ISIS Puzzle???

Anybody got this or seen it before. Seen it on Jonathan Ross last night.
ISIS Adventure Supposed to be the hardest puzzle in the world. Only 5% people who try it will ever unlock it and get the gold key.

Oops put it in the wrong category.

[edit on 30/9/06 by ramsay]

[edit on 30/9/06 by ramsay]

So basically you have to buy some little ball "Isis" for $190.00 and then solve the puzzle, in which case you might win a prize?

Sounds.... great..... yeah.

Originally posted by please_takemyrights
So basically you have to buy some little ball "Isis" for $190.00 and then solve the puzzle, in which case you might win a prize?

Sounds.... great..... yeah.

Actually--it is a great idea and it's reminiscent of a "treasure hunt" orchestrated years ago by a painter (British) named Kit Williams who published his paintings in a book called Masquerade. He included a story, along with his paintings, wherein the texts hid clues to solve a puzzle. The solution to the puzzle yielded the secret location where a terracotta box was buried that contained a solid gold rabbit worth several hundred thousand dollars. It took a couple years but eventually someone solved the puzzle and dug up the "prize".

While its not worth the same as the rabbit, the appeal of the "thousands $" the Isis treasure is worth; plus the desire to solve puzzles, is probably enough to sell thousands of these things.

This reminds me of an odd little short story that I read some time ago. I can't remember the Title or the Author's name, but basicly it was about a special puzzel that was exceptionally difficult to solve. It was a device designed to only be solvable by a small number of super smart people. The kicker was, the puzzel contained death. Within the device was a slow acting genetic-invasive bio-toxen designed to not only kill whoever opened it, but to attack those with simular genes.

The idea was to indentify and destroy the smartest people in the world and thus reduce their potential threat to the Global Shadow Government.

Good thing it was just a story, eh?

My three closest friends and I each recently received an Isis for our birthdays/Christmas. The puzzle orb comes with a book. The book has ten encrypted clues as to how the orb is opened. There is no difference between the clues for each of our four Isis orbs. Decrypting the clues took about three hours. Opening the orb took about another hour of reading, listening, fidgeting, listening, rotating, pushing, listening, consulting the clues, pushing some more, listening again, then finally twisting the thing open. Extremely satisfying to open one of these things. My three friends have yet to open theirs, and it's been almost a week since we got them.
After you open the orb, you will find a ten digit code stamped on the inside. If the Isis was purchased after June 2007, you have to send an email requesting an actual metal key. I sent the email on a Sunday and received a reply from the company (Sonic Warp) that the key had been sent (no tracking number) on Monday. Don't know when it will come in the mail considering it was most likely sent from the UK and it was over a holiday.
When I opened the orb, some pieces fell out. The company offers to put them back together for you (roughly $50 USD plus postage) if you can't figure out how the pieces go back in. My impression from the website was that this is not normal, but it does happen rather frequently.
I'll be happy to answer any additional questions you may have as long as I am not asked give the solution to any of the cryptograms or give instructions on how to specifically open an Isis. Not only would it be difficult to explain exactly how one is opened, but it really is satisfying to open one knowing you did it with your own ingenuity. I also support what Sonic Warp is doing with the puzzle and would like to see more of these. According to the website, there are four more puzzles to be released in the Isis series, and having all five keys has something to do with a bigger "adventure." Isis II is due out some time in 2008.
I will also say that an Isis is not something I would have normally just dropped $200 on not knowing anything about it, but I will consider buying another one if this key doesn't get me anywhere. The craftmanship really is amazing. Even the display/storage box is very nice.

I bought one of the isis and got the codes put i have not idea where to start can some one plzzzzzz help me on where to start

reply to post by kinnunen


Thanks for the post Kinnunen. I've had mine for about 2 days and am having a lot of fun tinkering with it. Please don't post any spoilers (as I would love the satisfaction of completing the majority of it on my own) however, if you can comment on the purpose of the hieroglyphics without giving anything major away I would appreciate it. Part of me thinks that I need to become an expert on egyptian language and put the bands into some intricate pattern. Another part of me thinks the writing on the bands is irrelevant, designed to distract one from the real puzzle since there is no mention of them in the clues. Again, if you can point me in the right direction without giving anything major away I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
-Bo

I REALLY want this puzzle, but I don't want to spend $200 on it .

Hope I'm in time to help you out.

Joe- If you mean that you solved what's in the instruction book that came with it, go from those clues. They really are the key to opening it. I opened mine by going back to the clues over and over again.

boking17- I'm not going to post any spoilers because I don't believe that would be fair to the company. I will however say that you do not have to understand the heiroglyphics to decode it. I'm 90% sure that the bands have nothing to do with opening the Isis at all. Once open, you can see how the middle band works and why it clicks, and it absolutely has nothing to do with opening it. But man, are those designs pretty.

More on the US quest:
I finally got my key in the mail. It's much larger than the slot it's supposed to be in inside the Isis, but the same shape. The key looks like it would open a three-pin dimple lock with interlocking pins and some extra security device at the front of the keyhole. There is no bow or shoulder to the key, but the opposite end is bitted strangely. I could imagine a lock it would open, but have never seen its like before. (I have limited experience picking locks as a hobby).

