Cryptoquip
| Filename | cryptoquip-22.hqx |
|---|---|
| Size | 523.5 KB (536110 bytes) |
| Mac OS | System 7 |
| Architecture | 68K |
| Downloads | 12 |
Cryptoquip is a $5 shareware bundle for the Classic Mac by Ed Olson of MIT, posted to the Info-Mac Archive at version 2.2. It is a small set of programs for creating and solving the cryptoquip puzzles long featured in the crossword sections of newspapers, with an automatic solver as its headline feature.
What it does
The package pairs a puzzle creator with a solver. Unusually for the genre, the solver is non-interactive: feed it a cryptoquip and it works out the substitution cipher by itself, rather than offering hints to a human player.
Puzzle background
A cryptoquip is a short quotation enciphered with a single-alphabet substitution, traditionally printed alongside a crossword. Solvers rely on letter frequencies, common short words, and pattern matching to recover the plaintext.
Builds and requirements
The programs are FAT binaries containing both 68K and PowerPC code. The 68K versions do not require an FPU, and the author notes the tools should run on any System 7 Macintosh.
Distribution
Cryptoquip is shareware with a $5 fee and is explicitly cleared for inclusion on shareware CD-ROM publications. The Info-Mac upload was made by the author at eolson@mit.edu.
This file is part of the MacTrove archive. See the Thank You page for the upstream mirrors we rely on. It is BinHex encoded — use The Unarchiver to decode it.
