By Alec Meer on March 2nd, 2010 at 12:57 am.
You might have noticed Steam downloading an update for Portal and HL2 Episode 2 earlier. Just a routine patch, you probably thought. You’re wrong, stupid! Learn to be more paranoid, why don’t you? Important secrets are being revealed…
The update details said, simply, “Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations”, which sounded like some obscure audio fix to kowtow to some obscure health and safety law. It’s not. In fact, it’s a series of secret messages, which are activated by carrying an in-game radio to several in-game locations. Which is in itself a compelling and playful mystery, especially as the sounds played at those locations wibbled on about transmissions and data dumps – y’know, computery talk. Like, say, from a murderous AI that’s awakening again. Maybe. That’s only the half of it, though.
Terrifyingly industrious members of the Steam forum have ascertained that some of the sound files contain hidden images, visible when run through a Slow Scan Television (SSTV) application. There’s a growing list of links to the revealed images here – but all they serve to do is further the mystery. Equations, skulls, keyboard buttons – and, most tellingly, the Aperture Science logo. Expect further developments as this ingenious ARG continues to run its strange course, which is being documented in realtime here. Oh, that Valve lot really are clever bastards.
I’m quite sure Ie’ll wake up to yet more revelations tomorrow – but to what ultimate end? The smart money’s on a Portal sequel, of course, but it could be something else – or something more. For instance, this extra radio transmission:
Is that GLADOS saying ‘get out’? And is that gunfire in the background? Combine gunfire, perhaps?
Your field day. Go have it.
02/03/2010 at 01:02 Blah says:
Me say, those Valve guys are a niiice bunch o’ crazy peop
02/03/2010 at 01:05 Lacobus says:
Oooooh! Exciting! Though what was the HL2E2 patch all about? Are there sectrets there too, I wonder?
02/03/2010 at 09:25 Optimaximal says:
The games share a lot of core engine bits and pieces and a load of assets – any update to one will often update the other. Was also the case with TF2 on release until that was forked a while back.
02/03/2010 at 01:06 Bowlby says:
Glad I’m not the only one asking wtf “Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations” means. Pretty cool.
02/03/2010 at 01:08 Obdicut says:
I, being lazy, rely on the rest of you to figure this shit out.
02/03/2010 at 01:09 Max says:
Urghhh Valve messing with my head AGAIN……
02/03/2010 at 01:11 Meat Circus says:
Orange Box would be nice, with Ep 3, Portal 2 and, oh, Black Mesa Source or something. That, please.
02/03/2010 at 01:47 Vinraith says:
@Meat Circus
Something MP, like Counterstrike 2, is the most likely third component. It would be awfully nice if Black Mesa would hurry up and come out, though.
02/03/2010 at 01:15 Meat Circus says:
Dino 11 = gnome chompsky
wat
02/03/2010 at 01:16 Breakfast says:
Is it combine gunfire… or is it Gordan Freeman in his usual role?
02/03/2010 at 01:17 Taillefer says:
The sound sounds like it’s being played backwards to me, but somebody has done that, right?
Tried reversing it, I mean.
02/03/2010 at 01:19 RC-1290'Dreadnought' says:
@Taillefer Which sound? If you’re talking about the noise, then, maybe, I haven’t tried, but as you can see, some people on the Steam Forums have figured out that its SSTV, and you can use converter tools to get images out of them.
02/03/2010 at 01:21 Taillefer says:
In the clip. I don’t think it’s “get out”, but a voice in reverse.
02/03/2010 at 01:32 RC-1290'Dreadnought' says:
@Taillefer “YOU ARE NEXT!”
got goosebumps all over when I heard that !
02/03/2010 at 01:37 RC-1290'Dreadnought' says:
@taillefer someone did it for you: youtube watch?v=2f7Iw3YMslc
02/03/2010 at 01:40 Taillefer says:
*smug*
Edit: Although, it’s not clear if it really is reversed. It’s hard not to hear what you’re told is there.
