Planetarium was released on 9/9/99 and twelve weeks later some people had already solved it. For the sake of posterity, details about the competition are still here, together with the list of those who made their mark when it ended.

Rosaleen’s winning tiebreaker was “ANNA”. If you haven’t read the story, then you won’t know what the tiebreaker was about. For those of you who are familiar with the story, we felt a palindrome was particularly appropriate, all things considered, and although “ADA” was also offered, we liked the longest one. Which means that if Margaret had got the right solution to the puzzle, her suggestion of “HANNAH” would have clinched it. Since then, many other tiebreakers have been suggested — two years after the competition, we collected the best ones into this summary. Choosing a winning tiebreaker was always going to be opinionated and divisive, and we encourage you all to discuss alternatives on the xiii Forum.

Barbara sent by far the longest unsolicited excuse detailing why she hadn’t got the correct answer. Naturally, we would never let such a simple stunt merit a mention on this page.