On the Look Up of Ed Balls
Dem balls in the gameplay room!
- If the frame is not blue, you’re looking at a different module.
- The letters are E, D, B, A, L, and S, but they are encoded by a reversible affine cipher.
- To disarm this module, undo the transformation to return the letters to their original form and enter the message “ED BALLS.”
- Pressing an incorrect button will result in a strike and reset your input, but will not cause the buttons to change.
Using Affine Ciphers
An affine cipher is determined by two variables A and B. Letters are encoded as follows:
- Convert a letter to its alphabetical position, called x.
- Compute the value Ax + B, and add or subtract 26 until the result is between 1 and 26.
- The final number is the alphabetic position of the encoded letter.
When attempting to decrypt an affine cipher, the following fact may help:
Any sequence of equally spaced letters (for example, “E, L, S”) will encode to letters that are also equally spaced, wrapping around from Z to A if necessary.
A= | Affine Table | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
3 | C | F | I | L | O | R | U | X | A | D | G | J | M | P | S | V | Y | B | E | H | K | N | Q | T | W | Z |
5 | E | J | O | T | Y | D | I | N | S | X | C | H | M | R | W | B | G | L | Q | V | A | F | K | P | U | Z |
7 | G | N | U | B | I | P | W | D | K | R | Y | F | M | T | A | H | O | V | C | J | Q | X | E | L | S | Z |
9 | I | R | A | J | S | B | K | T | C | L | U | D | M | V | E | N | W | F | O | X | G | P | Y | H | Q | Z |
11 | K | V | G | R | C | N | Y | J | U | F | Q | B | M | X | I | T | E | P | A | L | W | H | S | D | O | Z |
15 | O | D | S | H | W | L | A | P | E | T | I | X | M | B | Q | F | U | J | Y | N | C | R | G | V | K | Z |
17 | Q | H | Y | P | G | X | O | F | W | N | E | V | M | D | U | L | C | T | K | B | S | J | A | R | I | Z |
19 | S | L | E | X | Q | J | C | V | O | H | A | T | M | F | Y | R | K | D | W | P | I | B | U | N | G | Z |
21 | U | P | K | F | A | V | Q | L | G | B | W | R | M | H | C | X | S | N | I | D | Y | T | O | J | E | Z |
23 | W | T | Q | N | K | H | E | B | Y | V | S | P | M | J | G | D | A | X | U | R | O | L | I | F | C | Z |
25 | Y | X | W | V | U | T | S | R | Q | P | O | N | M | L | K | J | I | H | G | F | E | D | C | B | A | Z |