[ARG] The Pizza Code Mystery

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#3701

Did you end up pressing use on the keyboard by that monitor? It bluescreens with an error sound, sparks, catches fire, and eventually displays a point_message “FIX IT DENIZ!!!” Unsure if it’s just a little Easter egg, or somehow related to the ARG.

There’s also at least two different documents scattered around in the same level that have a header with the BMS logo (not in-game Black Mesa’s logo), gonna see if I can find their textures in the game files and if anything can be gleaned from them; both are fairly well covered. One’s part of a prop lockbox and has CONFIDENTIAL written on it, the other is under a blue binder/book under a light and the header mentions “[couldn’t quite make out] Wholesale Food Supply”. Will update this post/post a new one after any potential new replies with what if anything I find.

Edit: Found them in props_office file_paper01-07, nothing noteworthy.

#3702

Just spit balling some ideas here, since after looking for many weeks and lacking anything new really, but considering an aspect of this is on social media like the twitters for KXBM(@kxbmOffical) and Tim Evans(@time_van), should we be interacting with these accounts? Maybe we’re supposed to talk to them and get information out of them?

#3703

That’s what I thought, since there was parts of ARG where interaction with some user accounts (Stormseeker) did help us.
But I don’t have idea what to ask, I mean, we couldn’t just ask “What should we do next”. :confused:
Also, @kxbmOfficial isn’t legit/connected to ARG, only @time_van is.

#3704

Ah, okay, thanks for clearing that up for me. I’m still trying to catch up with the whole thing the best I can, so i wouldn’t be the best to ask questions, so I think someone like Gunsrequiem would be better suited for this. But asking “What do we do next?” is a bad way to go about it, I agree. Maybe playing along with the role and asking about any new updates on the Black Mesa incident or something?

Hmmm that’s an interesting idea. Is there a list of where all the “The Pizza Is A LIE!” locations? I’m sure I can find a good map or maybe stitch together one if I can find all of the independent maps layed out already.

I feel as if we’ve already hit what we need to do, but looked right over it already. May be a totally baseless assumption, but it’s just a feeling, but I have very little to offer in terms of decoding stuff so I dunno. Some of it just has me scratching my head. ?(

#3705

Not sure how accurate this is after the Steam release, but here you go: https://thepizzaisalie.wikia.com/wiki/The_Pizza_is_a_LIE!

#3706

It’s official–Stormseeker wins the ARG.

In other news, I’ve begun building an insanely-hierarchical decryption method in CrypTool 2.1, to the point that adding even one item to the page freezes the program for a few seconds. I’m not sure if it’ll go anywhere, but I figured I’d knock out a few of the methods we’ve discussed with multiple keys.

At some point, I may begin building a similar hierarchy of decryption methods for the different input types. I simply wish I knew whether or not all of these steps are a waste of time, but I suppose that’s simply the nature of the beast when it comes to ARGs.

Ah well.

#3707

I was about to start a few days ago with mapping it out but my hard drive pooped out. Reinstalling Black Mesa and am gonna check out the .vmf files as thoroughly as I can since the new update is supposed to let you access those, according to the Black Mesa Facebook. I feel like they’re trying to throw us a few lines by giving us full access to the .vmf’s, meaning maybe there really is something we’ve missed in the game itself.

Damn dude, that’s serious dedication. Hopefully it helps us out majorly!

#3708

At this rate, I actually wouldn’t be surprised if it was something like HL3’s announcement at the end of this ARG.

#3709

I did a search on “Dr Horn” in the maps’ source files (.vmf files) and found a comment in an info_null point entity in the bm_c2a4f.vmf map, signed by Dr Horn:

Right next to it is another info_null entity with the following comment in it:

The two info_null entities are located on a wall (under the staircase) at coordinates 1672 1993 -370 and 1656 1993 -370, respectively, directly under a pizza lie graffiti.

I’m not sure if the comments have anything to do with the ARG, but there is reason to wonder why he signed the first comment with “Dr Horn”, instead of just using his screen name.

In the bm_c2a4g.vmf map, there’s a visgroup named “Dr Horn Was Here”, which groups some objects in the secret staircase area (an env_cubemap, bloody handprint decals, the “247” graffitis, the “die freeman” graffitis, various blood spatter decals on the walls, and the hatch on the floor). Also part of this visgroup is Dr. Horn’s portrait in his office.

