Portal Update - Hidden achievement & Viral Riddles [Updated]

[The Monkey]

Everyone is assuming it's Chell, but I don't really see the resemblance.

 

[the cow says moo]

Definitely a short-haired woman holding a portal gun.

 

[Noodle]

Is it just me, or does the text make Cave Johnson seem like kind of a dick?

 

[sixteenth]

Is it just me, or does the text make Cave Johnson seem like kind of a dick?

He's supposed to be the antagonist for Portal 2. So yea.

 

[huntingbear]

could it be mossman?

EDIT: nvm....stupid theory



mossman can go die lol

 

[Apocalypse89]

All of this is amazing...although I might just be excited since this is the first peep we've heard about Portal 2/Ep. 3 for two years...

 

[peter]

Btw for those not following the stuff, one of the pieces of information alludes to a date: March 11th - when Valve will be at a gaming thingy.

OMG OMG OMG OMFG OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

/me passes out.

 

[chimpmunk]

Return of the "Black Box" for a Episode 3 and Portal 2 release would be pretty awesome.

That would make me so happy, for a year at least.

One of the most interesting theories I have heard is that these BBS transmissions are part of the original transmission Mossman was trying to send to the resistance.

That would make a whole lot of sense. Plus, it's an amazing way to deliver that part of the game's narrative.

 

[David.Seth2]

edit: never mind, t'was a fake

 

[Sneaki]

The updates have slowed down a bit now, but some new ascii pics from the BBS have just been uploaded here.

 

[Paulaner]

Nice way to release screenshots without revealing details. At last they are throwing us some bones. I like this kind of viral advertising.

 

[peter]

more info NAO

 

[XenOrBust]

Wow this achievement is pretty tough. I reckon I'll have it done by the magic day 3/11. Has anyone completed it yet? Between getting your hands on the radios, then roaming the whole level to find the magic spot for them... It seems pretty common that once you get the radio you need to take it back to the start of the level, or some room you usually lock on your way out... Fun though, like finding Easter eggs (real ones).

 

[Hells Angel]

Anyone else think this looks like part of the train intro in HL? Where you see the machine moving crates.

Spoiler

 

[ríomhaire]

Oh that's interesting. Taken from Escapist Magazine:

There's some information noted in the "Crazy Valve ARG Teases ... Portal 2?" posting which is incorrect.

Several of the dinosaur wav files that were extracted from the new portal gcf that were not morse code sound files, were actually SSTV transmissions, and not steganography as reported in the posting.

SSTV is just an audible way to transmit an image.

Essentially what is required is to play the audio back and pipe it to SSTV software which reads the data from the audio stream and in turn displays the actual image is is contained in the data.

More about SSTV can be read here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow-scan_television

There was not steganography involved.

It sounds very much like listening to the audio noise generated when you listen in on a modem.

The resulting images were analyzed and noticed that certain characters where cricled.

The circled characters where collected and ended up making a 32 character string which turned out to be an MD5 hash.

More on MD5 here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Md5

The MD5 hash ended up being a hash for the phone number for the BBS.

The BBS itself was not encrypted. It was just necessary to use the correct terminal settings to display the content properly.

Once the content displayed correctly, a username and password was required.

The username and password was provided trough the transposed morse code that was extracted from the dinosaur wav files.

That Mossman transmission theory is almost beginning to make sense.

 

[Sneaki]

Anyone else think this looks like part of the train intro in HL? Where you see the machine moving crates.

Spoiler

Yep, it does look pretty similar. Here's a slightly clearer version of it too.

I'd love to know how long it took Valve to think up all this stuff, the way they've been revealing things is unlike any other pre-game hype I've ever seen.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGDuuXdKAyc&feature=response_watch

I could swear that I heard "Gordon, you're next" at 1:12.

Is there anyway of reversing the direction of sound file? I'm guessing the wierd sounds are of a weakened metallic structure in reverse, possibly a combine construct or the ship itself

 

[Paulaner]

I'd love to know how long it took Valve to think up all this stuff, the way they've been revealing things is unlike any other pre-game hype I've ever seen.

Just for the sake of curiosity, the viral advertising for the new Star Trek movie was crazy, too. It's becoming more and more popular.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Just for the sake of curiosity, the viral advertising for the new Star Trek movie was crazy, too. It's becoming more and more popular.

Its the best way to keep the community active and engaged

 

[Fishmanburt]

Anyone else think this looks like part of the train intro in HL? Where you see the machine moving crates.

Spoiler

Can anyone else smell a BMsource/portal 2/episode 3 box set?

Running with the Mossman transmission theory, i think it would awesome if Portal 2 retraces the events that occured on the borealis involving Mossman. Maybe Chell has some part to play in assisting her escape (though doubt we'll see chell again).

anyway, just my imagination running a bit wild after its 2 year slumber. come on the 11th (2012?).

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Some people see an elephant, but if looked at in the opposite direction it looks like an MP7 or Alyx's Machine Pistol

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

I quite fervently hope that the Portal sequel and Episode 3/HL3/whatever it ends up being have nothing whatsoever to do with each other. At least, in terms of gameplay and story.
The occasional little nod or reference, just to establish them in the same universe is fine. It works quite nicely, in fact.
However, I don't want Gordon and Chell to be playing hand-in-hand. I don't want them to meet. I don't want Episode 3 to have a portal gun. They're two very distinctly different franchises that should only get the occasional glimpse at each other, as it were, through a crack in the door.

