Utility Mill

Usage Instructions

Make one guess in the game. Then type in all possible words from the terminal in the game. For the guess you made also put =N where N is the number correct. Here is an example of what you would enter into the input box assuming you had guessed CIVILIZATION:

PARTNERSHIPS
REPRIMANDING
CIVILIZATION=3
APPRECIATION
CONVERSATION
CIRCUMSTANCE
PURIFICATION
SECLUSIONIST
CONSTRUCTION
DISAPPEARING
TRANSMISSION
APPREHENSIVE
ENCOUNTERING

Run the utility. You will get back the words that are still potential answers. Paste this result back into the input box. Make a new guess in the game from these words and put = the number correct in the input. Continue until you find your answer.

Description of Game

There's a write up here if you want to see the general strategy I use.

There's a lot more information about this minigame here

Discussion and some inspiration comes from this recipe by Bill Sharer:

Many of you may already be aware of this annoying mind challenge after playing the popular waste of time from Bethesda Softworks on your favorite pc or console. The minigame presents a "green screen" like terminal with what apparently is a dump of some mainframe's password program file. In amongst the noise are a set of words that are all the same length. As you hover your mouse over each of these words, that word becomes a guess that you may take on the command line. The following ascii excerpt of an example screen is taken from DrAgRoS' terminal hacking guide from gamespot.com:

 ---------------------------------------------------------
 ROBCO INDUSTRIES (TM) TERMLINK PROTOCOL                  |
 ENTER PASSWORD NOW                                       |
                                                          |
 4 ATTEMPT(S) LEFT : [] [] [] []                          |
                                                          |
 0xF92C %*-}'!.-[)#! 0xF9F8 :($-?!!}'%_(                  |
 0xF938 (>!];-/\[=(, 0xFA04 /?;_;#"]!!:,                  |
 0xF944 @PARTNERSHIP 0xFA10 %'%{.@@}#?|+                  |
 0xF950 S=\]%,*?++:] 0xFA1C ="||^<@-|PUR                  |
 0xF96C #\--(??%=^\? 0xFA28 IFICATION(^S                  |
 0xF978 ]$/!]'|]=}"| 0xFA34 ECLUSIONIST>                  |
 0xF984 REPRIMANDING 0xFA40 .,"CONSTRUCT                  |
 0xF980 :(%CIVILIZAT 0xFA4C ION@'_'=':'>                  |
 0xF99C ION:(]=%?|{A 0xFA58 =!.;/'+.@'/D                  |
 0xF908 PPRECIATION' 0xFA64 ISAPPEARING%                  |
 0xF9A4 :*CONVERSATI 0xFA70 ,]%?<TRANSMI                  |
 0xF9B0 ON=.:="+$@#< 0xFA7C SSION,}"/'},                  |
 0xF9BC ['<'%':}!%;+ 0xFA88 \"%\^?<(|APP                  |
 0xF9C8 '('#'?,.%*!+ 0xFA94 REHENSIVE}<+                  |
 0xF9D4 =\.\?/(!|#?< 0xFAA0 "<\^+].^^'._                  |
 0xF9E0 |[)???@?%{CI 0xFAAC ;++}{=/'\ENC                  |
 0xF9EC RCUMSTANCE_= 0xFAB8 OUNTERING*}; >[]              |
 ---------------------------------------------------------
                           ------
                           |    |
                        POWER  ------

You only have four guesses. When you make an incorrect guess, the terminal shows the number of characters that matched the correct guess. This match count is a character by character comparison of the guess against the correct password. You will be permanently locked out of the terminal after four incorrect guesses.