This puzzle is, as the title suggests, a tribute to beloved puzzles of yesteryear. Each mini-puzzle is based on a puzzle from a different year in the range 2010-2017, inclusive, and each mini-puzzle reuses the puzzle's mechanic to produce a single letter.
The mini puzzles are presented in alphabetical order by the title of the original puzle. Rearranging them in chronological order gives the answer, MEMORIAL.
Solutions for each mini puzzle are as follows:
| Title | Year | Solution | Letter | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Argh | 2012 | The mumbled quote is “A single opening transfixed the blob, forminf [sic] into a leechlike maw.”, from which you extract “maw” and take the first letter to get M. |
M |
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| Be A Star | 2015 | CAP + RICK + CORNUS (the genus of dogwood trees) = CAPRICORNUS. Five stars means take the fifth letter to get I. |
I |
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| Crimes Against Cruciverbalism | 2016 | Completed grid. The intersections of matching ‘crimes’ spell ALPHA. |
A |
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| Great Minds Think Alike | 2010 | Great Minds Think Alike used references to previous puzzles as well. In this case, the reference is to Rite Awaits Myth by 2005, which was solved by 11 teams. Take the 11th letter of the title to get M. |
M |
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| Heirplay | 2017 | The thumbs-up songs thematically clue “U Got the Look” by Prince. The thumbs-down songs clue the words TOO, TOKE, and HUG respectively. Removing those letters from UGOTTHELOOK leaves an L. |
L |
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| Magic Mushrooms | 2014 |
Solve the sudoku:
VEGA spelled out. This is the 5th brightest star in the night sky. Three of the mushrooms were -1 and one was +1, so 1-3 = -2, and taking the entry two after Vega in Wikipedia’s list of brightest stars gives RIGEL.
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R |
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| Plotlines | 2011 | The movie is Inception, and the character represented by the question mark is EAMES |
E |
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| Something In Common | 2013 | The description is a mash-up of “Demons” from season 4 of Castle and “Demons” from season 4 of The X-Files. Take the fourth letter of DEMONS to get O. |
O |
Re-ordered by year:
| Title | Year | Letter |
|---|---|---|
| Great Minds Think Alike | 2010 | M |
| Plotlines | 2011 | E |
| Argh | 2012 | M |
| Something In Common | 2013 | O |
| Magic Mushrooms | 2014 | R |
| Be A Star | 2015 | I |
| Crimes Against Cruciverbalism | 2016 | A |
| Heirplay | 2017 | L |