With most states gone back into lockdown again its going to be hard for those Escape Room companies that have just opened new rooms, so as soon as we are allowed there are a few new rooms to check out here.
Don’t forget during lockdown there are a few Escape Rooms out there that offer online games, board games and puzzles packs, why not take this opportunity to support the industry by purchasing some of these.
We are always open to feedback to help improve this magazine feel free to email us at:
Enthusiasts and GamesMasters feel free to send us your stories, we would love to hear about them.
Owners, please keep us updated on any new rooms you have opening, we would love to promote them for you.
Please feel free to share this magazine to fellow Escape Room Enthusiasts.
Advertising
If you would like to advertise in the magazine email us at era@eludegames.com.au and we will send you an information pack.
New Room—Shipwreck
Space travel is the norm, colonisation through large megastructures have sorted the population issues of Earth and many other planets. One of the larger colonies you call home, Delta 9, is at imminent risk from a seemingly abandoned Large Pirate ship, the Darkefate, reported to be filled with highly dangerous explosives, on a collision course.
With the defense system on Delta 9 down for maintenance, you and your team are dispatched to the pirate space ship tasked with bringing the rig back online and diverting the ship to avoid the collision. Complete the tasks to override the autopilot, hopefully, there are no other surprises onboard. Good luck.
40 min (easy mode) 50 min (hard mode)
2-6 players
Difficulty 3/6
Solve It– Real Escape Games
2/2 Spencer St,
Bunbury WA 6230
New Room—Mr Pepper’s Toy Shop
Your business card might say ‘Real Estate Agent’, but that’s only part of the story. You work for S.C.A.R.E. (Supernatural Consultancy And Real Estate) a quirky agency that specialises in haunted properties.
One day you’re sent to inspect a dilapidated and abandoned toy shop. Tucked down an alleyway in the old part of town, the shop has been empty for over 70 years. Lately, however, strange noises and lights have been reported coming from inside. It’s your job to venture in and discover the truth.
Is it really haunted? Why is it locked up? And what happened to the owner, Mr Pepper?
Suitable for 2-8 people. Difficulty: 3.5/5 Recommended for players 16-years-old and over. Creepy imagery and potential jump scares.
The Cipher Rooms new location is at St Peters.
New Room—Wayward Wizard
We humbly ask for your aid in entering his enchanted chambers at No. 12 Derngaldur Lane to investigate his disappearance. However, seeker beware! You are quite likely to encounter all manner of charms and spells that will require a most deft hand and vast wisdom to overcome. We can only hope that you will find answers within…
The Basement 377 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Escape Room—Tournament of Champions is out now.
Enter the draw to win FREE tickets to see the movie.
With 6 different Mystery Mail themes to choose from, simply click the below link to order today and secure a chance in the draw, the more Mystery Mails you order the more chances to win or more tickets you can win.
Don’t worry for those who have already ordered this month, you have already qualified to go into the draw.
The final date for the movie is yet to be determined we are waiting on the Cinema to come back to us with their schedule for July.We are aiming for 11th July @ Events Castle Hill depending if we are out of lockdown.
Create an Escape Room Meme using one of the pictures below.
Screen shot the image, add your text and email to us at era@eludegames.com.au
Win a prize if we publish your Meme.
Solve the puzzle, click button below to check your answer. Correct answers will enter a draw to win Movie Tickets to see Escape Room—Tournament of Champions
We have 20 tickets to give away.
Discover Vouchers Extended to 31st July 2021.
Every person in NSW over the age of 18 will receive 4 x $25 Vouchers to use in the Dine & Discover promotion.
Your vouchers will appear in your services NSW app on your phone.
The GREAT NEWS is that Escape Rooms qualify for the Discover portion of which you can use 2 of your vouchers at, to help you out we have started a list of participating Escape Rooms that will accept vouchers.
- Dubbo Escape Rooms
- Elude Escape Rooms
- Escape Hunt Sydney
- Escape Rooms Albury
- Escape Rooms Central Coast
- Escape Rooms Tamworth
- Get out Escape Rooms (Maitland Gaol)
- Labyrinth Escape Rooms
- Mission Escape
- Narrow Escape Rooms
- Next Level Escape
- Parapark Sydney
- Room Eight Escape Rooms
- Scram Escape Rooms
- Social Escape Rooms Sydney
- The Cipher Rooms
Elude Escape Rooms have a few options for fun things to do in lockdown.
Online Games
Play on your own or with friends at different locations
www.eludegames.com.au/online-games
Mystery Mail
Send a unique gift to someone or order one for yourself. www.eludegames.com.au/mystery-mail
Or pick up a Board Game from our large range in our shop
A Most Mysterious Convention
ArcanaCon – The Annual Mystery Convention. The first in Arcadium’s Most Mysterious Series, now you can enjoy more of the intrigue, the mysteries and the stories from wherever you are! This experience is a most enjoyable way to spend an afternoon or evening at home and can even be used as greeting card or gift. How does it work? A most mysterious package will arrive at the doorstep of your choosing containing materials from the Annual Mystery Convention, ArcanaCon. There will also be a welcome letter to the reader (or readers!) explaining that someone has left them a secret message. To retrieve it, they must solve the mystery within…
Know What’s Required
The purpose of the initial search is to determine what needs to be opened and in what order. The next stage is to be very specific as to what is required to open each lock. This helps you to remain focused.
If a box is locked with a padlock, then it would be beneficial to know that the padlock has five dials with letters on each dial. The code could be 5 random letters or possibly a logical word. Knowing that a 5 letter code is required can help determine which clues or objects are most likely to give the answer.