Another edit: I’m sure I can hear a second, weaker “voice” before the main “voice”. Just before it reaches 2 seconds, only two syllables, but it could be anything. Like when people claim to have recorded ghosts.
02/03/2010 at 02:06 RC-1290'Dreadnought' says:
I’m pretty sure it is “You are next”. After that it sounds like they added a sound from the pinball game from windows XP.
02/03/2010 at 06:05 qrter says:
I would have never heard “you are next” in that, if I hadn’t read the suggestion before. Now I can only barely imagine hearing it.
Backward sounds are notorious for being easily impressed upon.
02/03/2010 at 07:52 Joseph says:
RE: watch?v=2f7Iw3YMslc
The sound backwards is definitely “find that cat”.
02/03/2010 at 01:21 Koozer says:
Episode 3/Portal 2 crossover/bundle? Please god let it be so.
02/03/2010 at 01:22 Koozer says:
Fake edit: I think it’s the gnome from Half Life, not Chompski from Left 4 Dead.
02/03/2010 at 01:31 Meat Circus says:
Clearly Gnome Chompski the one you send in space is the same Gnome Chompski you save from the zombies in Dark Carnival.
There’s only one Gnome Chompski, he just has the ability to tunnel between game realities at will. A porcelain metagod.
Also, there’s this:
http://babel-research.eu/
I like the black cat what pops up at the bottom left every once in a while.
02/03/2010 at 03:05 postmanX3 says:
Is that “Babel Research” thing confirmed to be Valve’s doing?
At the bottom, there’s Black Mesa’s logo, Aperture Science’s logo, and… Hanso’s logo? The Hanso that was in the LOST ARG?
02/03/2010 at 01:24 LewieP says:
Two things:
1. This is exactly like the kind of thing Adam Foster (The guy who single handily made the HL2 MEGAMOD Minerva) used to do. Before Valve hired him.
2. GCD and PAX East are looming.
02/03/2010 at 01:48 Bret says:
What I’ve been saying all day.
Seriously, this is Marathon Infinity secret level style stuff.
02/03/2010 at 01:55 Alexander Norris says:
I really hope this is the triumphant return of Mr Foster, and the announcement of Episode 3. I’ve heard people say the Steam forums have found references to the Borealis and Mossman, but I’ve not checked yet.
02/03/2010 at 04:51 Thants says:
That’s it, they’ve struggled the Marathon license away from the shambling zombie of Bungie and are making Marathon Infinity+1… What? I can dream.
02/03/2010 at 06:05 KP says:
Following those news updates was great. I think I need to play Minerva, again.
02/03/2010 at 01:44 RC-1290'Dreadnought' says:
For the first game they said: Name something everyone likes….. ehm, cake?
This time they might have said: Name something everyone thinks is cool…. ehm dinosaurs?
Which would explain why the files are all called dinosaur…
At least, that would be cool :P.
02/03/2010 at 01:45 Dr Snofeld says:
Someone linked me to this: http://babel-research.eu/
The plot thickens.
02/03/2010 at 01:51 Dr Snofeld says:
Wait nevermind apparently it’s a fan-made thing and is old. Woops.
02/03/2010 at 01:55 Drexer says:
Found 20, time to sleep. Gonna have to finish it tomorrow.
Only Valve.
02/03/2010 at 01:57 CaptainHairy says:
Damnit, Valve! If you’re trolling me I swear I will cry SO HARD.
This can’t be anything other than the announcement of a game, but I really don’t want it to be Portal 2. As far as I’m concerned, the game was perfect as it was, and I doubt any new game will reach its heights. I really need some more Half Life 2.
02/03/2010 at 01:59 Eschatos says:
Totally Episode 3.
02/03/2010 at 02:08 MadTinkerer says:
Never mind the meta-game of figuring out the secret messages, there’s a NEW ACHIEVEMENT to be had! It’s called “Transmission received” and it’s quite simple… so far (I’ve only gotten through chamber 4 so far).
There’s now a radio in every test chamber. Grab ‘em and move around the chamber until you pick up static. When you stand in the right spot in the static, the radio light will go green, you’ll get a Mysterious Transmission and progress towards getting the achievement.
