Nancy Drew 27: The Deadly Device Hints

How do I solve the circle of dots?

• 1 of 8: If all you see is a circle of dots, you're missing some vital information. Leave Security and go look at the "Binary Buster" chart on the bulletin board on the second floor.
• 2 of 8: Now you can see, and Nancy will tell you too, that what you have to do here is change some of the red lights to blue so that every possible combination of red and blue (as shown in the chart on the right side of the screen) can be found here going clockwise around the circle. Read on for a screenshot of one possible solution.
• 3 of 8: This sounds impossible, but it's not really. For one thing, every time you change a dot, the table on the right will change to show you which numbers you've just enabled. The ones you still have to find are marked by a little padlock.
• 4 of 8: 0 is four red dots, so you already have that. 1 is three red and one blue, so if you make any red circle blue, you've got 1 -- and 2, 4, and 8 as well. See how easy this is?
• 5 of 8: 3 is two red and two blue, so add a second blue next to the first one. That adds 3, 6, and 12, but takes away 2 and 4, because they relied on a single blue with a red to the left of it. Hmm.
• 6 of 8: Easily fixed, though -- just add another blue two spaces right of the last one.
• 7 of 8: You can easily solve this puzzle by experimentation in this way. Add a dot and see what changes in the table, then add another and so on. When you get down to two or three numbers left to get, you can get more detailed and see exactly where you can squeeze in the number you need.
• 8 of 8: There are lots of ways to get all the numbers, but here's how I did it:
  • Binary Circle
  • What do I do with the computer once I'm in?

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• There are no more hints.

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