Giant Bomb Mailbag: Numbers Station Edition

I have posted this elsewhere... Here is what I have:  

I have seen a trend of nearly everything that is in plain site to contain keys to finding more information. I believe there are a few things that are in front of our faces that have not been used yet. 

1. The photo featured on the TV during the second transmission at gknova6.com
is so in our faces, there has to be something hidden here other then the possible time line of the game...

It was taken by Ralph Crane on October 22, 1962.

The main thing that springs to mind is that the photo is watermarked with LIFE on the website. If the game was Singularity wouldn’t it be marked TIME MAGAZINE or similar? 

2.  If you go to buy the photo at this site http://www.qoop.com/photobooks/framed_prints/layout.php you can zoom in and manipulate the image a little.

All that realy stood out for me was the lady in the bottom right corner with the white hat and dark glasses and the baby on the bottom left. There is no way to get their names or the store name from what I can tell. 

3. My most hopeful lead is that there is a statue near the CIA headquarters found in the co-ordinates.

It is called 'Kryptos' and it contains, you guessed it, codes! According to wikipedia it is “one of the most famous unsolved codes in the world”. Find it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kryptos

The wiki page contains way too much information for one post…
Here we get who made the sculpture (Jim Sandborn)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Sanborn

When the sculpter made this he also placed a bunch of other items on the grounds of CIA headquaters like a copper slab with morse code on it.

A group dedicated to decrypting the message hidden in the sculpture can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Sanborn I think they would find our codes easy lol.

Also interesting, The sculpter made similar peices titled “Antipodes” – which has a lot to do with places on earth as detailed here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipodes

Another titled “Cyrillic Projector” which includes text in Russian and some of the code found in the sculpture on the CIA grounds repeated. 

4. When going to the classifieds page on somd.com I get this message "ERR-C-BAD-ASU: We're Sorry, but this page is no longer available." It is making me think that they have closed it as we have solved everything that was relating to the page... Or, we may have just overloaded their server lol.

 
5. I saw somewhere that a poster researched the owner of GKNOVA6.com and found that they also owned a seemingly unrelated limo company web site. Later, someone translated the numberplate into a phone number and there was a child's voice leaving a message. Did this go any further? 

These may be deadends but worth a shot...    

I'm in favor of a Cod7 announcement, mostly so that I can wash the taint of Cod6 away

The website has been updated, if anyone still cares. I'm not much of a riddle solver, but it does say 1969, so whatever it is will be taking place during the Vietnam War era. I'm hoping it will be the Treyarch COD, if it is i can't wait to see what they do with zombie mode since this gives me that vibe.

I kinda had a feeling it would be Fallout: New Vegas, but I was also expecting something completely random too.

Well this has certainly been a wild ride, look forward to info on the new COD set around the cold war

The little MIDI tone that plays in that... 
 
...I could almost swear that I've heard that shit before back in the days of the 8-bit/16-bit era.  It may just be similar, but it SERIOUSLY seems familiar.

" @DystopiaX:  Well, I's say IW got some pretty massive balls, I mean ,their two studio heads just got fired for going against Activision. But that doesn't forgive their complete lack of integritywhen it comes to Modern Warfare 2. "

With everything that has been revealed so far, I'm going along with the Treyarch CoD thread. Perhaps you're a solider in a squad called Nova Six?

"  " You can now count Fallout: New Vegas out. On the official Bethesda website forum,  Bethesda’s community manager posted the following message: “Whatever this is seems cool, but it doesn’t relate to our games.” So, Fallout is out of the race, and that leaves either Singularity or Call of Duty."   
 
Quoted from  http://www.movieviral.com/2010/04/05/gknova6-viral-site-for-unknown-game/    

 EDIT: Someone on the bethesda forums suggested this, and I'm shamelessly stealing their idea. What if "Nova 6" is the release date, as in, November 6th. "

 " You can now count Fallout: New Vegas out. On the official Bethesda website forum,  Bethesda’s community manager posted the following message: “Whatever this is seems cool, but it doesn’t relate to our games.” So, Fallout is out of the race, and that leaves either Singularity or Call of Duty."   
 