Explore the lock and its immediate area as there could be something that links to the relevant clues. For example, a lock with a $ symbol next to it could suggest that the clues relate to money.
Enjoyment
Whilst these tips can help improve your success rate, remember that you can still have an enjoyable experience by solving as many puzzles as possible before time runs out.
Happy Escaping !
Episode 1
The Four Signs escape rooms could be for you
Hello ERA readers, I’d like to take you on my journey from rookie to escape room enthusiast. Four things have led me onto this path:
Puzzles
Obviously. No prizes here. But we aren’t talking only about jigsaw puzzles, as satisfying as they are. Whatever makes you feel clever.
Crosswords, riddles, magic-eye pictures, puns, sudokus, codes, scavenger hunts – even finally untying that pesky knot in your shoelaces so you don’t have to throw out your favourite pair of shoes – anything that you can finish with a sense of true achievement.
Board Games
It doesn’t even matter which board game. If you have any that you like, then you already know how to play (and hopefully win) within a set of boundaries (against others or the clock)
Trivia and Pub Quizzes
Do you like having answers? Does making that connection when no one else can make you feel like a genius? (Until a minute later you feel a fool when you forget the name of that guy that plays Sherlock? Butterscotch Candystash?)
Stories – both Book and Screen
Not even necessarily detective stories. Problem > solution. As humans we have a need to see things resolved, ideally with us as the winner. If I was in that movie I would have won in half the time.
Take all these factors and add the discovery of an advertisement in the local paper for the escape room nearby.
Although I had done an escape room years before on a work outing, though despite enjoying it immensely, I hadn’t pursued it. But now, with eager team members, I ventured out to Galston.
The Elude owners were happy to chat while waiting with our last team member still off in Wonderland, but eventually we entered the room and the countdown began.
Full disclosure: Reader, I did not escape the room. Not in time anyway. The team alternated between blitzing one puzzle and then spending an eternity ignoring the solution to the next as it stared us in the face.
Although I am happy on a personal level for heroically catching a key thrown across the room as the timer ticked down the last ten seconds, just in the nick of time to escape! … Nope, not the final lock unfortunately.
Lessons learned, a debriefing session met with amazement, self-pity and a chorus of the phrase “yes, it is obvious now”, but a yearning for more escape rooms had been awakened.
Some more talk with the owners, about puzzles, my interests and background, and then: a job offer. Take the leap from customer to Games Master?
Absolutely.
But that’s a story for next time…
Nick
When you think of braille, the first thing that comes to mind is that it is meant to help blind people. And while it has always been used for that very noble purpose, it is still a code and any system like it can really make for entertaining escape game puzzles.
Braille’s Origin Story
Now, before we look into braille’s use in puzzles, it helps to know how it came to be.
It is commonly known that braille is named after its inventor, Louis Braille (who himself lost his sight during childhood). What may be less known is that he based it on an older system called night writing.
Night writing uses a matrix that has letters and letter combinations represented by two-digit combinations (for example, 11 stands for the letter A, 45 is F etc). The use of embossed dots also originated from this system (albeit with twelve dots instead of six). What Louis did was reduce the number of dots required and expanded night writing code to a larger alphabet.
The Many Faces of Braille
When Louis Braille first published his system, it was primarily used for the French language. But since then, it has been adapted to many languages that use the Latin alphabet (including English, Spanish and German).
Braille also comes in the form of two to three grades, depending on the reader’s literacy. This has actually led braille to become a lot trickier to decode than some of the usual ciphers. After all, with its important use for the blind, it has been continuously developed through the years (both in terms of reading and writing). You can definitely expect some variation.
Braille as A Puzzle
Many challenges and escape room clues that use braille are also applying something from its interesting history and composition. For example, you might stumble upon some dots on the wall that certainly look like braille. There could even be a braille alphabet right somewhere in the room to help you speed up on reading. But when you read it, the word seems unfamiliar because it is from a language that you didn’t expect (like Italian or Russian).
You could even take it further by filling a room full of books all written in braille and challenge players to at least read their titles in order to find one that bears the next clue. Other puzzles could involve hiding a braille message in a place you can’t see, and you can only stick your hand in to read.
Learning from the Blind
In any of the mentioned puzzle scenarios, it is always best to approach braille as patiently as someone who has had to learn it for the first time. Even if you had a braille alphabet on hand, don’t hesitate to actually try and feel its letters as a blind person would. Don’t just trust your eyes!
Always remember that, unlike other ciphers, braille is still used in many places around the world to help the blind read. It was, and still is, designed specifically with their disability in mind. Consider interpreting braille in the way it was intended to be read and even you might get the hang of making out its message without constantly looking at a provided clue.
To summarize, there is more to braille than just a series of dots that you can easily decipher with an alphabet. It has a fascinating history as a coding system that was transformed into a tool for helping those with a disability. The next time you see one as part of a puzzle, take a moment to draw from that history and try to read it from their perspective.
Congratulations to our winners.
Nick & Jenny
Check your emails on how to claim your prize.
Click anywhere on the map to take to you an active Map of all the Escape Rooms in Australia
Where to find useful links and information.
Escape Rooms Australia Group
Escape Room Enthusiasts—Australia and New Zealand.
Blog Reviews on Rooms
Sydney and Beyond Escape Room blog post by Scott Monin.
Map of Escape Rooms
Click the image to take you to a full map of Escape Rooms in Australia.
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era@eludegames.com.au
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