.. How do I use the Ticketer program?

The note Melina left on the office door asks you to assign tickets for tonight's play. That should be easy, right?

Except the people buying tickets have insane requirements, as you might have guessed, making this a logic problem. Read to the end of this hint for a picture showing the arrangement you need.

I'm not that crazy fond of logic puzzles, especially since Nancy seems to always get ones that don't tell you quite everything you need to know, and I hate guessing. But sometimes that's your only option.

The way to start here is to read through all the requirements first, then start looking for the seats you can assign right away.

For example, in the amateur game, Manos wants four tickets, all handicapped, only in Prime. There are only four Prime handicapped seats, so he gets all four. Click on Manos's name at the left, then click on those four seats, and they turn red.

Sometimes you have to go by the process of elimination. In the master game, all it says about Manos is that his seat numbers are higher than Vakros's. After you do everyone else, the only seats left are in the really high numbers in the Discount section, so in he goes.

Notice, by the way, that row A is the front row -- that's the stage in the brown and beige checkers in front there.

When you think you have everyone arranged to their satisfaction, click on "Submit Seats." If it says "Seats successfully assigned," the tickets will print out, and you should then insert them in the top of the mailbox for pickup. If it says "Seat request not fulfilled," something's off, and you need to try again. And again. And again ...

Sick of it? Yeah, me too. Here's the final arrangement that makes the computer happy:

Tickets, Amateur

Tickets, Master

If you like this kind of puzzle, there are more here; just click on the program to get a new set of insane requirements and keep solving. Any additional tickets you produce won't be printed and thus don't have to be mailed.