What's the code on the Valentine's Day card backs?
StellaHelen
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It's not Morse, and there aren't enough dots for Semaphore or Braille.
StellaHelen
REGISTERED
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To me it doesn't look like a code, just a repeated design to form the heart shape.
It is a code, but I don’t know what it says!
Feel free to message @Michael with your solution. I’m still working on it!
A code? Can someone post a screenshot pls, I’m in a different time zone and the valentine cards have already disappeared. Thx
I don't know why it posted the screenshot twice. Anyway, it's so small I have trouble seeing it well enough to tell the differences, that why I assumed it was just a pattern with no meaning. Enlarging it didn't help me either. Maybe @Michael could post a bigger or higher resolution image.
Thank you @kat14 👍
Attempting screen shot...
Thanks @StellaHelen that’s clearer - no closer to solving it though. Looking at it reminds me of the old space invaders arcade game 👾
I like the way hearts & diamonds are black as often as red. Wonder if there is information encoded in the degree of wrongness of the dot groupings?
Secret code - that's a bit exciting. Just remember, sometimes the most obvious answer is the correct one.
Only code I can see is G F situated on the top and bottom stands for perhaps Green Felt. The card 9 of diamonds could represent the number of rows of card symbols. Does anyone know why the number 9 would be important to Green Felt? Perhaps an important time or symbol in their development?
Hi @anglais the nine of diamonds isn’t part of the puzzle as far as I’m aware. It was just a random card on the board when @StellaHelen took a screenshot from a game to show a clearer picture of the valentine card.
My best guess so far is that the falling cards look like bombs dropping in a heart shape so the message is ‘Make Love Not War’
@Michael 👍 or 👎?
Here's the biggest size we render of the card back so you guys can get a good view:
@StellaHelen We added the "Love" card backs in 2021. I don't think anyone has asked us if it's a code—I think you're the first!
@fingsaint Incorrect.
ah well, back to the drawing board to fathom it out 🤔
in the meantime, here’s some John Lennon
there are 4 groups outside the white lines and 40 groups inside . The 160 symbols inside the lines when divided by the 2 inside rows , then multiplied by the outside symbols will result in the square root of the radius of........Valentines day is over forget it .
@braynededd 😀
although you’re probably right about calculating the answer. I was working from the premise that @Michael would devise a visual pattern because he is a designer creating the card backs.
But then again, greenfelt is all about numbers so I’ll leave it for a maths whizz to come up with the answer.
@fingsaint Your knee must be hurting you a bit now from the ''leg pulling '' . I just thought I would confuse the discussion a bit more by throwing in something from left field lol . I actually failed grade 6 math . To be truthful when I turned my laptop upside down and looked at the picture it looked to me like a christmas tree with the top cut off .
nah, I was with you all the way @braynededd 😉
I said "YES! Hexadecimal groups of 4 -1,2,4,8 - add in that the color can be red OR black and..." I have no idea.
In my career years idea's and AHAH's would POP into my head, now the popping's are my brain cells going to bed.
I do believe @braynededd 😉 is on the right track, "Valentines day is over" love your FAMILY and enjoy Greenfelt.
Thanks @fingsaint but have a sort of a hard head...sticking to my 9 rows of card symbols for now.
If we go back 9 years of Green Felt that gives us year 2016...several things happened that year...good and bad.
Server breakdown which the guys, after long hard work, got it running again and to their surprise, the server started to repair itself. For some reason they were not too happy about that.
The really big deal for 2016 is that on July 30th, the day after my birthday, Green Felt reached 1,000,000,000
games on the data base. A billion games...wow!
Hi @anglais interesting GreenFelt history, thanks. That was just before my time, I joined in Jan 2017. I think I remember @jabba saying that s/he had joined greenfelt in 2006, so there’s been plenty of games since then!
And you never know, number 9 could well be the Rosetta Stone we’re searching for to unlock the Valentine encryption 🤔
I'm glad these card backs are getting interest. i had a lot of fun designing the code. I hope it's not too difficult to crack. I definitely crafted it more as a programmer than a designer.
Hi @fingsaint, there are more interesting history recalls where mine came from if you are curious...very easy to find.
For instance...I joined GF May 2018 you joined in January 2017 and Jabba February 2015. She is the oldest member between the three of us 🙂. I have a deep respect for her, she seems to know what's going on and where to find it plus is most willing to share her knowledge about the games with anyone who needs it.
