Treasure Hunt

[Polarbear]

Hats off to Noxon, and everybody who was involved in this little scheme!

This was a great way to engage the fans, and it was a great thing to follow, even if someone like me is way too dumb for any of this stuff.

[PepeLePew]

Thanks to everyone involved in the Treasure Hunt - both creating it and also solving it. I haven't even tried to help solving, but following it along has been a lot of fun and got me even more excited for the new album!

Thanks again!!! 

[Bertielee]

The treasure hunt was my idea, which I proposed to JP in march at the G3 tour. I worked closely with all the people you see in the credits for the treasure hunt to make it all work.

I bow down to you, godly Noxon, for having such a FANTASTIC idea!

B.Lee

[Jinx]

Its Metropolis Pt3 isnt it? The lyrics, the fact it seems like the songs could be interwoven with those from SFAM... Maybe (and judging by the cover) the main character has had its brain uploaded to an android?

[IDontNotDoThings]

Its Metropolis Pt3 isnt it? The lyrics, the fact it seems like the songs could be interwoven with those from SFAM... Maybe (and judging by the cover) the main character has had its brain uploaded to an android?

Cyberpunk 1928? 

[Sebastián Pratesi]

Is the number like this?  585-310-2?90 Not sure about one of the digits.

Yes. That '?' digit is 3. It's the answer to this question:
https://twitter.com/FreddyJacobi/status/1055831256359976960
https://twitter.com/FreddyJacobi/status/1055831414749519873

[Sebastián Pratesi]

Yup.  I can now confirm that Noxon is Freddy.  But I get credit for finding and coming up with his avatar. 

That's a cool avatar! Too bad it was only used here.

[Sebastián Pratesi]

Btw, there's a number on the skull, 137. Wonder what it means.

B.Lee

The same number can be seen in the notepad in the 15th puzzle piece. (James' hand obscured it in the 'Hidden by Design' picture, so we only got to see it a few weeks ago.)

In the notepad, the '137' is over-lined, which 'el_deadache' on Discord realised looks very similar to a scene in "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace", an episode of The Simpsons. (You know: the one where Homer fancies himself as an inventor a la Edison.)

[Sebastián Pratesi]

I wonder if the artist who created this is the same one from TA. Looks pretty similar. And very good, btw.

One of the passwords yesterday was Syme2018. So, not sure about that.

[MirrorMask]

So, lately I wasn't doing that much.... for ONE evening I go out, and THIS happens? Wow. Social life SUCKS.

The treasure hunt was my idea, which I proposed to JP in march at the G3 tour. I worked closely with all the people you see in the credits for the treasure hunt to make it all work.

You're a genius sir!!!

Well, to be fair, a lot of people were Freddy - not just me. There was a whole team acting as Freddy in different settings. I was but one of them

I did create most of the puzzles though, with great help from Maddi coming up with the clues from the studio.

So.... there wasn't a dude from the label? you and other people took turns in posting with Freddy's account? WOW. Mind blown just when I figured out SFAM's twist.

[noxon]

The Spotify based puzzle was people from the Label. So they were involved.

[Bertielee]

Btw, there's a number on the skull, 137. Wonder what it means.

B.Lee

The same number can be seen in the notepad in the 15th puzzle piece. (James' hand obscured it in the 'Hidden by Design' picture, so we only got to see it a few weeks ago.)

In the notepad, the '137' is over-lined, which 'el_deadache' on Discord realised looks very similar to a scene in "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace", an episode of The Simpsons. (You know: the one where Homer fancies himself as an inventor a la Edison.)

Oohh, thanks Sebastian! Again!

B.Lee

[rab7]

Is the number like this?  585-310-2?90 Not sure about one of the digits.

Yes. That '?' digit is 3. It's the answer to this question:
https://twitter.com/FreddyJacobi/status/1055831256359976960
https://twitter.com/FreddyJacobi/status/1055831414749519873

Interesting, I thought the answer was 320 minutes, so we were supposed to just ignore the 20?

[Another_Won]

Is the number like this?  585-310-2?90 Not sure about one of the digits.

Yes. That '?' digit is 3. It's the answer to this question:
https://twitter.com/FreddyJacobi/status/1055831256359976960
https://twitter.com/FreddyJacobi/status/1055831414749519873

Interesting, I thought the answer was 320 minutes, so we were supposed to just ignore the 20?

So that is the number we call with the recording?  That says, close your eyes and relax . . .

[Mladen]

Kudos for Noxon for all the work that he put into it. Amazing job, man. This is exactly what the guys in the band mean when they say Dream Theater fans are incredible. 

[raggashaggas]

That's awesome. Thanks to those who helped put together this hunt and increase the hype up to 11... I have to wonder, maybe I missed it: what happened with the letters that were hidden in the picture fragments? What purpose did they end up serving?

[noxon]

They were rearranged and some were shifted to reveal the album title. 8 letters were there, 5 needed to change  2 or 3 places, with two being shifted much more.