As good an excuse as any to play through Portal again, I think!
02/03/2010 at 02:08 SirKicksalot says:
I wonder if they’ll show it at GDC.
02/03/2010 at 02:23 Kbohls says:
awwwwwwwww yeahhhh Day of Defeat: Source 2 for sure!
02/03/2010 at 02:35 Dain says:
I always personally reckoned that the combine pinched a lot of stuff from Aperture like their zappy energy balls (Combine machine gun secondary fire) , turrets and something of their AI (The overwatch AI voice being verra similar to GlaDos can’t be just a coincidence)
But whatever :)
THIS is brilliant though
http://i47.tinypic.com/2qnzhax.png
02/03/2010 at 02:52 Tom Camfield says:
Babybird, and I claim my five pounds.
02/03/2010 at 02:59 Vinraith says:
I’m too engrossed in Fallout 3 Wanderer’s Edition to go chasing this at the moment, but do let me know how it turns out. HL2 Ep 3 or Portal 2 would both be welcome announcements.
02/03/2010 at 03:22 Severian says:
@ Vinraith
How is that Wanderer’s Edition mod? I’ve been tempted to jump back into Fallout3 if there were mods out there to improve the experience.
02/03/2010 at 03:28 Vinraith says:
@Severian
It’s digital crack, at least IMO. I liked FO3 to begin with, but running Wanderer’s Edition, Mart’s Mutant Mod, and DC Interiors I’m finding it much more immersive. Having to worry about food and drink (and consequently having to very actively manage radiation), dealing with constant shortfalls of ammo and decent gear, it’s a real wasteland survival experience under this mod. It’s also extremely customizable, you can make it harsher or less harsh, start under completely different conditions than the default (want to be a raider? It can do that), etc etc. I also quite enjoy the motorcycle fast travel system (another option it comes with) which allows fast travel via a motorcycle that requires fuel (concocted from a variety of found components) and maintenance (via salvaged parts).
Anyway, if you’re interested I’d strongly recommend it. The installation was quite easy with the Fallout mod manager, and the amount of customization available with FWE and its complementary mods is outstanding. We’ll put it this way: I’m about 50 hours into my current game and am still completely addicted. I suspect I’ll want to replay the game several times with different characters/starting conditions/options, and I absolutely would not go back to vanilla after this experience.
02/03/2010 at 03:58 MWoody says:
I’ve been wanting to try FWE, but I want to combine it with the OTHER major overhaul mod, Fook 2. They have a 1.1 coming out “soon,” but it’s been coming out “soon” for months now.
Ah well. It’s not like I’m hurting for games to play.
02/03/2010 at 04:26 Vinraith says:
@MWoody
There’s a compatibility patch for FWE and FOOK2 to work together, so that shouldn’t be any trouble. When I was setting up this build I looked at FOOK, but couldn’t really figure out what it did in any depth or detail, so I decided to keep it relatively simple.
02/03/2010 at 03:02 HermitUK says:
I have sacrificed a decent night’s sleep to find 26 radios and use them to listen to some bitmap images.
So totally worth it. Even aside from the tiny “OMG PORTAL2″ voice at the back of my mind, it was nice to have an excuse to replay Portal for the umpteenth time.
02/03/2010 at 03:09 TCM says:
VAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALVE
02/03/2010 at 03:15 TimA says:
I concur.
02/03/2010 at 06:07 Demon Beaver says:
Indeed
02/03/2010 at 07:15 captain fitz says:
Verily.
02/03/2010 at 08:52 Glove says:
Spot on.
02/03/2010 at 03:17 DXN says:
From the look of that forum they may have translated the sounds into images, placed the numbers and letters shown into the correct order as an MD5 string, decoded that into a BBS phone-number, dialled into it and (possibly) been presented with a GladOS login screen… ! Not sure how much of that is true but if so, it seems like it points to something big.. like a game announcement! I am excited, like puppy.
02/03/2010 at 08:54 Glove says:
But you are obviously a cat! Typing, at the keyboard. Yes.