The "guys" started to work on GF, as Jabba pointed out, in 2006. They spent that August working on the format and design while at the same time working at their normal jobs. Amazing when you think of it...dedicated people...inspiring. Michael also had a hand in design especially the cards...thank goodness.
There is much more information about GF, how it evolved and why certain steps were taken. Everyone can learn about GF and it's history and here's how. When you log on to GF you log into the forum in the Contact Us box. There are a list of items of which the forum is one of them but...if you go to the bottom line of the box and click on "Read the Latest News in the Blog" you will get Michaels sensational card backs plus on the righthand side of the screen you will find a list of years dating back to 2006. Click any date and you can find out what was happening that year. Happy reading
Hi @Michael, thanks for giving a bit of a hint although I'm not sure it will help...not being a programmer but I may find other means. I also hope it's not too difficult to crack but nevertheless, trying to solve puzzles can be just as interesting as finding the solution. Thanks for the encouragement. Although very tempting...I won't ask if the number 9 is part of the solution.
,
@Micheal, just noticed something unusual...every time I put my cursor on a card symbol the word Love pops up in fact, it happens with every card symbol in your design, Could it be...
Hi @anglais interesting thread here:
https://forum.greenfelt.net/discussion/12699/who-has-won-the-most-games-top-100-list
Hi! anglais .I noticed that a while back , but it shows ''love '' anywhere you put cursor either in or out of white lines , but you have to go back outside of picture to get rid of the '' love '' then go back and click anywhere again and it shows up . I thought I was on to something but that doesn.t seem to be any kind of code . Good guess though ...
Hi! again . After a bit more thinking , which hurts terribly , I wonder if as I said in last message about '' love '' showing up whenever you put cursor on picture surface , could the message be '' love is everywhere '' . C'mon , it's only a guess , lol...
Going down the John Denver route @braynededd
@fingsaint Hi! again , again. That was some concert , I sure remember it . I was just a young kid ( don't I wish ) 32 and still wet behind the ears . Its hard to imagine that he's been gone for 26 years . I still play his albums more than any others . Particularly partial to "Annie's Song ''. That graphic looks like me every month when I'm figuring how much I'll have left after groceries . Thanks for the video .
@fingsaint, thanks for the interesting thread. Wasn't aware you and Jabba were already knowledgeable about the beginnings of GF. My mistake my apologies. Still, there are some things that are not clear...Jabba is listed as a member January 2015 yet has recollections of playing before 2006. She is right about playing before that date...I discovered GF was "obtained¨, for lack of a better word, in 2005 and was redesigned in 2006.
Still looking for the valentine code.
@Michael & @David - does it have anything to do with Unicode?
The card back contains 40 glyphs (plus the four at top and bottom). All are drawn from an "alphabet" of 11 glyphs, pictured in the attachment. We can't easily make a correspondence to letters — the glyphs are too few. Likewise numbers — too many glyphs to map to 0-9. I somehow doubt that even a computer scientist would encode a secret message in base 11.
So we're not much closer to cracking the code, but perhaps this contribution will inspire someone's insight.
Binary uses 8 "numbers" two glyphs could be one letter - just need too figure out the key. ie: is the g at the top with 2 glyphs showing the letter g and at the bottom the two glyphs showing f???
One problem is that the symbol bottom right (red heart, red spade) is repeated as a set of 3 on the second row of the heart shape. I can’t think of any word that has the same 3 consecutive letters. So either it’s the end of one word and the beginning of another, or the words are read vertically or diagonally. And all this is assuming that the symbols represent letters. 🤷♀️🤷♂️
Unless the code is intuitive, I’ll struggle to decipher it because I’m not acquainted with program languages.
The best I can do is insert html commands to format
🙂
Hmmmm.....sometimes......I wonder. 🤔
Hi @zudensternen more than 11? Should there also be 4 symbols
all red in that sequence, and cards with 3 black and a single red at the bottom?
@Michael, could the code simply be "greenfelt" ?
@Michael, OK...how about GreentleF
The answer is 43......lol
@Fireweed 👍 😀
what we need is a code to break this enigma machine 🤓
Earlier @jim posted “It is a code, but I don’t know what it says!”
