Number Puzzles
"My brain hurts."

-- Gumby Brothers (Monty Python)

Sometimes, on IRC channel #c-64, we like to challenge each other with some little number puzzles. The origin of how these puzzles evolved in the first place is as obscure as their solutions. One of the earliest was to set the user limit to 1100100; somehow it has grown from that tiny seed.

Actually, the "we" is just myself and Dokken. In fact, I'm not sure anyone else even realizes what is going on.

What are the rules to these puzzles? Well, to be honest, figuring out the rules is pretty much the whole puzzle. Just rest assured that there really are some rules!

There are a few things you need to know though: this takes place on IRC channel #c-64, which is dedicated to the Commodore 64. As programmers it is very convenient to deal in hexadecimal (base 16) as well as binary and decimal numbers; also on a computer, 2's complement is often used to represent negative numbers.

Well, if you can figure any of these out you sure are weird! Therefore you should send me some email.

I just can't bring myself to reveal the answers, but I am willing to give some hints I guess. Some of these are incredibly difficult.

Without further ado:

sjudd@ffd2.com --