Play Vanishing Point Game to Win Sub-Orbital Space Tour and Free Vista with Cheats
Various marketing campaign is getting more intense to promote Windows Vista which will be available on retail channel from 30th January 2007, such as contest at Showusyourwow.msn.com, Windows Vista giveaway via PowerTogether.com web casts or virtual labs, plenty of print or TV media ads, and free online test drive of Windows Vista. And the Windows Vista consumer launch and viral marketing campaign to create the buzz now comes to a climax with mysterious yet addicting Vanishing Point game jointly organized by Microsoft and AMD, a sweepstakes and also a large-scale online and offline collaborative puzzle game.
Vanishing Point is a marketing strategy and a game driven promotional sweepstakes done by 42 Entertainment for Microsoft as part of celebration of Windows Vista consumer launch. The addicting game started when bloggers and the selected who’s who started to receive the extravagant free Acer Ferrari laptops and other desktop computers, mystery wooden box which contains USB drives with Cipher Key, from_Loki.txt and Loki.wmv (shown below), or translucent box with Windows Vista Launch Kit. Gifts are sent by LOKI, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052 and in them is a mystery paper note or letter that said the following, with reference to www.vanishingpointgame.com.
You are now a decoder. There are only a few like you, but thousands more are looking for you. Find the other decoders before Zero Hour.
A spectacular adventure is on the horizon… Can you find it before it disappears?
- L
P.S. I’ve hidden something in a puzzle box for you. Find the box, find a way to open it?
From The Desk of Loki, Enigma Director
First video loki.wmv of Loki, Microsoft Puzzle Master, of Vanishing Point Game
Beside this initial viral blogging marketing strategy, an initial teaser image was also seen on the Internet Explorer Development Blog, as the image to the right, with words of “Most of you won’t figure this out”, followed by a code of three sets of 20 characters and a web address, enticing you to find out more.
All these cipher codes have been decoded, decipher and cracked which are used to view some hidden URL links when Vanishing Point Game counting down to January 8, the official start date for the game.
The cipher keys has generated the following codes which will reveal the respective URLs (as since been taken down after the game starts).
wh0isl0ki – http://vanishingpointgame.com/biography/
wh3r3t0g0 – http://vanishingpointgame.com/CIRCUMAMBULATION/
iw4nttwinyou – http://vanishingpointgame.com/antepenultimate/
imm0rtaliz3m3 – http://vanishingpointgame.com/FILE/
3akix3ozidd1b / 3scap3grav1ty – http://vanishingpointgame.com/zenith/
formula – http://vanishingpointgame.com/manifesto/
Second video of Vanishing Point – Ignition
Loki’s Story Video Clip
Vanishing Point Game – Magic Web with Loki talks about disappearing her chemistry professor’s office. The video was released with the completion or solving of box 2 puzzles of the Vanishing Point Games.
However, all these are just hype and viral buzz. You can participate in the Vanishing Point Game even if you never receive any of the gifts above. Then how to participate in Vanishing Point Game? Simply register yourself at www.vanishingpointgame.com. By registering, you will automatically receive 20 points where each point equals one entry into the Vanishing Point sweepstakes drawing. (If you wish, you may use admin <at> mydigitallife <dot> info as your “Refering Party”). To increase your chance of winning, you can refer your friends or family members to the Vanishing Point Game. If your referral uses your valid registered email as the “Referring Party” during the registration process completed by another sweepstakes participant, you will receive extra additional 10 points for up to 20 referrals for total of 200 points.
Note: The Game has closed.
Vanishing Point is a puzzle challenge, so of course you will have the opportunity to earn more points and tickets for higher sweepstakes winning chance to win some great prizes by solving the puzzles. Each week, twelve puzzles in a box will be posted along with footage of an unusual real world event taking place all over the globe. You can either show up at the physical location when a countdown hits zero, or check online to view recorded footage of the event for the hints or clues to the puzzles. The first real world event had already taken place at fountains outside Bellagio Hotel and Casino (location made known during a speech Microsoft chairman Bill Gates gave at the CES 2007) on 8th January 2007, as you can see in video below. Loki will appear in more than 10 cities between now and Vista’s Jan. 30 (also contest period) consumer launch date, with stops scheduled in Miami, Phoenix, Berlin, Toronto, Singapore and Seattle. Each puzzle consists of an online element and a real world element which must be combined to arrive at the correct answer. There are 4 boxes available, which new box will open every week starting 8th January 2007.
