A first-person puzzle game developed by Valve and graduates of DigiPen, Portal forces a human test subject to run a gauntlet of grueling spatial experiments administered by a malfunctioning, psychotic artificial intelligence named GLaDOS.
@jonnyboy: If this IS Portal 3, those pictures give me hope that it's a point and click adventure game. The only way they could improve on Portal would be if they made it with the AGI engine from the early Sierra On-Line games. Just sayin'.
" @jonnyboy: If this IS Portal 3, those pictures give me hope that it's a point and click adventure game. The only way they could improve on Portal would be if they made it with the AGI engine from the early Sierra On-Line games. Just sayin'. Also, thank you for keeping us informed. "
They'll probably make Portal 2 first. Yeah, I know it was a typo but it was too easy to pass up ;>
" @jonnyboy: If this IS Portal 3, those pictures give me hope that it's a point and click adventure game. The only way they could improve on Portal would be if they made it with the AGI engine from the early Sierra On-Line games. Just sayin'. Also, thank you for keeping us informed. "
To be honest all this stuff comes from the Steam forums, I'm just reposting stuff from there, ever since they've cracked the code, they've all bee busy bitching at/rick-rolling each other, so I'll just keep taking relevant stuff for those that care and stick it up here.
Here's a clearer compilation of what's out there so far. Not sure what most of it is, but I guess we just have to wait and piece it together later. They seem to think that March 11th, the last day of GDC and when Gabe will be accepting an award is the most likely time for a reveal. I can't see that happening.
" @jonnyboy: If this IS Portal 3, those pictures give me hope that it's a point and click adventure game. The only way they could improve on Portal would be if they made it with the AGI engine from the early Sierra On-Line games. Just sayin'. Also, thank you for keeping us informed. "
They'll probably make Portal 2 first. Yeah, I know it was a typo but it was too easy to pass up ;> "
No, seriously. What if they skipped straight from Portal to Portal 3. Kinda like they did with Leisure Suit Larry 5? That's think outside of the box.
Also, yeah. I totally fucked up. You're awesome!
@jonnyboy: You're awesome too! Thank you for keeping us abreast of the situation. If we have to wait until GDC, I think that this will be an extremely fun time to speculate. My prediction is that it will all end with the revelation that Duke Nukem Forever has been picked up by Valve. I know I've had a very sad and pathetic life, but that would be the best thing that I have ever heard.
Yeah, I've been following that thread since page 5 and now it's at 150 odd and I've come to the conclusion that this is just a 'hardcore fan's sneak preview treat' and I'm certain they won't have any sort of confirmation of a Portal 2 until the big reveal at GDC, they're just giving the fans a bit of fun and a wink & nod that Portal 2 and prehaps some HL2:E3 business is coming. Can't wait for GDC that's all I'm saying. It would be pretty funny if all this was just Valve toying with their die-hard fans and Gabe waddles on stage and says "Hey, new version of Steam's pretty awesome, right? Here's a trailer for L4D3 Q4 2010. HAHAHAHA SUCKERS!! *puff of smoke* ... *hazy vision of Gabe frantically trying to hustle behind a curtain through the parting fog* ".
Ah man. People got here first with the screenshots - ah well. Yeah, I've just been catching up on what's been going on for the last hour or so. Looks pretty exciting. One thing I haven't seen mentioned here is that the version of Glados on that BBS server or something like that is 3.11 whereas in Portal it's apparently 1.07, so people are speculating that March 11th might be significant ... and yes it's GDC next week so I'm looking out for some big reveal to go down then.
(The Username and Password for the BBS server were both 'backup' btw not that I really intend to try it out myself. Gives the impression that Glados backed herself up though and therefore will feature in Portal 2.)
-- WARNING: UNDISCOVERED CORRUPTION IN ERROR CORRECTION ( ABEND 143 ) ---- BEGIN RECORD 'C:\05083881.801\04186850.542' (1751 BYTES) ---- CONFIDENTIAL October 17th, 1976 Re: Human Enrichment & Testing Initiative, Resource Acquisitions
1. "Low Risk" Human Resource Acquisitions
a. Hoboes and Tramps Lives spent wandering aimlessly, cowering before authority, and drinking concussive amounts of home-distilled potato alcohol make hoboes the perfect Human Enrichment test subjects. The hobo questions nothing, will follow orders if fed, and, like all hoboes, has a restless, wandering heart. (Note: The wandering heart of the hobo should not be confused with Drifting Heart Syndrome, which several transients contracted during testing.)
b. Child Orphans and Foundlings Deep-rooted abandonment issues leave most orphans highly susceptible to shame-based psychology (for a complete list of opportune moments to obliterate the esteem of test subjects, please consult Training Video #89-D, "You'd Perform This Test Better if You Had Parents"). Recent advances in the use of scorn, flattery used in an ironic context and naked contempt as motivational tools have yielded similarly profitable results.
c. Psychiatric Patients Past experience shows these fellows are simply not shy at all about carrying on, disrupting tests and defecating just about anywhere that pleases them. Frankly, itís off-putting, and small wonder why Aperture-brand mental institutions are being phased out in favor of more orphanages.
d. Seniors Frail, brittle hands make holding science devices difficult. Most were born before the advent of science, and can become confused and disoriented when asked to participate in relatively simple tests (teleportation, invisibility, adjusting esteem levels of orphan children).
Possible ASCII'd screenshot of a chamber in Portal 2:
Looks plausable.
