555 replies to this topic

[Metal Gear (sting)RAY]

I probably wouldn't be posting this if it wasn't important, but hey, we're speculators. Valve has just updated Portal with a new descriptionless achievement called "Transmission Received" and a series of 17 different sound files heard from the radios labeled "dinosaur." What's more, the sound files seem to decode into scrambled images, text and morse code.



What does this all mean? I don't know. But if Valve is injecting one of their biggest hits with some sort of alternative reality game, something's certainly up.

Edited by SuperStingray, 02 March 2010 - 02:15 AM.

[Saint Nathan]

Whoa. I need to check this out.

Also, the top one seems to be B-dA-3 6 8 0, or B-dA-3 Right Up Insert?

Either way, it's obviously for Portal 2. I think they've said something about wanting to make it a prequel, so this might be it. "dinosaur" kinda makes it sound like it should be an old thing.

[Patticus]

Oh god damn, I know neither Half-Life 2: Episode 3 nor Portal 2 will be released this year, but if they're starting to put out viral shizzle like this then with any luck Q1/Q2 2010 will be a great time to be a Valve fan.

[Metal Gear (sting)RAY]

Found the full set of images.

Oh god damn, I know neither Half-Life 2: Episode 3 nor Portal 2 will be released this year,

Really? Damn, when did they say that?

[JezMM]

Been playing Portal earlier. Totally cool, and something almost creepy and chilling every time you uncover a new transmission. I love the fact that this isn't even just a side bonus... they actually made GAMEPLAY out of viral marketing. The new puzzles locating the radios creates are pretty taxing and fun.

[novelty]

I did a quick decypher of the images and I got this:



Top-Left: The Date
Top-Middle: (unknown)
Top-Right: Is the number
Center-Left: To "C" Your Chance/Luck ("8") and "C" your...
Center-Middle: ...intellegence to...
Center-Right: (unknown)
Bottom-Left: This number is important
Bottom-Center: This can also get you stuck in a trap...
Bottom-Right:...in the city

[Remz]

I want it to be episode 3 teasing SO BAD but I know it's probably just Portal 2 :'(

solution to the images: http://www.neogaf.co...9&postcount=517

[JezMM]

Just done all 26 and unlocked the achievement. You don't get anything at all in-game for doing it (unlike the rewards for these clever image analysers and sound tinkerers), but still a fun challenge.

[Remz]

--- RECORD ENDS ----
-- CAUTION: UNEXPECTED DISCONNECTION EXPECTED ( #838 )
---- BEGIN RECORD 'C:\07533945.935\09823219.940' (570 BYTES) ----
MEMORANDUMS: Filed under CJohnson: 1564029-G

&&*&)90 &^@^@% &@!%@$%@!&@^ ((#(kjkjsdsajdlkdjsk ^@%% and do not 2612%^54talk
to me about casualty rates. The bean counters told me I couldn't fire a man
just for bein in a wheelchair. Did it anyway! Ramps are expensive. Or when
they said I couldn't practice beekeeping in the office. They should have told
that to the honey that won first place in the state finals! &43$$$ $#@^^&@*&^

Hell, they even said I couldn't cheat death. You know where I'd be if I
followed the rules? Dead! Dead, and honey prize-less!
---- RECORD ENDS ----
-- CAUTION: ANOMALOUS EMOTIONAL RESPONSE DETECTED ( #654 )
---- BEGIN RECORD 'C:\08692436.580\05637080.262' (8340 BYTES) ----


---- BEGIN RECORD 'C:\09394469.756\07583916.313' (371 BYTES) ----
MEMORANDUMS: Filed under CJohnson: 1
&&^521762 jsow remind you that Aperture Science is built on three pillars.ÛÛÛÛ
Pillar one: Science without results is just witchcraft. Pillar two: GetÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÜü
results or you're fired. Pillar three: if you suspect a coworker of bein' a
witch, report them immediately. I cannot stress that enough. Witchcraft will
not be tolerated.
---- RECORD ENDS ----
-- WARNING: OUT OF MEMORY BELOW 640KB ( -3 )
---- BEGIN RECORD 'C:\05889440.652\03173138.235' (2167 BYTES) ----

[Remz]

[Patticus]

Seems to be pointing to a Valve announcement at GDC on March 11th

Taken from Gaf:

So let me see if I have this straight:

Valve does a stealth update to portal with patch notes mentioning something about transmissions. There are now radios throughout the game that, when taken past certain points, send out a transmission containing morse code messages, which appear to involve usernames and passwords etc.

In addition, the sound files contain embedded images including numbers that make up an md5 sum, which resolves to a phone number that connects to a "GlaDOS" BBS which asks for a username and password. when you put in "backup" for both, the thing goes crazy with garbled text from "C. Johnson" from Aperture Science and some old school ANSI images of portal and possibly half-life related business.

Is that about right?

Oh and the GlaDOS version from the BBS is 3.11 which possibly corresponds to announcement Valve could make at GDC on March 11. Anything else?

[Patticus]

Really? Damn, when did they say that?

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/19/game-informer-no-half-life-2-episode-3-for-you-in-2010/

No HL3 Episode 3 means no Portal 2 as you just know they're going to want them to release together as their predecessors did.


The image I posted above features this paragraph:

d. Seniors
Frail, brittle hands make holding science devices difficult. Most were born
before the advent of science, and can become confused and disoriented when
asked to participate in relatively simple tests (teleportation, invisibility,
adjusting esteem levels of orphan children).