Also, I had been looking a lot on the Sonic Warp website for what to do next. That was wrong of me. The US Isises are set up through the Sharper Image and have a different reward system (which I'm sure you guys already know from reading the instruction booklet). After you get your Isis, you record the serial number on TSI website and enter your personal information. Once open, you enter the number stamped inside the Isis on TSI's website (you have to use the Sonic Warp website to request your key for that adventure; you can participate in both simultaneously). After your key number is validated, you get to choose from a list of contests. You choose one and only one contest (the others are locked out once you choose yours). The site tells you how many other people are competing in that contest. The contest consists of a riddle. The first person to solve the riddle wins the mystery prize. I took a look at some of the prizes. The best one by far is the Zero G Weightless Experience so far. (I recently received this as a Christmas gift. I go up 23 FEB from Kennedy Space Center. Costs about $3750). My riddle has been active since September. Numerous posts online by other contestants have yielded no results. This riddle is hard. I will not post it because I don't want people shouting out guesses.

I will check back here more frequently now that I know people are posting on this previously dead thread.

the voice on the website reminds me of the training computer in Portal...i guess she is still alive.

reply to post by kinnunen


okay so now you have this really cool looking key. what are you supposed to do with it?

[edit on 20-12-2007 by CepheusStar]

Ok its Christmas Day, and same sadistic friend of mine just gave me the ISIS..I did not receive a book with this orb, wasnt i supposed to, i have no instructions or anything...that cnat be right...can it?

Hystacks

reply to post by kinnunen


Kinnunen - Got the Isis orb or Christmas, ripped through the cypher clues and now playing with getting the event in clue number 3 to occur. Your comment that the bands have nothing to do with opening the Isis is strange. Something must occur to provide the result of Clue 3 - and I would think it far more likely that aligning the band(s) correctly would be more helpful then pounding the Isis on the floor.

I would guess that the uniqueness of each Isis is due to the bands each being engraved somewhat randomly - therefore the alignment on your Isis is different from my Isis. With 24 positions for each band - some positions aligning to a glyph while others don't, there are a healthy number of combinations here.

Not to be overly cryptic, but for the benefit of those still working on the clues - if I get Clue 3 to happen then and only then can I move on with getting it open by following remaining clues - clue 8 being a bit strange in how it is phrased. But it would seem the bands are involved. I can believe that looking inside that it is possible the middle band is mere show - but the top and bottom also unrelated to getting it open?

Am I missing something in what you are saying about the relevance of the bands?

Cheers -

CepheusStar - If you are in the US, I don't think there's much you can do with the key without traveling to the UK. Either way, visit the sonicwarp.com website to see how it's used. The explanation isn't the best, and it's hard to find info on the site; but that's where to go. I'm not totally clear on how the whole system works, I just know that they're not hiding them in the U.S. as of yet, and I'm not going to the UK. Also, you will want to save your key to go with the other 4 that you will get as the new Isis puzzles come out. Having all five keys is essential to getting the big prize at the end of all of this (or so SonicWarp claims).

hystacks - Yes, you need the book. I believe you can download/view it at The Sharper Image's Isis website.

spiff28088 - You can rotate the bands all you want to if you think it'll help. I'm telling you they have nothing to do with solving the Isis. The best they do is serve as a point of reference as you guide the ball bearings through the maze inside. There are other sites that will go more in depth on this topic. Unfortunately, they are also the sites that tell you exactly how to solve the puzzle. I'm glad I didn't learn about them until after I opened the orb. The temptation may have been too great.

I'm still waiting on Isis II to come out. I wish I could have been in on the whole King Tut promotion. It seems that the UK gets all of this cool stuff way before we do. Maybe their puzzle community is just that much larger than ours. For those of you interested in puzzles, check out Perplex City. That's my recent obsession. I hope they end up eventually kicking off Season 2. I've bought some of the cards, and the hard puzzles are actually HARD. As in, you have no guidance on how to solve the puzzle, you just know there is a puzzle on the card and that there is one and only one solution to that puzzle. Not all of the cards are this difficult. They range in difficulty. For an example, one of the easy cards asks how you can have night in the middle of the day. One of the difficult cards shows a piece of music written for the snare drum with NO instructions on how to even see the puzzle, not to mention get a solution.

has anyone who has this and opened
even thought about taking a picture or anything
at all?
would like to see the damn thing open and what it looks like

reply to post by kinnunen


Hi Kinnunen - Ah - a maze! Now that makes sense. Wasn't quarraling with you, just trying to understand. I have a wooden box marble maze that is sort of like that - you have to turn and tilt the box to get a white marble out, but there is a black marble in there too - and if you don't align things just right it will block the white ball.

I want very much to get it open - and to do so on my own. But, as I do have a real job and a family that would like to see me too I want to spend my puzzle time in a productive way. Spinning the bands seemed a bit lame - all you need to do is find the right combination - not too much difficulty there, only a lot of time or luck. But a maze - ok - that is something truly interesting. Have a head cold so my ears are plugged up a bit - need to get them clear so I can listen carefully.

Thanks for the clarification - and I shall try to resist temptation to find a map.

Cheers -

reply to post by spiff28088


Kinnunen - Ah, there is joy in Mudville. My Isis is open. Thought about what you said and decided to eliminate options and go with what was left - and that worked. Very interesting. No parts fell out of mine when it came open.

I signed into the Sharper Image site and entered my key, and that gave me access to the rewards - there are three currently showing as remaining. So I get to see how many people are trying for each and when the last guess was, but I have no idea what I am trying for till I select one - yes? I also went over to the Sonic Warp website and signed in there so I can try for virtual pyramids. Even though I might have to go to the UK to use it, I want the key - saw the email address and that they accept payment for shipping via Paypal, but no site link to set the order in motion.

Cheers -

Since The Sharper Image closed I cant find an offcial retailer that sales the isis puzzle orb, if someone knows what store is the offcial one email me at [email protected]