Smugle or Strugle? – Dispatches From Smegle

[Flap Jack]

Howdy doodly do, folks! As we’ve now had 2 weeks of the Difficult Daily, I thought it might be prudent to move discussions of the day’s puzzle and our scores to a dedicated thread, so we’re not just bloating the comments of the “Reintroducing Smegle” post all the time. Let that be for more general feedback (or bug reports).

And of course, if you get any share-worthy frames in Casual Continuous, feel free to post those here too!

—

To start us off,

01/05/2022

5/6

Somewhat tricky, but once I’d got the right series I felt confident I could narrow it down enough not to fail.

—

Also, what do you think: should this thread be spoiler-free, or not? I’m leaning towards not – because I generally prefer to do the Difficult Daily myself before hearing about others’ scores anyway, and it would be cool to speak openly without having to wait until the next day – but only if there’s consensus on it.

[clem]

Yeah I like the idea of a spoilery Smegle thread. 

Got the series wrong twice today but managed to hit upon the right episode with my third guess. 

[Dave]

I got the series right straight away but didn’t get the right episode until guess four. I have this pattern with a lot of the Series VIII ones, it’s my least watched series by far and I can’t easily identify episodes at a glance like I can with the others.

[Flap Jack]

OK, well that’s 1 explicitly in favour of spoilery, and 1 implicitly in favour of spoilery as evidenced by them casually saying the correct series, so I guess we will be somewhat spoilery, at least for today. 😄

I’ll just assume people are chill with this being a spoiler thread going forward unless there are objections.

But yeah, the thing about Series VIII frames is that it’s usually quick to guess the series – because Series VIII is generally more brightly and evenly lit than Series III-VII, and less grey than Series 1-2 – but because there are 8 episodes, there’s still a serious risk of failure. Not long ago the DD was a Pete: Part I frame of Hollister at his desk, and I counted myself as very lucky to get that in 6. But for today the subject was unique enough for me to at least eliminate a few episodes.

[clem]

the thing about Series VIII frames is that it’s usually quick to guess the series – because Series VIII is generally more brightly and evenly lit than Series III-VII, and less grey than Series 1-2 – but because there are 8 episodes, there’s still a serious risk of failure. Not long ago the DD was a Pete: Part I frame of Hollister at his desk, and I counted myself as very lucky to get that in 6.

See, that’s interesting because I got the series wrong a couple of times iirc before I realised what the image was, but then my first Series VIII guess was the correct episode. Pete: Part I has a lot of shots of Hollister at his desk in the scenes where Lister and Rimmer are summoned to his office so I figured it was most likely to be that one – the episode originally titled Captain’s Office. There’s been a few like that where getting the series was the hard part for me. 

[RunawayTrain]

1/05/2022

⬛🟨🟨🟨🟨🟩

Knew exactly what it showed from the third guess but couldn’t place it. I get a lot of the Dave era muddled up too but this series is definitely my weakest. I remember moments but can’t place them very well.

VII is slightly easier to deduce at least (mainly ‘do I remember it or not?’!).

[clem]

The plot-light, sketch-like nature of VIII makes it tricky sometimes. 

[International Debris]

The blue really had me flummoxed for a while, I was guessing Dave era stuff for a while until I recognised the uniform. Then Rimmer’s expression immediately gave it away.

[GlenTokyo]

I got it in 1, just because of the shadowy nature. The scenes in and around the corridor and main room in that episode had a lot of gridy shadows. 

[Flap Jack]

You need not get the BBC and Dave eras confused ever again, International Debris. You just need to check the aspect ratio.

[International Debris]

I’ll be honest, I never actually noticed the aspect ratio changed. I’m not very attentive when it comes to that kind of thing.

[clem]

Me neither. That’s a handy tip to bear in mind. 

[Flap Jack]

02/05/2022

1/6

Hey, hey! No matter the frame, that’s always satisfying.

[clem]

There’s been a few like that where getting the series was the hard part for me. 

Case in point: today my guesses were M-Corp, Can of Worms, The Promised Land, Entangled

[Dave]

Got it in two today, which is not too bad. After VIII, X is my hardest series to narrow down due to not knowing the individual episodes as well as for the other series.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 2/05/2022 

🟩

Played for and got. There was really only one thing that little screen and grill could be. 

[Flap Jack]

One weird thing my brain keeps doing: a lot of the time when I see a frame that I can positively identify as being from Entangled, I think “Dear Dave”. No idea why. I had to catch myself before I submitted the wrong answer.

[International Debris]

First thought was the medichip thing from Give & Take, then Medibot from Fathers & Suns (even though I ended up putting Dear Dave anyway), then the first letter appeared and it became obvious.

[Warbodog]

I wouldn’t have got it in 2 if Flap Jack hadn’t done a meme of it recently.

[Flap Jack]

And that meme was about Smegle too. Spooky.

[RunawayTrain]

2/05/2022

⬛🟨🟩

*Shame mode* I don’t mind thinking it could have been them going into the Android shopping channel area in Trojan, but getting the wrong series to start was a poor show.

[GlenTokyo]

2/05/2022

*Shame mode* I don’t mind thinking it could have been them going into the Android shopping channel area in Trojan, but getting the wrong series to start was a poor show.

That’s what I thought it was too, felt so cocky as I smugly typed Trojan for my hole in one. 

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 04/05/2022 

🟨🟩

I feel like the first square should be a giveaway, but that it might also appear in another episode to two.  I at least think it does otherwise I’d have gone for the right answer straight away.

