Portal: ApertureScience.com (Possible Spoilers)

[-smash-]

Muahaha!

 

[tehsolace]

Muahaha!

youre in on it ARENT YOU?!

 

[Mahalis]

in the trailer I'm pretty sure they spelt it Labratories.

Yeah, but they also spelled anticipation "aniticipation."

 

[zukeft]

Maybe it's called that way 'cause those who are part of it are lab rats?

 

[Operational]

Can someone please answer me when has something like this been done before with HL2? And where?

http://www.hlfallout.net/articles.php/article_17/
Its a good read. Recommended. This could be the start of test 3.

It's working now. Anyone else notice the letter 's' isn't available on page 3?

Read the question its asks you to choose somebody's favourite letter which isn't 's'.

Incidentally, the IP that added that link to Wikipedia has only ever made one other edit on Wikipedia, done 7 minutes earlier the same day as the Portal update: it editted the article "Marc Laidlaw" (Valve's fiction writer), updating who he currently shares an office with.

That IP is provided by the ISP Comcast, and traces back to Minneapolis, MN.

12:34:37 August 31, 2006 - The flash file was last modified
13:08:?? September 1, 2006 - Wikipedia was updated to have a link to that site
04:43:07 September 2, 2006 - Google crawled the site

So whoever put it on Wikipedia put it up fast and is close enough to Valve to know who shares Laidlaw's office. I wasn't able to find a reason for a Valve employee to be in Minneapolis.

Yes I noticed that too, I can't find a mention of the link anywhere else so it could be where valve started this whole thing off.

I still think the cake's a decoy. What better way to throw fans off the track and surprise them, than utilize the "fake trails"?

Red Herrings suck. I doubt valve would waste people time with them. I like the valve 10 year anniversary idea better.

How can I remember it, if it keeps on changing after a few seconds!?

That's the Idea . You can't type it in correctly at the end anyway and as I've said I don't think there are correct answers.

 

[kacation_man]

I tried opening this in flash and for some reason it doesnt want to import any thing from it... however when i did open it was trying to get to this location unsucsessfuly...

file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/Administrator/Desktop/gdxt.php?what=getid&refid=undefined


what is this... its obviously on my drive... but I've never seen it or anything... wtf... this was kinda freak'n me out a little... in a hey this is fun kinda way...

 

[cojawfee]

I am assuming that the swf is using a relative path (which is based on where the file is, instead of aboslute which is a direct URL) to get to the file it needs. That file is not on your computer, but the swf thinks it is because it uses a relative path to it.

As you can see from this link (which was posted early in the thread), it randomly generates the UIN(+L).

 

[bigburpco]

if you complete the application process and enter in "THECAKEISALIE" when it asks you for your 64-digit UID code, it will immediately bring up the security camera message instead of warning you that your UID does not match records.

You can do that after you log in, and it immediately brings you to the security feed.

Mentioned in another post.

 

[Daemonaetea]

Possible Clue?

Alright, I just created an account cause I thought you guys should see this.

Somebody posted this screenshot earlier on another forum. Real, faked, I don't know, but it is something to look into, I guess.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v25/symbolicgamer/lue/portalsite.jpg

What do you think?

 

[bigburpco]

I can't stop laughing at that!

15] Global Thermonuclear War

That's a great one.

If you don't know, that refers to Defcon.

Anyway, I think that might be real. It certainly doesn't look faked.

 

[MFL]

... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falken's_maze ...

What more can I say?

 

[bigburpco]

This is becoming weirder and weirder.

 

[eraser]

Alright, I just created an account cause I thought you guys should see this.

Somebody posted this screenshot earlier on another forum. Real, faked, I don't know, but it is something to look into, I guess.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v25/symbolicgamer/lue/portalsite.jpg

What do you think?

No idea, but interesting.

 

[bigburpco]

Alright, I just created an account cause I thought you guys should see this.

Somebody posted this screenshot earlier on another forum. Real, faked, I don't know, but it is something to look into, I guess.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v25/symbolicgamer/lue/portalsite.jpg

What do you think?

Do you have a link to the forum thread?

 

[kacation_man]

dont know... hard to tell... but i found something else while having the swf file open in Macromdia Flash... any key typed brings up a number... a starting at 65... i decided to check wether or not this was just something flash did or the file so i opened another flash with a text box and it did nothing... so its the file... almost every key has a different number applied to it...

