Valve Conspiracies: The Portal Radio Update (Megathread Mark II)

[MaxOfS2D]

[highlight]NEW VERSION OF THE THREAD OVER HERE: [url]http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=903557[/url][/highlight]

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[img]http://filesmelt.com/dl/portalarg_mk2.png[/img]

[highlight]Notes before you start speculating/reading:[/highlight]

[LIST]
[*]:siren: :siren: :siren: [B]LOOK AT THE LATEST BBS DUMPS OVER HERE: [url]http://kevin.fobby.net/portal_puzzle/bbs_dump_pictures/[/url][/B]
[*]:siren: [B]BEANS ARE IRRELEVANT AND ONLY PLACEHOLDERS. THEY. ARE. IRRELEVANT.[/B]
[*]:siren: [B]THE BABEL SITE IS NOT AN OFFICIAL SOURCE, DON'T REFER TO IT. IT IS FAN-MADE.[/B]
[*]:siren: [B][url]http://www.aperturescience.com[/url] HASN'T BEEN UPDATED SINCE 2007, STOP USING IT![/B]
[*]:siren: [B]DO NOT DIAL THE BBS NUMBERS. All this will do is slow down the people who are actually able to use it.[/B]
[*]:siren: [B]People who have been able to get onto the BBS have been prompted with a login screen for GladOS v3.11 — 3/11 is March 11st, when Gabe Newell is set to receive an award. We are likely to get more news on that day, so stay tuned![/B]
[*]:siren: [B]This thread bases its "days" on Valve Time. Day 1 was thus considerably shorter than the others. For us western europeans, it means that we increment days around 7 a.m. ![/B]
[/LIST]

[highlight]This O.P. will be updated as soon as a new valuable and believable piece of information has been discovered. P.M. to me stuff that could be added, thanks![/highlight]

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[highlight]LATEST UPDATES AND HAPPENINGS[/highlight] - In reverse chronological order (most recent above)

[B]DAY 4: FOLLOWING THE PROGRESS BAR / XEN SKYBOXES IN THE PORTAL GCF[/B] - [url=http://portalwiki.net/index.php?title=Breaking:_The_Progress_Bar](see wiki page)[/url]

[LIST][*]The progress bar is apparently not advancing linearly. It might be tied to the number of connection to the BBS, or the percentage of Portal players who have the "Transmission Received" achievement.
[*]The [url=http://s2.noelshack.com/uploads/images/16879740117174_sans_titre_1.jpg]bridge from Episode 2[/url] might be referenced [url=http://tof.canardpc.com/view/a1079ba4-e29d-4e53-95f4-4425279f433c.jpg]in the ASCII art[/url] (this one might be the Portal 1 scaffolding near the end, look at [url=http://i.imgur.com/OgSUs.png]this one[/url] which resembles the bridge more closely too).
[*]Also, dinosaur images are getting cleaned up by the IRC team, and new stuff is being found. [*][url=http://i.imgur.com/k1GGD.jpg]A Xen theory is emerging[/url] ; and people found [url=http://i.imgur.com/oAds7.jpg]Xen skyboxes in the Portal GCFs[/url] (and it's not fake ; [url=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1288617/vtfedit_mirc.png]more proof[/url]). It may, however, be a false trail thrown at us by the Valve overlords...
[*]Another new crazy theory: the [url=http://img.m-artin.nl/image/43.jpeg]Apollo dino images[/url] are referring to the satellite which is mentioned near the end of Episode Two.
[/LIST]

[img_thumb]http://i46.tinypic.com/2imaohz.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2728/4406111938_8653140760_o.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/9356/dino26fixed.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/XFd4H.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://gickr.com/results4/anim_83cc2b7c-05c7-95d4-5134-2661840c02eb.gif[/img_thumb]

[B]DAY 3: VALUABLE ASSET RETRIEVAL[/B] - [url=http://pastebin.com/ejxA3vJX]Pastebin BBS log[/url]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ddrMBGRrLM[/media]

