Storyline & Pregame:  Hidden Info, Bonus Clues

1. Who is Shelby Logan?

Shelby.  n., as in "Leonard Shelby", main character from the film Memento, who has lost his long term memory and can only remember things that have happened in the short term.   His entire past is a mystery, and he struggles to follow clues he left behind for himself in order to understand who he is and what has happened to bring him here.  Some of his methods include:  polaroid photographs,  handwritten notes, tattoos. Logan.  n., as in "Logan-5", main character from the film and novel Logan's Run, Logan is doomed to die when he reaches age 30, and decides to take a massive risk to escape the institution and survive via reaching "sanctuary".

2. Function codes and other numerical meanings
Of course we tried to make the function codes provide a hint as to what was actually happening... if you could figure them out!

2274 – the first function code.  your "PIP information request" to determine information about Shelby Logan.
        Logan’s Run year. (Movie)

2216 – function code for calling back with registration information if you missed the WITSEC call. 
        Logan’s Run year. (Novel)

2084 – function code for setting up your Emergency Contact personnel. 
        Total Recall year.

437875 – function code for accessing the COMINT Satellite system
       In letters this says "IDPTRK" or IDP Track

26 – function code for reporting an access number (clue found)
       26 = "AN" = Access Number

42 – function code for getting WITSEC Research (clue help)
       42 = "GC" = Game Control

SS00004VVNB – secured storage item #1, in each captain's Protected Individual Profile page.
        ASIN number for the Logan's Run DVD.   (search for B00004VVNB removing the "secure storage" from the front...)

SS00003CXZ4 – secured storage item #2.
        ASIN number for the Memento DVD.  (search for B00003CXZ4, removing the "secure storage" from the front...)

SS783227884 – secured storage item #3.
        ASIN number for the "Great Outdoors" DVD.  (search for B783227884, removing the "secure storage" from the front...)

SS0000399WI – secured storage item #4.
        ASIN number for the Shawshank Redemption DVD.  (search for B0000399WI, removing "secure storage"...)

1027, 102767, 10271967 – function code for clever players
        Shelby's birthdate (10/27/1967)
        Message: "Clever player. Hopefully you are able to deduce that this date has significance in the present as well as in the past. Think of it as a deadline for completion."

4263, 8434263 – function code for clever players
        4263 = "GAME", 8434263 = "THEGAME"
        Message: "Clever player. Your instincts are correct. This hotline serves a purpose beyond protecting witnesses,
and you seem to know its other reason for existence. We have noted your discovery of this function code.
Do visit this code again for new information in the future."

Also...

The person who registered the web site http://witsec.us was named "Santiago Mishet".  (Deducible by doing a WHOIS.)
        An anagram for "This is not a game."

(Despite our care in registering witsec.us in an untraceable way, as far as we know nobody tried to contact Santiago.)
 

3. Bonus clues in the pregame.

a. When is the Game:  Shelby's Birthday Puzzle.
The first mystery team's need to solve is to find something out about Shelby Logan.  They know his name and a phone number with function 2274...  and when they finally access that function code, it directs them to Shelby's Protected Individual Profile page.   This is all the information available.

If you refresh the page over and over, you'll see that Shelby had a number of aliases.  Each of these aliases is a real person, and the social security number is real.  Searching for these people-- if you use the Social Security Death Database-- reveals that they all had the same birthday:  10/27/67.  All of these people-- including Shelby-- will turn 35 on October 27, 2002.  Hence, Shelby's deadline for preventing deaccession and saving his life.  The date the Game will end.

b. Voiceprint authentication phrase.  
Every team received a voiceprint authentication phrase that included a random set of words from the military alphabet (ie, whiskey, charlie, delta, etc.), but with the last word in the phrase selected to be "GULF".  This is definitely out of place, as the correct word in the military alphabet should be GOLF.    Hint:  be prepared for "golf" somewhere in the game...  and of course that hint is relevant in solving the clue recieved at Nellis Dunes ATVs.  We suppose this is the reason why the Black Team decided to bring golf equipment and showed it off on the dry lake bed before the game...

c. Satellite scanning system.
Placing frequent calls in the middle of the night could produce a random “Extra information available” message. Four teams successfully found this, and it provided yet another function code that in a few days instructed you to bring an 8-track player.

d. Credit Card charges.
All captain’s credit cards were charged an inexpensive SCUBA accessory (usually a keychain).  The invoice included an additional hint in the company or “other” field, indicating “c-card” and “snorkel gear”. Yes, law enforcement agencies got involved when the first dive shop feared fraud!  But most teams also successfuly produced their c-cards at the Middle Boulder Island location and were issued SCUBA gear.

e. Numeric Text at the bottom of Secured Storage item #3:    TX# 02.18.09.14.07/01/20.05.14.20
This is an incredibly simple cipher... reference the letter in the alphabet that corresponds to each number:  BRING A TENT.   (We wanted everyone to get this!)

f. Anagram in HTML comment
If you View Source on http://witsec.us/ you will see an HTML comment that changes on every refresh:

• <!-- ONELUSC TEGHNPISOA -->
• <!-- ESUOLCN PEOGHSATNI -->
• etc.

