As already mentioned in the thread viewtopic.php?f=81&t=4125#p79490, I want to document a new idea regarding Nulls/Skips here. At least I hope it’s new. Maybe exactly this was already discussed in the course of Nulls & Skips with P15/P19. If not, of course a second test does not hurt. And with my bad memory, I wouldn’t be surprised if I posted this idea myself some time ago =)
There is a variation of the diagonal transposition, which is very easy to implement, but at the same time brings with it enormous problems:
You write a plain text in a 17×20 grid. However, this plaintext does not fill the grid completely and the last 11 characters remain empty. Now you perform a diagonal untranspose and ignore the spaces. The result is a cipher that can no longer be restored with a regular diagonal transposition. Due to the skipped blanks there are gaps which have to be inserted into the cipher again before reconversion. The free 11 characters at the end of the completely transposed cipher (Figure 2) could be replaced by fillers in the final step (substitution) similar to z408.
If the number of spaces is known, the positions of the gaps can easily be determined. If you insert the orange spaces shown in Figure 3 into the cipher, it can easily be restored by diagonal transposition.
I wrote a test that does just that. It runs through all possible diagonal transpositions for every possible gap size (1-16 in the case of a 17×20 grid). There are a total of 16 transposition options:
The advantage is that the necessary gaps can be determined very easily for each variation (see Figure 3). The search space is thus limited to the initial size of the grid times the possible gap lengths and times the 16 transpositions. I have tested cipher widths from 15 to 34.
The test unfortunately did not yield any results yet. The challenge cipher shown in the above mentioned thread was solved without problems:
Fba:d9oEuDhir1AXL qclkUeZBw2d:DnQiC ubxUK5Ge=Mj7o4Q1p §3VhHYZc9Fyk$CRt2 bdDiQAp:eJv5jqbKh +7ZujQ;Ucej4sN;CM 5oX1b§dh0R=cPAeXD b9=E;qgKBIM7aXLQi Z:QYJ§x3CwFsNRLdu eU=4QwEHQo2p1TK:J Mjyb$Xku5+e0PhAcg anCqDUx57§=RiAhoZ 9cqE:I17C§3QbRsBd eJSuF5AKlTy$+QMjQ 0Gqohl;7NHX1DY=P2 kigcpXb4YeLaxQw§3 IZdjTIVyD$9mt4KI+ =UsiBZ0CHI;PdRQgY 9Xnka:DGxIABVi=NZ qtT3;7oB=FvZODAIK
Just remove the last 11 symbols and add the gaps shown in Figure 3. Now AZDecrypt should solve it (transposition solver).
Maybe someone wants to create such a cipher, then I try to solve it. Gladly also different variations with different initial grid sizes. There is of course the possibility that my code contains errors. I don’t want to give up the idea so soon.
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
I want to document a new idea regarding Nulls/Skips here. At least I hope it’s new.
It was not considered before, diagonal transposition still has some tricks up its sleeve. It does not seem to show up on the period chart, even with a complete rectangle, probably because it is a untransposition.
Maybe someone wants to create such a cipher, then I try to solve it. Gladly also different variations with different initial grid sizes. There is of course the possibility that my code contains errors. I don’t want to give up the idea so soon.
Sure, have fun!
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Sure, have fun!
Thank you. My solver has found the following solution. It is not quite accurate, but it is clearly readable:
Cipher width: 18, Gap size: 15, Starting Point: BottomRight, Reversed: true, Alternating: false Best Score: 15270.357286822944 Best Solution: ASYOUATTEMPTTOMOVEAWAYFROMYOURSTANTINGPOINTYOUUILLBEMUGGEDBYLARSOLAGRANGETHEBULLYOFSCABBISLANDASTERYOURCONFRONTATIOTTAKEYOURTIMETOEXPLORETHEISLANDACROSSTHEBRIDGEYOULLFTNDTHEWOODSMITHA TTHEFOOTKEEPMOVINGLESTANDYOULLSINGCALLYTHECANTOGRAPHERINTHEAGRACENTSHIPABARINTHESHIPCLOSESTTOTHECAMERAANINNTOTHEEXTREMELESTANDALAUNDRYPLACEINTHE
Well…now this hypothesis is also going down the drain. Z340 is therefore not based on an incomplete diagonal transposition. At least not in the way shown above. Anyway, now another bunch of the total 340! possibilities has been eliminated =)
Maybe I should play Monkey Island 1&2 again, haven’t played it for some years. This game is just great, even from today’s perspective.
Thimbleweed Park is on my Steam wish list. I am waiting for a 70% discount. Mark Ferrari is definitely one of my favorite artists. The things he does with color cycling… Will consider Manic Mansion and Day Of The Tentacle.
Have you played Thimbleweed Park yet?
Nice one Largo!
Have you played Thimbleweed Park yet?
No, I have purchased Day Of The Tentacle though, but not yet played. Just not getting to it, you know how it is.
