Good people have lost years of their life to Notpron, with some claiming it took them as much as half to decade to get to the end of this infamously difficult online puzzle. And those are the people who have actually found it in the first place, since it's tucked away in a secret directory on a website that principally plays host to a "Deathball" mod for PC shooter Unreal Tournament 2004. Those who are unlucky enough to stumble across it will find themselves dropping off the face of the Earth (metaphorically) and going a little bit mad trying to get to the end of the game. Is there even an end? Or does it go forever? It's like an online Springfield Mystery Spot. Except you're less likely to see the face of God, shed your corporeal body or take photos without that annoying red eye effect, and more likely to tear your hair out with these lateral-thinking puzzles disguised as your garden variety locked room game. You navigate yourself through a series of photos as your "character" travels through a building. The first page is easy enough - you enter the house by clicking on the door. Then immediately things start to get weird. You're on a flight of stairs with a hand pointing up at the top of the image, but there's nowhere to click and you can't scroll any further. So, spoilers, the answer to this particular riddle is that you need to change the URL. The hand is pointing to the address bar, and changing it from "level2.htm" to "level3.htm" is the way you advance. From there the brain wrinkles increase as you change addresses, translate morse code, learn the German names for chocolate bars, and then start going to totally different hidden websites to advance. It's crazy and you should go play it now.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
