Hidden Message in Portal Update

Interesting. Perhaps they are trying to build hype for something?
 
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.
5wbap.gif
 
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.
 
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:
portalredone1.png

-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.
 
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My inner geek/nerd self is crying with happiness. :p

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:
2z4y00o.jpg
 
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) ----
 
-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!

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!
 
Just some insight to those who don't know who "CJohnson" is.

CJohnson is Cave Johnson, the CEO of Aperture Science that apparently died in the Half-Life/Portal universe. The whole backstory can be found on the old cryptic Portal Launch page aperturescience.com. This page launched with portal and orange box back in 2007. The first thing you have to do is type "login" on that page, then use "cjohnson" as the username and "tier3" as the password. You figure out the commands by treating it like DOS, type "?" into the prompt and you get the commands.
 

Awesome... I saw a couple of sentry bots, the portal gun, and a couple of mechs at the end of that. The Mechs actually look like a Front/Back pose of a single Mech of some sort. It reminds me of Dog from HL2, but then again, Dog never really stood on his hind legs like that in the game.

Here's the images for the heck of it:
ss20100301230238.jpg
 
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More suspense....:D
"http://images.4chan.org/v/src/1267511711865.png"
Copy and paste that address into a browser window.

I've heard rumors that the "new gun" is a new portal gun, or it might make its way to Ep. 3 or vice versa with the Gravity gun in Portal 2. Hell, a green elephant gun is plausible from that chat log. Also the "I'm not dead yet" hints have the forums guessing Cave Johnson is the G-Man, or he didn't die prior to Portal 1, and he is GlaDOS's new AI.
 
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-edit-

Left pic looks like 2 stick figures inside a child's bedroom with a crib, table and lamp. Right figure looks like it has a tie, the left a skirt. Hard to tell what is in the right corner. There is most likely a window above the crib.

The right pic is obviously turrets from portal. The right one looks complete, while the left one looks like an exploded diagram view of the same turret.

Z01I6.png
 
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Must be acknowledging those folks who say that Source is still a lot of Quake 1 engine. ;)
 
This is one of the most exciting gaming puzzles I have seen in a long time!

Didn't the first matrix game have a cool one where you could hack into the system?

I wish I was at home to check this out more...
 
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:
portalredone1.png

-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.

Aren't there more images than this? I saw one with a skull...
 
this is all crazy and genius. It has to be some kind of announcement / viral thing in the works...my inner geek is just bouncing off the walls at how awesome this. Can you imagine how fun sitting in meetings dreaming this shit up must have been if you worked for valve and got in on this?

maybe its all some elaborate and well executed troll by valve. that would be even cooler than an announcement if you ask me haha...

"The reality is, portal 2 and half life episodes or half life 3 are still indefinitely on delay...we're working on starting something soon. Truthfully, we just spent the last couple months of what COULD have been development time trolling you all with this bbs and 56k modem shit haha. Take THAT old timers!"
 
it is crazy viral, in less then 1 day I saw threads on the steam forums with 2500 replies and 600k hits, total between all threads is easily over a million. its fucking sweet

I have been waiting for any information on EP 3 and/or portal 2 for over 2 years. March 11th.... should be interesting.
 
Someone over at Reddit commented that based on the sequence of messages it seems that GLaDOS may be restoring herself from a backup copy using a wireless transmission to an offsite location. She has been unleashed into the wild.
 
wish they would just announce HL: Episode 3 or a Half Life 3 proper

all this secret coding shit is not gonna matter if all they announce is Portal 2 or L4D3
 
^^^^^^^ call me crazy, but I liked portal more than the half life series...maybe i need to play some half life again and force myself along a bit more, but the gameplay always got stale despite the story being great. Portal got gameplay down to being awesome, even with practically no story present. a good story added and it would kick soooo much ass.

i'll be thrilled for either game to be announced. portal 2 has so much promise, half life 3 even though i might not be too into it right away, i know what it means to pc gamers everywhere...and pc gaming for that matter.
 
I'll take Portal 2 over another boring HL game, for some reason I could just never get into any of them.

This has to be one of the neatest game promos ever.
 
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