[LIST]
[*] escape_02 updated, new ending where a robot drags you away talking about the Party Escort. Here's the robot voice: [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcQFZU2_zIg[/url]. Here's the new ending: [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJruBtuUACo[/url]
[*] No images in the two new dinosaur fizzles
[*] The BBS progress bar is randomly updating with messages such as "Estimated Time Remaining: [I]x[/I]" where [I]x[/I] can be "until the heat death of the universe", "prehistoric age", "last thursday" (note that March 11th is a thursday...
[*] Here are all three fizzles combined: [url]http://servage.sforum.nl/gits/dinosaur_fizzlecombi.wav[/url]
[*] Loads of new ASCII : here are raw dumps, images are below this list - [url=http://cat3illa.com/portal/incoming.txt]#1[/url] - [url=http://cat3illa.com/portal/incoming2.txt]#2[/url]
[*] Voices isolated from the fizzles : "Chell, get out of here, I'll follow you" - [url]http://servage.sforum.nl/gits/voice.wav[/url] or [url]http://servage.sforum.nl/gits/voice2.wav[/url] (one might be more understandable depending on your hearing). These come from the three fizzles. [I]Get out of here[/I] is in the first one, [I]Chell[/I] is the last part of the second, [I]I'll follow you[/I] is the last part of the third.
[*] Crazy theory: Chell is the valuable asset.
[/LIST]

[img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/1mJtY.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i50.tinypic.com/1hrr0h.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i48.tinypic.com/2v8gxme.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://kevin.fobby.net/portal_puzzle/bbs_dump_pictures/progress29.png[/img_thumb]

[B]DAY 3: MYSTERY OF THE BBS BANNER[/B] - [url=http://www.facepunch.com/showpost.php?p=20530069]see the original post[/url]

The MOTD of the BBS seems to alternate between [I]SYSTEM DUMP DATA BACK-PRESSURE HIGH: USE BACKUP ACCOUNT TO RELIEVE[/I], and [I]SYSTEM DUMP DATA BACK-PRESSURE LOW: ALTERNATE RETRIEVAL PENDING[/I], apparently depending on which account we log in.

[B]DAY 2: CLEANED-UP SOUND FILE[/B] - [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7ALEgQeBS4[/url]

People mostly recolored stuff (see the Valve BBS section), while some weird folks leaded the whole megathread populace on false trails. However, you can clearly hear Alyx at 0:14 on this video : "get down, they're everywhere". Here's a different version, rougher but with more voices: [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hD_Q6MVHJM[/url]

[B]DAY 1: THE RADIO TRANSMISSIONS[/B] - 26 [I]dinosaur[/I] sound files

Each of the in-game radios has a [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyY8RzwP7Uk]new freaky sound upon their vaporization[/url], and for each one, another unique sound — sometimes morse code, but deep within most of the latter, images were actually encoded. Using fancy stenography software, Facepunch has been able to decode them. On the third and tenth images, a string of numbers — a BBS phone number — was unveiled. Upon dialing it with one of these antique modems, ASCII images are sent to your terminal. We suspect Valve is slowly releasing Portal 2 / Episode 3 artwork through it. [I]BBS images are further down this thread.[/I]

[u]Here is a compilation of the cleaned-up versions of the SSTV'd images[/u] : [url]http://filesmelt.com/dl/portal_2_sstv.jpg[/url]

[img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur2.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur3.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur4.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur6.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur7.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur8.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur9.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur10.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur11.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur13.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur14.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur15.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur16.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur18.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur19.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur20.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur21.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur22.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur23.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur24.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur25.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Dinosaur26.png[/img_thumb]

#1 : [I]interior transmission active, external data line active, message digest active[/I]
#5 : [I]9E107D9D372BB6821BD91D3542A419D6[/I] ; MD5 hash of [I]The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog[/I]
#12 : [I]system data dump active, user backup active, password backup active[/I]. Includes the username and the password (both [I]backup[/I]) to login to the BBS number, which is [I][phone][/I]

[B]DAY 1: THE PORTAL RADIO UPDATE[/B] - [url]http://filesmelt.com/dl/ohohohwhatsthisdoinghere.png[/url]