Quoted from  http://www.movieviral.com/2010/04/05/gknova6-viral-site-for-unknown-game/ 
 
EDIT: Someone on the bethesda forums suggested this, and I'm shamelessly stealing their idea. What if "Nova 6" is the release date, as in, November 6th.

" @Skytylz:
Just general hate, really. Me mum says I'm special, don't know if that explains it, but there you have it.
 
@DystopiaX said:

" @Skytylz said:

" @SPACETURTLE said:

" @DystopiaX said:

" @SPACETURTLE said:

"  Treyarc aint bright enough for ARGs like this, damn it! "

Treyarch has nothing to do with it. Activision covers the marketing as a publisher so this would be on them. CoD7 Cold War spec ops team seems actually really plausible. That or it's some previously unheard of nuclear apocalypse game, since they're so popular now. "

Activision ain't bright enough for ARGs like this, damn it! "

What's with the Treyarch hate? "

and yet they have the best selling franchise ever...hmmm "

Well, I don't know about that... I Guess it's rather Activision which have the best-selling franchise ever in that case. Considering you "corrected" me earlier you should have know that. Not that I really agree with you when you say "Treyarch has nothing to do" with the ARG, if it where a new COD that is on the brink of being announced. Activision only partly makes sure that the mails containing the flashdrive actually gets to the GB office, you know, payment and stuff. The general idea behind the ARG would be all Trayarc if this were another COD game.
 
Now, why I'm not a fan of Treyarch, OR Infinity Ward for that matter, is cause they are both Activision's bitches. I generally don't like game developers with the lack of integrity, like Treyarch and IW. I guess in the end, it's not entirely their fault, it's Activision. But for Christs sake, "grow a pair and stand up for yourself as somewhat independent game developers with creative rights", is what I would like to say to Trayarch and IW.

"

so i decided to waste some time today to try to figure out what was going on with that flashing light at the bottom of the tv. I tried translating it as morse code, but it's not really in the right format; i just get a bunch of  "t, i e, m's" in no particular order. Then i wrote down A's and B's for one blink/two blinks respectively, then put that through the bacon cipher. That didn't seem to lead anywhere either as the 4th set doesn't come out to any letter. The other ones that did work were just a mess of letters that didn't mesh into words. Just thought i'd throw all that out there. Guess that light doesn't have a purpose.

So you just plug in any random USB drive that arrives in a nondescript envelope?  Real smart guys.
 
 http://negativegamer.com/2010/04/06/and-thats-how-you-hack-every-major-gaming-site/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NegativeGamer+%28Negative+Gamer%29&utm_content=Twitter

" There is one other thing guys, we know the address came out of maryland (I live about 45 minutes from bethesda's offices) and bethesda is publishing a post apocalyptic game from ID called RAGE. If anyone was going to put out promotional material, what better publisher would you pick of yours to do a post apocalyptic game than bethesda? The stuff came out of maryland, but the people making new vegas are out in california. All of this NV hype could be a red herring, "

  You know I've read this thread and I think that whoever sent this flash drive maybe has not only given out some red herrings to the interweb but they knew how to throw the Giant bomb community off track. First off while if this was a viral marketing ploy for either a Fallout MMO, Fallout 4 then it would be interesting however as people have said the cannon story of the fallout would wouldn't include JFK or what was imagery from the Cuban Missile crisis negotiations/peace talks. 
  
Right so if the idea of a post nuclear game is in the works by someone that is starting to look clear now. 

The second bit of information which seems to be coding which is featured in a MS word document (taking information from different sites as well as here). From looking at it quickly it does seem contain some elements of the binary numeral system which is used pretty much on computers. However binary can be used in standard code and the ASCII (according to Wiki) came into use on October 6th 1960 which would have been within the two year period of the Cuban Missile Crisis. 
 
The following words which had been included which spelt Cipher the ones which stick out like a sore thumb are of course Isotope and Hydrogen two key parts for what are required for any nuclear weapon and of course the TV off the website  http://www.gknova6.com/ also showed the periodic table symbol for Uranium and of course the Isotope version of  Uranium (U235). Of course this is covering old ground here. However the other words featured are quite interesting to look at as well.
 
