In celebration of our 20th anniversary, Wired invites all of our readers to a unique game of Twenty Questions.
Beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern on Friday, May 10, we will distribute a series of clues via Wired's Twitter.
We'll give out 20 clues in total: 10 on Friday, and the final 10 on Saturday. Each clue, if interpreted correctly, will lead you to a certain story that you can find online at Wired.com. Solve the clue using information from that story! You can check your individual answers below.
These clues aren't easy. In fact, they can be downright diabolical. If you want to collaborate with your fellow puzzle solvers, share your findings with the hashtag #wired20.
Once the clues are out, at 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, May 10, we'll distribute a grid that allows you to enter all 20 answers in a way that will spell out a final clue to a final puzzle. When you have that, enter it into the box at the bottom of this page.
Good luck, and enjoy your trip through Wired's history...
Update: Here are all of the clues, for your convenience!
1. Wired predicted a product *by name* 11 years early. Change 1 letter in that name for THIS RELATED PRODUCT.
2. A company profiled on Game|Life was depicted between two mythological threats. Delete the outside letters for THIS VERB.
3. Readers got emails from a character whose surname can delete a letter to get a character later played by THAT SAME ACTOR.
4. A type of popularity-inflating cyberattack is a homophone of THIS ’90s TV SHOW.
5. A singer discussed the death of a man whose full name, after losing a letter, contains THIS 6-LETTER WORD reversed.
6. Five women vied for a pageant crown. One’s name scrambles to the last 5 letters of THIS ADJECTIVE mentioned in the article.
7. A highly quotable professor patented a process for removing a scent. Add a fruit in front to make THIS.
8. A drug may help you cheat a casino. Remove one instance of the only repeated letter in its name, then jumble it to get THIS WORD.
9. Wired depicted research into a substance whose unique letters scramble into THIS WORD IN THE HEADLINE that also describes it.
10. A country transports objects in a type of vehicle. Reverse it for a phrase suggesting military intolerance. Take THIS 2ND WORD.
11. Wired met a videogame’s creators in a Spokane burger joint. Mix the game with its precursor’s 1st letter to get THIS WORD.
12. Scientists plan to modify an animal to produce only male offspring. Scramble its name and add a letter to get THIS AUTOMOBILE.
13. If you scramble each unique letter in a tiny beast you can grow, you’ll get THIS FEMALE SINGER.
14. A professor called a program “evil” in Wired. In the article’s pic a character calls another an anagram of THIS PAST-TENSE VERB.
15. Wired let a US agency defend a type of data security whose first 5 letters are the last 5 of THIS CANDIDATE’S FULL NAME.
16. The first initial and reversed last name of the subject of an article whose headline contains the string SSIPISP spell THIS.
17. An author went to a nation which he compared to a park. Put a P at the front and scramble for THESE INSTRUMENTS.
18. This living artwork’s name becomes THIS CITY if you add its state abbreviation.
19. A popular TV host said that nearly 9/10 of TV is something that can have its middle letter changed to give THIS BRAND NAME.
20. We printed journal excerpts from a man who risked his life to have lunch in a strange place. Scramble his name to get THIS WORD.
You can check each individual answer by entering your guess into the boxes below. When you have the final answer, enter it into the last box and hit the Check! button.