This of course translates to "NOCLUES ONTHISPAGE". It was originally going to say "NOCLUES ONTHISPAGE YET" but we couldn't think of a clue to put on this page!

4. Shelby's Opening Video
Shelby Logan's opening video contains a number of hints and foreshadows...

- Shelby says that his disillusionment with the Agency has partially stemmed from the observation that (at around 1:20 in the video)  "it seems the founding principles of our nation have been lost in a maze of bureaucracy".  This, of course, is a hint to the clue teams would much-later pick up at the Prison. (Yes, we know this is obscure!)

- At 3:30 or so in the video, Shelby has memory-flashbacks to some places he had visited (which, of course, the teams would also later visit):  Redstone Dune Trail, Bungy Landing Pool, Argentena Mine, American Gun Club, White Domes, Southern Nevada Correctional Facility, Goodsprings Cemetery.  If you look closely at these video frames, you can clearly see photos of these sites.

Game Soundtrack

Shelby's Soundtrack was handed out at the very beginning of the game, and contained some adrenaline-pumping tunes that definitely fit the high-energy adventure of our teams' mission.  Of course, there was more to it than that.  We know at least two teams (Red and Yellow) figured out that there was a strong correlation between songs and locations, and used this to gauge where they were at and what might be coming next...  did your team?

Templeton the Rat
At Mouses Tank, Valley of Fire State Park,  teams picked up Shelby Logan's long-lost-pal, Templeton.  (See Location page for information.)  A puzzling dilemma -- how could a rat be hiding a "decryption key"?

All teams scanned Templeton's body for markings... none were to be found.  Additionally, he hadn't been tattooed or fed the clue.  Subsequent hints that came from location after location via the phone system indicated that the clue was inside, that an "Avid" searcher might find it, and so on...   in fact the clue was embedded inside Templeton via a microchip that bore the number of the decryption key needed to enable the device.  You simply needed to take Templeton to a 24-hour veterinary hospital and have him scanned.

Two veterinary hospitals in the Las Vegas area were equipped with the necessary scanning equipment, and in fact the Game made a small donation of an additional scanner to one of these clinics to ensure they'd have the right format scanner.  We were appreciative of their cooperation!  Many teams thought that the key-inside-the-rat was one of the coolest puzzles of the event.

After the Game was over,  the rats were returned to the pet shop where they had been purchased, now liberated from their fate as "feed rats" and destined to become pets in a good home.

The Game in a Post-9/11 World

In the months before the Game began, a few of the teams sent email to Game Control and expressed concern about the viability of a Game since the events of 9/11 had made "unusual occurrences" at best unnerving for local law enforcement or for team safety.

This was a consideration we had accounted for early on in preparing for the event.  We organizers took relatively extraordinary precautions to reduce the probability teams would encounter issues as they undertook out-of-the-ordinary challenges.  The list below indicates our gratitude to the parties who granted us permits or otherwise authorized us to make use of their facilities or locations so that Shelby Logan's Run could be possible:

Boulder City Nevada - permit for use of the Eldorado Dry Lake Bed for overnight camping for all teams and helicopter flights.
Boulder City Police & Fire Departments - both notified and on alert since the teams were on the lakebed all night and as 
   helis came in the morning.
Hoover Dam - dam police department cooperation and notification of equipment-packed vans driving to and over the dam (had we not told 
   them they said they almost certainly would have turned away a few of the vans considering they were so packed with high tech gear).
Lake Mead Nat'l Recreation Area - Special Use Permit and Ranger notification for clue retrieval at the dam, 
   underwater at Middle Boulder Island, and on Black Island
Valley of Fire State Park - Special Use Permit for using the park facility after dark and permission to use Mouses 
   Tank as the site for Templeton
American Gun Club - cooperation in allowing use of their facility & staff after closing time
Fremont Street Experience - cooperation in putting our clue on the screen.
Stratosphere - permission and cooperation to fasten our clue to the roof of the Big Shot control shed
Cobalt, Wild Side Tattoo - permission to use their businesses for a "special event", staff assistance for clue distribution
State of Nevada (Department of Corrections) - special permission granted and staff on site for our use of the SNCF prison facility
Goodsprings citizenry - permission to use the cemetary after hours
AJ Hackett Bungy - use of their facility for a special event.