02/03/2010 at 03:18 PixelCody says:
I don’t care what the news is, it’ll be good news.
I wont be playing any sort of ARG or reading many more updates on this one for fear of getting my hopes up. Let me know when they announce 3 free maps for Portal and I’ll cheer with the rest of ya.
02/03/2010 at 03:18 Saul says:
Portal/HL cross-over. I knew it :)
02/03/2010 at 03:24 Oak says:
Looney conjecture: Episode 3 and Portal 2 are the same game.
02/03/2010 at 06:28 Saul says:
Yes, and it’s co-op!
02/03/2010 at 08:53 JuJuCam says:
I would be happy if this were the case.
02/03/2010 at 03:57 Flyspeck :. says:
http://babel-research.eu/ – Black Mesa and Aperture logo on the bottom, reference to august 6th incident.
August the 6th 2018 incident:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrFXiUNbiSY
Holy fuck.
02/03/2010 at 04:04 Wulf says:
Computer Brain Interface?
Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait…
Waitwaitwait…
Wait…
THIS Computer Brain Interface?!?
*watches.*
Yes, yes it is!
The logo’s the same!!
They’ve been planning this for HOW long?!?!??!?
*explodes!*
02/03/2010 at 04:11 jsutcliffe says:
@Wulf
Seriously? It’s related to What’s In The Box? How fricken awesome is that? Man, I am slack-jawed in admiration.
I always wanted for WITB to turn out to be some kind of Valve viral video, but after months went by with no further information I figured I was wrong.
02/03/2010 at 04:17 Wulf says:
Yep, I noticed on the BABEL site that they had a product called ‘Computer Brain Interface’, this immediately clicked in my mind, as I knew I’d seen that somewhere before. Then when it occurred to me where I’d seen it… *boom!* …and that’s really all that can be said. The two are related, the box, BABEL, it’s all part of this vile computer-scheme*!
The planning behind this… my mind is officially blown, and I’m impressed. Damn it, Valve, I’m impressed. I’m rarely impressed. You’ve impressed me. Good job.
* Spot the reference!
02/03/2010 at 04:15 Diogo Ribeiro says:
its a quarter past 4 am people, you better find out what this is by the time i’m back!
02/03/2010 at 04:19 Flyspeck :. says:
Turns out that all is fan made… still cool though!
02/03/2010 at 04:26 Wulf says:
It’s hard to tell what’s real any more~!
AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAaaa—oh wait, someone beat me to that.
02/03/2010 at 04:39 MadTinkerer says:
“Turns out that all is fan made…”
Well I’m not sure if What’s In The Box / Computer Brain Interface is retroactively being acknowledged by Valve or not, but the fact that I’m getting radio transmissions INSIDE THE GAME RIGHT NOW by definition means Valve is somehow directly involved.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5bdTlryKes for an example if you can’t/won’t play it right now.
02/03/2010 at 04:25 halfthought says:
http://www.whatsinthebox.nl/
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHhhhhHHHHaaaAAaaaaaaahhhhHHaaaaaaa
02/03/2010 at 04:31 jarvoll says:
So far I’ve found this commented in the source of the main frame of that page:
That presumably is a clue to the password you need if you click on the lower portion of the circle. Beats me what it means though.
02/03/2010 at 04:32 jarvoll says:
lol… and I left the
Unmask the URL –>
02/03/2010 at 04:33 jarvoll says:
Argh!
some things will only be revealed through mirrors and light
Unmask the URL
…is what is commented out.
02/03/2010 at 04:40 tikey says:
I’m just posting so I know frow where to read when I come back later. I’ll wait for you guys on the internet figure ir out for me, thanks.
02/03/2010 at 04:45 Frosty says:
HOLY HOLY HOLY HOLY.
I’m confused by all the comments here. Can I have a strong confirm or deny; is this related to What’s in the box? Does the common theory seem to be that What’s in the Box is Valve made (secretly?)