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a383/kacation-man/abc.jpg

wow that didnt come out very good... but none the less you get the idea

 

[MFL]

The security feed loop that was posted by zukeft had a filename titled security02.slf. This leads me to believe that there is a security01. There might even be a security03, 04, etc. Let's find them if they're out there.

The key's have numbers assigned to them? ... ... ... Here we go...

65 - A
66 - B
67 - C
68 - D
69 - E
70 - F
71 - G
72 - H
73 - I
74 - J
75 - K
76 - L
77 - M
78 - N
79 - O
80 - P
81 - Q
82 - R
83 - S
84 - T
85 - U
86 - V
87 - W
88 - X
89 - Y
90 - Z

7679717978 - LOGON - did nothing
85836982 - USER - did nothing

decyphering THECAKEISALIE now...

No results - 84726967657569738365767369

someone want to try these on something other than the initial screen?

 

[Daemonaetea]

It was a closed forum I got that link off of, so even if I posted the link you wouldn't be able to get there. Sorry.

 

[MFL]

kacation_man, could you please see if the numbers correspond to any letters, or more numbers?

what is generated by the question mark key?

 

[kacation_man]

The security feed loop that was posted by zukeft had a filename titled security02.slf. This leads me to believe that there is a security01. There might even be a security03, 04, etc. Let's find them if they're out there.

The key's have numbers assigned to them? ... ... ... Here we go...

7679717978 - LOGON - did nothing
85836982 - USER - did nothing

decyphering THECAKEISALIE now...

No results - 84726967657569738365767369


someone want to try these on something other than the initial screen?

im on it.

 

[kacation_man]

kacation_man, could you please see if the numbers correspond to any letters, or more numbers?

what is generated by the question mark key?

?=191


I'll try to get all... one second
oops dubble poseted






`=192
0= 48
1= 49
2= 50
3= 51
4= 52
5= 53
6=54
7=55
8=56
9=57
- = 189
+= 187
backspace= 8
tab= 32
q= 81
w=87
e= 69
r= 82
t=84
y= 89
u=85
i= 73
o=79
p=80
[ = 219
]=221
\= 220
num 7= 130
num 8= 104
num 9= 105
num += 187
caplocks= 20
a= 65
s=83
d=68
f=70
g=71
h=72
j=74
k=75
l=76
; =186
' =222

more to come.... hold on

 

[TheMastahC]

dont know... hard to tell... but i found something else while having the swf file open in Macromdia Flash... any key typed brings up a number... a starting at 65... i decided to check wether or not this was just something flash did or the file so i opened another flash with a text box and it did nothing... so its the file... almost every key has a different number applied to it...

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a383/kacation-man/abc.jpg

wow that didnt come out very good... but none the less you get the idea

So in otherworde, flash uses the ADCII character map? Like every other programming language? /gasp.

 

[kacation_man]

shit i dont know...

more


enter= 13
num 4= 100
num 5= 101
num 2= 102
shift=16
z=90
x=88
c=67
v=86
b=66
n=78
m=77
,= 188
.=190
arrow up= 38
end= 35
num1 = 97
num 2= 98
num 3= 99
ctrl= 17
windows key= 91
space =32
left arrow key= 37
down arrow key= 40
right arrow key= 39
num0= 96
num Del= 110
others
insert= 45
delete= 46
scroll lock= 145
pause= 16
num lock= 144
num /= 111
*=106
num - = 109

those are all the keys that do stuff

 

[MFL]

*hand to forehead* Noble effort?

We have seem to have come to an impass.
Must we wait for the next hint? Sigh, I'd rather bash down the walls surrounding this mystery through sheer willpower, but alas, it seems we all must wait.

Here's hoping it's worth it.

 

[sixteenth]

There is some error at the top of the page:

Warning: mysql_fetch_object(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /valve/www/www.aperturescience.com/index.php on line 29

?

 

[Operational]

dont know... hard to tell... but i found something else while having the swf file open in Macromdia Flash... any key typed brings up a number... a starting at 65... i decided to check wether or not this was just something flash did or the file so i opened another flash with a text box and it did nothing... so its the file... almost every key has a different number applied to it...