“Says” = words? so maybe @zudensternen and @jabba are on the right track
I’m really intrigued by this puzzle. Thanks greenfelt guys.
Wow! Lot's of interesting stuff about the card backs. Usually someone complains about the card backs...when will they go back to 'normal'.
@Michael...how about GJimDaveF...or GDaveJimF 😉.
Sorry @Fireweed - the answer on the cartoon is wrong and so is 43. The answer to the universe and everything is and always will be 42. I like "Love is everywhere" as the code answer myself.
Here's one more stab at winkling meaning out of 44 glyphs from an alphabet of 11: glyph frequencies. Letter frequencies in English are famously "etaoinshrdlu" and if we try the commonest glyph as the letter "e" — it doesn't get us very far. There is one run of three "e"s, no matter whether we are going left-to-right or top-to-bottom, so there is no word that fits. Unless there are no word spaces and the run of three spans two words.
One unresolved problem: those counts add up to 43 and the total number of glyphs is 44. I have been over it multiple times and can't see where the error is.
https://news.mit.edu/2019/answer-life-universe-and-everything-sum-three-cubes-mathematics-0910#:~:text=The number 42 is especially,the Universe, and Everything.”
I thought EVERYONE knew "the answer is 42" type the phrase in any search engine on Earth and you will understand.
AND then MIT gives us this fascinating article PROVING the number 42 is the real deal
Hi @zudensternen I don’t understand why there is an alphabet of 11. Does that represent a number of the variations to the card patterns?
The part I don’t understand is why some variations are excluded. For example, you have a card that is all black but not one that is all red. Also missing from the sequence are two cards that would have 3black and one red at the bottom. Is there a reason for just 11?
TIA 🤔🙂
Hi @fingsaint, the reason there are 11 is that that's how many different patterns of the four red-or-black suit icons are present among the 44 groupings of four on the card back. Here is the image of the card back that @david posted: https://forum.greenfelt.net/discussion/comment/31411/#Comment_31411
My assumption here is that the glyphs, patterns-of-four, are the "letters" or "numbers" in whatever code this is. That might be entirely off base of course.
The total number of possible patterns of those suit icons is 16, i.e. 2 to the power 4. So there are five possible patterns that are not used (16 -11) — they don't appear on the card back.
I had a friend who used to work for the NSA. Had the most amazing instinct for finding patterns of anyone I ever knew. Unfortunately he died last year, or I would have laid this puzzle before him.
@zudensternen ah, ok I get it. So even though there is a complete alphabet you are only looking at the 11 used as a starting base?
If only Alan Turing was still around 😎
As you can probably guess I am stumped by this conundrum so I’m just following other players’ workings and trying to understand different thought patterns.
I wonder if the division by 2 is relevant, represented by the line down the middle with two shades of pink 🤷♀️🤷♂️ or there are two sides to the solution.
@Michael - Okay you jokester you , lol . You've had your fun , you got everyone all confused so come on now and admit it . This really has something to do with '' Mother's Day '' doesn't it ! I knew it ...
Hey @Michael,
this sounds
about right.
I I
C
H
A
E
L
F
Have no idea what happened there...so, once again
Hey @Michael...this sounds about right;
Michaels Code
There are 11 variations/patterns. Of those there are some singles and some that repeat. There are 3 patterns that only show once, 2 patterns that occur twice, 1 pattern that occurs three times, 1 that occurs four times, 1 that occurs five times, 1 that occurs six times, 1 that occurs eight times and 1 that occurs eleven times. These numbers are including the patterns either side of the G and the F.
Given that there are two patterns with the G and the F, I was wondering if they were the key and that is why I thought about binary. Two patterns either side of G comes to a sequence of 8. Binary is in sequences of 8.
This then also minimises the size of the sentence (if indeed that is what it is) and means that the 3 in a row that seems to be confusing actually makes a bit more sense.
Thanks @jabba mind-bending logic
Here’s the pseudo hieroglyphic version for a different way of looking at the grouping pattern (I think it’s right …)
For budding Egyptologists 🥸
@fingsaint & @jabba, than you for moving things forward.
@Michael, any time you would like to weigh in with a hint or indication we're on a right track / dead end, that would be nice! 😏
For the explorers of number based codes, would a ASCII converter help? Text to numbers or numbers to text
https://www.duplichecker.com/ascii-to-text.php
Hi Jabba, thank you for your impressive variations.
