Launch code: MOTEKIM!

Part of the Wasteland Ranger HQ-Grid

Welcome to Launch Code: MOTEKIM! This sub-page of The Wasteland Ranger HQ-Grid is dedicated to you, the fans of Wasteland, the most intelligent comptuer game players and creators in the world. I hope you remembered to pack your I.Q., and maybe your LUCK, too, because you're going to need them here!

I got the idea for Launch Code: MOTEKIM!, as you might suspect, from scanning the Paragraph Book. As you know, there are many passwords, real and fake, scattered throughout the pages of that paperback companion to Wasteland. If you didn't know which paragraphs were the "real" ones, it would be a guessing game as to which were real, and which lead to certain doom if entered at the Wasteland prompt.

After drinking one too many Dr. B. Bilious Balfour's Snake Squeezins one night, it occurred to me that perhaps it might be fun to host my own little game of guessing, and the like, on a monthly basis. Thus this page was born.

Rangers who submit correct answers to each new puzzle will have their names listed below. I will assign a rank to each participant based on the number of puzzles they solve correctly. Ranks will correspond to the ranks attainable in the Wasteland game (what else?). So, without further rambling, let us proceed! Don't let your friends beat YOU to the rank of Supreme Jerk!

(Pssst! If you missed a puzzle, you can always submit your answers at any time. I'll trust that you didn't look at the posted solution....)

Wasteland -- Meantime -- Fountain of Dreams -- Fallout
Communications -- End Stats -- Underground -- Puzzles -- Binaries -- Chronicles -- Gateway -- Hilarity

Puzzle Listing

  1. AD 1999 April: Ranger Ben's Mind Maze
  2. AD 1999 May: Grizzly Death Announcement Scramble
  3. AD 1999 August: Finish the Secret Sequences
Victorious Rangers

The following rangers have submitted correct entries to one or more of these puzzles. It's never too late to submit answers to any of the puzzles and get your name on this list, too! Congrats to all!

  1. Specialist Luthen Iruun
  2. Private First Class William John Brixius
  3. Private First Class Stacy Simpson Assaf
  4. Private First Class David Tabion
  5. Private First Class Bryce Cartmill
  6. Private First Class George Shannon
  7. Private John Toomey
  8. Private Christian Refsell
  9. Private Jamie Kikolski
  10. Private Mark Ratcliff
  11. Private Jess Gulbranson
  12. Private Andrew Cornelius
  13. Private Shawn Marion
  14. Private Skale
  15. Private Arthur Chocholacek

AD 1999 April
 Ranger Ben's Mind Maze
(Not quite as deadly as Finster's Mind Maze, but probably more annoying)

We'll start off with an "easy" one. [toothy grin] The following passwords (real and fake, extracted from the Paragraph Book) have been scrambled. Can you guess what the real passwords are? As an added twist, I have inserted spaces and / or symbols in the scrambled passwords. (If you need help, consult the Paragraph Book. There's a link to it at the Wasteland Underground.)

Once unscrambled, if you can also tell me which of the below passwords are real and which are fake, your name will be entered into a drawing for a date with everyone's favorite desert Uzi-toting babe-of-a-Ranger, Christina! (Well, not really, but wouldn't that be fun?)

  1. TOM & MIKE
  2. LATER, PC LIAR!
  3. HOT AN' SAT
  4. HER MOMMY & I STAND
  5. TO: MA'
Link to solution

Congratulations to John Toomey who won the date with Christina! John was selected from a pool of seven entrants who had correct answers and also noted which passwords were real and which were fake. John and Christina went to the Acapulco club, where they danced, played poker, and traded Ranger School stories. They finished off a lovely evening by going brahmin-tipping. Sounds like they had a great time!

AD 1999 May
 Grizzly Death Announcement Scramble

In this installment, I've scrambled some of the rather awful sounding death announcements displayed when one of your Rangers polishes off one of his foes. Your job? Match each introduction in the left column with its proper conclusion in the right column.

Note: No assumptions should be made about a one-to-one mapping of beginnings and endings. In other words, each ending might or might not be matched exactly one time, and each beginning might or might not have an ending to go with it.

  1. Exploding it
  2. Reducing it
  3. Spinning him
  4. Blasting it
  5. Sending him
  6. Ripping it
  7. Killing it
  1. into ground round
  2. into a thin red paste
  3. like a blood sausage
  4. into a dance of death
  5. into a scarlet side of meat
  6. to meet his maker
  7. into an undertaker's nightmare

Link to solution

Ooooh that was sneaky of me! I should've raffled off a prize for that one. It took most (but not all!) people who attempted it a couple of times to get them all right.

AD 1999 August
 Finish the Secret Sequences

In this puzzle, you are tasked with finishing these sequences of numbers. All of these sequences are directly related to some aspect of the game Wasteland, or the post-nuclear war theme in general. It is up to you to figure out what the sequence is, and then fill in the missing elements! Hint: These sequences of numbers can be found in one or more of the following sources: the game Wasteland, the Survival Guide, the Paragraphs Book, or the Manual.

Note: I consider this puzzle to be TOUGH. In case I don't get to a new puzzle any time soon, I wanted to make sure you all stayed busy. :)

  1. 11, 16, __
  2. 32, 512, __
  3. 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 7, 8, __, 14, 15, 16, 19, __, 21, 22, 22, __, 22, 24, 24, 25, 26, 26, 26, 27, 27, __
  4. 31, 17, __, 07, 99
Here's a hint. Part C's sequence is actually one of at least two versions of this sequence. Depending on which platform of Wasteland you have (the original Apple ][, the Commodore 64 or the IBM-PC), the elements of this sequence vary.

Link to solution

Well, only two Rangers, (now) Specialist Luthen Iruun and Private First Class George Shannon, completed this puzzle correctly. I waited more than nine months to see if anyone else would answer the puzzle, and no one has. So, sorry to say, although it was fun for me to make the puzzles, and hopefully, fun for those who answered the puzzles, I'm hanging up the radioactive game show hat. But it could come back by popular demand (or if I get really bored)!

Wasteland -- Meantime -- Fountain of Dreams -- Fallout
Communications -- End Status -- Underground -- Puzzles -- Binaries -- Chronicles -- Gateway -- Hilarity

Last updated September 11, AD 2000
Ranger Ben [e-mail]