A series of subtle changes discretely introduced to Valve’s acclaimed behavioral enrichment simulator Portal, including a new ending, have ignited a frenzy of speculation about what the changes might mean.
Fans speculate the clues unlocked in the new so-called “transmission received” achievement quests point to information on a possible sequel to their beloved game.
Fans confronted with the cryptic patch note “Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations” soon began to investigate, finding a new achievement had been added along with a series of in-game radio transmissions.
These were subsequently revealed to be encoded images…
Some of the clues, appearing to be nothing more than odd camera images and poor radio transmissions, seemed like red herrings, but eventually a phone number was discovered with an active modem and a mysterious (and passworded) BBS…
Those who frequently play games by Valve may be familiar with the elaborate viral marketing campaigns used in place of traditional product announcements.
Some believe this to be a sure sign something big is coming to the world of Portal.
Additionally a reworked ending sequence has been uncovered (obviously including spoilers):
Update: In an unsurprising revelation, the announcement has been revealed to be none other than Portal 2.
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The cake is a pie. The best trap of all, because somebody obviously was considerate enough to upgrade your shitty cake into some AWESOME pie.
i like delicious cake!
Goddammit Valve. I haven't finished this game yet. Now you're changing the ending on me.
Time for me to go play Portal again.
The most recent update to the mystery BBS has replaced the random ASCII art with a very slow-moving loading bar. It doesn't update consistently but current estimates place the ETA to full at around 11 AM EST.
Reference (contains screenshot): http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1175549
the cake is a pie
No, This is Patrick!!!
I like how the subtitles continued onto the end.
Haha. :D
I've been reading through the forum thread at http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1168990 nonstop since I read this article.
Parallell detective work was done on:
4chan /v/
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3273954&userid=0&perpage=40 [http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3273954&userid=0&perpage=40]
http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=902479
Summary from forum thread at steampowered.com:
0h: Forum thread is started. ppl are trying to unlock achievement and decoding the radio transmissions.
2h: The hidden pictures are found in the radio transmissions.
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/1319/finalnj.png
3h: A telephone number are found hidden in the pictures. It seems to be leading to a BBS.
http://i46.tinypic.com/2uhmfy0.jpg
http://i46.tinypic.com/ru87s2.jpg
http://imgur.com/5wbap
4h: The username and password are (unknowingly at the time) found for the BBS, hidden in morse code in one of the radio transmissions.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13759533&postcount=1030 [http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13759533&postcount=1030]
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13759710&postcount=1058 [http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13759710&postcount=1058]
4,5h: Everyone is calling the BBS, making the line busy. Very few is able to connect and try to login.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13759808&postcount=1075 [http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13759808&postcount=1075]
7,5h: Valve decided to help. Added a clue to the login prompt.
http://imgur.com/tsbI2
Aaaand they're in.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13764066&postcount=1710 [http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13764066&postcount=1710]
7,5 hours. Nice work :)
Check out the full summary and links:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1169027
I haven't played this game in a while, not since the last time I played Half-Life 2 a little over a year ago. So how do you get the new ending? It is included in the digital (Download) version of Portal? Or is it somewhat like an update or patch?
An update; now there's 24 radios hidden in there and when placed in correct places they start to play morse code. That unlocks the "Transmission Received" achievement and the new ending.
It's Portal 2.
Also it's the cover for Game Informer Magazine.
This is triumph, I'm making a note here: Huge Succuess!
Its hard to overstate my satisfaction.
Delicious ca...?????
So uh fill me in.... What is Portal?
A great game. Now go play it.
Got a link for it? Maybe Half Life too?
Played it and beat it... Got to say good game... CAKE!!!!
you have to admit that it is quite short... i guess my first play-through took about 4 hours, too
I did complete it and it was fun playing Half Life 2 now and it is much much longer. Those face hugger zombie things scare me....
Love my bug army
That sounds about right. IIRC I completed Portal in about 3 hours.
So in 4 hours, you went from "What is Portal" to completing the game? What?
get the orange box for packaged yummies.
I think it should've been declared international law that every person on this earth own orange box already. Especially considering they practically give it away during Steam sales...
I have the Black Box though. I got it when I bought my just released Radeon HD2900XT.
The only game where I hate that I hate Steam for what it is.
Fuck you Valve.
Let's not forget HL2: Ep3, with the Borealis from Aperture and all.
In HL2: Ep2 there were hits that the Aperture sinice lab was going to be in Ep3
And maybe then, you finally get the Portal gun. And the appearance of cake shall be the so-called 'Unforeseen Consequences'. Or maybe 'Unforeseen Consequences' refer to the disappearance of cakes worldwide, replaced with lies.
aperture is a trap (?)
Yes, more Caeks...
So I guess "The trap is a lie" is next?
Hey Kip!
If Hideyoshi is a trap, and trapa is a cake, and the cake is a lie, then is Hideyoshi a... lie?
no No NO! Uso da! Urusai URUSAI!!!
AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
What did you do to my poor trap-loving brain...
I know its a fallacy, but hey.
Hey, Ichiro.
Where are you nowadays?
Getting busy on something...
School related...
But it doesn't stop me from dropping by in this place.
The cake is a trap...
but i hope it isn't fake...
the spongecake is a trap!
Begone, Weighted Companion Cube.
Come to brother, Flat-chested Companion Cake!
Delicious Companion Cake. Yum! Yumm!
But the spongecake is delicious....
Hideyoshi, is that you?
A trap is going to jump out of a cake?
Therefore the spongecake is a lie
...a delicious lying trap...
The cake is a taco!
Loli taco?
Fuck the cake, I want pie!
American Pie...
I FUCKING LOVE PIE!
I wonder if GlaDOS started out as a singing synthesiser. o-o
Miku really does get everywhere.
GlaDOS voice is not synthetic.