Transmission Received: Something's going on with Portal

[Adrenaline]

I feel like this is worth its own thread, because it's a PC game that a lot of people here like, even if many played it on 360.

Valve put out an update for Portal on Steam today, which adds the achievement Transmission Received.

Al Baron already posted about it:

Originally Posted by Al Baron

So PC guys, you might want to go back and play Portal: Pick up any radio and bring it to any button to get some Morse Code.

This isn't entirely accurate, though. I've only played a few areas but it seems like they've added radios all over the place, and you have to first get to them, and then find some place in the area to bring them to. It gets tricky pretty quick, and doing so nets you progress in the achievement and plays an audio file. People have already found all of them. Four are morse code, and the rest are encoded images.

People are speculating this will lead to some announcement regarding new games in the Portal and/or Half-Life series. Personally, I think it's pretty awesome, adding new things to discover in a great game and more mystery on top of it.

[Donny]

Man there is something unsettling about those screen shots even though they don't seem to show anything horrible.

[ajr82]

When I saw those screens, the first thing I thought was "Cool, transmissions from the Borealis!"

[McClain142]

I freaking love it when companies take the time to do shit like this. It just feels like they enjoy what they are doing, and messing with their fans. I wish more would.

[Brer]

And from the encoded images come a series of visual clues that allow you to piece together a MD5 string: 9459C6CAC8C203B8128B7CC63068D4FD

Which resolves to a Kirkland, WA phone number: (425) 822-5251

Which is connected to a good old-fashioned dial-up modem, in turn attached to a BBS that last I heard no one's been able to log into yet:

[BuckTwenty]

Originally Posted by Brer

And from the encoded images come a series of visual clues that allow you to piece together a MD5 string: 9459C6CAC8C203B8128B7CC63068D4FD

Which resolves to a Kirkland, WA phone number: (425) 822-5251

Which is connected to a good old-fashioned dial-up modem, in turn attached to a BBS that last I heard no one's been able to log into yet:

That is awesome on so many levels.

[Adrenaline]

Wow this is getting nuts.

I love Valve.

[Alixsar]

That is pretty cool.

But I think it'd be way cooler if rather than go back and add cryptic bullshit to an old game, they would fucking finish HL2 Episode 3.

[ThornGhost]

Protip: It's an announcement confirming Portal 2.

[Brer]

I find it fairly amusing that things have slowed down significantly due to the fact that of the people hard-core enough to work on following these hints, a lot of them don't have dial-up modems anymore, don't have land-lines anymore, or both.

[nadia]

All I ask from this game is some new clever catch phrases so geeks can stop yelling "THE CAKE IS A LIE!" in my face every ten minutes.

[Warg]

Oh man, I'll be following this. I'm an outright sucker for these sorts of elaborate hidden messages.

Originally Posted by nadia

All I ask from this game is some new clever catch phrases so geeks can stop yelling "THE CAKE IS A LIE!" in my face every ten minutes.

... just you watch: "The cake is a lie; believe in the pie."

[Al Baron]

For the record, this smells a lot like something the MINERVA guy would pull. Considering that Valve hired him, he's probably behind this.

[Adrenaline]

Originally Posted by Al Baron

For the record, this smells a lot like something the MINERVA guy would pull. Considering that Valve hired him, he's probably behind this.

Did they? Ha. Yeah I could see that.

[criminallyinane]

A few thoughts on the images.

Dino6 almost looks like a roguelike, definitely ascii or whatever that character set is.
Dino8 is the rear of a computer.
dino15 definitely has a skeleton in it, almost a "visible man" horse it appears.
dino11 has a gnome, almost definitely.
dino22 looks like it has a chaise lounge style chair in the back.
dino24 is a mouse trap.

[Bongo Bill]

Cool.

[Issun]

You guys really think this is for Portal 2? Geez, I'm still undecided about BioShock 2, and it's been out for weeks.

[Mazian]

Originally Posted by Brer

in turn attached to a BBS that last I heard no one's been able to log into yet:

Before I go and dust off my trusty old 56k modem, I assume that someone's already tried the username and password that worked for the previous web-based terminal?

[ajr82]

Originally Posted by ThornGhost

Protip: It's an announcement confirming Portal 2.

Given that it's pretty clear they're going to be tying Aperture Science and the Borealis into HL2 Ep 3, it could just as easily be that.

[criminallyinane]

Originally Posted by Mazian

Before I go and dust off my trusty old 56k modem, I assume that someone's already tried the username and password that worked for the previous web-based terminal?

Yup. No luck. I suspect the remaining images (the ones without the MD5 code) are related to the password, as sort of a rebus, but I don't have any solid idea.

[Mewd]

Can someone enlighten me about what the 'MINERVA' thing is? It sounds compelling, if about as convoluted as all this.

[Mightyblue]

It's a trio of HL 1 and 2 mods that have the odd distinction of actually being an pretty damn awesome and well put together original SP experience.

[Ereror]

Great. Now Valve is making me replay Portal when I'm already in the middle of replaying HL2 and both episodes.

Not that this is a bad thing. God I love Valve.

[Calorie Mate]

Yeah, my best friend just called me and told me about all this over the phone, He sounded liek a raving lunatic.

The part you guys left out was that the phone number in Washington was, like, across the strett from...some lake or other, whose name is significant to the end of HL2. (I haven't played it yet, so I don't recall what.)

Anyway, I'm really digging this.

[criminallyinane]

[gamin]

Originally Posted by Calorie Mate

The part you guys left out was that the phone number in Washington was, like, across the strett from...some lake or other, whose name is significant to the end of HL2. (I haven't played it yet, so I don't recall what.)

Since we're talking about Kirkland I'm going to guess Lake Washington? It's been a few years since I played Half-Life 2, but I don't recall Lake Washington ever coming up.

[Mightyblue]

Originally Posted by criminallyinane

Huh. Looks sort of like a geographical contour map rendered poorly in ASCII.

[criminallyinane]

It's GlaDOS. From this angle, I think


Some more data:

                                                                        
---- 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) ----

---- 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) ----

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by gamin

Since we're talking about Kirkland I'm going to guess Lake Washington? It's been a few years since I played Half-Life 2, but I don't recall Lake Washington ever coming up.

Or Totem Lake, but I don't remember that either. Though it's also been a while since I played it.

[Merus]

I think we have our new catachphrase to beat into the ground: "Witchcraft will not be tolerated."

I intend to use it as often as possible while it's still fresh and clever!