I am referring, of course, to this: http://ifwiki.org/index.php/PAX_USB_Drive
My hat is off to all the people involved who cracked as much of the puzzle as they have. Naturally enough, I did not shy from using their knowledge to extract the “Zork 1 - The Musical demo” and that weird clone of Seastalker called “Top Gun”.
I was not, however, able to use the parity files to reconstruct a RAR file. This is because it’s just outside of my abilities, apparently. Using QuickPar to process those files I end up with two new files: level3.par2 and level3.rar.par2. I just really have no idea how to proceed.
I would ask of any kind soul to please either enlighten me on how to proceed, or, I don’t know, do you happen to have the abyss.z6 file lying around? That’s what’s in that .rar, and that’s what I’d love to get my hands on. As a completionist and a collector of IF; whatever it is, whether it really is an early draft of Bob Bates’ last Infocom game or another joke, I would very much like to have it.
Any and all help appreciated!
BTW, I would also dearly love a copy of “message.z5”, from the 2011 addition.
This is getting to be a habit - can’t edit my first post…
Hey hey hey, genericgeekgirl got me a copy of message.z5! I really didn’t expect to get THAT one! All I need now is abyss.z6 or the means to get it - and I promise to share. 
EDIT - A concern has been privately raised about the sharing of the file. If the person who supplies me with the file doesn’t with me to, then I won’t. I’d still like to have it, though.
By the way, does anyone know of MadLibs from the IF Fan Fest 1998?
http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/IF_Fan_Fest_1998
In fact, the faux transcripts from that Fan Fest would also be appreciated, but I’m not holding my breath for them. MadLibs is an actual ZCode entry, so I’m very interested in it for my collection.
GenericGeekGirl and, er, Roody_Yogurt? (I always get Blask and Sherwin’s nicks mixed up! Ice cream, Yogurt…) have been able to supply me with what I requested. I am very grateful to you both! And as per Roody’s very reasonable request, considering its unfinished (hmmm, hardly-started?) state, I shan’t be adding abyss.z6 to my public collection.
Oh, ha, yes that would have been Jon/Roody. 
There’s also a puzzle that is interesting to me - who is babyjarson? Who left the USB drives? How deep does this conspiracy go?
Oh, it’s a fascinating puzzle, that. Completely outside of my abilities.
It looks like it was left unfinished. If the last password was, indeed, totally random and 32 characters long and includes letters and number and symbols… it’s not crackable without clues. Plus, the last April message seems to indicate a return of babyjarson which never materialised.
Shame, really.
