Second Test Solved!

[Icarus]

People have been trying to solve Valve's "Second Test" ever since the G-Man picture was found in the preload files. Today it was(seemingly) solved by Halflife2.net users.[br]
[br]
At the Half-Life2.com Media Page, it was discovered that the 6th picture changes to the G-Man's face upon mouseover. When you click it it takes you Here[br]
[br]
After you insert 'nova' as a username, and 'prospekt' as a password you are taken to a Black Page with a text box dominating the middle of the screen. The source of the page has an ascii art of Alyx, with reference to whatsmyname.jpg[br]
[br] If you enter the name of that creature (Barnacle) into the text box on the Secret Page, you get to see new art work for Half-Life 2.[br]
[br]

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[br]Since there is no 'Congratulations Halflife2.net', some users speculate that the test isn't over. Only time will tell.[br]
[br]
You can read more about the ongoing efforts here.

 

[WaryWolf]

good work icarus.

 

[switch]

Just some info:
This wasnt working yesterday
They have only recently made the test solvable, so for days we were working hard trying to crack stuff and decode data when infact we couldnt at that time.

 

[WaryWolf]

good point switch D:.

 

[Homie]

coool neato

 

[Livewire1138]

That artwork isn't new. That was in some pc-mag months ago. I've seen that picture many times.

 

[The Mullinator]

That artwork isn't new. That was in some pc-mag months ago. I've seen that picture many times.

The picture isn't new, but it hasn't been seen before at such high quality and resolution.

 

[A True Canadian]

This is all very interesting. I have to start getting involved with this...

 

[Dr. Freeman]

neat stuff
when pple first started decoding this test i was right there in the middle of the excitement on Friday night but then was very busy over the weekend and didn't get a chance to help out any way.

its nice to see u guys solved it.. or at least part of it since no congrats note was found

 

[major5013]

After so long staring a g-mans face, we complete the second test....or have we

 

[C-O-N-Spiracy]

how did the test start and what is the point in the test? Just trying to figure out whats going on.

 

[Asuka]

Wow very cool.

 

[Cybernoid]

Nice.

10char

 

[Kristafon]

does this mean that the barnacle can now reach out to grab you?
:sniper:

 

[Birdie]

Barnacles still camp in the roof with their tentacles out, in the concept art picture Gordon just has moved a bit after being grabbed by the one of them.

 

[lans]

Would have been cooler if it was the in-game model or screen. This concept art has been in mags for ages now.

 

[Labia Minora]

Picture Was Cover of Dutch Pc Gameplay magazine

Sorrt to let you down guys, but the picture was the front cover of the Dutch magazine Pc Gameplay nr. 99.
It'll be 3 more weeks. YEAH
Cheers,
Labia

 

[Torre]

Darn, it's logical now you know the solution... The gman.jpg shows the media picture on half-life2.com ... gj!

 

[Biozeminade]

Bah, the whole "barnacle choking Gordon" thing would be solved by him wearing a helmet!

 

[The Mullinator]

Bah, the whole "barnacle choking Gordon" thing would be solved by him wearing a helmet!

So if I put a bike helmet on I can't get choked? :bounce:

 

[Chris D]

/me tries to hang himself wearing nothing but a crash helmet

:| It doesn't work

 

[The Mullinator]

Awww too bad.

/me backs away from a bald man dressed in black holding piano wire

 

[Xenome]

That's not new artwork.. it was the cover of the belgium pc gameplay a few months back in may.

 

[lonestar]

looks pretty cool in high quality.

 

[Gunner]

Very nice work! and great artwork too

 

[SIN55]

I too would like to know what these tests are about, what is their purpose? Does Valve want controlled hacking of their stuff to create a diversion? Is it even hacking? I think I may have missed something here...

 

[oldfaq]

how do we know what the next test will be?
oldfaq

 

[The Mullinator]

I too would like to know what these tests are about, what is their purpose? Does Valve want controlled hacking of their stuff to create a diversion? Is it even hacking? I think I may have missed something here...

Its just a fun thing to do, a few months back someone here e-mailed Valve and asked if HL2.net could get anything exclusive for the site. A little while after the first test came up, its really just a fun little thing for people to do while we wait for the game.

They probably decided to have it sort of like a hacking competition because this site was the first I believe to hack into the Steam cache files.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Its just a fun thing to do, a few months back someone here e-mailed Valve and asked if HL2.net could get anything exclusive for the site. A little while after the first test came up, its really just a fun little thing for people to do while we wait for the game.

They probably decided to have it sort of like a hacking competition because this site was the first I believe to hack into the Steam cache files.

actually, what happened was merc (forum member here) was visiting Valve about 2 months ago.. and he took lots of pictures a few in particular.

the ones i am talking about are the 2 whitebaord pics.
now Valve had setup the whiteboard with a bunch of clues and so when merc shared these pics with us.. we eventually decoded what was on the whiteboard.

at the end of the test the URL had a pic of the G-man along with a congratulatory note at the bottom.
hope that clears the confusion

 

[oldfaq]

is there going to be anymore?
oldfaq

 

[Murray_H]

I love that pic, the water is fantastic in it (the whole pic is awesome)

 

[dkelly]

The topic seems a bit misleading.
I wouldn't consider the second test as solved until we see the "second test solved" dealy.

 

[chaotic_one]

this seems a waste of time , i mean come on instead of valve making these useless tests , why does valve not give us an update on hl2 and how close they are to going gold

 

[Roaders]

THe time it takes Valve to put these test together is nothing compared to the amount of time it takes to fix a bug in the game - it would only take a few mins to pu these pages up on the server - a little longer to think of htem yes but not much.

Look at how long it has kept the community busy for those few minutes that Valve has put in.

I personally think it is VERY cool of Valve doing this. Really like the way they think.

 

[Adrien C]

PC Gamer had that artwork....

 

[chaotic_one]

well they said 16 days till 0 bugs , which i might add has been and gone , but instead of working on these tests , should they not be working on getting hl2 finished :smoking:

 

[RotorHead]

where did you find the username, password??? :cheers:

 

[Kadayi]

where did you find the username, password??? :cheers:

It was something to do with the name of the file(or properties) of the Gman jpeg in the halflife 2 preload.

 

[Homie]

Nice pictures, i could use it as a Wallpaper

 

[xenokaos]

I thought you all might like to see this shot from the "trainstation" clip. It's just outside the... interrogation rooms.