On the Subject of Bumpers
Where are the flippers? Where’s the scoreboard? WHERE ARE THE BALLS?
Presented is an array of pinball bumpers. Each bumper has a colour and an LED that may be on or off. To solve the module, activate the correct bumpers.
Each bumper is either valid or invalid. Find all the bumpers that are currently valid, using the conditions below.
- If a bumper has 3 neighbours (there are 6 bumpers like this),
it is valid if it shares a colour with any of its neighbours. - If a bumper has 4 neighbours (there are 4 bumpers like this),
it is valid if its neighbours do not share any colours. - If a bumper has 6 neighbours (there are 4 bumpers like this),
it is valid if among its neighbours, there is a pair of adjacent bumpers with the same colour. - Lit bumpers are valid if the above rules find them to be invalid, and invalid otherwise.
If no bumpers are valid, all lit bumpers are valid instead.
Take the first character in the serial number and call it N. If it is a letter, convert it into a number using Table A. If it is a number, add 1 to it.
Add the number of lit bumpers to N.
Subtract the number of valid bumpers from N until N is less than or equal to it. Then, locate the Nth valid bumper in reading order and activate (select) it.
The bumpers adjacent to the one you activated may light or unlight. Recalculate the valid bumpers and repeat the above process for the remaining serial number characters.
Once activating six bumpers correctly, the module will solve. Activating an incorrect bumper will not reset the module.