Cryptography is of course the practice and study of hiding information which as an art has been going on since the times ancient greek.  However shortly after the second world war this practice was then transferred over to computers which then can be related back to the idea of the ASCII as earlier mentioned. 
 
Isotopes are chemical and chemistry related most people know this. 
 
Philanthropy is a greek word meeting "Anti Metal Gear company" erm no wait, I got that wrong it actually means the effect or inclination of the well being of humankind. 
  
Hydrogen is basically a gas which is part the most basic feature on the Earth, Water. 

Ember is basically the burning process of heat on to a carbon based product (Ie Coal) 
 
Rebirth is basically that being re born. 
 
When put apart like this it might seem like that they are all meaningless however each seems to have a more science based aspect than could be predicted. All of these could be used to say guide a nuclear missile to reach a end goal and each process has been reborn into completely different things (Example Cryptography has been morphed into the DRM) However I think most of these aspects (baring rebirth) has been more noticed since the 1950's. 
 
Now if you look at the TV as featured on the  http://www.gknova6.com/ website it does have the 1950s/1960's feel to it however when compare it to this image of a TV from fallout 3,   http://www.ripten.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/future-tv.jpg the TV looks a lot murkier than normal.    The TV off the site which was discovered seemed to be in better condition in whole. 
 
Finally why address this flashdrive to Brad. If someone wanted to make out that this game was a new fallout game then of course by getting this sent to Brad would make logical sense. After All he loved his time on Fallout 3 and it could be tied into the idea of sending this out via Maryland where Bethesda is set up.  

However my gut is telling me this isn't going to be a Fallout game. 
 
I have a feeling that this could be all about the next Call of Duty game which Treyarch are publishing. There has been rumors for god knows how long regarding a cold war COD game. In essence that would be the next logical war before we go all Full Metal Jacket on everyone. However as we know there was no war with the cold war just people sitting around tables trying to stop a nuclear war and massive amount of spying, which while everyone could agree would be very very different for a COD game. It wouldn't be that much of a good first person game, unless there was a last mission where you assassinated JFK. 
 
However the idea of doing a parallel world cold war where basically all the talking failed and maybe a nuclear bomb had been detonated over American and maybe English soil could work. I mean possibly work I mean they took something of myth and brought that to life. In that i am not talking about Zombies but Die Glocke (The Bell/the nazi bell) which was featured in Map pack 3 I believe.  So why not take a fixed point in time and turn it into a state of flux. It would appease the FPS market and also it would give a great idea for a parallel universe story. 
 
Also the website creative history has been used to promote past Activision games before and in a way this is far more interesting than the MW2 tease which was released last year, that is if this the next COD game. As mentioned there is another Activision game in the works called   Singularity which features the Cold War setting, so we could have been seeing the first tease for that as well, or it could be something to do with the outsider with a nod to the writer of the outsider being one Richard Wright. 
 
To sum this up at the moment I have no idea what the fuck is going on however if i was a betting man then I would put money on this being related to these games in this order. 
 
COD: The cold parallel world War, Singularity, The Outsider, Fallout 3: New Vegas, Fallout 4, Fallout:MMO

" @Skytylz said:

" @SPACETURTLE said:

" @DystopiaX said:

" @SPACETURTLE said:

"  Treyarc aint bright enough for ARGs like this, damn it! "

Treyarch has nothing to do with it. Activision covers the marketing as a publisher so this would be on them. CoD7 Cold War spec ops team seems actually really plausible. That or it's some previously unheard of nuclear apocalypse game, since they're so popular now. "

Activision ain't bright enough for ARGs like this, damn it! "

What's with the Treyarch hate? "

and yet they have the best selling franchise ever...hmmm "

Well, I don't know about that... I Guess it's rather Activision which have the best-selling franchise ever in that case. Considering you "corrected" me earlier you should have know that. Not that I really agree with you when you say "Treyarch has nothing to do" with the ARG, if it where a new COD that is on the brink of being announced. Activision only partly makes sure that the mails containing the flashdrive actually gets to the GB office, you know, payment and stuff. The general idea behind the ARG would be all Trayarc if this were another COD game.
 