Personally, I think this obfuscated media is just showing information from Portal 2, and has nothing whatsoever to do with Episode 3. There's absolutely nothing conclusively linking the two, and the amount of straw-clutching going on in some quarters is astounding.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

The plot thickens.

I've got a syncTerm application but how did you get on that?

 

[Paulaner]

I quite fervently hope that the Portal sequel and Episode 3/HL3/whatever it ends up being have nothing whatsoever to do with each other. At least, in terms of gameplay and story.

I have the opposite feeling. I wish the two franchises could overlap. Aperture Science, Chell, GlaDOS, portal guns and Borealis do exist in the Half-Life universe, this is a matter of fact. It's up to Valve writers/designers now.
Also, fans are waiting for Episode 3 and Valve throws us some bones about Portal? There must be a strong connection.

 

[blackout]

I have the opposite feeling. I wish the two franchises could overlap. Aperture Science, Chell, GlaDOS, portal guns and Borealis do exist in the Half-Life universe, this is a matter of fact. It's up to Valve writers/designers now.
Also, fans are waiting for Episode 3 and Valve throws us some bones about Portal? There must be a strong connection.

this^. and I recall gabe saying at some point that they will tie in directly, he even mentioned chell having a strong relationship at some point to half-life characters.

 

[The Monkey]

I'd love to know how long it took Valve to think up all this stuff, the way they've been revealing things is unlike any other pre-game hype I've ever seen.

Agreed, they could not have done a better job at creating hype, Valve knows their shit.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Alyx has a sister, LOL

 

[sixteenth]

Some people see an elephant, but if looked at in the opposite direction it looks like an MP7 or Alyx's Machine Pistol

I find this weird. Right before this and all the other BBS transmissions started coming through on the Steam forums, Robin Walker mentioned something like "You're looking in the wrong place. Follow the green elephant." on IRC. Once the elephant looking transmission came through, everybody was like wtf. Of course, no one could verify it was actually him, just that the coincidence was overwhelming.

Also: Looks a lot like a diagram of the that Kirkland, WA Public Works building posted a few pages back. Looks similiar from a birds-eye view.

 

[blackout]

Alyx has a sister, LOL

that's the theory.

 

[swan_song1973]

man, this is picking up fast. guess we know what they're showing at Leipzig now.

 

[blackout]

man, this is picking up fast. guess we know what they're showing at Leipzig now.

what?

 

[robsters]

personally I feel that it would be very surprising if this was just for episode 3 and portal 2 sequels. The source engine is nothing to shout about anymore and the fps genre is very much the same old these days...However if portal was incorporated into episode 3 then imgine how ahead the Half Life series would be once again .

Since valve like to add new technology in each episode this would make sense. Not to mention how long we've all been waiting its reasonable to assume it took them all this time to make portals work in an fps, Gordon and Alex are off to the aperture science ship if there's no portal stuff there i'd be seriously surprised to be honest.

look at it this way a portal 2 and episode 3 would be 3year wait for just new maps really because all the technology was already there in 2007, a combination of the two would explain why its taken this long and personally why the viral ads just consentrating on portal? if just for portal 2 it doesn't fit. my bet is portal and episode 3 are in the same game.

thats my thoery anyway

 

[swan_song1973]

what?

doesnt valve have a booth there this year?

 

[Wang Tang]

doesnt valve have a booth there this year?

Leipzig is no longer host for the Games Convention (since last year). There is now "Games Convention Online" (Leipzig, mostly browser and cellphone games) and "GamesCom" (Cologne, successor to the "original "Games Convention").

But yeah, I hope they show off their new games in Cologne this year. Even mroe than we will hopefully be seeing at GDC.

 

[IronicBob]

I was reading this thread late last night listening to music when Still Alive came on. Jesus I was creeped out.

 

[chimpmunk]

look at it this way a portal 2 and episode 3 would be 3year wait for just new maps really because all the technology was already there in 2007, a combination of the two would explain why its taken this long and personally why the viral ads just consentrating on portal? if just for portal 2 it doesn't fit. my bet is portal and episode 3 are in the same game.

thats my thoery anyway

Meh, dunno. Even if it's just PORTAL 2 that's coming out I'd be pretty happy, as long as it expands on the role of Aperture science in the Half life universe.

(Maybe a game that is to Aperture science what Half life was to the BMRF).

 

[robsters]

yeah true, portal 2 still be awesome but get feeling valve been working on something big

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

I sense a lot of disappointment in certain people's futures.

 

[Acepilotf14]

episode 3 please

 

[blackout]

Edit: this^

I sense a lot of disappointment in certain people's futures.

I quite fervently hope that the Portal sequel and Episode 3/HL3/whatever it ends up being have nothing whatsoever to do with each other. At least, in terms of gameplay and story.
The occasional little nod or reference, just to establish them in the same universe is fine. It works quite nicely, in fact.
However, I don't want Gordon and Chell to be playing hand-in-hand. I don't want them to meet. I don't want Episode 3 to have a portal gun. They're two very distinctly different franchises that should only get the occasional glimpse at each other, as it were, through a crack in the door.

Personally, I think this obfuscated media is just showing information from Portal 2, and has nothing whatsoever to do with Episode 3. There's absolutely nothing conclusively linking the two, and the amount of straw-clutching going on in some quarters is astounding.

so this is why your title reads "enemy of fun"