[Madman Shepherd]

I think I said this before, but I'm not really into puzzle solving and all that but I did enjoy observing this from afar. 

Cool and unique way to build hype. 

[Sebastián Pratesi]

Oohh, thanks Sebastian! Again!

B.Lee

No problemo, amigo!

Interesting, I thought the answer was 320 minutes, so we were supposed to just ignore the 20?

In the end, the correct answer was the relation between the time spent walking vs. the time spent on train. (Which is 3, because that's the inverse of the rate between the speeds.) So, the 'back in 8 hours' detail was irrelevant. (Hence, why Freddy didn't like the '320 minutes' replies to their tweet.)

So that is the number we call with the recording?  That says, close your eyes and relax . . .

Yes sir!

[robwebster]

Must say, Noxon was so openly engaging with the treasure hunters and present/helpful in the comments that it never occurred to me that he could've been Freddy Jacobi! Talk about hiding in plain sight, right?

[MirrorMask]

Must say, Noxon was so openly engaging with the treasure hunters and present/helpful in the comments that it never occurred to me that he could've been Freddy Jacobi! Talk about hiding in plain sight, right?

Makes me want to quickly re-read this thread and spot the signs

[Nathan Explosion]

Haha, definitely hiding in plain sight.

Good thing you didn't accidentally mix up the accounts and post from the wrong account.

[SuperTaco]

The sound production has taken a big step forward in power, and Petrucci has evolved his guitar tone to another level entirely. So incredibly fresh and modern sounding, like a natural step forward from DT12.

It really kicks your ass.

[Sebastián Pratesi]

Haha, definitely hiding in plain sight.

Good thing you didn't accidentally mix up the accounts and post from the wrong account.

Yours is the coolest username, by the way! I discovered Metalocalypse last year and fell in love.
(I think the first episode I watched was that one where Murderface fancies himself a composer, so Nathan and Skwisgaar make fun of him; such a cool scene!)

[bosk1]

Haha, definitely hiding in plain sight.

Good thing you didn't accidentally mix up the accounts and post from the wrong account.

Oh, but he actually did once or twice.    Luckily, we caught it before anyone else did. 

[cramx3]

 

well done to everyone involved

[raggashaggas]

The new DT album cover bears a skull with a number engraved on it toward the back.. 137. Another user pointed this out. Coincidentally, I opened my "Firefox" tab which recommends me different articles and such, and this was one of them:

https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/why-the-number-137-is-one-of-the-greatest-mysteries-in-physics

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

[RaiseTheKnife]

Interesting article - I wonder if this has any correlation to studies concerning the Golden Mean / Square Root of 5.

[Ben_Jamin]

That sounds like something Mangini would be interested in. Maybe his lyrics are the centerpiece to the entire album. Which is why when they were interviewed, he really wanted to say but couldn't.

[gzarruk]

That sounds like something Mangini would be interested in. Maybe his lyrics are the centerpiece to the entire album. Which is why when they were interviewed, he really wanted to say but couldn't.

I have a strong feeling about this too. On that video, he WANTED to say something, but Petrucci didn't want him to reveal any official titles yet.

[YtseJamittaja]

That sounds like something Mangini would be interested in. Maybe his lyrics are the centerpiece to the entire album. Which is why when they were interviewed, he really wanted to say but couldn't.

I have a strong feeling about this too. On that video, he WANTED to say something, but Petrucci didn't want him to reveal any official titles yet.

What video are you talking about?


And yeah, noxon linked that same article in 137 thread but no one responded to it.

[lucasembarbosa]

What video are you talking about?

The Facebook live they did a few months ago...

https://www.facebook.com/dreamtheater/videos/10155382393742181/

[gzarruk]

What video are you talking about?

The Facebook live they did a few months ago...

https://www.facebook.com/dreamtheater/videos/10155382393742181/

Yep, that one. They even answered one of my questions

[Sebastián Pratesi]

Now I want to know what's the story behind "Vail Renovations"

tl;dr (and, for those who don't read Spanish):

I asked Victoria from Dream Theater USA, who is one of the people behind the 'Freddy Jacobi' moniker, whether the Vail Renovations' area of service indeed was a Simpsons reference; she replied that, although her being a big Simpsons fan, it was a complete coincidence: they simply wanted the area of service and the phone numbers to correspond to Upstate NY, so that Freddy being a contractor and his friend hanging around the band's studio was believable.

And, the company's site was mainly designed by her and noxon.

Plus, she praised my 'treasure hunt' recap.

Finally, she told me what some of her favourite Simpsons episodes are. (The one where Bart thinks Flanders killed his wife, and the one where Homer is tempted to kiss his co-worker on a business trip.)

(By the way, this is all shared with Victoria's permission. Thanks, Victoria! )

[RMGadelha]

First time that knowing Portuguese actually helped me on this forum, though I did learn Spanish in school