02/03/2010 at 04:49 jsutcliffe says:
@Frosty
From what I can tell, WITB is a genuine amateur film (e.g. there’s a non-staged looking interview with its creator on YouTube from Dutch TV). However, Valve might have enjoyed it, seen a way to merge it with the HL universe, and said “yoink!”
02/03/2010 at 04:58 mcnostril says:
Looking through the steam forums, most people seem to agree that is unrelated because the what’sinthebox thing also seems to heavily cross reference Lost, and that just seems like too much of a stretch to have the half life universe, portal and lost pointing to the same thing.
02/03/2010 at 04:59 MadTinkerer says:
Or the WITB connection is accidental. It’s hard to tell until some more is decoded. In any case, both WITB and this Valve stunt are both made of win.
Meanwhile I’m stuck on the Chamber 13 radio.
02/03/2010 at 05:00 Frosty says:
About now is when I wish my Portal was working. Come on Valve tech support….
Thanks for the replies guys, my want for information grows but you have done what you can.
02/03/2010 at 05:03 jsutcliffe says:
@McNostril
Portal is known to be set in the Half Life universe.
02/03/2010 at 04:51 jsutcliffe says:
Man, first Infinity Ward get attacked by Activision heavies, then Valve drops this shizball. This is the worst day to be in an information vacuum due to overworking. I wish I could have been following all this nonsense through the day.
02/03/2010 at 05:05 Sp4rkR4t says:
At the GLADOS login via the dialup number it states that the OS version is 3.11, and not the old 1.05a I’m going to take a wild guess and say that number corresponds to the full announcement of whatever the hell this is leading to at GDC on March 11th.
02/03/2010 at 05:48 jarvoll says:
The dialup number?
02/03/2010 at 10:28 jon_hill987 says:
I was going to say that would be the third of November. Then I remembered that the crazy Americans do their dates the wrong way round…
02/03/2010 at 05:12 wyrmsine says:
Man, some of those radios are hard to find.
02/03/2010 at 05:20 Fumarole says:
This obviously means Valve are going to buy the Primal Carnage team and redevelop their game.
Orange Box 2 = Primal Carnage, Episode 3, Portal 2
02/03/2010 at 05:22 EaterOfCheese says:
Steam forums are going crazy.
02/03/2010 at 05:32 Hat Galleon says:
Huh, I just realized. In that Babel Research site, that black cat that pops up in the bottom left in a box. Call me crazy, but that sure seems like a reference to Schrödinger’s Cat.
02/03/2010 at 05:37 Junior says:
Bugger all your conspiracies, I just love the name of that video.
It’s nice to know there’s someone else who likes taking radios for a walk.
02/03/2010 at 05:44 Fumarole says:
The initials from here:
http://babel-research.eu/?about=about
form the anagram The Fall. Omitting the K, that is.
02/03/2010 at 12:04 kikito says:
Ok I’ve been dicking around on the babel-research website and found this:
http://babel-research.eu/snd/hidden.mp3
There’s a woman’s voice there.
I downloaded, reversed it (with Audacity – Effect/Reverse) and found out that the voice is saying something like “thank november”. I can’t say for sure that the first word is “thank”, but the second one is surely “november”. Maybe a release date?
02/03/2010 at 12:07 kikito says:
woops, somebody else had already found out about this on another comment. Apologies
02/03/2010 at 05:48 Hat Galleon says:
Oh hey I was right, in the page source, . I have a feeling the cat has no importance though, since the page source closes with .
02/03/2010 at 05:54 Hat Galleon says:
Ok, so HTML code doesn’t paste into the comment boxes. Makes sense. Still, take my word on it or look at the page source. Schrodinger’s Cat. I swear! I’m not crazy!
02/03/2010 at 05:57 Cynic says:
My skull came out clearer than that, so I might upload all the images once they’re done. There’s a lot of interference even in the source sound files though, so it won’t be perfect.
This is a bit fun then, eh? Portal 2/Ep:3 yes please.
02/03/2010 at 06:08 Cynic says:
Actually, bugger alle this forre ay larke. Just realised that my images were getting named randomly rather than sequentially so I’ve no idea which wav produces which image. I’ll do it tomorrow.
