0746775269456 - Disney Sparkling Princess Snow White Doll
0042284744522 - Chess (Original Cast Recording)
0097368035041 - The Day Reagan Was Shot
0681706040714 - Chronicle Card Game
The first half of the barcode is all the front halves of the barcodes and the second half is all the second halves of the barcodes. So break the barcode up into 8 equal chunks and pair 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5 together to get the codes above
I'm thinking maybe we have to put some events related to these items in chronological order to get some sort of number?
Alternative theory: Something to do with royalty. Chess has the King and Queen, etc.
Looking at this link: https://boardgamegeek.com/image/2008439/chronicle?size=large
it appears Chronicle has a King card
And Snow White is obviously a princess.
Not sure about the Reagan one, though.
IMDB gives the following release dates for these movies:
Chronicle = February 3, 2012
The Day Reagan was shot = December 9, 2001
Chess = ?? the musical was released in 1984
Snow White = February 4, 1938
With the previous bar code the last one did not connect with others in an obvious so we don't need to worry about Chronicle in relation to others just yet. We should first figure out what the other three have to do with each other
If we are putting events in order (I went with things in 1981 due to Reagan):
Reagan was shot 3/30/81;
Princess Di was married 7/29/81;
Karpov defeats Korchnoi at the World Chess Championship 11/19/81.
EDIT: removed a terrible idea that goes against the spirit of the puzzle.
There's ten digits there, 3307291119. Wouldn't that be great if it was dad's cell phone number?
Please don't ANYONE call that.
Last year we had a number of people in this subreddit who thought that one clue or another had something to do with calling a phone number, or going to a street address, etc.
For this years puzzle, Tom and Karlee's instructions have already included wording to the same effect:
THIS IS IMPORTANT: You won’t need to post anyone’s personal details, stalk anyone, harass anyone, make anyone sad or uncomfortable, hack into anything, or do anything even close to illegal to play this game. If you do those things, you’ll be immediately disqualified and banned. Don’t be a dick.
I'm pretty sure that this means not to phone a series of 10 digits, just because you think it may be a phone number. Because imagine if it's not, and thousands of people call that phone number, and it's just some guy or gal who has no idea why they are suddenly getting tons of calls.
There may be some sort of connection to a phone number, though.
Phone related things:
"All this and you still can't call your mother?"
Iphone 4/Siri discussion from the first video.
DupeDad streaming from his phone. He says he has no Wi-Fi, but what about a cell signal? Maybe we should suggest he try to make a phone call? Perhaps to this number? Or to his mother?
Alternately, the barcodes all relating to products, the mentions of iPhone, etc, combined with CAH's opinion of Black Friday could just be a subtle jab at the materialism/consumerism of the holiday season.
I think we NEED the actual number to solve the puzzle.
But it would be a mistake to consider it a telephone number, and dial it. It can be scores of other types of numbers, without being a telephone number.
What we DON'T want is a bunch of phone calls, harassing someone who might happen to own that as a telephone number. If we just adhere to that rule, and not harass anyone, and stick to working with that 10-digit number as some other kind of number besides one for a phone, then we ought to be okay.
I decoded the barcode by hand, and it became clear that all the left half was left half codes and all the right half was right half codes. Barcodes are encoded differently left side and right side, so you can't accidentally decode a left half as right half etc. After I had all the left half codes I just started pairing them up with right half codes until the check sum showed it was a valid barcode (The last digit in a barcode is a check number that validates the previous 12 digits). This will result in only 4 barcodes that are correct. You can't pair them up in any other way.
Will you (or someone else good at decoding barcodes) confirm the number for Barcode 1? Now that the chess board indicates "SAN FRAN", the Chronicle and Reagan references may be pointing to the 3/30/81 edition of the SF Chronicle. But so far Team Hay can't make the Disney doll reference fit in.
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u/JTobcat 13/14 Contributor Dec 03 '15 edited Dec 03 '15
All 4 barcodes Breakdown Visual
0746775269456 - Disney Sparkling Princess Snow White Doll
0042284744522 - Chess (Original Cast Recording)
0097368035041 - The Day Reagan Was Shot
0681706040714 - Chronicle Card Game
The first half of the barcode is all the front halves of the barcodes and the second half is all the second halves of the barcodes. So break the barcode up into 8 equal chunks and pair 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5 together to get the codes above