Dean receive his Da Vinci Quest cryptex in the mail |
Loading ...Dean from Des Moines is the first to comment that he’s received his cryptex (pictures?) from the Google Da Vinci Quest, courtesy of a call from his wife. Congratulations Dean!
The double emails many players received indicated we would be notified today if we were among the final 10,000 and receive a “special surprise.” Dean indicated he had received no email yet, but his wife said the cryptex was waiting.
Dean completed the puzzle in the first 9 minutes. I’m heading up to the post office now to see if my time made the cut (took me 14 minutes). Will update this post after lunch.
Update 2:35pm PST: No cryptex here, perhaps we didn’t make the cutoff. Ben posted links to his blog with pictures in the comments. Ben didn’t mention if he received an email or not.
2:42pm PST: There are at least ten cryptex for sale on eBay already.
5:18pm PST: Make that 28 out of the 10,000 looking for the eBay payday on the cryptex. Max number of bids on a single cryptex as of this writing: 31 bids totalling $72 USD. I wonder if the prize winners will be putting up the winning items on eBay too?
7:47pm PST: Just received my answer. 14 minutes wasn’t good enough:
Good luck to those of you who made it. 44 cryptex now on eBay.
A few are on ebay if you need pictures. If he finished in 9 minutes … I finished in 5 minutes so I should be getting one then. I’ll take all the pics you need :-p
Comment by Ben — May 15, 2006 @ 3:58 pm PST
Well posted some pictures on my site … http://www.benmcmurtry.com …
DavidT feel free to rip em … just give me credit
Comment by Ben — May 15, 2006 @ 4:48 pm PST
Wow on eBay already…guess there is more than one way to make a buck from the contest…I did not get one in the mail today (finished in 9 minutes as well), so I guess I am not a winner…still no “special email” though.
Comment by Stephen — May 15, 2006 @ 4:50 pm PST
O sorry. I didn’t recieve any email. I’ll keep you posted.
Comment by Ben — May 15, 2006 @ 4:59 pm PST
I finished in substantially less than 9 minutes, but haven’t received anything yet either. Hopefully my cryptex isn’t just lost in the mail — it wouldn’t be the first package to mysteriously never reach my current mailing address.
Comment by Ian — May 15, 2006 @ 5:11 pm PST
I finished in about 90 seconds. Got my cryptex in the mail today. Good luck to the other 9,999.
Comment by Justin — May 15, 2006 @ 5:18 pm PST
You guys are beginning to scare me….this is like one of those cult thingys!
It kind of reminds me of one of those cheesy Halloween movies where the kids put on masks and sat in front of the television and their brains melted. eeekkk!!!
Comment by Janine — May 15, 2006 @ 5:44 pm PST
Nahhh, Janine, it’s just good puzzle fun. Did you see the picture of the track mom playing sudoku? Casual gamers are mainstream
Comment by TDavid — May 15, 2006 @ 5:53 pm PST
I solved it in apx. 7 minutes and I received my Cryptex in the mail today. As of 6:35 pm EST, I have not received an e-mail.
Comment by Mary — May 15, 2006 @ 5:54 pm PST
I finished at 1:07 and received nothing in the mail.
I wonder if it depends on what are of the country you are in, where they are shipping from etc.
I am in the Northeast.
Comment by Sharon — May 15, 2006 @ 5:58 pm PST
Has anybody on the west coast received a cryptex yet? UPS arrives late here, so waiting to see what happens by 5pm PST. All reports I’ve seen so far are from the midwest or east coast, Sharon.
Comment by TDavid — May 15, 2006 @ 6:35 pm PST
Heh there are 34 on ebay now o.o
For refrence on on the East coast (DC)
Comment by Ben — May 15, 2006 @ 7:57 pm PST
I have to admit, I’m one of the cryptex winners who put his on eBay, but at least I attached a nice story to mine!
The story came from my blog and was complimented enough that I was convinced to put it up on my listing.
