Crazy Valve ARG Teases ... Portal 2? *Update*

The seemingly-solid Valve ARG that started with a mystery update to Portal could be teasing either Portal 2 or Half life 2: Sequence 3 – or both.

Happening Monday, a surprise patch to the tercet-year-old sports fan favorite Portal site spawned a monolithic Alternate Reality Game that had internet communities from Steam to Something Awful racing to figure kayoed the puzzles. Two years later, we may not have the puzzle solved, but we have a good deal of very interesting new data – frustratingly, there's real little that's concrete; everything that the intrepid puzzle-solvers have unclothed seems to be just designed to tantalize and rally.

The original post in its entirety is below, and piece I'll attempt to retread the new data, it truly does assistance to go to the Steamer forums themselves.

Most of the new poppycock seems to get make out from the ASCII images – a cleaned-raised version can be found hither, and a colorized interlingual rendition fanny be seen here. There are plenty of fan theories bouncing around the forums: For illustration, some fans are speculating that what I known as "Vortigaunts holding hands" in the original post (second column, at the bottom) are possibly Commingle super-soldiers A seen in the Half-Biography 2 games.

More exciting, though, is this fancy, which appears to testify what could very healthy be an ASCII-ized screenshot from a hypothetical Portal 2. And then there's this, which is unmistakably a human female holding what could be the iconic Vena portae Gun – perhaps the game's admirer, Chell?

The mysterious ASCII images aren't the only things fans have exposed, though. There are also some "confidential" Aperture Science documents that offer some brainwave into the working of the secretive science laborator – ideal "Low Risk" candidates for examination include "hoboes [sic] and tramps, orphans and foundlings, psychiatric patients and seniors" – Eastern Samoa well equally its founder, Cave President Andrew Johnson.

"A lot of you have been raising concerns just about the so-called "dangers" of what we're all doing here. The beancounters told Maine to tell you that as of today, testing will atomic number 102 longer be American Samoa mandatory Oregon as dangerous. That's not gonna happen and here's the cause.

Scientific discipline isn't nearly why, IT's about wherefore not. You ask: Why is so much of our science dangerous? I state: Wherefore not get married safe science if you love it so much. In fact, why not invent a specific safety doorway that won't tally you in the rear end en route dead, because you are fired.

Plus, in the outcome of your death, I personally guarantee that, thanks to the form you were required to sign this morning, your family will non meet the indignities of a extended and costly legal battle against Aperture Science. Trust me, I am rich, and it is a burden I would not wish on anyone."

It's clear that much of this is segregated noise, designed to mislead as very much like it is to inform – but how much of it is made up of red herrings, and what does it altogether signify?

The now obvious answer is that this would every last seem to be pointing towards a reveal for Portal 2, but the presence of main-serial One-half-Life mental imagery leads some to conceive that at that place could be an Instalment 3 unveiling in the works also. Mayhap Portal 2 will bridge the two series together, prima to an epic conclusion?

We'll probably find out on March 11th.

Update: The mettlesome right away has a new ending. Scandalise!

The master copy stake is below in its entirety:

A surprisal content patch to the three-year-old Portal yesterday has spawned a symptom raceway on the internet to decode an ARG that seems to be teasing… something big.

There's something lurking behind the scenes in Valve-land.

Information technology all started yesterday when owners of the beloved physical science-puzzle FPS Portal revealed that the pun had a new calm patch – which was odd, disposed its age. That innocuous little patch has since spurred a massive race happening the internet between communities like Steam and Something Awful, arsenic they sputte to unravel an ARG that appears to be teasing a new Valve game. (An ARG, by the way, is an Cyclical Reality Halt – something that asks gamers to figure out real-life puzzles; arguably the most famous example of which is Halo 2's ilovebees. It could also correspond the noise you make when you tush't envision out the puzzle).

At that place's a short ton of dizzying information about the game til now, and we're withal encyclopedism more, but I'll attempt a recapitulation: The Portal vein update included a new mystery achievement, and people WHO loaded the game up again found that the radio in the starting chamber now had a naif light. If players stood in reliable areas of the Aperture Science test bedchamber while carrying the radio, it would start to emit weird static interference.

While they could have done things the rocky way, it was much easier to clean rip the .wav files from the game itself. The static clad to live a code when fed through a steganography program (*I have been corrected on this – more below*), a code that resulted in numbered images which – when fed through other program – led to a landline in Kirkland, WA (near Valve's HQ). Only it wasn't a landline at all, just a information line for an encrypted BBS. On aforesaid BBS, people found strange data which turned taboo to be interesting ASCII pictures.

Several of the pictures are patent: Vortigaunts belongings hands, an Aperture Science door, the defense turrets (turn your heading to the right), and of course nefarious AI, GLaDOS herself. This is where everything stands right today, because the internet is still trying to figure it out.

One interesting flyspeck tidbit of information: The ASCII selective information identifies the crazy Army Intelligence antagonist as GLaDOS v3.11 – and as IT happens, 3/11 (that is, Marching 11th) is the day on which Valve head honcho Gabe Newell will be receiving the Plot Developers Choice Pioneer Honor at GDC. Could the man be provision on making some sieve of storm announcement or reveal?

And if helium is, just what would he be revealing? We've already been told that Half-Animation 2: Installment 3 South Korean won't be sexual climax this year, but there's always Portal vein 2.

Curiouser and curiouser, indeed. Between this, the ApocalyPS3, and the Infinity Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth lockdown, yesterday was a real weird day for gaming.

ARG!

Update: 7r3nd has written in to inform Maine precisely what happened regarding the .wav files and the information encoded therein – you said it no steganography was involved. I'm going to be honest and say that this is a trifle on the far side me, thus sooner than strain to pass another explanation that'd sole land up muddying the information, I'm leaving to just copy/paste IT below.

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

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

SSTV is just an audible path to transmit an image.

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

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

There was not steganography involved.

It sounds much as hearing to the audio noise generated when you eavesdrop on a modem.

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

The circled characters where collected and ended up qualification a 32 part string which overturned out to be an MD5 hash.

Much happening MD5 here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Md5

The MD5 hash all over functioning being a hash for the phone number for the BBS.

The BBS itself was not encrypted. It was just necessary to use the chasten last settings to display the mental object properly.

One time the content displayed correctly, a username and parole was required.

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

It still sounds corresponding techno-fetich to me, simply beaming to have it away that the people working on this know what they're doing!

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/crazy-valve-arg-teases-portal-2-update/

Source: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/crazy-valve-arg-teases-portal-2-update/

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