Valve released a sneaky update that added radio transmissions to the original Portal radios. They only appear after you've completed the campaign and have the [I]Heartbreaker[/I] achievement. Here's a quick walkthrough of the "Transmission Received" achievement: [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSqG-SmXriU[/url]

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[highlight]UNCONFIRMED STUFF[/highlight] - might be unrelevant, might be fake, we gotta sort these out

[LIST][*][DEL][B]DAY 3: GABE NEWELL ANSWERS AN E-MAIL IN BINARY[/B] - [url]http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/7637/gabewhat.jpg[/url] - Binary translation: [I]You will know[/I] ; [I]It will all be known in a near future[/I] ; [I]Protocol 602[/I].[/DEL] (fake until proven otherwise
[*][DEL][B]DAY 3: CAVE JOHNSON AND HIS "BLACK MESA FRIENDS"[/B] - [url]http://i49.tinypic.com/2cyr2w.jpg[/url][/DEL] (confirmed fake by author)
[*][DEL][B]DAY 3: [I]SCATRATOA[/I] SOUND FILE[/B] - [url=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4033587/scatratoa.wav](download WAV here)[/url][/DEL] feel free to keep investigating, but it sounds like a dead end
[*][B]DAY 3: IS SOMETHING HIDDEN IN THE SPECTRUM OF THE SOUND FILES?[/b] - [url]http://filesmelt.com/dl/dinoscale.png[/url]
[*][DEL][B]DAY 2: SPOOKY PORTAL RADIO SOUNDS[/b] - [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyUbiCsYIdw[/url][/DEL] (Ep.2 sounds slowed down)[/LIST]

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[highlight]MISCELLANEOUS IMAGES FROM THE VALVE BBS[/highlight] - compilation sets and single images

[img_thumb] http://dl.dropbox.com/u/251301/Extended%20BBS%20Edit.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/7F8o4.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/tz3l7.gif[/img_thumb]

[img_thumb]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/116597/Portal/human.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/5748/1zzgy99.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4448/portal1.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i50.tinypic.com/1550v29.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/9362/ustreamruins.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/57/62486984.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/link_thelostgen/aperture_ascii_trainstation_bbs.png[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i409.photobucket.com/albums/pp176/LordPelf/2-6.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb][/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://tof.canardpc.com/view/e0298bef-d416-48c8-a891-28e865a97186.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://tof.canardpc.com/view/d0c75286-c582-4cae-aeb2-d4203de2fce3.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i50.tinypic.com/optl4z.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/OgSUs.png[/img_thumb]

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[highlight]BUT THERE'S MORE![/highlight] - Links to miscellaneous yet relevant stuff

Portal Update Megathread Mark I : [url]http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=902578[/url]
Portal Update Megathread Original : [url]http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=902479[/url]

Transmission Received achievement walkthrough : [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSqG-SmXriU[/url]
A crazy theory about a link between Episode One and Portal : [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgG3eRYQfpE[/url]

IRC channel : #portal @ irc.chat-solutions.org
Steam group : [url]http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FPTR[/url]
Facepunch Ventrilo : 69.90.34.26 / Port: 4014 / Password: imperium

:buddy:

[Thefrog]

Damn!

You had this thread set up!
Sneaky sneaky!

[Zenpod]

I still say back to square one

[Xyrec]

This better turn out to be a new portal game or any other Valve game.

[Prince]

Lawl. Yes.. And you miss some information...

[MaxOfS2D]

[QUOTE=Prince;20532868]Lawl. Yes.. And you miss some information...[/QUOTE]

Currently recovering the other thread's information

[Thefrog]

[QUOTE=Prince;20532868]Lawl. Yes.. And you miss some information...[/QUOTE]

No, thats a mod.
(missing information)

[Janus Vesta]

God I love VALVe.

[lilcheeselad]

I made a fail V.2 and it got locked. :frown:

[02browns]

Good collection of info, hopefully with less spam this thread can remain open and any new info can be discovered.

[aero1444]

That on the bottom right of the last one looks like those initial tutorial things for portal, before it released, which had like a beige background and gave basic instructions on the portal gun. I'll see if I can find them

[img]http://blog.newsweek.com/photos/levelup/images/original/Portal-instructions.aspx[/img] that
although now looking at it, it looks a bit less like it than I thought.