For the 12 puzzles in each box each week, there are 4 “Easy”, “Medium” & “Hard” puzzles each to solve. Each “Easy” puzzle solved will award you 10 points, “Medium” puzzle 20 points, and “Hard” puzzle 50 points, thus making the maximum points you can earned from each box’s puzzles is 320 points, or 1500 points for whole contest promotion period. First box has the theme of “Time passes…”, second “Magic Happens…”, third “Memories fade…”, and forth “People disappear…”.
UpdateThe second events of Vanishing Point have also taken place in several cities across the world at Los Angeles, Phoenix, Miami, and Sydney, Australia (supposedly there was the fifth city of Auston where skywriters wrote and left more clues with messages on the sky for the puzzle quest. The skywritten message can now be viewed at SkyType.
Third events of Vanishing Point is projection images displayed on several building across the world in cities such as San Francisco, Toronto, London, Berlin and Singapore. You can view the projection images at http://vanishingpointgame.com/projections.htm.
Vanishing Point Game Cheats
If the puzzles are too hard for you to crack and solve, there’re helpful users that works round the clock to decipher, decrypt and decode the secrets, problems and enigmas for resolution and solutions. There are various forums and wikis on the web that actively participate in the VanishingPoint Game, which reveal and make known the answers or clues to the puzzles.
VanishingPoint Wiki – with all the puzzles solved with answers, solutions, spoilers, how-tos, and timelines.
Another Vanishing Point Wiki in German
First forum thread in Neowin for pre-game discussion.
Second forum thread in Neowin for Box 1.
Third forum thread in Neowin for Box 2.
Another forum thread in Unfiction.
Video clip of the first event of Vanishing Point Game: Loki in Las Vegas at the Bellagio Fountains.
More videos of Loki at Las Vegas during CES.
Vanishing Point Game – Enigma director or Loki eras, the third video shown after solving the third week puzzle.
Final and grand event at Seattle, a fireworks diplay at Gasworks Park:
User captured video
Part 1 of fireworks
Part 2 of fireworks
The final video clip that shown after you completed all 4 puzzle boxes.
Vanishing Point Game – Quadruplets – a video for the final part of the meta puzzle and puzzle 4.
Vanishing Point Game is a grand mystery puzzles games for players from all over the world, and its prizes are priceless too. Grand Prize winner will be able to visit the ultimate vista vanishing point – the space – in Rocketplane XP Vehicle plus all of the other prizes combined: Windows Vista based AMD powered Dell desktop pc, 24″ widescreen monitor, Zune digital media player, an Xbox 360 gaming console, three Games for Windows game titiles, a Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000, Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007, and $50,000 cash to help defray the cost of taxes. Other prizes include 15 loaded AMD based computers with Windows Vista Ultimate, selection of Zune, Xbox 360, Microsoft Lifecam VX-6000, Microsoft Ofice Ultimate 2007, 24″/30″ widescreen LCD monitor, and games. There are also 75 device prizes of Windows Vista Ultimate, and one of the Xbox 360, Zune, or iRiver Clix, 150 software prizes of Windows Vista Ultimate or Office Ultimate 2007, and 250 games prizes of three Games for Windows game titles.
You must be 18 and older to play Vanishing Point Game, and the game is only opened for residents from Australia, Canada (except the Province of Quebec), Germany, Singapore, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain and the United States and District of Columbia. Vanishing Point Game and Sweepstakes runs from 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time on January 8, 2007 and ends at 9:00 p.m. Pacific Time on January 30, 2007. If you’re late, don’t worry, you can still open and solve the previous boxes’ puzzles.
Beside, according to news report, special prize also awaits those who can correctly guess or figure out Loki’s true identity or name, with his or her name will be printed laser-etched onto a batch of microprocessors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. This likely to be the meta puzzle, which was mentioned in FAQ and the rules of the Vanishing Point Game which mentioned that:
… but I’ll let you in on a little secret. If you are the first person to find and solve my secret puzzle, you can have your name engraved and immortalized on an AMD chip for a production run through March 31, 2007.”
and
“Meta Puzzle Bonus: The first individual to correctly solve the Meta Puzzle will automatically receive the AMD Signature Chip Bonus, which means their name will be inscribed on each AMD Athlon 64 FX chip manufactured from the time of the award through March 31, 2007. If you are deemed the recipient of this Meta Puzzle Bonus, follow the instructions presented at time of notification or receipt. This Bonus has no cash value.”
