[ARG] The Pizza Code Mystery

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#921

Something new I found with a Google search of “blackmesasource” and “3914” as a last ditch effort before heading to bed–looks like a website referencing post 3914 led to an employment letter teaser that was released a while ago:

https://www.blackmesasource.com/bmrf-employment-letter.pdf

Note the “tb” at the bottom. Look familiar? I’m starting to think we need to look more outside the box on this one guys–those codes are pointing to things we aren’t going to find in the game.

EDIT: Something I did notice is that if you look up “Gordon Freeman” in this site’s wiki it mentions the letter. I guess it could just be coincidence that I found this using the search strings that I did, but no one has mentioned this yet. It WAS released as a teaser during the countdown leading to the release, so it’s quite possible it isn’t related. In fact, the more I look at it (aside from the signature of “tb”), it just looks like a copy of the original letter, save a few BM-related changes. Hmm . . .

#922

That’s interesting I wonder if the change in initials from LM to tb from the original letter is significant.

#923

LM is the reversed initials of Marc Laidlaw (writer) and it was intended as an Easter egg. So the most logical explanation is that tb actually is the reversed initals (bt) of some developer or maybe a clue.

#924

they already told us what tb stands for but it’s a few pages back… I’m not going to search for it.

#925

Thanks, yes I found it (must have missed it previously and google didn’t help)
tb = Toma Basarab
Toma Basarab = internal joke about the guy who made the penguin with purple hat.

So probably not related (although might be good to add to the Wiki so others don’t spend time on it, I saw others talk about tb and it’s meaning on IRC yesterday)

#926

Just a note about the thread name, I didn’t name it. One of the mods or devs did. There was some merging done by one of the mods which changed the name once… and then I came back later and the name had been changed again… not sure if it was because of yet another merge, or if someone just renamed it this way on purpose.

I’ve also taken to just lurking in this thread since I can’t be much help at this point. I really hope there is some sort of breakthrough soon because no real progress has been made lately… =/

#927

Maybe we really will have to wait for Zen. ;-;

#928

That’s what i’m thinking. What we have now is just a teaser of the ARG or maybe there will be more stuff (if/when) the devs send out an update.

#929

Just a brief update concerning the whiteboards:

I spent a little time yesterday starting the “Whiteboard Theories” page on the wiki, but after speaking with Code_ on Quakechat, it’s pretty much been determined that nothing on the whiteboards (aside from what we already have) is related to the ARG. All of the diagrams, formulas, theorems, etc. pertain to the areas in which they are found, and, although very detailed in regards to what they portray, it’s extremely doubtful that they contain any hidden messages.

A brief summary of what is on each, courtesy Code_:

c0a1x_am1 – Lorentzian wormhole theory
c0a1x_am2 – Crystal geology
c0a1x_am3 – Some kind of mass spectrometry
c0a1x_am4 – Lorentzian theory (again)
c0a1x_am5 – Rocket fuel
c0a1x_am6 – Nuclear alchemy

c1a1x_uc1 – Cryogenics
c1a1x_uc2 – Cryogenics (again)
c1a1x_uc3 – Cryogenics (again)

c2a4x_1 – Schematic for the lasers / Easter eggs
c2a4x_2 – Multiple explanations regarding the tau / how it works
c2a4x_3 – Reference to nuclear weapons
c2a4x_4 – Hawking radiation
c2a4x_5 – Decay of particles (tauons) and how they are focused into beams
c2a4x_6 – Quantum field theory

#930

thanks even though it just has to do with the story line it’s nice to see how the devs added this detail.

#931

Y’know, I’m thinking that Code C has a lot of potential if we just think outside the box on it. It mentions extensions and such, and perhaps that IS related to a VIC cipher in the long run, but it could also hint at other kinds of extensions. For instance, a company named Victor makes pipe extensions. Could be something hidden on a pipe somewhere in QE?

I’ll check it out–if anyone comes up with any other possibilities such as this, please share.

#932

This is a good idea, and I also remeber some extensions found elsewhere on the whiteboards etc. could these extensions be part of the numbers needed for the VIC-cipher?
EDIT: The wiki page for extensions doesnt, exist. Anyone have a list of the extensions we have found so far?

#933

Just compiled a list from the whiteboard textures:

JD Marcel – Ext. 1187 - 463 (although it’s been mentioned that is a reference to the 90’s tv show “Bugs”)
Dr. Foreman – Ext. 384
Dr. Horn – Ext. 186759
Anomolous Materials – Ext. 01(4,6)33

EDIT: Something else. In a VIC cypher, the indicator number is actually within the cipher code itself. Since the indicator is a date, it would make sense that the 5-digit indicator would end in 19–. Well, there’s only one 5-digit segment of code within 9 digits of the end of the cipher, and it’s “18199”. It’s 7 lines into the code from the bottom, so it therefore correlates with January 8, 1997 (which was my tenth birthday, oddly enough haha). I did a Google search for events related to that date, and looked for things related to Black Mesa’s / Half-Life’s story. One thing so far that stands out: https://www.nap.edu/html/biomems/mcalvin.html

This also suggests that we should be doing this VIC cipher (if that’s what it ends up being) by hand.

#934

Added a page to the wiki with those extensions, thank you.
NB: English is not my first language, so please edit if you think this is required :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

#935

The indicator group is different from the date (the last digit in the date tells you the position of the indicator group) you then subtract these two numbers from each other (date and indicator that is)

#936

Ah, I see what you mean. Guess it couldn’t be THAT easy, huh?

#937

About extensions:

I’ve seen many signs throughout Black Mesa with extensions on them. The signs I mean are about “confined spaces” and there are always two numbers on them. They say something like “This is confined space [number], don’t enter without permit, call extension [number]”. They’re always found in confined spaces, e.g. in maintenance areas. They’re also often accompanied by another sign that says something like “Confined space - don’t enter without permit”.

Although I’ve seen the signs with the extensions many times, I believe there are only two or three different sets of numbers on them - the same texture is used in a lot of different places.

#938

A number of different machines in QE display these numbers. What’s unique about them is that they are composed of 123456789

Could these be the numbers needed for the first row on the straddling checkerboard?

The sequence 976 512 348 appears much more often and the less seen 512 348 976 is simply the first sequence with the first three numbers shifted. If it had been on only one machine it might not have been noteworthy but, they appear so frequently that it appears someone is trying to get the info across.

#939

Well, it would be possible to do it backwards, but the possibilities are endless–could be 3 + 4 or 8 + 9, etc. etc.

#940

Or that the texture artist was too lazy to change the numbers around and instead just copy pasted them on to a bunch of things. That’s the problem with this mod, everything is so random, you can’t tell what is intentional and what is not. :frowning:

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.