Who knows how many puzzle lovers have already solved M4RT3! , the new online escape room launched during the Milan Games Week by the Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan. Conceived in collaboration with INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, M4RT3! is a collaborative game where the goal is to unravel a mystery that appears to threaten the Earth. Ninety minutes to solve 10 puzzles based on archival documents and real information, such as the contents of the Mars 2020 mission on the NASA website and images coming directly from the European Space Agency. A real applied gamewhich, as such, is capable of entertaining and informing. But to do this we recommend sharpening your wits, observation skills and logical deduction; better deal with it in more thinking heads.
The storyline of the game
This online escape room requires a pc or tablet and an internet connection; is optimized for Windows, Mac and Linux. M4RT3! is set in Milan on August 8, 2016. Here, astrophysicist and enthusiast of ancient instruments, Margherita Hacker (a clear homage to Hack), is restoring the Merz-Repsold telescope , the instrument with which Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli , director of the Brera Astronomical Observatory in Milan until 1900, it observed and represented the geography of the planet Marslike no one had ever done before. While disassembling the various sections of the telescope, Margherita finds a note signed by Schiaparelli himself, dated 1890. The message is partially illegible, but the little text sounds like a warning to humanity for future explorations of Mars.
At that point in astrophysics a series of questions are unleashed: what is Schiaparelli’s shocking discovery in observing Mars in the sky; what is the real content of that warning; what we earthlings should beware of today. Margherita Hacker knows how much Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli was a meticulous and prudent researcher. That is why she is sure that a message left by Schiaparelli to posterity must be taken with absolute seriousness . That evening, the researcher senses that her life is about to change forever and that all her energies will be directed towards solving that mystery to save planet Earth and its inhabitants.
Martians are born in Milan
Could there be an imminent danger from another planet? First of all, it should be emphasized that the Martians were born, or rather conceived, right in Milan. It was August 23, 1877, when, after a heavy storm, Schiaparelli pointed the telescope with which he was observing the sky towards Mars and discovered continents, seas, islands, canals, polar caps until he fantasized about the existence of intelligent beings, the Martians . A discovery today well documented in the Milanese Museum of Science and Technology. Thus, M4RT3! it becomes a tool and a new language used by the museum to entice people to see the history of astronomy with their own eyes .
It is no coincidence that the science museum is today the only one in Italy to have the figure of the game specialist in its organic staff : Luca Roncella. An important effort for a museum that has decided to put a price on this game precisely to underline the profound research work carried out by the internal staff. M4RT3! it can be purchased for 10 euros per game or in the card version in the bookshop. Do you really want the solution of M4RT3!? No, we are not bad enough to spoil a work that has involved so many researchers and institutes. And then, it’s an excellent activity to have fun in company: the more you are, the better!
