONS (In code, of course):
¡Zbfwz! ¡Zotfrvm rmgvmgz vckolgzi vo nfmwl!
Evm z oz czhz wv Giveli kziz wvhxlmvxgzi oz
ylnyz b xvovyizi vo xfnkovzmlh wv Giveli.
a=z b=y c=x d=w e=v f=u g=t h=s i=r j=q k=p l=o m=n n=m ñ=m o=l p=k q=j r=i s=h t=g u=f v=e w=d x=c y=b z=a
TRANSLATION:
Help! Someone is trying to blow up the world! Come to T's house to disarm the bomb and to celebrate his birthday.
MATERIALS (Scrounged from around the house):
- 2 four-number-code bicycle cable locks
- 2 luggage locks and key
- some cash and change in a wallet
- an old book
- an invisible ink pen
- paper
- glow-in-the-dark paint
- a blank puzzle (sold in craft stores)
- a small suitcase
- an ipod or iphone
- some scrabble letters
- markers
- a room with a minimal amount of stuff in it.
It is important to have a room relatively devoid of stuff, unless you don't mind the kids ransacking through everything. The more junk there is in the room, the harder it will be for them to know what is useful and what is not. We used the guest room and chose to have almost no irrelevant objects around to make it easier on the kids to solve.
There are three sequences of clues that must be solved in order to disarm the bomb: The Blue Cable Sequence, the Purple Cable Sequence, and the Bomb Sequence. It does not matter whether you start with the Blue or the Purple sequence first, but you must accomplish both of these before you can finish the Bomb sequence.
I used one cable lock to secure one end of the bomb-containing-suitcase to the slats under the bed, and the other cable lock to secure the other handle of the suitcase to the underside of the bed, so that the suitcase could not be taken out and opened until both cable locks had been opened.
THE PURPLE CABLE SEQUENCE
THE BOOK:
In an old book, I chose one page and used a highlighter to highlight letters which spelled out a clue if read in the order in which they appear in the text. If the idea of highlighting in a book is sacrilege to you, you could also just use a pencil to underline the letters. And you could skip the dog-earring if you want to make it harder and require the kids to be more observant... The message I wrote was "PURPLE CABLE CODE: HOW MUCH MONEY?" I even highlighted spaces in the message, although if you wanted to make it harder you could omit the spaces.
THE MONEY:
In a wallet I placed some money-- a combination of euro bills and coins. You can hide it anywhere in the room. In total there was 26.82 euros, so I set the purple cable lock to the combination 2682.
THE BLUE CABLE SEQUENCE
THE SCRAMBLE:
I selected scrabble tiles to spell out the sentence: TURN OUT THE LIGHTS (In Spanish: Apaga la luz). On a blank piece of paper, I made underscores for every letter of the sentence, like in the game of hangman, leaving spaces between words. Then I filled in a few letters, since otherwise it would be quite difficult to figure out. I placed the tiles and the paper together in a bag and hid it in the room.
THE GLOWING SIGN:
On the wall was a piece of artwork with a bunch of brightly colored abstract shapes. Some of the shapes were letters made with glow-in-the-dark paint.
When the lights are turned off, the message was revealed: OPEN THE CRANE (Abre la grulla).
THE CRANE:
My kids make a lot of origami cranes. I opened one up, and wrote on the inside: BLUE CABLE CODE: MCCCXXIV then I refolded the crane so it looked normal and left it on the nightstand. The code is in Roman numerals. I chose the letters which I thought were easier to remember, since in Spanish 1000 is Mil and 100 is Ciento and the rest I figured they knew. However, I was wrong, and this is the one hint they needed. If you want to make it harder, use L (50) or D (500). The answer was 1,324 so the blue cable lock code I set to 1324.
THE BOMB SEQUENCE
THE INVISIBLE NOTE:
In a folder, I placed 3 sheets of blank white paper. On the top sheet, I used the Invisible Ink Pen (a going-away-present from the kids' friends) to write "THE KEY IS UNDER THE PLANT".
In order to see the message, you must shine the black light attached to the pen cap onto the paper. I left the folder with the Invisible Ink pen and a regular pencil in the room. I figured they could use the extra paper to figure out some of the other puzzles. You could place the pens and paper together or separately, as desired. Once the kids find the key, they are able to open both compartments of the suitcase, but first they need to get the suitcase out from under the bed where it is secured.
I placed the bomb inside the main compartment of a small suitcase, and locked it with a luggage lock. The key to the luggage lock I hid underneath a potted plant, secured with tape, and placed inconspicuously on the nightstand.
The key happened to fit two different luggage locks, so I placed the other luggage lock on the outside compartment of the same suitcase, after placing the puzzle pieces inside.
THE PUZZLE:
On the blank puzzle I used markers to draw a guitar. Then I wrote across the top: "BOMB CODE: WHAT ARE THE STRINGS OF THE GUITAR FROM HIGHEST TO LOWEST? It's in Spanish, but you get the idea. I made sure to draw on or color the entire puzzle area so that the puzzle was relatively easy to solve.
The passcode needed to unlock the ipod was "ebgdae" which are the names of the strings of the guitar from highest to lowest. My son plays the guitar, so I thought it would be fun. And in case he didn't remember the names of the strings, the guitar and electric tuner were there in the room, so he could always just turn the tuner on and pluck the strings to see the names of the strings.
THE BOMB:
To make the bomb, I took an old ipod and downloaded the Theme From Mission Impossible to create some fun tension. I set it playing this theme looping infinitely. Then under GENERAL SETTINGS I activated the PASSCODE LOCK. You can do a SIMPLE passcode lock, which is 4 numbers, or a non-simple passcode, which is what I opted for.
If you first set the music, then set the timer just before starting the game, when the kids find the ipod they will first have to enter the security code, then the next thing they will see is the timer counting down, and they just have to hit the CANCEL button to inactivate the bomb. Just before starting the game, I opened the CLOCK function and set a TIMER to 50 minutes with the alarm sound being OLD CAR HORN (even better if you can find an explosion sound, but I didn't bother looking for one).
I actually think 40 or 45 minutes are sufficient, depending on the ages of the kids involved. My 11-year-old did it alone as a test run, and it took her only 30 minutes. Six 9-year-olds took 35 minutes to solve it. I also set the timer on my own phone at the same time, so that I could see how much time they had left, and gauge whether I should give out hints or not. As it turned out, they only needed one hint.
INSTRUCTIONS TO GIVE TO THE KIDS BEFORE STARTING:
Dr. Evil has left a bomb in this room. You have only X minutes to figure out how to disarm it. Everything you need is in this room. Be observant and work together, or you may not make it out alive! Good luck.
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