02/03/2010 at 06:51 def says:
The page code on this Babel Research page has a link commented out: http://www.babel-research.eu/snd/hidden.mp3
If you reverse this MP3 with something like Audacity, it says “xxx November”. The “xxx” is the part I fail to understand.
02/03/2010 at 07:43 Jayt says:
November is pretty clear, but agreed I can’t make out the other bit. Tried a few things but was unsuccessful.
02/03/2010 at 07:55 jarvoll says:
Alright, so the story so far:
Babel Research and What’s in the Box? are unrelated.
The images from the sound files, when arranged in order, give a 32-character sequence. This can be decrypted as an MD5 sequence, which yields a telephone number in Washington state. Dialling this number with a modem (or emulation software) gives you a login screen. This screen says that GlaDOS is at version 3.11, leading many to speculate that Gabe will make an announcement on March 11th, on which day he is speaking at GDC. Entering the username and password “backup” (derived from morse code heard on the in-game radios), a number of ASCII-art images are streamed to your screen before closing the connection. So far, images seem to be of 1) Gabe 2)Dog, vortigaunts, or some other androids 3) Turrets from Aperture 4)Hearts and companion cubes. Apart from obviously being references to HL and Portal, nothing of significance has otherwise come from these images.
02/03/2010 at 08:08 jarvoll says:
An example of the output (note Glados 3.11): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpzV7Hy_zVE
02/03/2010 at 09:00 MadTinkerer says:
Radio Report:
There is at least one radio in every test chamber from 1 to 18. There are three in nineteen. There are at least three more during the escape sequence (possibly one per map but I wasn’t keeping track).
I know of the location of 24 radios + their hotspots, but I’m still missing 2. I suspect there may be an additional radio in 17 and 18 or that I missed one or two during the escape.
Interesting facts:
Once you get the transmission for a radio, and therefore that part of the achievement, the light permanently changes green. This is nice because you can instantly see whether you’ve already used a radio or not.
All of the “original” radios in the game are where they were before but now are part of this giant easter egg hunt and have their own hotspots. The two exceptions I noticed are the two radios you can’t get to: the radio you pass during the epilogue fly-though (I checked with noclip and it’s not there until the epilogue proper) and the radio on the alternate menu screen (no light, so it’s not part of the hunt). So every accessible radio is part of this.
The hotspots are always relatively nearby and often in some kind of “significant” location such as one of the hidey-holes or right outside the companion cube incinerator room. While several of the radios are tricky to grab, none of the hotspots are particularly difficult to get to except for the Giant Turret Ambush Room. It’s easy to figure out because it’s the route you would normally take to keep going, but flinging while holding onto a radio is tricky.
Occasionally if you carry a radio far away from the hotspot after you’ve already got it’s transmission, it plays static, but this may be a bug. (most chambers are too small or too difficult to try this in, so I only noticed it once)
All of the transmissions seem to be from the new sound files that are morse code or those encoded pictures (in case anyone needed confirmation on that).
It is possible to kill yourself with one of the new radios (botched fling attempt + radio traveling at terminal velocity = deadly missile headed right at you.)
Like the Portal Gun, radios are perfectly fine when tossed in fire. Good thing they didn’t make GLaDOs out of spare radio parts.
02/03/2010 at 08:13 ShadowNate says:
@jarvoll: This is VERY exciting stuff. Maybe not spelling out news for Portal 2 or Ep3 but that’s exactly the vibe they give out!
I wouldn’t have the patience or the intelligence to figure that puzzle out, though.
02/03/2010 at 08:28 Radiant says:
CARGO CULT!
MY BRAIN IS TOO SMALL DAMN YOU.
02/03/2010 at 09:06 DanPryce says:
Valve, like most developers, have got a little bit of evil in them. For every wonderful thing they do, they have to do something nasty to maintain balance. The Steam UI beta, for whatever reason, forces me to download at around 50k/s.
