SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - A very interesting puzzle (Valve) (Portal Spoilers!!!)

Posted: Mar 02 2010 05:04 pm

So, yesterday, users noticed that Portal had an update through Steam. What they found was that it added a new Steam Acheivement and new sound files labeled "dinosaurXX" (Where = Number. 01 , 02, etc.) Some of the sounds were morse code, and some were another type of garbled noise. Listen here:

Well the Morse Code bits translated to:

Quote:

Interior transmission active
External data line active
Message digest active

System data dump active
User back up active
Password back up active

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

beep beeeep beep beep beeeep beeeep beeeep beep beeeep beep beep*

*Translates in morse to L.O.L."

The other bits, people have discovered were SSTV transmissions. Or in other words, pictures sent via sounds. They have translated those into the following pictures:

dinosaur2 - http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/2862/dino2.png
dinosaur3 - http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/5395/dino3.png
dinosaur4 - http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/8126/dino4.png
dinosaur6 - http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/474/dino6t.png
dinosaur7 - http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/804/dino7.png
dinosaur8 - http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/4015/dino8.png
dinosaur9 - http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/1900/dino9z.png
dinosaur10 - http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/6002/dino10.png
dinosaur11 - http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/5893/dino11.png
dinosaur13 - http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/2015/dino13.png
dinosaur14 - http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/6633/dino14.png
dinosaur15 - http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/2716/dino15.png
dinosaur16 - http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/3671/dino16.png
dinosaur18 - http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/5874/dino18.png
dinosaur19 - http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/8443/dino19.png
dinosaur20 - http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/8295/dino20.png
dinosaur21 - http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/6334/dino21.png
dinosaur22 - http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/6657/dino22.png
dinosaur23 - http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/4641/dino23.png
dinosaur24 - http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1385/dino24.png
dinosaur25 - http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/4139/dino25.png
dinosaur26 - http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/3913/dino26.png

Inside the pictures there are pieces of a puzzle that lead to a " BBS#: (###) ###-####" . (For you younglings out there, BBS means Buletin Board Service, which is what we had before the internet. It was a number you called with your modem to connect to someone else's computer to share files, ideas, etc.)

From each image group, the users solved the puzzle from the images to be the following characters: 9459C6CAC8C203B8128B7CC63068D4FD

Which someone else translated by doing a hex code to Md5 Hash translation, which is: (425) 822-5251

It has now been discovered that this connects to modem in Washington, that asked for a GLaDOS Login and Password.

The puzzle continues. And, this has the be one of coolest things a game company has ever done to virally market something, or send a message regarding a game. (Which at this point, most assume it will be finally revealed to be a anouncement regarding either Portal 2 or Half-Life 2 Episode 3.)

Follow the fun here:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1169218

Joined: Nov 11 2009 Location: Cajun Country Posts: 1511

I see that your dragons have grown quite a bit. Congratulations!

Posted: Mar 02 2010 07:35 pm

That's incredible. The capacity for human intelligence and teamwork over thousands of miles always astounds me as does the creativity in setting the puzzle up in the first place. Marvelous.

Posted: Mar 02 2010 07:39 pm

That is wild that they put that much thought into the campaign. It is even more wild that people have figured out that much in such a short time frame.

Posted: Mar 03 2010 11:24 pm

Go beat it again if you already have, because apparently they changed the ending.

Posted: Mar 03 2010 11:30 pm

I had to buy Portal for this... It's funny because there is now a % of .01 who achieved this....

Posted: Mar 04 2010 12:38 am

The-Excel wrote:

Go beat it again if you already have, because apparently they changed the ending.

Is this true?

Posted: Mar 04 2010 12:46 am

Yes, they have.

Spoiler:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZE39Q7yPow

Posted: Mar 04 2010 12:49 am

pretty neat stuff

Posted: Mar 04 2010 02:00 am

wow... just I'm stunned... the last words said sounded like a Combine Robot

Posted: Mar 04 2010 02:00 am

God I love Valve.

I love Valve SO fucking much.