Note: The identity of Loki is Minae Noji, however the answer to meta puzzle is Lorelei, Odessa, Kara, Ivy.
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February 10th, 2007 10:41
It is going on for sure. It will be after the Official announcement so we have no conflict of interest. The announcements are being made on Monday from our Offices here in Oklahoma city. The 2:30 time slot is Central time.
Here is the standard briefing.
We are still working out whether we are able to do a Skypecast or if this will be a video recorded conference call to be posted when completed. For now please email me if you would like to join the conference call. If there are any changes I will get them to you ASAP. Also please email me if you have any specific issues or questions you would like us to cover.
Hello Vanishing Point Gamers and Space Enthusiasts!!!!
We are very excited for this web cast/recorded conference. This is the first time in company history we will put our selves out there for the general public to act as the media so often gets to. We are hoping this will be much like a press conference where you will get to talk with, and ask questions to us, the staff, at Rocketplane Kistler. We are looking forward to talking to you about our involvement in the Vanishing Point Game, as well as our involvement in creating privatized space, a world that until recently has been open only to governments and military organizations.
To make this a really special and fun event we are going have our NASA Astronaut and XP Pilot John Herrington be the key note speaker for this web cast. He will talk to you about his past with NASA, flight history, and his current involvement with Rocketplane. He will also talk to about what he is going be doing as the pilot of the XP during space flight. It’s not everyday you get to sit down and have a conversation with an Astronaut so this is going to be really cool. Just to give you a little history on John, he became a Naval Aviator in 1985 and has logged over 4.000 flight hours in over 30 different types of aircraft; he was selected by NASA in April of 1996 and was qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. His space flight experience consists of the STS-113 Endeavour mission to visit the International Space Station. During this mission he logged 330 hours in space, including 3 EVAs (Extravehicular Activates) totaling 19 hours and 55 minutes. On October 1, 2005 he retired from the US Navy and left NASA to pursue a career in the commercial space industry, Rocketplane Kistler. “John is a NASA astronaut, however it is his many spectacular talents and abilities that make him valuable to the Rocketplane team,” says George French CEO. “He is a military test pilot, knows flight avionics and astronautics, and knows the environment of space. To us, John is an asset in that he brings education, knowledge, experience, and skills to finish and test our space plane, which will regularly take civilian astronauts into space.”
We will allow you to ask questions to John and for the ones he is unable to answer we will have a few staff people there as well. These staff members will include a design engineer, sales rep, and possibly someone of senior management. This design engineer will be someone who has designed and developed integral parts of the XP.
We are also lucky enough to announce that the winner of the space flight prize will be taking part in this web cast. He/she will talk about there involvement as a contestant and their feelings as winners. We will also let you ask them questions as well.
Lastly, someone from AMD and Microsoft may decide to join us on Monday but nothing has been decided with that.
Feel free to pass this message on to everyone you know. We are looking forward to having a very large and diverse audience. Again this is something we have never done for the general public so I just hope you are half as excited about this as we are. Talk to you soon.
If you would like to take part in this web cast please contact me at gfrench3@rocketplane.com. Write me with your name, where your from, what forums you maybe on, and why you would like to join us. I will contact you with any call-in or connection information you need. Also to be posted is the URL location of the web cast or the recorded conference.
-George French III
Date: Monday Feb. 12, 2007
Time: 2:30 pm CST
February 6th, 2007 10:07
So far only Meta Puzzle winner has been revealed, he is autter211 from Neowin.
February 6th, 2007 09:01
Have any winners been announced or are any of the readers here winners? Please let us know who won! I haven’t been able to find winner announcements anywhere.
January 17th, 2007 08:11
[...] The promotion of Windows Vista is getting more intense, more viral with lots of freebies giveaway, generating lots of marketing buzz, and bigger, not only in term of prize for the winners, but also the promotional packaging box of Windows Vista. In Japan, distributors and retail shops at Akihabara Electric Town has started the marketing drive and promotion for Windows Vista. Other than free gift U-disk for the launch retail customers, Japanese retailers also make a extra large size packaging box of Windows Vista α DSP edition in order to attract passerby and window shoppers. This retail package box has dimension of 95cm in height, 75cm in width and 25 cm in length. [...]