Hidden Message in Portal Update

SomethingAwful and Facepunch seem to be making the most progress.
http://forums.somethingawful.com/sho...readid=3273954
http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=902479

http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=1169580
http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=1168990

Interesting. Perhaps they are trying to build hype for something?

Originally Posted by AVT

Interesting. Perhaps they are trying to build hype for something?

It's been a long, long time, so just a reminder... It's called Half-Life...

I know, it's been so, so long...

Found a nice summary of what happen so far on the SA forums:

OKAY FOR YOU DUMB PEOPLE THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED

- Game updated, Radio achievement added.
- People find out that bringing the radios in-game to different spots in each map give soundclips
- Digging through the GCFs reveals that there are 26 sounds in all.
- Four are morse code:

quote:

#1-Dinosaur 1
I-N-T-E-R-I-O-R
T-R-A-N-S-M-I-S-S-I-O-N
A-C-T-I-V-E
E-X-T-E-R-N-A-L
D-A-T-A
L-I-N-E
A-C-T-I-V-E
M-E-S-S-A-G-E
D-I-G-E-S-T
A-C-T-I-V-E

#2-Dinosaur 5
9-E-J-0-7-D-3-7-2-B-B-6-8-2-6-B-D-8-1-D-3-5-4-2-A-4-1-9-D-6
(Which sanitysama says is "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog")


#3-Dinosaur 12
S-Y-S-T-E-M
D-A-T-A
D-U-M-P
A-C-T-I-V-E
U-S-E-R
B-A-C-K-U-P
A-C-T-I-V-E
P-A-S-S-W-O-R-D
B-A-C-K-U-P
A-C-T-I-V-E

#4-Dinosaur 17
B-E-E-P
B-E-E-E-E-P
B-E-E-P
B-E-E-P

B-E-E-E-E-P
B-E-E-E-E-P
B-E-E-E-E-P


B-E-E-P
B-E-E-E-E-P
B-E-E-P
B-E-E-P

And if you turn all those Beeps into individual morse code it spells LOL.


- The other 22 are all images after decoding with SSTV software. Click for a Steam Forums thread with all of them.

- Some of the images clue letters/numbers; each has a number out of 32 in the bottom right of it. Putting these together leads to an md5 hash of a BBS number. Figuring out the login is what we're currently stuck on.

Screenshot from someone attempting to login.

GlaDOS 3.11 might be significant.
3/11/10 happens to be smack in the middle of the Game Developers Conference.

I'm so confused because I don't have the game, but I did play it all the way through on my friend's account. Where is this login?

From what I'm reading they updated Portal and put radios in the game. When you bring them to certain locations, they each play a sound file. Some of the sound files were morse code and translated into messages. The rest of them were converted to images using SSTV. After pulling numbers and letters from the images, an MD5 hash was put together. Someone guessed it was a phone number and encoded all the phone numbers with the valve area code using MD5. One is a match. This number turns out to be a BBS number that you can dial into with your modem. The login is what you see when dialing in.

Originally Posted by XpediencY

I'm so confused because I don't have the game, but I did play it all the way through on my friend's account. Where is this login?

read through the threads in the OP, especially the ones in the something awful forums.

To summarize what has occurred so far:
-Portal update today, update logs indicate "Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations"
-Someone figured out to play with the radios ingame, found a new achievement of "Transmission Received."
-Achievement involves moving radios in game to specific locations to receive audio recordings.
-Audio recordings happen to be SSTV, which means they translate to images.
Here's all of them:

-Images translate into various cryptic messages,and all of them have numbers on them.
-All numbers in order equal an MD5 Hash sum that translates into a phone number of (425) 822-5251 with a Seattle area code...where Valve's headquarters located.
-Phone number is an old BBS system which you have to access with old school modem over landlines via terminal software. Requires a username and logon, only a few have figured out the login.


One of the messages has the math equation d(t)*l=p^2
Another message has d=d54Ev t=tR7Ol75lI1n l=lO51LlER4F1AnS p=pR32O5fi5T
If you filter out the numbers and letters your left with the following:
d=54
t=7751
l=5141
p=3255

and the message "Dev trollin. Loller. Fans Profit."

The embedded message seems more important ATM. The math equation doesn't add up once you actually input the values for d, t, l, and p.

My inner geek/nerd self is crying with happiness.

Valve...wow.

Also, I think its a Portal 2 and/or Half-Life 2 EP3 announcement for next week.

those people have way too much time on their hands.

though i have a huge midterm tomorrow and now i can't think about anything but portal and hl2:e3

Jesus, some smart people out there. lol

What a crazy puzzle, the threads are crazy long so before you guys summarized it for me I only got the first bit (when the patch was updated) and the last bit (people at the login screen). I didn't want to read through all the hundreds of pages of the thread, so I only took the first 5 and the last 5 pages.

-UPDATE-

Apparently, you have to use the correct terminal software and settings with the login username of "backup" and password of "backup" that was provided in one of the other clues.

#3-Dinosaur 12
S-Y-S-T-E-M
D-A-T-A
D-U-M-P
A-C-T-I-V-E
U-S-E-R
B-A-C-K-U-P
A-C-T-I-V-E
P-A-S-S-W-O-R-D
B-A-C-K-U-P
A-C-T-I-V-E

What happens if you use the correct terminal software and settings is you get an ASCII image of GlaDOS and a small log from the CEO of Aperture Software.

It looks something like this:

GLaDOS login: backup
Password: backup
---- APERTURE LABORATORIES GLaDOS v3.
-- COPYRIGHT (c) 1973-1997 APERTURE - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
---- RECONNECTING TO BACKUP STREAM ----
---- CONNECTION ESTABLISHED ----

<ASCII Image>

---- RECORD ENDS ----
-- WARNING: EXTERNAL DATA-LINE STABILITY COMPROMISED
---- BEGIN RECORD 'C:\03997821.398\06656556.646' (4149 BYTES) ----

<More ASCII>

---- 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) ----

<More ASCII>

*MESSAGE ENDS*

Here's some of the ASCII image:

I'd just like to express how fucking cool it is that a game company would go through the trouble of putting all this out there. Clearly the audience is far too clever, but the fact that this happened at all is just too cool.

-Another Update-

People are getting different message logs each time they log into the BBS system.

Here's another one:

---- 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) ----

Originally Posted by CaptNumbNutz

-Another Update-

People are getting different message logs each time they log into the BBS system.

Here's another one:

---- 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) ----

Rofl, I love it.

It must have taken them a long time to create this hell of a puzzle. I find it amazing just how far they can go and people still able to decode it.

HAHAHAHA!!! The 640KB memory really made me LOL! (not good at this time of the night)

I think this has to be Portal 2 and HL2:EP3, theres nothing else it can be!

Originally Posted by Ihaveworms

It must have taken them a long time to create this hell of a puzzle. I find it amazing just how far they can go and people still able to decode it.

I'm impressed as well. I wouldn't be able to get this far without some help, thats for sure!

The GlaDOS 3.11 = 3/11/10 seems to have a deeper meaning.

Gabe Newell is getting the "Pioneer" Award at the 2010 GDC on 3/11/10.

Maybe a Valve announcement on 3/11/10 during his acceptance speech?

Something else:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DXvs0NV6uw