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Safari Adventure

Frog

by Ian Tullis, Yar Woo, Todd Etter
Answers: ESCAPE, SONG

This puzzle is based on the Concept board game. The first answer can be obtained by playing the game as normal, using each board's central concept (clued by the green ?) and auxiliary concepts (clued by the black, blue, red, and yellow !s).

Using Concepts

The ?s and !s were placed on the boards thusly:

Board 1:
Blue !: [Curve/Arc/Rounded], Cloud/Rain/Snow/Cold, Sun/Heat/Light/Daytime, Top/Up/Mount, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple = RAINBOW
Red !: [Idea/Thought/Concept], Zero/Nothing/Null, Black, Gray, White, Clear/Invisible = NO COLOR
Green ?: [Idea/Thought/Concept], Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink, Brown = COLOR(S)

Board 2:
Black !: [Expression/Quote/Speak/Word], Fast/Lively/Hare, Power/Politics, Tall/Greater/High, Top/Up/Mount = CITIUS, ALTIUS, FORTIUS
Red !: [Grid/Network/Prison], Wildlife/Animal, Television/Broadcast/Series, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple = NBC
Yellow !: [Circle/Button], Money/Rich/Expensive, Torso/Stomach, Metal, Unity/One, Left/First/Before = GOLD MEDAL
Green ?: [Date/Event/Daytime], Location/Country/Flag (multiple cubes), Recreation/Sport/Activity = OLYMPICS

Board 3:
Black !: [Ring/Cycle], Literature/Writing/Book, Fictional/Imaginary/Wish, Death/Evil/Disease, Power/Politics, Metal, Top/Up/Mount, Yellow, Clear/Invisible = THE ONE RING
Yellow !: [Ring/Cycle], Date/Event/Daytime, Person/Family/Group (two cubes), Clothing/Accessories/Costume, Life/Heart/Love, Money/Rich/Expensive, Religion/Myth/Belief, Arm/Hand, Metal = WEDDING RING
Green ?: [Ring/Cycle], Circle/Button = RING(S)

Board 4:
Black !: [Part/Bit/Piece], Zero/Nothing/Null, Unity/One = BITS
Red !: [Star], Unity/One (two cubes) = BINARY STAR
Green ?: [Expression/Quote/Speak/Word], Electronics/Computer = BINARY

The four boards solve to COLORS, OLYMPICS, RINGS, and BINARY. Indeed, the five Concept "punctuation" pieces happen to have exactly the Olympic ring colors. For each board, look at which colors of punctuation are present (1) and absent (0), and read those binary bits in the Olympic ring order (blue, yellow, black, green, red), changing the resulting five-bit string into a letter in the usual puzzlehunt way:

Board 1: Blue, _, _, Green, Red 10011 S
Board 2: _, Yellow, Black, Green, Red 01111 O
Board 3: _, Yellow, Black, Green, _ 01110 N
Board 4: _, _, Black, Green, Red 00111 G

So the first answer is SONG.

Using the Off-to-the-Side Cubes

To get the other answer, we should look at what we haven't used yet. Each board has one cube that is placed off to the side of an icon rather than on the icon. These cubes are at different heights that "index" into the lists of possibilities for each icon (as presented on the printouts), making it clear what each one is supposed to stand for in this part of the puzzle:

Board 1: TOP/Up/Mount
Board 2: LEFT/First/Before
Board 3: Circle/BUTTON
Board 4: Electronics/COMPUTER

The TOP LEFT BUTTON on a COMPUTER (keyboard) is ESCAPE, which is the second answer. (It is not Esc, since six blanks are shown on the sign posted in the room.)