Level 24

OK! I have 43070 segments, and it's got to be on the right track.

Nevertheless, no variation of "little man smoking a cigarette, with giant exploding brain and legs" seems to work as the key to the next level. Maybe that's because he's twirling a whirligig, not smoking a cigarette? Or maybe it's a map of Mars. I'll pursue these possibilities with vigor.

So is this one finally a programming challenge then, as opposed to just more tricks with PIL? Playing with the color map certainly didn't get me anywhere, so I suppose I get to navigate the maze now. I don't see any other hints about where else to go...

j.

Bah! I solved it in the obvious way and got...nothing.

I suppose there must be another obvious way. Back to the drawing board.

OK! I have 43070 segments, and it's got to be on the right track.

The original version of this riddle had some problems. With the current version, I get 44622 segments -- but I never defined what "segment" means

Nevertheless, no variation of "little man smoking a cigarette, with giant exploding brain and legs" seems to work as the key to the next level. Maybe that's because he's twirling a whirligig, not smoking a cigarette? ...

The little smoker is gone too. You'll have to come up with your own images now! After you've solved this, run my solution on the Wiki, and stare at the "justblue.png" it creates -- if you're tired enough, you'll start hallucinating too

The little smoker is gone too. You'll have to come up with your own images now! After you've solved this, run my solution on the Wiki, and stare at the "justblue.png" it creates -- if you're tired enough, you'll start hallucinating too

Is that a hint that I don't need to traverse the maze and this is really just playing with pixel data? Cause I tried that already, justblue, justred, justgreen, and I didn't see anything.

Lost in the maze.

So is this one finally a programming challenge then, as opposed to just more tricks with PIL?

I don't see why it couldn't be both -- but I have a spare copy of MS Paint if you want to spend a year on this one

Playing with the color map certainly didn't get me anywhere, so I suppose I get to navigate the maze now. I don't see any other hints about where else to go...

Don't forget the page title ...

The little smoker is gone too. ... After you've solved this, run my solution on the Wiki, and stare at the "justblue.png" it creates ...

Is that a hint that I don't need to traverse the maze and this is really just playing with pixel data? ...

My comment was directed primarily at those who already solved it. For example, that's why it said "after you've solved this"

Is solving the maze the way to go on this? 'cause I solved the maze, and I don't see any hints as to what to do next...

(Not that solving the maze wasn't fun, mind you.)

Is solving the maze the way to go on this? 'cause I solved the maze, and I don't see any hints as to what to do next...

Yes, it is. Solve it and take l__s.

I have had the maze solved for more than a day now, tried lots of things, but keep hitting a brick wall. I have that feeling again that the next step is obvious and I am looking past it.

I have had the maze solved for more than a day now, tried lots of things, but keep hitting a brick wall. I have that feeling again that the next step is obvious and I am looking past it.

After solving the maze, the solution was just a couple of steps away (and you've done any of these steps somewhere along the way to this level). Are you sure, you've solved the maze?

I have had the maze solved for more than a day now, tried lots of things, but keep hitting a brick wall. I have that feeling again that the next step is obvious and I am looking past it.

I wouldn't say "obvious", but remember the page title. Does a maze care about the direction you use to traverse it? The answer is no .

I wouldn't say "obvious", but remember the page title. Does a maze care about the direction you use to traverse it? The answer is no .

But isn't the icecream van at the bottom?

Damn. I've been using pygame rather than PIL for poking round the maze. It turns out that pygame thinks it's ok to shift some of the colour values slightly I don't get a singe 0xff in the whole image. The background shows up as (0xfe, 0xfe, 0xfe). Back to the drawing board...

Damn. I've been using pygame rather than PIL for poking round the maze. It turns out that pygame thinks it's ok to shift some of the colour values slightly I don't get a singe 0xff in the whole image. The background shows up as (0xfe, 0xfe, 0xfe). Back to the drawing board...

Ouch It's generally true that exact pixel values have been important in levels with PNG files (and not at all in levels with JPEG files). Not that I'm saying it's true here, it's just an observation I wanted to share before I die

Ouch It's generally true that exact pixel values have been important in levels with PNG files (and not at all in levels with JPEG files). Not that I'm saying it's true here, it's just an observation I wanted to share before I die

It looks like pygame shifted every byte got shifted down by 1 except for zero of course. Other times pygame has worked fine. I just thought I better make a record here in case anyone else gets caught out. Now I just need a block of time to start over again...