I look at the solution in a slightly different manner. From my point of view the letter G at the top and F at the bottom are not part of the text for the code, but are there to simply show us that 2 designs make 1 letter. An alphabet can be made simply by knowing how each pair of designs are manipulated to represent another letter. When I say text I mean the letters located in the square in between the examples given for G and F.
For example, the designs for letter G are found in the first row of the square...designs for letter F are located at the beginning of the 3rd line.
To find the designs for other letters we only have G and F to work with...which is fortunate because G follows F in the alphabet. Put the designs representing F to the left side of G as per the alphabet and we can see how G was formed from F. The designs for both are almost identical except G's spade has been changed to the colour red.
Since there are 20 letters in the code it means a lot of work and patience will be needed...if my solution is right.
Good luck and bonne chance ☺️.
Hi @anglais thanks for another interesting way to approach the puzzle.
As each design changes by one element - from your example of the spade changing colour between G and F - then the alphabet can be determined by mapping single changes in the designs. The key to establishing this is to determine which design represents a particular letter and take it alphabetically from there. I hope I’ve understood you correctly.
Are you still working from a base of nine? I saw earlier that you had found the word ‘Michael’
Hi @fingsaint, I put aside the base nine because of the complications and limitations.
I stumbled on to this other ¨possible" solution by observation and a little intuition. The problem with this idea is relating it to the alphabet.
First, we have to have a letter that relates to the colour all black, notice there are no symbols all red in colour.
The problem is or was, where to start so that the patterns will match our known patterns of F and G. Fairly simple.
Since all black is needed and G and H are mostly black, it stands to reason that all black is the base to start from.
A = bb bb
bb bb
B = Rb bb
bb bb
C = bR bb
bb bb
D = bb bb
bR bb
E = bb bb
Rb bb
F = Rb RR. Here is where the problem starts...why is the configuration not Rb Rb/bb bb so that G can move onto
bb bb a normal rotation of the R to get G = Rb bR/bb bb ?
G = Rb bR
bb bb
I'm pretty sure there are some brilliant minds out there that can find the proper sequence to the alphabet problem or even better yet, find a better solution. So far this is all I can come up with...for now.
PS. The Michael thing you are referring to was a bit of a joke or polite sarcasm ☺️, I should have made it a bit clearer...sorry about that.
@fingsaint, not sure what's happening to the text getting so screwed up. The base of the designs are not under the top as you can see, also, The phrase "Here is where the problem starts...why is the configuration..... so that G can move onto a normal rotation etc, etc. The phrase does not include bb bb. Just verifying, I'm sure you knew that.
@anglais thanks, ah yes I can see what you mean 🙂
Looks like you’ll need a big whiteboard and marker pen to set out all those permutations! But it’s clearly a way-in to solve it. And it has an overlap with other avenues of seeing each design as discrete symbols.
Thanks for clearing up the ‘Micheal’ result because I found it difficult to place that answer in your technique.
@fingsaint, I'm going to recheck some of my info...could be a misstep somewhere.
@zudensternen @jabba I was thinking about computer codes which are written in strings of numbers or commands. So do you think there is any merit in reading the symbols in separate lines across the page instead of groups of four? ie starting from the top there are two rows across, then a break, another two lines of code, a break etc until the end. Lines expanding and decreasing in length. 🧐
Hang on, what if it’s as simple as red and black representing 0 and 1? So that the code is binary. I’ve just tried the third row, top line starting red heart 0, black spade1 ie 01000010 put it into the converter and it comes out as letter B!
@Michael
I don’t have time right now to complete all the lines, so I’ll come back to it later to see if it works out a solution…
Sounds interesting...will check the discussion later on tonight. Good luck on this one.
I was trying to remember something about the card encoding and found this discussion between me and Michael, it includes some messages you almost got.
Clear as mud @david 😂
Oh, a substitution cipher?
‘It includes some messages you almost got’
ok @braynededd that’s us 😉 it’s a song title with the word ‘love’ in it, we can get this by process of elimination 😂
I’ll go first: All you Need Is Love
… unless it’s one of @anglais words 🤔
Right, I obviously need to walk away from this thread for a while 🙂 and head back to real life (playing solitaire)
@Michael, just a guess..." Love pops up everywhere "
From a phrase I used on 23rd February when I first discovered the word Love pops up when moving the cursor across the card back.
