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I met a beautiful girl 5 years ago. Where did I meet her? ARCADE: PACMAN

HINT 1

No need to use the Monster Points Value

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  • $\begingroup$ Is there a higher resolution version? I can't read all of the points values in the lower right hand corner. $\endgroup$
    – SQLnoob
    Commented Jun 16, 2022 at 14:05
  • $\begingroup$ @SQLnoob i added HINT 1: no need to use those numbers :-) $\endgroup$
    – JoostVanPoppel
    Commented Jun 16, 2022 at 14:15
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    $\begingroup$ Some observations: rot13('qenjvat' gur purngpbqrf tvirf 4r 59 43, juvpu vf 'ALP' va Nfpvv. Fb cebonoyl fbzrjurer va Arj Lbex Pvgl. Vs lbh pbhag gur ahzore bs qbgf va rnpu ebj bs gur yriry naq nccyl N1M26 lbh trg unzohetre. Boivbhfyl gur fcevgrf ba gur yrsg ner sebz Fcnpr Vainqref, nygubhtu V pna'g svaq gur zvqqyr erq fcevgr naljurer. Gur erq ba gur evtug vf znlor n svyz erry??? Bevtvany qbrfa'g pbagnva terra qbgf ba obeqre. 706480 qbrf abg nccrne gb or fgenvtug NFPVV) $\endgroup$
    – Lukas Rotter
    Commented Jun 16, 2022 at 14:15

1 Answer 1

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I noticed that

Counting the dots in each row of the play area produces 8, 1, 13, 2, 21, 18, 7, 5, 18. Mapping 1-26 to the letters A-Z, this spells the word "HAMBURGER."

Also

Following the direction of the arrows in the Cheatcodes box traces out the shapes of some letters and numbers:

1 Looking up these hex values on a table of ASCII codes, this spells out "NYC."

Finally

I realized that the red shape on the right side of the board looked just like a place I know (not sure I would've figured this out if I wasn't already quite familiar with the place):

2

So I'm guessing you met at

the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park in Manhattan.

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  • 1
    $\begingroup$ That is completely correct. One missing hint though: The Space Invaders alphabet spells "HOTDOG". So New York City, Hotdog, Hamburger, Madison Square Park combined points to SHAKE SHACK. Shake Shack is an American Fastfood Chain. The company started as a hotdog stand in Madison Square Park in New York City (NYC) and expanded. It is now also Hamburgers. $\endgroup$
    – JoostVanPoppel
    Commented Jun 16, 2022 at 15:28
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    $\begingroup$ Cool puzzle! My only thought is that New York City + Hot Dog + Hamburger would not have been enough to solve the puzzle on their own, and yet the map of Madison Square Park would have probably been pretty incomprehensible to anyone unfamiliar with the park's layout. I just happened to recognize it because I used to work around the corner and went there all the time. Were the red and green dots around the border relevant? I noticed none of them were more than 26 dots apart and thought maybe they would spell something out. $\endgroup$
    – SQLnoob
    Commented Jun 16, 2022 at 15:35
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    $\begingroup$ I tested this puzzle in our (Dutch) companies christmas-puzzle. People actually recognized the drawing to be a map of some sort and scanned Manhatten/New York on google maps for this. Out of 50 groups (x 5 people) there were 10+ groups finding the park on the map. My conclusion: it's doable. The red and green dots around the border are not relevant! Just random. $\endgroup$
    – JoostVanPoppel
    Commented Jun 16, 2022 at 18:43
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    $\begingroup$ Of course a Dutch group would get this - it was once called "New Amsterdam" after all... (Why they changed it? I can't say.) $\endgroup$
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Commented Jun 17, 2022 at 13:56
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    $\begingroup$ The running theory is that "people just liked it better that way" $\endgroup$
    – user170231
    Commented Jun 17, 2022 at 17:10

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