Please buy my cryptex [Editors note: link at Brandon’s blog, please don’t post link here]
Comment by Brandon — May 15, 2006 @ 9:07 pm PST
Just received my email confirming I’m a finalist. No cryptex yet, though. The “surprise” turns out to be a special video message from Ian McKellen and a sneak peek of the movie.
Comment by Ian — May 15, 2006 @ 9:35 pm PST
Yay I made the finals too, just received my email
Comment by Stephen — May 15, 2006 @ 9:37 pm PST
Yeah, just got my email confirmation too. Still waiting for my cryptex.
Comment by Gary — May 15, 2006 @ 9:48 pm PST
Yep got a email … posted a ss on my site.
Comment by Ben — May 15, 2006 @ 10:01 pm PST
I got my email confirmation that was time stamped 7:14pm PST. My cryptex was waiting for me alongside the rest of today’s mail.
Comment by ann — May 15, 2006 @ 10:27 pm PST
No luck for me. Got the you are too slow email with a link to offers from the sponsors. Nothing to write home about, but it was a fun challenge. I would have done it sooner if I weren’t in a meeting. oh well I choose work over a trip that I would have to pay 35k in taxes anyway.
Comment by steven frein — May 16, 2006 @ 12:02 am PST
I got my cryptex and the email didn’t come until much later in the evening (around 8:00ish).
I’ve seen auctions on ebay selling how to change the password (.50 + $5 S&H). Anyone know how to do that? I’m not going to give someone $5.50 for a word doc that didn’t cost them anything. LOL
Comment by spotsknight — May 16, 2006 @ 1:59 pm PST
On the Noble website where you can buy the cryptex, it says that the password can be changed at anytime. But it doesn’t say how and mine did not come with any instructions. I am working on it. I have noticed, though, that only the last two letters are the one that matters. The first three can be anything. Check it out.
Comment by Rebecca — May 16, 2006 @ 6:58 pm PST
Hey T,
The Cryptex we received as Da Vinci Code Quests are NOT the same versions of the cryptex for sale at the Noble website. We got the cheap promotional ones. I emailed Noble to ask how to change the passwords and received this reply:
We produced the promotional Cryptex for Sony/Google. Both models look the same, but you can change the code for the piece that we are currently selling. The promotional piece is more simplified and only has two keys. From the outside they look identical, but the mechanism and the inner parts are different. The insides are not interchangeable.
Comment by Rebecca — May 17, 2006 @ 12:24 pm PST
PS…this means the ones being sold on ebay are not the authentic versions…they are the promotional versions.
Comment by Rebecca — May 17, 2006 @ 12:25 pm PST
Thank you for the additional information, Rebecca.
Comment by TDavid — May 17, 2006 @ 12:37 pm PST
(shoot, I posted this on another section… sorry for the double posting)
I finished in about 3 minutes including the registration. I just guessed on the first one but the last two were from the book so I knew those right away. If you hadn’t read the book, you were sort of at a disadvantage and would have to find and unscramble the “So dark the con of man” stuff.
I got notified that I was a finalist, but still no cryptex. So I did a google search for Cryptex and found a guy at cryptex.org that makes custom hand crafted versions. They look pretty cool, but the hand crafted versions are pretty expensive (made with real marble). However he does have a replica of these boxes that you can change the code on for less, but they have solid hand polished brass instead of the die cast metal from the nobel collections version. Looks like a lot of people are buying them though because he already has a wait list.
Good luck to all you finalists on the “Final Challenge” (and paying the taxes on the prize).
Comment by Jim — May 18, 2006 @ 1:27 am PST
To change the code just open the cryptex and next to the last wheel there is a cuff with two screws. Remove these and the cuff.
There are these geared wheels with the plastic letter rings around it. You can remove the plastic ring and place it in another position for the new code. Of course only the last two letters matter on these quest versions.
Comment by Todd — May 19, 2006 @ 4:07 pm PST