Welcome, and thank you for trying Enigma Operator. If you have a
question, found a problem, or want to suggest a feature, email me
directly at wac1019@gmail.com and I will get back to you. I am a
solo developer, so your message reaches the person who wrote the
app. When reporting a problem it helps enormously to include your
device, whether you are on Android or iPhone/iPad, and the version
number shown at the bottom of the app's menu (tap the ☰ icon in the
top-left corner).
Setting Up the Machine
A real Enigma is not "opened and typed on" - it has to be rigged
first, exactly as the day's key sheet specifies. Every setting below
has its own screen in the app.
REFLECTOR (Umkehrwalze)
Open the lid and tap Reflector. The Enigma I uses UKW-B or UKW-C.
The M4 uses the thin reflectors UKW-b or UKW-c, which pair with a
fourth rotor.
ROTOR SELECTION (Walzenlage)
Open the lid and tap Rotors. Drag rotors from the wooden rotor box
into the machine, left to right, in the order the key sheet lists
them. The Enigma I takes three rotors chosen from I-V. The M4 takes
a thin Greek rotor (Beta or Gamma) in the leftmost position plus
three from I-VIII.
RING SETTINGS (Ringstellung)
From the rotor box, tap Ring Settings. Scroll each rotor to place
the required letter beside the red index mark. This rotates the
lettered ring relative to the internal wiring, and it is the setting
most often forgotten - a wrong ring setting produces plausible-
looking output that is completely wrong.
PLUGBOARD (Steckerbrett)
Tap Plugboard. Use Add Plug to take a cable, then drag each end into
a socket to swap that pair of letters. Ten pairs was standard from
1939. Drag a cable to Remove Plug to take it out.
GROUND SETTING (Grundstellung) AND MESSAGE KEY (Spruchschlüssel)
Close the lid and scroll the rotor windows to the starting letters.
Historically the operator set the day's ground setting, chose his own
three-letter message key, encrypted it, and then reset the windows to
that message key before typing the message itself. The app's
tutorial walks through this whole sequence.
TIP: Tap the eye icon on the left edge to see the live wiring
diagram. It traces the current path through the plugboard, the
rotors and the reflector every time you press a key.
The Documents on the Desk
Tap the book icon in the top-right corner to reach the desk. These
are working reproductions of the actual Kriegsmarine paperwork, and
several challenges cannot be solved without them.
DAILY KEY SHEET (Maschinenschlüssel)
The day's reflector, rotor order, ring settings and plugboard
connections. Days run bottom to top on the real sheets.
KENNGRUPPENBUCH
The book of three-letter groups used to identify which key applies
to a message. The Allocation List, Column List and Group List tabs
each serve a different step of the procedure.
BIGRAM TABLES (Doppelbuchstabentauschtafel)
Used to disguise the message key by swapping letter pairs. The
Tauschtafelplan says which table is in force on a given day.
Both books have ENGLISH and DEUTSCH buttons at the top, and page
controls at the bottom.
Challenges
DAILY DECRYPT
One fresh intercept each day for each machine, drawn from thousands
of authentic daily keys. Everyone gets the same puzzle on the same
day. Rig the machine from the key sheet, then decrypt.
SEND IT!
The reverse: one message per day to encrypt and transmit yourself,
composing the full preamble by the book - time, letter count,
identification groups and all.
TICK TOCK SETUP
Set the machine from a real key sheet against the clock. Good
practice for the settings above, and your best times are recorded.
PROTOCOL PUZZLES
Nine hand-built mysteries: garbled signals, careless operators and
indicators that cannot possibly be right. Each one is solvable using
only the documents on the desk. Two rhyming hints are available on
every puzzle if you get stuck.
Frequently Asked Questions
MY DECRYPTION IS COMING OUT AS NONSENSE.
Check the ring settings first - they are the most commonly missed
step. Then confirm the rotor order, that the rotors are in the
correct physical positions, the plugboard pairs, and that the rotor
windows are set to the message key rather than the ground setting.
DOES THE APP NEED AN INTERNET CONNECTION?
No. Enigma Operator works entirely offline. It collects no data, has
no accounts, no advertising and no in-app purchases.
WILL MY PROGRESS BE SAVED?
Best times, solved puzzles, notepad pages and settings are stored on
your device. Deleting the app removes them.
THE HAPTICS DO NOT WORK ON MY DEVICE.
iPads have no vibration hardware, so haptics are switched off there.
On Samsung Android phones, check whether the app has been added to
Game Launcher or Game Booster - those tools can disable vibration
for apps they manage. Haptics can also be turned on or off in
Menu > Options.
IS THE SIMULATION ACCURATE?
Yes. The rotor wirings, reflectors, notch positions and the
double-stepping behaviour are reproduced exactly and verified
against published historical test vectors. Output from the app
matches a real machine set up the same way.
WHY DO THE DOCUMENTS INCLUDE HISTORICAL MARKINGS?
The reproduced codebooks are faithful to the originals, which
carried the markings of the period. They appear for historical and
educational purposes only.
Privacy
Enigma Operator collects no personal information of any kind. It makes
no network requests, contains no analytics or advertising, and
stores its settings and progress only on your own device. Nothing
you type in the app ever leaves it.
Contact
wac1019@gmail.com
Enigma Operator is made by Waynerd Creations.