Now, why I'm not a fan of Treyarch, OR Infinity Ward for that matter, is cause they are both Activision's bitches. I generally don't like game developers with the lack of integrity, like Treyarch and IW. I guess in the end, it's not entirely their fault, it's Activision. But for Christs sake, "grow a pair and stand up for yourself as somewhat independent game developers with creative rights", is what I would like to say to Trayarch and IW.

that is not a package I would want to open up late at night. I do not like creepy audio files from unknown senders.

I'm guessing its either going to be about  Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, or a new Metal Gear game that will be announced at E3.  
 

What if it's finally the Fallout MMO?

Hey guys, great work. I just posted an article comparing the chances of this being for CoD or Fallout.  
http://www.movieviral.com/2010/04/05/gknova6-viral-site-for-unknown-game/ 
 
I'm leaning towards Call of Duty myself. Thanks again for all the effort you guys have put into this.

" @SPACETURTLE said:

" @DystopiaX said:

" @SPACETURTLE said:

"  Treyarc aint bright enough for ARGs like this, damn it! "

Treyarch has nothing to do with it. Activision covers the marketing as a publisher so this would be on them. CoD7 Cold War spec ops team seems actually really plausible. That or it's some previously unheard of nuclear apocalypse game, since they're so popular now. "

Activision ain't bright enough for ARGs like this, damn it! "

What's with the Treyarch hate? "

" @DystopiaX said:

" @SPACETURTLE said:

"  Treyarc aint bright enough for ARGs like this, damn it! "

Treyarch has nothing to do with it. Activision covers the marketing as a publisher so this would be on them. CoD7 Cold War spec ops team seems actually really plausible. That or it's some previously unheard of nuclear apocalypse game, since they're so popular now. "

Activision ain't bright enough for ARGs like this, damn it! "

LOL, I just finished making a ceasar cipher program for my computer science class. LMFAO thats too funny

" @SPACETURTLE said:

"  Treyarc aint bright enough for ARGs like this, damn it! "

Treyarch has nothing to do with it. Activision covers the marketing as a publisher so this would be on them. CoD7 Cold War spec ops team seems actually really plausible. That or it's some previously unheard of nuclear apocalypse game, since they're so popular now. "

"  Treyarc aint bright enough for ARGs like this, damn it! "

" its got Fallout new Vegas all  over  it.. spinning nucleus, uranium bomb, JFK & Cuban missile crisis.. has to be  "

 Treyarc aint bright enough for ARGs like this, damn it!

" gknova6.com has a javascript include for Google Analytics (account  UA-6621671).  This account is also used on the following sites:  www.bakugan-videogame.com  (UA-6621671-19)www.herohq.com (UA-6621671-2)www.thride.com (UA-6621671-16)www.truecrime.com (UA-6621671-26)www.uncaged.com (UA-6621671-2)  All games / sites associated to Activision, so I suspect the promotion has something to do with one of their games. "

Fallout Vegas isn't big enough to have this type of marketing, considering it's going to be an expansion. If it is then this is a disappointment. 

Finally Science Papa 2!

How this could be anything other than Fallout: New Vegas amazes me.
Although it could all just seem too good, we saw nearly all of this in Fallout 3 (the bomb etc.)
It does seem quite odd though that they would be all mysterious about a game that has already been announced. If this is for New Vegas, I would've loved to have seen this months ago, creating a huge amount of hype.
 
Oh and by the way, another thing saying it is for New Vegas, what is one of Brad's most played games lately, if not most played? Fallout 3.
 
Case closed.

I can tell just by the sound of the radio whine that it's new vegas

  If it's Activision, couldn't it be an "Alternate Reality" game for COD by Treyarch? Would make sense, then they could muck about with any crazy scenario they'd like if the Cuban missile crisis actually went sour. Could make a rather cool setting for an almost Contemporary Conflict game, one might say.

its got Fallout new Vegas all  over  it.. spinning nucleus, uranium bomb, JFK & Cuban missile crisis.. has to be 

Using some of the comments ideas and listening to the audio in the website, I believe that "Hell is Purple" is hinting at Baconian Cipher or Purple Hell. This site is an automatci Baconian Cipher  http://www.purplehell.com/riddletools/bacon.htm. Though I didn't find or hear any 5 letter increments of A or B, but maybe if you do something with the letters in the MP3 file to make them into A's and B's then something could be done with it.