And that tube thing is obviously the tubes you use to get around aperture, where the boxes come from.

[長門有希]

Do we have a theory for dinosaur filenames?

[lilcheeselad]

[QUOTE=Ezhik;20532925]Do we have a theory for dinosaur filenames?[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I'm interested in knowing why their called that. I don't think anybody found at though yet, but I'm probably wrong

[SuperDAIU]

[QUOTE=lilcheeselad;20532904]I made a fail V.2 and it got locked. :frown:[/QUOTE]

Ha ha.

[goon165]

so what have I missed since last night?

[Thefrog]

[QUOTE=Ezhik;20532925]Do we have a theory for dinosaur filenames?[/QUOTE]

Could be joke related. (age)
Ex: How long borealis has been lost?

Hell, what if it is literal?

[fippe]

[IMG]http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/4712/portalimagepossible1.jpg[/IMG]
was posted on first thread, I'd like to know if this was from BBS because if it was and it's not on the compilation, there might be more missed images.

[lilcheeselad]

I really think that when Gabe says we'll know in the future, it means he'll announce something big at the convention

[fippe]

[QUOTE=thefrog;20532953]Could be joke related. (age)
Ex: How long borealis has been lost?

Hell, what if it is literal?[/QUOTE]
Borealis disappeared in 90's I think.

[The ScorpioN^]

Don't think so

[Thefrog]

[QUOTE=lilcheeselad;20532966]I really think that when Gabe says we'll know in the future, it means he'll announce something big at the convention[/QUOTE]

If they announce anything, it may be a stepping stone for back story.

[editline]10:31AM[/editline]

[QUOTE=Fippe;20532967]Borealis disappeared in 90's I think.[/QUOTE]

I am a bit rusty on hl2 back-story, but what was to be on the Borealis?

[Nev]

This:

[IMG]http://i694.photobucket.com/albums/vv301/briannevec/other/Po2Pu.jpg[/IMG]

Somehow reminds me of the EP3 concept art:

[img_thumb]http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/borealis-in-half-life-2-episode-3-big.jpg[/img_thumb]

It's not exactly the same image, but the wires and beams are similar.

[lilcheeselad]

I think this is related to the companion cube because the companion cube had a heart on it, but you had to throw it in the incinerator, the blue lines mean its taking the cube in and the yellow on the inside of the heart being fire. I don't really know, just brain storming.
[IMG]http://filebox.me/files/sia084qa9_Untitled.png[/IMG]

[goon165]

the colors don't mean anything

the guy who did it said so

[Populus]

On the Protocol 602 thing:

[url]http://www.602communications.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=52&Itemid=104[/url]

I mean, it has [I][B]nothing to do with this[/B][/I], but talk about coincidence.

[clarky120]

When gabe talks he wont tell us the answer, he will give us a big hint though

[02browns]

[quote=populus89;20533036]on the protocol 602 thing:

[url]http://www.602communications.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=52&itemid=104[/url]

i mean, it has [i][b]nothing to do with this[/b][/i], but talk about coincidence.[/quote]

wow! :o

[長門有希]

[QUOTE=Nevec;20533015]This:

[IMG]http://i694.photobucket.com/albums/vv301/briannevec/other/Po2Pu.jpg[/IMG]

Somehow reminds me of the EP3 concept art:

[img_thumb]http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/borealis-in-half-life-2-episode-3-big.jpg[/img_thumb]

It's not exactly the same image, but the wires and beams are similar.[/QUOTE]

Different angle?

[MiniManz]

Oh my god that email from Gabe.

The 11th is shitstorm day. Oh my god brace yourselves. Get inside the fucking bunker.

[fippe]

[QUOTE=lilcheeselad;20533016]I think this is related to the companion cube because the companion cube had a heart on it, but you had to throw it in the incinerator, the blue lines mean its taking the cube in and the yellow on the inside of the heart being fire. I don't really know, just brain storming.
[IMG]http://filebox.me/files/sia084qa9_Untitled.png[/IMG][/QUOTE]
Please note that the originals did not have colors.