"The Borealis is an Aperture Science research vessel introduced in Half-Life 2: Episode Two. According to Isaac Kleiner, Aperture was working on a promising project, but in their rush to beat Black Mesa for funding, they neglected ordinary safety rules and it appears that the ship simply disappeared with parts of her dry dock, which earned her an almost legendary stature."

[Saint Nathan]

"The Borealis is an Aperture Science research vessel introduced in Half-Life 2: Episode Two. According to Isaac Kleiner, Aperture was working on a promising project, but in their rush to beat Black Mesa for funding, they neglected ordinary safety rules and it appears that the ship simply disappeared with parts of her dry dock, which earned her an almost legendary stature."

The only of Aperture's three large developments that would allow an entire ship to dissapear would HAVE to be the Portal tech. Thats why it's so important, working portal technology, possibly even handheld versions, could allow travel between ANYWHERE safe and efficient. Depending on when it dissapeared, it could be prototype stuff, or full blown ASHPDs.

Anyways, how do you GET the images exactly? Hell, where are these 26 radios? I remember seeing 3 or 4 the entire game.

[Patticus]

If Aperture was experimenting with technology designed to render the Borealis invisible and that technology went awry and rendered parts of the ship's surrounding dry dock invisible too, that'd explain what happened to it, wouldn't it?

[JezMM]

Anyways, how do you GET the images exactly? Hell, where are these 26 radios? I remember seeing 3 or 4 the entire game.

The images were obtained by putting the radio transmission sound files from the game through some clever programming doohickey. I'm guessing it's a more complicated way of "forcing" an image program to "open" the data of a sound file. The data is a sound file but it's also been cleverly put together to contain some garbled images.



As for the radios, there were only 3 originally. The PC version has now updated and contains an additional 23, which range from stupidly easy to downright diabolical to locate and collect (and that's only half the puzzle - then you gotta locate where the transmission is too).

[Saint Nathan]

If Aperture was experimenting with technology designed to render the Borealis invisible and that technology went awry and rendered parts of the ship's surrounding dry dock invisible too, that'd explain what happened to it, wouldn't it?

No. If you noticed, it was nowhere near the ocean, at least not where you would keep a boat like that. It was in the arctic somewhere. Not to mention, you would FIGURE eventually someone would notice that there was an invisible ship where they tried to park their boat? Oh, and the crew of the ship would notice at least, invisibility would make it easy to find, and at it's mythical status, it was damn hard to find.

And what would the Combine want with invisibility? Oh, and the 3 Tier program, that produced Aperture's ONLY truly successful products, had nothing on invisibility.

[Patticus]

If you noticed, it was nowhere near the ocean, at least not where you would keep a boat like that. It was in the arctic somewhere.

Maybe it made its way to a clandestine port on Russia's north coast where it encountered a disaster of unknown quantity which killed/mutated/evicted the crew (assuming there was a crew; Glados implies they were experimenting in a serious way with highly intelligent A.I. units which could probably operate boats to a certain degree.

Not to mention, you would FIGURE eventually someone would notice that there was an invisible ship where they tried to park their boat? Oh, and the crew of the ship would notice at least, invisibility would make it easy to find, and at it's mythical status, it was damn hard to find.

Not if the ship made its way to the frozen and isolated arctic coast of Russia, and if the crew died in the disaster that caused it to be lost then all that would be left is the A.I. (if there is one aboard) which could have turned evil like Glados.

And what would the Combine want with invisibility?

The ability to infiltrate and destroy from within the rebellion which has thus far caused so much harm to their cause.

Oh, and the 3 Tier program, that produced Aperture's ONLY truly successful products, had nothing on invisibility.

Maybe the bulk of the invisibility experiment's equipment and R&D supplies were taken aboard the Borealis for field trials and was subsequently lost.

[Remz]

Don't think invisibility would make a very entertaining game.


Portal tech being the reason for the borealis disappearing and reappearing elsewhere kind of fits more with the hints dropped in portal and ep 2 IMO

[Metal Gear (sting)RAY]

Kotaku just let out enough information and documents to make the whole thing sound like a conspiracy theory. Couldn't be bothered to read it all, but this little rant by Aperture Science founder and CEO and mercury poisoning victim Cave Johnson is probably the funniest thing I've seen this year:

"[I] remind you that Aperture Science is built on three pillars. Pillar one: Science without results is just witchcraft. Pillar two: Get results or you're fired. Pillar three: if you suspect a coworker of bein' a witch, report them immediately. I cannot stress that enough. Witchcraft will not be tolerated."

"A lot of you have been raising concerns about the so-called "dangers" of what we're all doing here. The beancounters told me to tell you that as of today, testing will no longer be as mandatory or as dangerous. That's not gonna happen and here's the reason."

"Science isn't about why, it's about why not. You ask: Why is so much of our science dangerous? I say: Why not marry safe science if you love it so much. In fact, why not invent a special safety door that won't hit you in the butt on the way out, because you are fired."

"Plus, in the event of your death, I personally guarantee that, thanks to the form you were required to sign this morning, your family will not suffer the indignities of a prolonged and costly legal battle against Aperture Science. Trust me, I am rich, and it is a burden I would not wish on anyone."

Edited by SuperStingray, 03 March 2010 - 09:15 PM.

[Patticus]

The latest Portal update has altered the game's ending (link contains video): http://www.rockpaper...portal-updates/

The update calls it:

* Added valuable asset retrieval

Chell (Portal's protagonist) is the valuable asset, so she's probably not dead, unless they just want her body.