Mysterious Musings from The Voynich Times...

The 1930s--The Golden Age of Detective Fiction!    Detective stories, pulps, and crime stories were very popular in the 1930s.  Agatha Christie was the preeminent  mystery writer of the time and Sherlock Holmes was still a major influence. It was in this era that Photocrimes was created.  Photocrimes was a feature in a newspaper consisting of photographs and text.  They starred Inspector Holt, who would solve the crime that was laid out in the paper.  The reader was tasked with coming up with the solution, then comparing it to the actual solution provided by Holt, which was printed elsewhere in the paper.  Solving the crime across the panels requires paying attention to the details of the case as written and the pictures themselves, as there are clues all throughout.  The reader cannot always solve everything about the crime, since the detective puts the clues and other evidence together in the story (including certain motives the reader does...

Mystery Puzzle Games, as discussed in the post,  What is a Mystery Puzzle Game? , contain three primary components:  Mystery, Puzzles, and a Game element.   In the early 1900s, detective and crime fiction were extremely popular (as it has been in much of history), so the combination of the detective and puzzles for someone to solve were a natural progression. One example in the newspapers in the early 1900s, "The Amateur Detective Puzzle," was a step towards this hobby with a visual puzzle for kids to solve with prompts explaining the setup and clews (as they were called).  These are fairly simple and straightforward for adults, but provide a fun example of detective-themed puzzles for kids to start them down the puzzle path!  Plus, they offered bonus incentive prizes to keep the kids engaged and to send in their answers!  Below is the earliest example we have uncovered and another early example.  It is unknown how many of these were created, but ...

Could the first Mystery Puzzle Game be  The Gold Bug by Edgar Allan Poe? When we think of Mystery Puzzle Games, we tend to think of subscription games like Hunt a Killer, Murder Mystery in a Box, The Society of Curiosities; box games like Exit, Unlock, or Box One; and books like Prisoner 7, Montague Island, or The Paper Labyrinth. So where do these great games of this mysterious hobby come from? This series of articles will investigate the origins of this hobby! In 1843, The Gold Bug was first published, and within it, something new for a novel… a secret code! Edgar Allan Poe, lover of cryptograms hinged his story around one, and with it you can tell not only his love of ciphers, but his seemingly strong desire to share it with his audience! To a modern audience, this section of the story may feel like a text-book, but it is also a great way to learn about ciphers and see a detailed example of one! Now, what does this have to do with the Mystery Puzzle Game (MPG) hobby? It is a ...