So a new achievement was released for Portal on March 1st that lead to some very strange clues and some even stranger results:
Here's the /. article
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/03/03/165202
But here was what the clues were & what was eventually found:
Quote-Portal gets surprise update March 1st
-People see new mystery achievement
-People play and see the radio in the beginning room now has a green light
-Carry it around and notice it makes strange broadcast interference noises in certain places
-Locate and place all 26 of these mystery radios for achievement
-Smart people yank .wav files out of game content folders and run them through SSTV programs [http://i49.tinypic.com/s4b7zn.jpg] [Edit: link should work now. Yes, it's darker than the original.]
-Produces 22 cryptic image files in a numbered sequence, 4 morse code
-Somebody runs the number string through an md5 hash translator and gets a landline number
-Internet traces it to Kirkland, WA (near Valve HQ)
-People find out its not a phone/fax line but a data line hosting a BBS and telnet it
-Use a clue from one of the files to figure out the BBS user/password login info [backup/backup]
-End up with a bunch of weird ASCII artwork:
http://www.imagebanana.com/img/sdl9h...P3ARGcolor.gif [imagebanana.com] http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2801/...b95fd393_o.jpg [flickr.com]
Source: http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1569920&cid=31347232
(yes, I am aware the image links are broken)
CRAZY AWESOME!
Here's the ascii art:
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/6278/portalascii.png
Interesting way to spread news about and garner interest in your game...
I love how the internet enables a mob of people to solve such complex puzzles so quickly.. Really the diverse number of skills here really is impressive.
Probably the best breakdown of all the images and content in the puzzle
http://kotaku.com/5484157/valves-portal-puzzle-so-far-the-files-recovered-from-aperture-science
I was blown away by two things:
1. The complexity of the puzzle
2. How fast it was solved
LOL @ one of the comments:
(http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/comment/9/2010/03/45b91a03d35960e0af4a25730022cbf2/original.jpg)
CQ, CQ...
PS: image links not broken here...
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1170872
The kotaku.com has been updated with more info and enhanced versions of the ASCII art
http://kotaku.com/5484157/valves-portal-puzzle-so-far-the-files-recovered-from-aperture-science