The London dead drop explained (video)

At Flash Camp London I showed how Karl Freeman solved the dead drop to win a copy of Master Collection. Well I have decided to do a quick video showing the techniques. This one focused on the analysis of audio files and was quite tricky in certain parts.

Lee


Commentary

  1. Jeff says:

    Wow, amazing piece of work Lee, and Karl rules for figuring out all this :-) .

  2. That looked sooo easy. I hope you really put in some effort to make it more difficult next time!

  3. John says:

    I’m sure glad that it wasn’t that tough when you visited Las Vegas.
    Of course, it would have been a HUGE amount of fun. Maybe next time.

  4. Bojan says:

    Omg, really amazing ideas for hiding the clues and really really big props to Karl!

  5. Will says:

    Crazy drop! Looks like you had a bit of fun with that one; can’t believe how many steps there were. Nice work

  6. That were amazing!
    ..i had never found it, think i’ve missed some pretty valuable tricks about audio editing :P

  7. Jassa says:

    I can’t believe the effort you went through to set this up Lee – and likewise to Karl (and any others that got pretty far) for solving it! Great work.

  8. Scott says:

    That is just ridiculous. But if you are to give $2500 away, I think you made sure whoever found it, earned it.

    So Karl doesnt happen to work for a government “agency” does he?

    Good work, cool stuff… keeps me coming back.

  9. Jeeze Karl, you definitely deserve the software after going through all those clues! Did anyone else come close?

  10. whizzle says:

    How long did it take Karl to go through all of that?

    Wow! Kudos to Karl and Lee for such a great game.

  11. Dale Rankine says:

    Karl better watch himself. The secret service recruiters will be onto him pretty soon if he did all of that (actually Lee I’d be looking for laundry vans parked outside your house too if I were you!).

  12. Hey Lee,

    That looked like an awesome drop. It was very Rat Race/Mole like. Just one question: at the bush with the hidden GPS coordinates in green, what if Karl (or whoever else participated) took the envelope that contained the next clue with them so that other people on the hunt would be stuck at the bush? Or do you have satellite feeds for all your clue locations?

    Keep it up. Hopefully you’ll hit SoCal soon.

  13. Sweet Jesus, that’s a lot of steps. :)

  14. vamapaull says:

    That was genius!!!
    Great job hiding this one! :)

  15. Bill Perry says:

    Very cool idea, glad to see that Karl was able to figure those things out. I can see you guys doing something similar for the MAX conferences later this year.

    A related question, what software did you use for the screen capture in your video?

  16. If you ever do Seattle, I’ll give it a shot, but if it’s as tough as this one I doubt I’d make it. That is seriously nuts.

  17. andefined says:

    fantastic idea! How many people actually worked for this game?
    It is not only to hide the information inside some files but you also have to go outside and search the area to find something that you can use…Congrats!

  18. Stu says:

    Bloody hell Lee!!! I’m so glad that I didn’t start looking now, I would never have gotten that far. Hats off to Karl…what a hero!

  19. David Barlia says:

    My God! And to think, all I had to do was run down to the corner store and pick up a 6-pack of CocaCola so Colin Moocke would give me a free copy of his book. Dollars-per-effort, I suppose it works out.

  20. Quentin says:

    Wow, that one was tricky!
    Very funny, though!

  21. Pete2 says:

    Thanks for the video, I would never have got it! It had to be difficult at a British price of £2264.35 or US price of £3205.73 for Adobes Master Collection CS4 it really was a fantastic prize for Karl to win, well done Karl.

  22. Simone says:

    Thanks for leaving the fake clue at the final hurdle Karl!!!

  23. Simone says:

    We managed to get up to the clue hidden in the bush in Green Park – but Karl left a fake clue behind haha. I knew it had already been found but wanted to figure it all out anyway.

  24. Simone says:

    OMG….sorry Karl, it was actually the right clue haha. (just watched the vid now) My own fault for not figuring it out ;)

  25. Crociquia says:

    i would never get there… awesome hints, kudos to karl

  26. Tom Cipriano says:

    Very Clever.
    You should throw in free upgrades for life on that one!

  27. Dru says:

    Lee, I can’t believe Adobe is paying you to come up with these. That was rather Machiavellian. You could give those MacHeist guys a few tips.

    Still waiting for the Hood River Dead Drop…

  28. Simone says:

    Well done Karl – brilliant!! :)

  29. TheGreyMan says:

    Easy when you know how… Not!

  30. Villmer says:

    Man, what a great story.

  31. Karl Freeman says:

    Hey everyone, thanks for the comments especially the secret service ones, I will be on the look out for that white van outside from now on! Just posted up my explanation of how I did it over at http://www.karlfreeman.co.uk/2009/lee-brimelows-london-dead-drop-explained/

    @simone just like me when you got past the .aif it was less about the prize more about the puzzle, glad you liked the fact I left the clue behind but I didn’t think it would last too long afterwards with the gardeners there cleaning everything up though.

    @whizzle I got the first clue at about 6:30pm and finished at about 11:30am the next day with 3 hours sleep in between so I make that about 15 hours.

    Once again can’t thank adobe and lee enough for the cs4 master collection, who would of thought I would need adobe soundbooth but after ripping apart that .aif it turns out it can do a lot more stuff as well :)

    Cheers

    Karl.

  32. Simone says:

    I can’t wait for the next London dead drop :)

  33. James, F.E. says:

    Great googlie mooglies! This is an incredible piece of puzzle making and solving. This could be made into a movie.

  34. Cadatel says:

    The video itself was already a pleasure to look at. Karl must be a genius having solved that :-O

  35. Mark DeLoura says:

    This is amazing Lee. I hope you guys do this in San Francisco sometime. You’ve got me thinking about ways I can incorporate something like this into some games as a contest for one of our local IGDA meetings. :-)

  36. matt says:

    are you sure you are not sick or something?

  37. Angel Romero says:

    WOW! Talk about really earning yourself a copy of Adobe Master Collection. I think Karl deserves two copies. Good job guys!

  38. Cajó says:

    Hey Lee, do that in Lisbon and I am in! :) Great idea!

  39. Nabeel says:

    WoW Guys I missed the blog and your posts Lee. I was ill and had a surgery. Anyway Good Work Lee And What about new tutorials Man we missed it.

    Nabeel

  40. Basil Al-Dajane says:

    Since FITC is coming up
    Will there be a Toronto dead drop?

  41. Max Weir says:

    Wow that was amazing! You did a fantastic job of concealing all the information in very innovative ways that would really test each persons mind.

  42. Liam R says:

    Lee, if you ever get bored with pimping flash, I’m sure MI6 / tha FBI wouldn’t say no… you insane man.

  43. Shaun says:

    I managed to get upto the bit with the Bush, but never had the time to get down there. I think it was too late by then already though. What you needed for this was a laptop, car and a free day.

  1. [... At Flash Camp London I showed how Karl Freeman solved the dead drop to win a copy of Master Collection. Well I have decided to do a quick video showing ...]

  2. [... At Flash Camp London I showed how Karl Freeman solved the dead drop to win a copy of Master Collection. Well I have decided to do a quick video showing ...]

  3. [... At Flash Camp London I showed how Karl Freeman solved the dead drop to win a copy of Master Collection. Well I have decided to do a quick video showing ...]

  4. [... At Flash Camp London I showed how Karl Freeman solved the dead drop to win a copy of Master Collection. Well I have decided to do a quick video showing ...]

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