[Flap Jack]

Well, if it is a distinctive thing (or at least the edge of it that appears in the first square is), then I didn’t clock it!

Managed to guess the wrong series twice, yet get it exactly right on Guess 3.

[Warbodog]

Took me about 4, no idea until Kryten clocked the series and Cat gave the episode. Then the reveal of what that panel had been all along, great stuff!

[clem]

Got the wrong series three times, then the right episode. Exactly the same as yesterday. There was a big giveaway for the fourth guess today though of course. 

[Dave]

In two today, after getting the right series straight away. Not too bad.

[International Debris]

Recognised the set straight away, but it wasn’t until Cat’s outfit that I realised the episode.

[Jenuall]

Got it in 1 today – was pretty confident I recognised the fire axe case, just had to bet on it not lingering in the background of any other episodes to scupper me!

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Got it in 1 today – was pretty confident I recognised the fire axe case, just had to bet on it not lingering in the background of any other episodes to scupper me!

I’m still not entirely convinced it isn’t in the back of other episodes. 

[clem]

Bollocks. Oh well, 17 is my streak to beat. 

[RunawayTrain]

I missed yesterday’s :(

Today’s was annoying, the background was completely not what I thought it was At All.

04/05/2022 

⬛⬛⬛🟨🟨🟩

[Warbodog]

Hardest so far for me. Recognised it on the 5th go, helped that I was already on the right series mainly through random guessing.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 04/05/2022 

🟩

#RedDwarf #Smegle 04/05/2022 

⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨🟨

I know the answer and I still can’t see it. 

[Dave]

I only managed to get the right series on guess five and didn’t manage to get the right episode at all.

Even now I’m not quite sure what I’m looking at.

[Flap Jack]

04/05/2022 

2/6 ⬛🟩

I’m quite proud of this result! Especially after my initial “oh bloody hell” reaction from seeing that the first revealed square was pitch dark. (I’m still not sure which one it actually was.)

I used a similar reasoning to the Samsara one, thinking “OK, which BBC era episodes are super dark?” and the 2 episodes that sprung to mind were White Hole and Duct Soup. Couldn’t choose between them, so just went for the earlier episode first.

Probably was a good amount of luck in play too, given how many dark or underlit scenes there are across the first 52 episodes. (Although I think a lot of of dark scenes tend to have prominent red or blue in them?)

[Jenuall]

Got in on the last guess after being stumped for most of the time! Definitely one of the harder ones so far!

Never helps that VII is probably my least re-watched series so quite a lot is just not lodged in the old brain in the same way as either I-VI or even Dave era

[Warbodog]

I used a similar reasoning to the Samsara one, thinking “OK, which BBC era episodes are super dark?” and the 2 episodes that sprung to mind were White Hole and Duct Soup.

White Hole was my first guess, then I had the sense of VII. I’m familiar with the episodes from the Xtended video, but VII is otherwise pretty mysterious to me. VIII’s lodged well enough in the brain after watching it often within the year of broadcast, then not really after.

[Unrumble]

I was convinced I had it on guesses 2 and 3 (Psirens and Thanks For the Memory respectively) because I was sure it was showing me some kind of outdoor, quarry-like terrain at night.

#RedDwarf #Smegle 04/05/2022 

[clem]

Yes I thought it looked like an outdoors night-time scene too, but with a bit of foliage, so one of my guesses was Emohawk. Anyway, well done to everyone who got it. 

[International Debris]

⬛🟨🟨🟨🟩

Yeah, I think I know what’s going on now I’ve got the answer, but frankly it was a fucking difficult one.

[clem]

⬛🟨🟩

Bit more like it. 

[Flap Jack]

05/05/2022 

5/6 ⬛⬛⬛🟨🟩

Yeah, I didn’t have a clue what I was looking at today, until it was obvious. Even then I couldn’t narrow it down to a specific episode, so I got seriously lucky.

[loadoftottnumb]

Yep todays was very tough, couldn’t even figure out which squares were being revealed for the first 2 or 3 :) 

#RedDwarf #Smegle 05/05/2022 

⬛⬛⬛🟩

Try for yourself: https://smegle.ganymede.tv

[RunawayTrain]

05/05/2022 

⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨🟨

Earning its ‘difficult’ title, there.

Ha, glitch on other threads with inserting paragraph breaks, now struggling to remove them.

(They show up in the post but not the edit box!  Bizarre.)

[Warbodog]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 05/05/2022 

Wasn’t the exact pose I had in mind, but still!

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

#RedDwarf #Smegle 05/05/2022 

⬛⬛🟨🟩

These square reveals are taking the smeg. My as well not bother. 

Well done Warbodog for recognising what it was straight away. I’m not even sure how it clicked for me.

[Dave]

Got it on try five, but the penny didn’t drop for me until guess four and I felt stupid that I hadn’t realised earlier.

[Warbodog]

Well done Warbodog for recognising what it was straight away. I’m not even sure how it clicked for me.

It looked like he was low down on the screen from the blob pattern, so thought it might be the ‘Gordon Bennett, that was a close one’ bit. I only remembered afterwards that the movement was added for Remastered. So I didn’t really recognise it, beyond knowing the series.

[Jenuall]

Nailed it!

#RedDwarf #Smegle 05/05/2022 

At first it was another “are they taking the smeg?” moment, but then thinking about it logically it could only really be a Norm Holly headshot – then it was a case of thinking back over which episode most likely fits the colour balance on show as the look of the headshots evolves a fair amount over time

[Author]

Posts