Valve updates Portal with secret radio broadcast images
At first glance, the new radios appeared to be the same that otherwise normally existed inside the game, which simply chirped out a samba version of the game's iconic end-theme song. Only later was it discovered that these new radios each contain a hidden audio file that's transmitted when you carry them to one particular point in each of the game's levels.
Thanks to the Steam forum's overeager detectives, we've already learned that the most perplexing of these pirate transmissions are in fact SSTV encoded photographs -- the same used by shortwave operators to transmit images over the air.
The volume of posts on the Steam and SA forums is enormous. It's hard to keep up.
I just hope this means there will be a Portal sequel. Half-Life 2 didn't keep my interest, but Portal is one of the best games I've ever played.
Update: OMG:
They already did a casting call for the voice actor playing GLaDOS's replacement, so Portal 2 is certain at this point.
Also, how are you playing Portal? Your dislike of Microsoft rules out both the Windows and Xbox 360 versions, which leaves the terrible PS3 port and that makes me sad.
Wait, I'm an idiot -- there's always Wine.
PS3. I saw nothing terrible about it.
I only ever play games on consoles, not computers, because I just want an appliance that works, not some software ecosystem that I am required to sysadmin and tweak constantly. when it comes to games, any setup more complicated than "power button" is a deal breaker.
And in re Xbox, you are correct: sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I'll never know.
How's that clock issue working out for you?
What, the one they fixed? Probably fine, I'd guess.
Point is, the PS3 is a damn sight more complicated than just 'power button'.
If you just want 'power button' don't-have-to-admin-this games console simplicity, you need a PS2. Without a flash cartridge.
(My captcha: 'preteens poster')
I'm sure that would be very helpful for playing Portal.
No Portal experience is better than a suboptimal Portal experience.
It's just a game. There are PRINCIPLES at stake!
(captcha: seducers fall)
There is almost no comparison between the hassles from the complexity and bugs of the PS3 to that of the personal computer experience.
I only ever play games on consoles, not computers, because I just want an appliance that works, not some software ecosystem that I am required to sysadmin and tweak constantly. when it comes to games, any setup more complicated than "power button" is a deal breaker.
Testify! Having not once in the past year or so had to upgrade a video driver or worry about what version of a library I had in order to play a game has been most joyous.
I'm pretty sure that the copy-protection involved in PC gaming these days would actually trump even that (and I say this as someone who's gaming PC was out of action for over six months from what turned out to be an incompatability between nVidia's drivers and PS/2 mice—seriously). If you'll excuse a slightly extreme but nontheless real example, a singleplayer game which constantly reauthenticates online and quits if it can't, losing your unsaved progress. (Oh, and the only "new" part of this is that it's singleplayer. EA and Steam have been doing this kind of thing in multiplayer for ages—publishers know how to slippery-slope this stuff into becoming accepted.)
So, yeah, Microsoft aside, I'm pretty sure jwz made entirely the right decision, because I dread to think where his computer-drama powers would otherwise end him up.
I don't care about copy protection because I don't steal other people's work, and have never had a problem with a game thinking I stole it when I didn't.
What I do care about is that I can walk down to EB Games, buy a game, and be playing it within ten minutes of getting home even if I don't have Foo version of Bar library.
Way to read the article, dude.
I read the article before I posted my comment. To re-iterate, with added emphasis exclusively for your benefit:
I don't care about copy protection because I don't steal other people's work, and have never had a problem with a game thinking I stole it when I didn't.
Not to mention... comfy chair in living room, big screen TV, high end surround sound system.
Well, can do the PC that way too, but nowhere near as easily. Or if you just put in the $ in the "other" room where your PC is, you're spending that much more.
As a sysadmin/computer geek, I used to love PC gaming and such. Eventually I realized how much time I was wasting dealing with all that crap when I wanted to just play a game. I'm completely on the games == consoles side now. Well, other then the occasional nostalgic reply of older games in dosbox or something.
GLaDOS'...replacement?
Nonetheless, I am seriously impressed in how thorough Valve were in their retroness. BBS? Ye gods.
BBS nothing. I did a coffee spit-take at "ABEND".
Seriously.
Thank you. I was afraid I was imagining that.
A series of shortwave radio images, sorted in sequence, revealed the MD5 sum of a BBS phone number, which then dumped ASCII art which...nobody knows what yet.
Seriously, if aliens ever contact us, the internet will have it worked out and replied to in about three hours fast. Amazing.
As long as the problem-set is fanboy-related, we've got this Singularity-Hivemind shit nailed.
