Ultimate Edition Forum

This began about 6 months ago on the QB64 forum (http://www.qb64.net/forum/index.php?topic=11542.0). So far no one has decoded these files, so I figured I would expand the challenge to here. The attached ZIP file contains 5 messages all encoded using the same process, done in BASIC. One thing to note, the ZIP file is larger than the total size of the 5 files when uncompressed.

I Give Up!!

I'm sure this is wrong (way wrong) but I found my 'decryption' somewhat funny. I simply copied the code into notepad and for some reason it turned all the ascii codes into Chinese words. Using Google translate I got this (after taking out some extra ?'s and a few things that didn't translate:

noodles Ban Qu said Heren Peng plus Fu Cong Ce bleach Yi e Qi Ji Zhongting simmer Zhong thumb Junior potassium memory Catalpa Ling duck Lou Luo Yu Qi decadent Z gland flowing water hand-mynah Jia Di He Nazoumyi Yi Chang armor dark-red Timor surgery when Ai SHEETS La Fei Temple grate Pan Li Ji Dan Chin form hollow Hudanbingjue Bangning Rang Qiao ban suddenly Lin held Xiang shop Jie bamboo Kun TSORNG Chu Pei Buddhist Piao three Chaojin Jian Longitudinal $#!% Tian cloudy sky Hong Peng fight diarrhea piperazine force on + Yerongzhitiao Dulqiong round Quan La Zealand Closer tired tired (WHO) Cheng legal Nao when Gimli Wu Dao Pu Jing Di Cham Diexiajibi lights laying An and disadvantages Ye Dian Lu Sakamoto acenaphthene Xiaoshan network Ling rub Hanlong Fu Si Po For Power gadolinium Han Duan not B Sintered CUSTOM deer exhaust it Xun Xu Nuo plastic Yao Pa smell of urine Zhu Yu Zao Artworks Bin turn Ha loudspeakers chaos when Hun Pass Sheng Island Rong Mrs broom bun Gao loss Feng Chan to Ai Su Ran leap Ming softly Ban $ She patrol Shu getting Nian rancid made Yin askance

Well that is certainly an interesting attempt, but ultimately incorrect. The original messages are in English. I think the Chinese you saw is how the ASCII characters look in Unicode, but I could be wrong about that. Nice try though, I don't think I would have ever thought to use Google Translate on the encrypted text.

Well, 5 downloads so far... I am curious who the others are, and if they have also given up.

matrixshaman:

I just noticed that you don't have your hardware info in your signature yet. (They like that here.)

PLOT TWIST!

SkyCharger001 has posted one of his own! If you are following this thread, you may want to revisit the link in the first post for the latest developments.

I did not download the file, you can rest assured I could decrypt it. I bought a book almost as thick as a NY phone book on advanced programming in Visual Basic they had a challenge as well in encryption paid a grand to the first resolver. I was not the first, bought my copy too late evidently

Thanks for the post; I am honored.

SkyCharger's encryption method is far more complicated than mine. He has given several hints, basically spoon-feeding the solution to me, but I've gone as far as I can in solving it. I never was much of a code-breaker.

Mine I have no doubt that you, TheeMahn, could solve, but I would not want you to waste your time with it when you have so many irons in the fire already.

I'll eventually post the spoiler code anyway, but I want to give adequate time for people to try. A year at least, maybe more. No sense in ruining the fun.

If any of you working on this would like a hint or some guidance, ask away. I'll try to provide as much encouragement along those lines as possible without directly giving the solution away. If you tried and gave up, don't feel bad; I can't crack SkyCharger's code even with all of the hints he has given.

After all this time, SkyCharger finally posted the code he used, and I can safely say that it is more complicated than my process. If you're working on or just curious about this challenge, might I suggest keeping an eye on http://www.qb64.net/forum/index.php?topic=11542.0 as it gets bumped more often than this thread and contains more hints as well. If you are seriously (or leisurely) working on this, I'd like to know.