@braynededd, if my answer isn't right try using the last word you used on the 23rd.
okay @ fingsaint . This should be a piece of cake . I just Googled " love songs '' and it says there are about 100 million . Do not be deterred ! Another site said he knows of 1,187 songs with '' love '' in the title '' .. I'll throw in one '' Cant buy Me Love , over to you . We'll probably end up with a '' Love Hangover '' ( Diana Ross '76 ) lol ....
Well...the love thing turned out to be a bummer 🙃. I think I'll take another shot. Checked some of my earlier suggestions...mentioned Green Felt Feb 21st, suggested Greenfelt as the answer Feb 26th so will try again.
@Michael, is the code "greenfelt.net" ?
I’m baaack 🙂 like a dog with a bone, a solution is out there some where …
My interpretation of the exchange between Michael and David is that they’re considering if it would be a total let down if after all the attempts at decoding, it just turned out to be a marketing slogan for GreenFelt. But then again maybe 🤔 … we should steel ourselves for an advert … I can hear the evil cackling from here 😈
Nice one @braynededd 😎 two down, only 999,998 to go
“GreenFelt, the best thing since sliced bread!”
“GreenFelt, just do it!”
“GF, because you’re worth it”
“Greenfelt gives you wings”
🤠
@fingsaint . Thanks for the info . Greenfelt must be into a lot of stuff , very versatile , I've often wondered where Paul McCartney's band got it's name . I never would have guessed . Who was it Jim , Dave , Michael ???
Hi @fingsaint, you are on the right track but there were 2 hints in the card backs. First on was GF on the top and bottom...then the word Love showed up everywhere when the cursor was displaced. I like the way you put out the answers you have been thinking about...I also have been thinking.
Here are some of my possible solutions to the code:
and because there are so many hearts.
If I do get it right, it's because of your inspiration and ideas we have exchanged so...you would also be right.
Boy did I miss Greenfelt the last couple of days...thanks Jim, Dave and Michael for bringing it back. You guys must be exhausted. Had to get my Freecell fix on other competitors games. Didn't realize how feeble and awkward other game sites are...set-up usually complicated to play and constant interruptions. Believe me, you have no competition I found nothing even close to Greenfelt.
Hi @anglais I guess at best we’re just making stabs in the dark 🙂 but even if we did manage to stumble across the ‘right’ phrase it wouldn’t be counted and probably not mentioned as a ‘win’ 🏆 at the end of the day the task the greenfelt guys set was to decode and show how it was worked out.
Really, I was just having fun 🥳 not serious with the suggested answers. I’ll pop back to this thread now and again ready to applaud whoever manages to unravel the code - could be days, weeks or even years!
Best of luck and enjoy 👍
Hi @fingsaint, nice to hear from you. For someone who was not giving serious answers...some of them were pretty darn good. I'll probably be coming back now and then just to see if someone had the solution.
Take care and enjoy, in the meantime I'll just relax a little 🏝.
@anglais Thanks for the complement. Green Felt may not look the best (Jim and I are not graphic designers) but we worked really hard to make it feel great. We always try playing other online solitaire games and want Green Felt to be the absolute best playing one out there.
With regard to wild stabs in the dark, I'm trying to avoid a "hotter, colder" type hints completely. Like I said earlier, if you get it you'll know it!
BTW, This thread sparked my interest and I tried to decode it knowing the answer but not the encoding details and I had to eventually give in and look at a cheat sheet that @Michael made. @Jim (who doesn't know the answer) has also attempted to decode it and has fallen short. I still think it's doable, but it's a little tricky.
Hi @David thanks for the feedback... @fingsaint and I have been working fairly, or should I say quite hard trying to come up with a reasonable solution. Even if we sort of wish for "hotter, colder" hints, we know that our hard work would make any right answer less valid should we receive them.
With regards to your competitors, sincerely, it was a complete shock to find that type of amateurism. I spent quite a lot of time trying to find something reasonable to play on but couldn't find anything comparable to Green Felt. You @Jim and @Michael have achieved something very special and I know everyone appreciates the long hours it must have taken. Thank you and the "guys for your dedication to your "baby".