EDIT: *whoops somebody beat me to it*
Sorry guys but this is a dead end. The numbers do correspond to letters - but thats just how every computer stores its letters, its called ASCII
http://www.lookuptables.com/
What you are getting is the numbers being printed instead of the corresponding letters.

Alright, I just created an account cause I thought you guys should see this.

Somebody posted this screenshot earlier on another forum. Real, faked, I don't know, but it is something to look into, I guess.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v25/symbolicgamer/lue/portalsite.jpg

What do you think?

Interesting, it looks legit but I cant find any mention of "Falken" in the swf source file, nor can I find any links to any other swf files that might contain it. If you cant give us the link to the forum can you tell us how he got there?

The security feed loop that was posted by zukeft had a filename titled security02.slf. This leads me to believe that there is a security01. There might even be a security03, 04, etc.

www.aperturescience.com/security02.flv (you will need an flv player to play it - just search google)
I've tried other numbers, but just like
http://aperturescience.com/ApertureScience16.swf
I cant find any that works. It would help if we could get a directory listing of http://aperturescience.com does anybody know how to get one?

 

[kacation_man]

i posted all that for nothing!? ... i feel dumb.. cant say I didnt try

this thing really seems dead end after you get throug the test...

all i can say now is... i really....... REALLY..... really!!!! want this game... .probably even more then HL2:e2!!!!!

 

[Operational]

i posted all that for nothing!? ... i feel dumb.. cant say I didnt try

Well it was worth a try if you didn't know. Put it this way now you can say that you empirically discovered the ASCII key set .

 

[Victor2]

riom, they DO watch us. I checked the domainnames.com again, and now there are THREE addresses pointing to the .swf file, the newest one being aperturelabratories.com ...

Holy ****!!! Oh my God, they're spying on us.

I think you should win the most ironic post award.

Indeed.

 

[MFL]

I'm using my GetRight browser to look at the directory, but all it lists is the main site, and it has no subfolders at first. It lists the only file on the page as being the ApertureScience16.swf file. But when i put in the address for the security feed... well, the subfolder appears, and it is now trying to connect and load the directory contents.

Edit: can't connect to the security feed subfolder anymore, and there was nothing in the directory anyways.
I can see the aperturescience.com directory... it's just that it looks like nothing is there except the .swf file.

 

[kacation_man]

i guess so... but i found it weird that only that swf file brought up the numbers and others didnt... and havent before.

 

[Asus]

Nice find. Man this thread grew.

 

[Operational]

i guess so... but i found it weird that only that swf file brought up the numbers and others didnt... and havent before.

Dunno, I've never programmed/used flash before.

I'm using my GetRight browser to look at the directory
...
I can see the aperturescience.com directory... it's just that it looks like nothing is there except the .swf file.

GetRight browser - nice thinking
I think we've exhausted this website for now, there might be clues on other websites or this might just be everything there is - a nice website but nothing more.
Unless Daemonaetea can tell us how that guy got to that screen. Like I said its not in the code so its either a fake, or was on the site but not anymore.

EDIT:

Nice find. Man this thread grew.

Well, it is pretty interesting/cool stuff.

 

[Daemonaetea]

The guy that posted that picture logged off soon afterward, and the thread pretty much died. That's mostly why I cam here.

 

[zukeft]

Here's the AS code if anybody's interested: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WWLRUDMA
Takes all the fun out of it, I know.

 

[kacation_man]

i think we've pretty much squeezed all the juce out of this apaturescience16.swf sponge... my guess is is that thats all there is and its simply a teaser for the game... possbly deeper with some hints but other then that i think thats it for now...

 

[zukeft]

Well, it sure was fun; definitely hyped me up more.

 

[kacation_man]

same here... it was a nice find... really nice find. this was probably the most fun I've had on hl2.net... valve should make more stuff like this... or at least more terminals to continue the mystery/story, like a prelude up entill you finally launch portals through steam and most likly find your self in the relaxation chamber... is that what it was called.. i cant remember.

 

[Operational]

Well, it sure was fun; definitely hyped me up more.

Same here too, which was the point of it all i think. The atmosphere of portal is fantastic.

 

[SPARTACVS]

 

[Operational]

Yea that question if pretty funny, they are all good. One of my favourites was "Complete this sentence, "
I put "buy pressing the enter key" .