And Portal is currently uninstalled. I blame Valve, because it sure as shit ain’t my fault I didn’t install it.
02/03/2010 at 09:07 MrBRAD! says:
On the really long vid, the one with the “scientist” that is running from the “(metro police wut?)” and hides on a bus, messes around with phones etc- if you read the news ticker one of the objects says “Largest collapse since Black Mesa”
Valve is behind it. (if they aren’t my mind will explode in dismay)
02/03/2010 at 10:28 DMcCool says:
Its old and fanmade. That said, people seem too have found references inside portal now so..there is every chance Valve have bought the people that made it and now it is retroactively Valve. Horray for Valve!
02/03/2010 at 09:15 Dominic White says:
Goddammit! Babel/WiTB are red herrings. They’re been around for ages, and have a whole bunch of elements that just don’t gel, including stuff like the Hanso Foundation logo. Seriously.
They’re fan-made attempts at creating something mysterious and cool. As opposed to the stuff that just magicked its way into Portal last night, which is ACTUALLY mysterious and cool.
The puzzle right now, it seems, is coming up with the username/password to log into that Aperture Science BBS.
02/03/2010 at 09:33 AVarotsis says:
Nope! That’s been found, it was encoded in morse code apparently. BACKUP BACKUP :)
02/03/2010 at 09:34 AVarotsis says:
Also, I’m always amazed by how fast the internet’s hive mind powers through this sort of riddle, that would mystify anybody :)
UNITED WE STAND!
02/03/2010 at 09:45 JB says:
Indeed. As a problem-solving engine, it’s pretty impressive =)
02/03/2010 at 09:49 James G says:
We just need to get Valve to make the HL2:ep3 announcement dependent on solving world hunger, world peace and forming a grand unified theory.
02/03/2010 at 09:52 AndrewC says:
I fear the internet’s solution to the first two would involve killing everyone.
02/03/2010 at 11:42 Carra says:
“visible when run through a Slow Scan Television (SSTV) application”.
Euh yeah, I’m surprised people find that out so fast.
02/03/2010 at 13:12 Boldoran says:
Thats the great thing about the hive mind of the internet. You only need one interested HAM Radio Amateuer (they still use this tech to transmit pictures) to listen to the file and he will suspect that it is indeed data.
02/03/2010 at 17:24 Nallen says:
It makes me think of the infinite monkeys with infinite type writers…so many people trying so many things you’re going to end up with Shakespeare. Or in this case the prick teasing of the entire internet.
02/03/2010 at 10:37 RagingLion says:
After going through the thread that’s been following all the developments the most significant things to note seem to be these images that have been pulled off of the BBS board which all the clues lead back to:
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/6278/portalascii.png
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fortyseven/4400092635/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fortyseven/4400915286/
Also the March 11th date seems to be a fairly solid lead. Excited!
02/03/2010 at 10:39 MarkSide says:
Man! Folks are clever aren’t they!? Sure beats Lost.
02/03/2010 at 10:45 abigbat says:
I’m inexplicably excited. Gosh I love these viral things!
02/03/2010 at 10:52 Tom says:
This has got Adam Foster stamped all over it.
02/03/2010 at 18:32 l1ddl3monkey says:
This is exactly what I came here to say.
02/03/2010 at 10:53 ChaosSmurf says:
Totally.
02/03/2010 at 11:03 The Sombrero Kid says:
a nice synopsis from the steam
02/03/2010 at 11:04 The Sombrero Kid says:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13767776&postcount=2291
02/03/2010 at 11:24 AndrewC says:
‘whilest other dispute it, claiming it shows the skeleton of a chicken and therefor they are not connected.’
There’s poetry there.
And this is all pointing towards co-op, yes?
02/03/2010 at 11:11 Flint says:
So there’s all this data that’s been pulled from Portal, but what about the Ep2 update?
In any case, excitedexcitedexcited.
02/03/2010 at 11:15 Ginger Yellow says:
This is a triumph
02/03/2010 at 11:24 Tweakd says:
Awesome :-)
02/03/2010 at 11:29 Petrushka says:
Looks to me like there’s more than a passing resemblance between this image and the logo of Babel Research. Not identical, but … reminiscent.
