Finders Keepers is back!

Something that plays a large role in my personal mythology of living in SA is the annual Finders Keepers treasure hunt that the Sunday Times held while I was growing up.

I have been beside myself with excitement to see that after a nearly 10-year break, this fantastic game is back, and I sat down to read the clues with great enthusiasm this Sunday.

In the past, my family always used to gather together to pour over the clues. I remember stories of people fighting over encyclopedias at libraries, but my family had fairly good general knowledge, so we didn`t have to plunder our local library.

My aunt and grandmother generally managed to solve it between them in one sitting, and I was always astonished by their puzzle-solving prowess.

The first thing that struck me this year was how easy the Finders Keepers challenge seems to have become.

Georgina Guedes, Editor, ITWeb Brainstorm

The only clue I can remember from any of the years of the game was "I am part of a song that goes 'stomp stomp clap, stomp stomp clap`". The answer for that week was rock (as in "we will rock you").

Another memory I have of the contest was when one little boy, having figured out with his family where the millions were hidden - near the dinosaur in some miniland park - went and stole the dinosaur thinking that in this way, he`d have won the millions.

In the years since Finders Keepers was last published, I have been drawn into a number of other puzzle games. The Stone is a fantastic online puzzle game, where a community of individuals work to solve each new puzzle released by the stonemasters. What`s really interesting about The Stone is that all the answers to the puzzles are from a researchable part of human history or mythology, so the process of Internet searching and puzzle-solving is a journey of discovery.

The Myst series of computer games has also been a long-time addiction of mine, and I`m also always the first person to attempt any lateral thinking challenge anyone offers.

The first thing that struck me this year was how easy the Finders Keepers challenge seems to have become. I`m going to put this down to me having aged, rather than the game having been simplified.

There are a number of changes. There is only one picture clue for the full four weeks; it is merely divided into four panels. The rhyming clue will be released each week, applying to each separate panel. Where in the past, they provided the number of letters for each week`s answer, there are now merely blank boxes.

But the biggest change of all is the fact that there is now an online component to Finders Keepers. At the Web site, intrepid puzzle-solvers can view a PDF of the picture, read that week`s poem, and ask for further clues on SMS. Mugg and Bean, the sponsor this time around, is also selling clues for a rather hefty price.

The Internet is going to change a lot of things. Instead of anyone having to visit libraries to research the clues, the Internet will be an easy way to confirm any suspicions. I would be interested to see the local search engine hit lists for questions like "Muizenburg has two".

I solved the first clue just by looking at the puzzle, but will be confirming and doing background research on the Internet over the next couple of weeks to figure out the final location.

To all the other puzzle addicts out there, best of luck!