Advent of Code

  0.0.0.0:2016

--- Day 8: Two-Factor Authentication ---

You come across a door implementing what you can only assume is an implementation of two-factor authentication after a long game of requirements telephone.

To get past the door, you first swipe a keycard (no problem; there was one on a nearby desk). Then, it displays a code on a little screen, and you type that code on a keypad. Then, presumably, the door unlocks.

Unfortunately, the screen has been smashed. After a few minutes, you've taken everything apart and figured out how it works. Now you just have to work out what the screen would have displayed.

The magnetic strip on the card you swiped encodes a series of instructions for the screen; these instructions are your puzzle input. The screen is 50 pixels wide and 6 pixels tall, all of which start off, and is capable of three somewhat peculiar operations:

For example, here is a simple sequence on a smaller screen:

As you can see, this display technology is extremely powerful, and will soon dominate the tiny-code-displaying-screen market. That's what the advertisement on the back of the display tries to convince you, anyway.

There seems to be an intermediate check of the voltage used by the display: after you swipe your card, if the screen did work, how many pixels should be lit?

To play, please identify yourself via one of these services:

[GitHub] [Google] [Twitter] [Reddit] - [How Does Auth Work?]