Earth is Number One!
I guess we should start broadcasting messages to the aliens reminding them to set up a promotional deal with Blizzard or LucasFilm before attempting to make first contact.
Launch the ad-supported freemium distributed hash table LINCOS transceiver probes!
"Hey guys, I just cracked the alien language. They're...oh, they're just offering cures for disease. So disappointed. Well, back to playing WoW, I guess."
I like how they got the phone number: "It was brute forced with the assumption that the phone number would reside in the same area code as Valve's HQ."
Stalkers don't work this hard.
Huh, who knew someone would have some use for some 20 year old wardialing software.
I don't think they wardialed anything (wardialing a whole area code?) The images contained a MD5 hash of the phone number, so I assume "brute force" just refers to hashing every possible phone number until they found the match.
I think you are correct. Reading the thread on deciphering the images, they knew part of the md5, but some of the images were too blurry or it wasn't clear which of several numbers was the one contributing to the md5. They also guessed part of the phone number (the area code).
So I assume the brute force involved setting up a script to generate complete hashes that matched the partial hash, and then comparing the plaintext for each one of those to the predicted plaintext.
But where are they going to get an orange box?
Have you seen the easter egg competition on The IT Crowd series 2 DVD?
Base64 encoded subtitles contained a game for z-machine interpreters and a BBC Basic program, plus stuff hidden in the picture overscan.
I haven't seen an example of this, but a commenter on Metafilter said:
Yeah. Reading through the forums, there are a lot of people who are using Wikipedia to figure out what BBSs are, and discussing the need for "some kind of special hardware modem" to access these things that are "sort of like message board except you have to dial into them on the telephone line".
Which is just beautiful and I dearly want it to be true and not merely snark.
Like so many things in life.
This is beautiful, though! And this marks the first time I've ever wanted to scroll up in a YouTube video.
It is true. I just read some of the threads and it's amazing. People are rediscovering that you can actually connect to another computer without having an internet connection. Two pages later they rediscover the ancient wonders of telnet. My heart leaps of joy.
For my money, I think this comment is the funniest comment in that thread.
"Special hardware modems or something" is good, but the one that takes the cake is a few posts down: "Old BBS servers were accessed through a telephone line???"
Damnit, I'm only just getting acclimatised to the idea that there are people around who never knew a time without the Web; that there are ones who never dealt with dial-up hurts my brain.
"Doesnt seem to work, atleast not on the default port of 23."
Hnnnnngh.
Someone's compiled a big bitmap of the ASCII art.
There's a post with some fake chatlogs later from an IRC channel.
"His alias is 'Robin' btw, not '+Robin."
*Facepalm*
now I gotta go find a copy of Kermit.
When you get it can you UUencode it and post it for the rest of the class?
A de-noised and colourised version of the photos found on the intarwebs
That's looking suspiciously like Bungie's "Marathon"
"takes the cake"
so to speak.
You know, I never used a 300 baud cups-over-the-handset modem, but at least I know it existed. Script kiddies have no sense of history.
And don't most laptops still come with a modem port, or at least they did until at least a few years ago?
The second incredulous user you mention (my_fist) also posted in january 2010 "Starting in 1995 (BTW I am 20)."
Face it, we are old :-/
I need to sit down and watch my copy of BBS: The Documentary one of these days.
While going over my wildcat 3.x books.
Watching them trying to decipher baud rates and flow control is almost adorable.
Hey guys if you type +++ath and bang on the enter key something really cool happens!!
lolufunE
Join me in #2,000 and I'll tell you more!
I remember getting yelled at on a BBS for putting:
NO CARRIER
in a message. Some bozo's sad terminal emulator app hung up automatically whenever it saw NO CARRIER.
Ah, the good ol' days...
I explained to a friend who's 6 or 7 years younger than me that when I was a lad I had to save my programs to audiocassettes on my home computer and she looked at me like I was pulling her leg.
I actually had to offer to go and dig out my old tapes before she'd believe me.
http://www.macnn.com/articles/10/03/03/teaser.hints.at.portal.team.fortress.2 possible Mac versions of games, including references to some of the hidden images.
These are brilliant; more readable version of the magazine article one here.
Another update, another video.
I'm curious—does the PS3 version have any way to update itself like this? I'm assuming you don't get Steam on consoles.
Yes, PS3 downloads patches for games all the time, even games that originated on DVD. I'm not sure of the exact mechanism (maybe it applies patches at launch, or maybe the whole game really lives on the HD and the DVD is just a security dongle).
I have not checked to see if this patch came out for the PS3 version, though.