[Challenge] FIND THE BFG!

[Fernito]

The legend says that somewhere in MAP01 of a certain WAD there's a nice and shiny BFG9000 lying around, but it only shows itself as a reward to those able to decipher a mildly cryptic sequence of actions, triggered in different places of the level. The legend also states that the first three people able to find the coveted weapon will win a 90x90 pixelart avatar (with the design of their choice) made by the amazing @BoJustBo (in case you haven't seen his incredible art, please do yourself a favor and check it out!).

 

No concrete hints about the puzzle that needs to be solved will be provided, but there are a few important considerations that I feel obligated to share:

Spoiler

• There is a single one-time action involved in the whole sequence. If you miss it, you'll have to either restart the map or load a previous save.
• Close to the exit (roughly under the last exit sign, right above the exit door) there's a linedef that, when crossed, makes the aforementioned action impossible to activate. So, stay away from the exit! 
• The puzzle is not solvable while playing with no monsters.

 

[RULES]

• The use of map cheats or peeking in the map editor is, naturally, strictly prohibited.
• Saving during the process is allowed (and even encouraged).
• The first three people to send me video/demo proof of them executing the full sequence and finding the BFG will be declared winners of the contest (please do it via personal message, and don't share the solution with anyone until the contest is over). Note that recording the entire process of figuring out the puzzle from scratch is not mandatory (though I admit it would be interesting to see, especially if it's a commented video). 

 

Now, you might be wondering: how am I going to enforce the first rule? Well, the truth is, I can't. But since I still have faith in humanity and I also know you peeps here at Doomworld are all nice and honorable folks, I'm going to appeal to your honesty and assume you'll all be playing fair :)

 

May the most curious win! c:

 

[WINNERS]

1) @Dragonfly on 2023/05/21

2) @Insaneprophet on 2023/05/22

3) @Klear on 2023/05/25

4) @Surreily on 2023/08/19

 

---------------------------------------------------------------

[UPDATE 2023/08/19]

The contest is over, but the challenge is still up for everyone willing to give it a go. 

Edited August 19, 2023 by Fernito
update winners

[Kyka]

This is awesome.

 

However my ability to solve puzzles is right up there with my ability to understand the axiomatizations of Peano arithmetic.

 

Just sayin'

[elias]

I think i'm getting close... Those hints are very useful (if i'm thinking about them correctly). I'll keep looking! Good luck to everyone else trying this out. 

[mancubian_candidate]

New Fernito, I will play this as a priority tomorrow 😄

[mancubian_candidate]

Also: completely misread the assignment. Will dig in tomorrow 😂

[Dragonfly]

I gave it an honest 60 minute attempt - fantastic map, I'll have to continue the set at some point. Sadly I could not find it; at least on this attempt. I might try again another time, if the prize is still going of course! 😅

[Fernito]

@Kyka come on, this is nothing compared to some of your most impressive feats :)

 

@elias @mancubian_candidate wish you luck, guys! :D

 

@Dragonfly Thanks! I really hope you give it another go! :D

[Dragonfly]

Thanks for the reminder, came at the right time as I was doing nothing - and the good news is, I FOUND IT!!

I will upload the recording as an unlisted YT video and DM it to you when it's eventually rendered out. Very creative secret implementation, but without being told this secret exists and subsequently devoting an hour or more to attempting to find it, I don't think anyone would come across it 😅

 

Thanks for the challenge, was fun! Good luck to anyone else who tries, make sure you give yourself a couple of hours, you'll probably need it.

[Fernito]

WOOHOO! Congrats @Dragonfly! :D I can't wait to watch the video.

 

Quote

without being told this secret exists and subsequently devoting an hour or more to attempting to find it, I don't think anyone would come across it 😅

hehe, that was exactly the idea :) The secret has been there for ages, even in the beta version, and was implemented with the idea in mind of eventually hosting this contest. 

 

Thanks a lot for participating!

 

 

[Al-Faris M]

I think I found the BFG. While playing on ITYTD I've found the rocket launcher and took me about 20 minutes to find. I think if I played on Ultra-Violence it would be a BFG instead.

[Fernito]

Just watched @Dragonfly's videoproof. Well done and well earned prize, congratulations! :D

 

BTW, by watching his playthrough, I realized that the description of where the "fuse cutter" linedef is located was not specific enough, so I updated it in the OP.

 

4 hours ago, Al-Faris M said:

I think I found the BFG. While playing on ITYTD I've found the rocket launcher and took me about 20 minutes to find. I think if I played on Ultra-Violence it would be a BFG instead.

That's sadly just a regular secret. The BFG is slightly more difficult to find :P 

[Al-Faris M]

1 hour ago, Fernito said:

That's sadly just a regular secret. The BFG is slightly more difficult to find :P 

Thanks for clarifying, but I did give up and looked it up in the map editor, really good starting map though.
In the end, I really like Bo's pixel artworks but I don't think I need a new avatar, so I'm leaving the contest for other people to hunt the BFG :D

[TGDavid]

I will give this an attempt tonight or tomorrow morning :)

[Fernito]

11 hours ago, TGDavid said:

I will give this an attempt tonight or tomorrow morning :)

 

You guys gotta be quick, as we've already got a second winner, namely, @Insaneprophet :D Congratulations!

 

ONLY ONE PRIZE LEFT!!!