Edit: Incase some of you have no idea what's going on here's a brief summary of what's been going down (new info happens all the time so expect this to be out of date in like a couple hours):
Update as of this post:
-Portal gets surprise update yesterday afternoon -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 steganography programs -Produces 26 weird cryptic image files in a numbered sequence -Some dude 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 -End up with a bunch of weird ASCII artwork -A collection of the ASCII artwork is posted: http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/6278/portalascii.png -People get to work on the ASCII and an ingame screenshot may very well have been found by turning one of the ASCII artworks: http://cdupload.com/files/123623_btxvo/rotate1.jpg -Speculation on another ASCII image, showing 2 robot like creatures starts. http://img706.yfrog.com/i/android.png/ Some believe they are connected, whilest other dispute it, claiming it shows the skeleton of a chicken and therefor they are not connected. Others speculate that this may be Combine Super Soldiers. ( http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/File:Super_soldier.jpg and http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/File...er_Soldier.jpg)
" Ah man. People got here first with the screenshots - ah well. Yeah, I've just been catching up on what's been going on for the last hour or so. Looks pretty exciting. One thing I haven't seen mentioned here is that the version of Glados on that BBS server or something like that is 3.11 whereas in Portal it's apparently 1.07, so people are speculating that March 11th might be significant ... and yes it's GDC next week so I'm looking out for some big reveal to go down then. (The Username and Password for the BBS server were both 'backup' btw not that I really intend to try it out myself. Gives the impression that Glados backed herself up though and therefore will feature in Portal 2.) "
I think this needs to be repeated... just in case anyone missed it the first time.
I love this stuff. My hopes are a reveal of Episode 3 which won't happen I'm sure. That or Portal 2 with co/op? Imagine the puzzles with two androids and four portals hmm... although it would be neat if they reveled HL3 was coming next year or something and it has the portal gun in it... okay I'm dreaming I think.
@Poki3: That's not really how ASCII works mate, the closer you get the less sense it makes. You need to step back or blur it in photoshop to see it properly. The images are on the Steam forums though so you can get up close there.
@jonnyboy: Yeah, but I can step back from the monitor. If you link to a smaller image, then I can't read any text (it's barely readable in the big image anyway).
" Man, there is some crazy shit buried deep in this. Some lads at the steam forums have extracted pictures from the sound bites, then found a set of 32 hexadecimal characters, which was then used to test a brute force MD5 on seattle area codes. They came up with a Seattle phone number that beeps like a modem. Shit, this is insane. "
The number actually then proceeds to ask you for a glaDos Login and password, which the login being CJOHNSON (Cave Johnson the founder of Aperture) and the password being TIER3 (The third tier in aperture in which the started testing portals) "
This is not true. The login/password has yet to be cracked. "
That's the login and password for the aperture science website. But also there's this...
-- WARNING: UNDISCOVERED CORRUPTION IN ERROR CORRECTION ( ABEND 143 ) ---- BEGIN RECORD 'C:\05083881.801\04186850.542' (1751 BYTES) ---- CONFIDENTIAL October 17th, 1976 Re: Human Enrichment & Testing Initiative, Resource Acquisitions
1. "Low Risk" Human Resource Acquisitions
a. Hoboes and Tramps Lives spent wandering aimlessly, cowering before authority, and drinking concussive amounts of home-distilled potato alcohol make hoboes the perfect Human Enrichment test subjects. The hobo questions nothing, will follow orders if fed, and, like all hoboes, has a restless, wandering heart. (Note: The wandering heart of the hobo should not be confused with Drifting Heart Syndrome, which several transients contracted during testing.)
b. Child Orphans and Foundlings Deep-rooted abandonment issues leave most orphans highly susceptible to shame-based psychology (for a complete list of opportune moments to obliterate the esteem of test subjects, please consult Training Video #89-D, "You'd Perform This Test Better if You Had Parents"). Recent advances in the use of scorn, flattery used in an ironic context and naked contempt as motivational tools have yielded similarly profitable results.
-- WARNING: UNDISCOVERED CORRUPTION IN ERROR CORRECTION ( ABEND 143 ) ---- BEGIN RECORD 'C:\05083881.801\04186850.542' (1751 BYTES) ---- CONFIDENTIAL October 17th, 1976 Re: Human Enrichment & Testing Initiative, Resource Acquisitions
1. "Low Risk" Human Resource Acquisitions
a. Hoboes and Tramps Lives spent wandering aimlessly, cowering before authority, and drinking concussive amounts of home-distilled potato alcohol make hoboes the perfect Human Enrichment test subjects. The hobo questions nothing, will follow orders if fed, and, like all hoboes, has a restless, wandering heart. (Note: The wandering heart of the hobo should not be confused with Drifting Heart Syndrome, which several transients contracted during testing.)
b. Child Orphans and Foundlings Deep-rooted abandonment issues leave most orphans highly susceptible to shame-based psychology (for a complete list of opportune moments to obliterate the esteem of test subjects, please consult Training Video #89-D, "You'd Perform This Test Better if You Had Parents"). Recent advances in the use of scorn, flattery used in an ironic context and naked contempt as motivational tools have yielded similarly profitable results.
Just seen 2 more images that have come out of the community looking into all of this. They're both trying to decipher the pre-existing pictures that have been got off of the BBS and offer some interesting insights. The comparison of the portal gun to what seems to be the arm of one of the 2 androids holding hands is a pretty compelling argument that there are others now using portal guns which has huge implications.
I can't believe they coloured the ASCII- How do you even do that??
Anyway I jus came here to point out that one of the morse code messages deciphers into literally the words "beeeeeep beep beep beep beeeeeep beeeeep beeeeep beep".
Then someone deciphered that n it came out as "L O L". I love Valve.
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