It's a good thing I didn't know about @ClassicBowling's lovely checkerboard motif a few years back, or I'd probably be trying to maintain a somehow-snuck-in 2-tone bowling puzzle today. That decoration's lovely, though.

Photos from "Bowling Alley Acts Like Community Center in Daly City" at KALW

While I was off observing a REDACTED playtest, Dave Schweisguth was finishing off the 2-Tone Game. He even figured out the UI by which winners can send a taunting message to Game Control (a feat even rarer than winning), but, uhm, I found out first from his tweet

This was fun: 2tonegame.org #sf
— Dave Schweisguth (@daveschweisguth) August 19, 2013

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Someone finished the 2-Tone Game yesterday. It doesn't happen often. Nowadays, most of the activity is folks showing up, playing the example puzzle, then giving up when they see the first "real" puzzle. Occasionally, though, someone impressively sticks with it.

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Like @TheUriah says, "If you want to destroy part of the urban landscape, base a game on it."

Yesterday, on my way back home from the Fendels', I changed trains at the Embarcadero. I checked up on the 2-Tone Game's Embarcadero puzzle, which you recall got messed up when a post went missing. I'd reworked the last stage of that puzzle to use another feature of the Embarcadero, a certain line-of-sight between the reacted and this little reacted. And the Embarcadero's pretty big, but wouldn't you know it—as of yesterday, someone had put a little planter in place. Not a big planter, just a little one. But big enough to block that line of sight.

I don't know why the tourists thought I was standing in that spot staring slack-jawed at a planter, somehow interpreting the planter as a personal setback.

Anyhow, The Institute Movie was good for Jejune Institute nostalgia. And in the after-movie discussion, the creators mentioned that if we visit the movie's web site and look over some of the extra footage, there's a rabbit-hole for some other game.

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Post about Post-Post Situation

Part of a 2-Tone Game puzzle used to be something like, "Look south-by-southwest for an easily recognizable post; on the sidewalk beneath it is a quote; the letters on the corners of the quote form a word; what's the word?" A few weeks back, part of the 2-Tone Game got knocked over; the easily-spotted post became a cement support with bolts sticking out. So the puzzle-piece changed to something like "Go south-by-southeast until you reach the sidewalk; look for a quote on the sidewalk; the letters on the corners of the quote form a word; what's the word?"

Today, I disembarked from the Sausalito ferry, checked on the spot... and there was just a blank square of sidewalk there. The cement support was gone, the quote was gone. So I tweaked the puzzle-piece again to tell folks to look for something else. But the new thing doesn't have that satisfying wordplay. It's too bad; that post looked pretty permanent; but it turned out not so much.

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