Edited May 22, 2023 by Fernito

[Insaneprophet]

I highly reccomend people giving this a go. Outside of the whole wad being an amazingly fun adventure this first map gave me the same feeling of accomplishment I would imagine one would get after completing a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle... prolly took just as long as well 😜 Thanks Again Again!

[Kyka]

After three thorough and serious arttempts, all recorded, I refer people to my earlier post about my suckage at puzzles.

 

 

[mancubian_candidate]

I give up, I tried and tried and got nowhere 😂 Best of luck to the final winner, looking forward to seeing the solution once the competition is over!

[Fernito]

@mancubian_candidate :(

@Kyka may I watch the videos? c:

[Klear]

This is fun. I'm not too good or generally interested in finding secrets, but I was curious and now I can't stop looking. I think I was ready to give up about four times now, only to find another piece of the puzzle...

 

Edit: Got it! Uploading my video now. That was a blast!

 

On 5/22/2023 at 1:28 PM, Insaneprophet said:

I highly reccomend people giving this a go. Outside of the whole wad being an amazingly fun adventure this first map gave me the same feeling of accomplishment I would imagine one would get after completing a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle... prolly took just as long as well 😜 Thanks Again Again!

 

100% agree. Even when (if?) the solution gets revealed, I encourage you all to ignore it and try to figure it out yourselves. It can't be that hard given that I found it, but it does takes a while to piece together and every step of the way is a thrill.

Edited May 24, 2023 by Klear

[Kyka]

@Fernito So sorry, I deleted them. It never crossed my mind that anyone would ever want to watch them just for fun. I recorded them only as proof to show that I had found the BFG. Which of course I didn't. :( Fernito, haha you compared finding the bfg here to my earlier achievement in that huge maze. That huge maze required only brute persistence, which I have plenty of: no lateral thinking, observational skills or secret hunting skills. This bfg puzzle does. And you know what they say... When God was handing out secret hunting skills...

 

Congrats to all the winners @Dragonfly @Insaneprophet @Klear Great stuff.

 

Next step, I'm gonna check this out in an editor.

[Fernito]

I just watched @Klear's solution, well done! :D 

 

Hereby I declare the contest finalized. 

 

As some of you suggested, I'll leave the challenge open to anyone interested. I won't post the solution here, but feel free to message me directly if you tried and gave up or if you're just curious but don't feel like figuring it out yourself.

 

Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks to everyone that participated! :D

 

2 hours ago, Kyka said:

@Fernito So sorry, I deleted them. It never crossed my mind that anyone would ever want to watch them just for fun. I recorded them only as proof to show that I had found the BFG. Which of course I didn't. :( Fernito, haha you compared finding the bfg here to my earlier achievement in that huge maze. That huge maze required only brute persistence, which I have plenty of: no lateral thinking, observational skills or secret hunting skills. This bfg puzzle does. And you know what they say... When God was handing out secret hunting skills...

Ohhh come on, you're being way too harsh on yourself :) 

Edited May 25, 2023 by Fernito

[DrR0Ck]

Well, I gave it a shot but no joy.  Will probably keep trying - at least for a little bit.  Regardless, thanks for this bit of distraction!  And congrats to the cheaters winners!

[Klear]

A little hint:

 

Spoiler

Try finding the three regular secrets first. That helped me a lot to get started and get in the right frame of mind.

 

Edited May 25, 2023 by Klear

[Kyka]

Just now, Klear said:

A little hint:

 

  Hide contents

Try finding the three regular secrets first. That helped me a lot to get started and get in right frame of mind.

 

 

Spoiler

I did find all three, heh, made no progress after that point! :)

 

[Fernito]

There has been an unexpected development: @Insaneprophet, in an incredibly selfless gesture, has decided to decline his prize, all for the sake of extending the contest a little longer. How awesome is that? :) (In any case, he will remain on the podium as the second winner, no doubt about that).

 

That means the contest is still going strong, with one more prize up for grabs! Don't miss this oportunity :D

[D4NUK1]

Hopefully when I exit my work I'll give this a Chance, I need a new avatar and this seems really fun.

[Kyka]

6 hours ago, Fernito said:

There has been an unexpected development: @Insaneprophet, in an incredibly selfless gesture, has decided to decline his prize, all for the sake of extending the contest a little longer. How awesome is that? :) (In any case, he will remain on the podium as the second winner, no doubt about that).

 

That means the contest is still going strong, with one more prize up for grabs! Don't miss this oportunity :D

 

Time to go back and utterly fail to find the BFG. Again!!! (Thankfully I hadn't yet looked for the BFG in Doom Builder.)

 

Thank you @Insaneprophet :)

Edited May 25, 2023 by Kyka

[DrR0Ck]

On 5/25/2023 at 9:43 AM, Kyka said:

 

  Hide contents

I did find all three, heh, made no progress after that point! :)

 

Spoiler

I didn't even find all three!  

EDIT: Did figure out how to spoiler a comment, though.

Edited May 26, 2023 by DrR0Ck

[Fernito]

Bumpity bump! There's still one prize available! c:

[Klear]

It's been a while, but I'm going to bump this because

1) finding the secret was tough but a lot of fun

2) there's still one prize left

3) I *have to* show off my new avatar.

 

Many thanks to @BoJustBo and @Fernito!