Distinction

Distinction is the eighth puzzle of Athena Puzzles Season 1. It was created by EpicFH.

The first team to solve this puzzle was the Untitled Puzzle Team and it was solved by Verhvouvim.

Puzzle
Upon reaching the puzzle, each team would be presented with this image:

Hints
5 minutes - You must maximize the distinction to discover the path you must take

10 minutes - The pattern is intentional, what could it be hiding?

15 minutes - ''The numbers revealed look suspicious... originally, there was a way to distinguish the numbers.''

20 minutes - There's something special about then, there's an important detail to unlock the answer.

25 minutes - Try to turn the contrast up or down

30 minutes - Combine the numbers with another hint in the original image

35 minutes - Bl0ck and Wh1te

40 minutes - Every computer speaks the language needed for this

Solution
The first thing to notice about this image is the hidden Nintendo logo in the gray square in the top right. Afterwards, maximizing the "distinction" (contrast) of the image in order to turn it into a black and white image is necessary.

If you convert this image to binary where a black square represents 0 and a white square represents 1 you get 00110010 00110001 00110001 00110001 00110010 00110000 00110000 00110100 which, when converted using ASCII, converts to the plaintext 21112004. Reading this in the dd.mm.yyyy format, which is used where Gyllie as well as most of the competitors live (sad orca and astrum noises D:) you get 21.11.2004. If you search this date in Google, you won't find anything by itself, but if you remember the Nintendo logo in the top right and search "nintendo" along with the date, you'll find that 21.11.2004 is the date the Nintendo DS released.

Solvers
Teams who solved this puzzle, in order: Untitled Puzzle Team (Verhvouvim), ßig ßrain ßoys (Astrum), Doge (Xx_Doge420_xX), The Cult of Gaze (Zahra), South Asian Boys (Airborne)