02/03/2010 at 11:52 Rinox says:
I may have to give Valve all my money.
I hope Ubisoft is taking notes on how to make people buy your games.
02/03/2010 at 13:02 Dominic White says:
I’m no great fan of Valves games (TF2 and the L4D series aren’t really my stle), but I’m a huge fan of them as a company. The fact that they just slipped this crazy ARG in quietly in a tiny Portal patch is amazing. Even better is the level of detail/thought that seems to have gone into it.
Valve don’t do marketing. They engage with their fanbase, and that’s something special. Ubisoft treat all their customers like criminals, and (here’s a new one) Activision just moved to shut down a fan-made King’s Quest game that Sierra/Vivendi had given the fans a non-profit license to officially produce.
If we were to apply D&D alignments to these companies, Activision would be Chaotic Evil, Ubisoft would be Lawful Evil, EA would be True Neutral, and Valve would be Kickass Awesome.
02/03/2010 at 15:09 The Innocent says:
@Dominic
I must say, well done. Alignments? I love it.
02/03/2010 at 12:01 DXN says:
Oh my gosh-darned goodness this is SO COOL. It’s all gone so much further since last night! And I hadn’t even heard of What’s In the Box (fucking cool) and Babel Research and now they’re seeing pictures of chickens and robots and AFRBEVYEBGFE&(FH(R£R.
I am LITERALLY (okay not literally) rolling around flailing on the floor like a mad loon because of how cool this is.
Valve, I have always and will always love you. Fuck the haters. :D
02/03/2010 at 14:59 CyberPowerUK says:
Finally some HL2:EP3 news!
02/03/2010 at 15:10 Vadermath says:
Even if this doesn’t turn out to be Portal 2 (AND IT WILL, GODDAMIT. IT MUST.), I’ll remember this. It’s simply…intelligent. That’s the best word. This is the kind of marketing gaming companies should do. Something exciting. I mean, look;
*points in the general direction of the Internet*
There are hundreds of thousands out there waiting for news, desperately trying to get even the smallest scraps of info or cryptic pictures.
Thanks, Valve. This is why we love you.
02/03/2010 at 15:55 FernandoDANTE says:
Half-Life Episode 3!!!
Remember the Aperture Science logo at the end of Episode 2? Yeah. I’m betting that portals play a pretty big role on Ep 3.
02/03/2010 at 17:26 MacD says:
That ‘what’s in the box’ video was done by a dutch student in his spare time, applying what he’d learned about video editing, 3d and camera matching. It was on the news in the Netherlands a while back after he posted it on youtube and (iirc) hollywood expressed interest in it/him.
Dunno what ever happened to him, but I do know that this wasn’t a setup/thought out thing. WitB was just a test project for the student.
02/03/2010 at 18:14 Morningoil says:
Fuck you, Valve. Fuck you for being cleverer and better than everyone else. On the grounds that you always hurt the ones you love, ama comin’ round with a golf club, Bioshock style.
In other news: Portal 2! Or maybe Ep.3! Cor!
02/03/2010 at 18:27 Rei Onryou says:
@Morningoil: Valve have kindly asked you round for a spot of golf???
02/03/2010 at 18:18 Morningoil says:
@Dominic White
‘If we were to apply D&D alignments to these companies, Activision would be Chaotic Evil, Ubisoft would be Lawful Evil, EA would be True Neutral, and Valve would be Kickass Awesome.’
Brilliant.
The RPS Community – we’re like the Valve of internet cliques :D
02/03/2010 at 18:19 ALeX says:
No need to stab you to death, you can just go die alone…
You don’t like the game don’t play it it’s that simple!!
22/03/2010 at 03:15 iseeicy says:
the radio say GET ME OUT OF HERE*BZTTTFIZZLE*
25/04/2010 at 07:22 doggod says:
hey i noticed that skull is isnt touching the ground and is being held up by something maybe aperture science is manufacturing clones or androids just a thought