Posted: Mar 04 2010 02:12 am

Everyone's dream job should start with a surprise job offer from Valve.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

I'm not going to call, but if using the following wins, give me credit

login: cjohnson
password: tier3

Posted: Mar 04 2010 10:16 am

I'm hoping that the password isn't your Steam ID and Password.
Also there are so many new videos in portal popping up with the radios. They already picked up on the morse code, but they also reversed the sounds and got a "Gordon, you are next" or something similar in the files.

Posted: Mar 04 2010 11:33 am

Yes, this is very awesome.

Posted: Mar 04 2010 12:23 pm

Slayer1 wrote:

They already picked up on the morse code, but they also reversed the sounds and got a "Gordon, you are next" or something similar in the files.

OHMYGODOHMYGOD!

This means I have to get my ass in gear and finish HL, HL2 and all its episodes, stat, before Portal 2 comes out!!!

Posted: Mar 04 2010 02:02 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f7Iw3YMslc&feature=related
this is the link to the reversed sound. I'm hearing the Gordon you are next, and I am still alive. It may just be a trick of the mind, but who knows, this is pretty tight.

I've been listening to the sounds and there is one file that has speaking underneath heavy white noise... does anyone know a program that can isolate different sound levels?

I can only hypothesis that *SPOILER ALERT*

The Gordon comment is relating to Half-Life: Episode 3. Towards the end of episode 2, after they stopped the transmission, they have to find the female doctor (name escapes me atm) which disappeared in the Antarctic on a APERTURE SCIENCE vessel. The voice sounds female so I can only guess that it's a garbled message from the doctor warning Gordon about the Combine's plans, or perhaps aperture science was in league with the Combine. There have also been rumors floating around about Gordon using the Portal Gun so who knows...

Second thought, the I'm Still Alive comment. Chell at the end of portal is dragged off by an obvious robot, Combine, Aperture or Unknown, it's easy to say that since there are more then one Aperture Science buildings, GLaDoS could have expanded her programming outside of the main facility and has recaptured Chell. This provides the opening for Portal 2.

Posted: Mar 04 2010 04:50 pm

Uhnm, Portal 1 spoilers for those who haven't yet beat it somehow...

Obviously, GLaDOS is still online after Chell destroys the mainframe or whatever, so it's entirely possible she sent a recovery drone for Chell from whatever hardened bunker protected her memory cores. Unless that was a far distant facility...

I'm wicked pumped about HL3 Ep3, the concept art of the overseers hovering through the ice chasm with the Borleias frozen in the wall and covered in those Combine spike plates and bridges sold me immediately.

Posted: Mar 04 2010 05:04 pm

My little brother is anxious for the return of the guy from Opposing Force.

Posted: Mar 04 2010 05:15 pm

The-Excel wrote:

My little brother is anxious for the return of the guy from Opposing Force.

We should just add a spoiler alert on the Title of the thread...

I'd love to have the PVT. return. The G-Man didn't give him an option like Gordon, just threw him into hibernation. It would be cool to have him show up under the G-Man's employment versus what happened to him anyways.

I knew GLaDoS was alive, or still active, It would have been easy to just assume that "she" was only in the main Aperture Science Facility. I'll shit bricks though if a message to this puzzle says, put the Materials Folder of Portal into the HL2 folder after another update occurs.

Posted: Mar 04 2010 07:48 pm

Greg the White wrote:

I'm not going to call, but if using the following wins, give me credit

login: cjohnson
password: tier3

The login was discovered as "Backup/Backup"

And, here's what the BBS site spewed out at epic 300 Baud Modem speeds:

Yes, those are classic ASCII pictures. And, the community took them, and enhanced them for viewability:

Sorry, for the huge size, but its the only way to see them well.

EDIT: I went ahead and fix the pics so they don't stretch the screen. They're still viewable in large size if you click them. -Hawk

Posted: Mar 04 2010 09:01 pm

I'm curious as to how they came up with Backup/Backup... I've been toying around with the SSTV files and I did see a bit of letters but I ignored it.

Posted: Mar 04 2010 09:51 pm

Jesus. Valve really knows their stuff.

Posted: Mar 04 2010 11:58 pm

i wonder how long it took them just to come up w/that marketing scheme.

Posted: Mar 05 2010 12:08 am

They probably started this at the same time Portal was finished, but the overwhelming response for it caused them to change their plans and turn it into an Episode 3 announcement.