Also, regarding Dr. Sezen’s computer monitor, which catches on fire: The entity name of the monitor is “dmon”. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but that name looks and sounds awfully close to the word demon.

#3710

Interesting things in the games .vmf files. lots of lies. lots of pizza.

#3711

Found some more stuff in map bm_c1a4a’s source code and look for storm, you get the following:

storms_evil_crab

storms_evil_crab,Wake,0,-1

The last thing in it is a comment: “spooky in here innit - Stormseeker totes - Cpl1nsane”

I don’t know if they are arg related or not, but they are still interesting and something to note about.

#3712

Yes it is spooky in here, Mr. Cpl1nsane.

In all seriousness, We should check the other map’s source codes and/or info.nulls

#3713

Since we are stuck (yet again), I tweeted to @time_van and asked him “Are there any news on Black Mesa incident?”, like suggested by @Pianownd.
I don’t expect any answer, but mind as well try.

#3714

Okay my Hard Drive just died so speaking to you all from a brand new one! Yaaaaayyyyy!

@Nonimportantuser How do you check a maps source code? Maybe we should be shuffling through it for keywords like: Halos, AI, Horn, Storm, Decryption, Decrypt, Encryption, Encrypt, Palloh, Benalloh, KXBM, TimEvan, etc. If they hide little messages like that in it, I’m sure there has to be something regarding the ARG. Afterall, maybe this is what he meant by “time will reveal all.” Actually, I’m also curious as to if we can find any aspects of the game affected by forces such as the time and date or if all the achievements are obtained as well.

@Jacky Thanks! I guess it could never hurt, right?

#3715

I suppose you could try opening them in notepad and ctrl+f or something (VMF isn’t a binary format, so it’ll be human readable)

#3716

The source code for all of the maps can now be found within the mapsrc folder as .vmf files in the games files. They are easy to view. Just open them up in notepad look for keywords.

#3717

Thanks guys for telling me! I’m gonna have fun sorting through some of this tonight.

But as a quick summary of what I’ve looked at so far, I found those comments Horn @flavrans9 mentioned, as well as the fact that every Background Map has a pizza box(s) and/or pizza decal(s) in it. I still have yet to really get into it, but that’s what I’m on right now. I’m as well taking screenshots of any interesting code I find and will probably upload it to Dropbox sometime soon for you all to have and reference with the full coordinates and such.

Also a side note, but if anyone ever revamps the wiki(someone please who has more time than me), we should really include a list of screenshots of all the pizza boxes and “THE PIZZA IS A LIE” decals with their maps and coordinates.

EDIT: As a fairly new person here, please tell me if it’s been checked or not yet, but poking around I found this screen in bm_c3a2h and thought maybe it’s relevant. I don’t really remember it being brought up as long as I lurked here, but I haven’t been here since day 1.

Also while I’m at it I found a hidden hat in a disabled visgroup on bm_c3a2h! Probably irrelevant but thought it was worth a mention here as the weird hats possibly being involved in the arg.

1456×661

#3718

Haven’t seen anyone mention this one, so I will. In the first elevator shaft down on the Lambda Core map (c3a2c), there’s a pizza box at the top behind a grate with a “Emergency Exit” sign.

Note that it isn’t there on the previous map (c3a2b), when you can naturally see into it.

Looked in Hammer, doesn’t seem to be anything special about it. No notes or anything, only that there’s a “Superbus via Inscientiae” overlay present that doesn’t show up in-game.

#3719

It was first brought up in the early days of the ARG, and it’s mentioned on the Monitors wiki page.

Apparently, the same texture has been seen in the Half-Life: Source Ultimate Definition mod, which means it’s probably not ARG related.

EDIT: I did another forum search and found this post by @sersoft:

So, the origin of this texture may trace all the way back to the Half-Life alpha leak.

#3720

Aww, damn. That’s dissapointing. I knew it was too good to be true. But I don’t think we’ll find anything unless we know where to look. Also, as a newbie, what all have the irc clues been used for? It seems to, if the wiki is anything to go by, indicate that these irc clues haven’t been used for anything really it seems. The whole “real life military base” thing is in treating to me. (Hey Storm, we don’t have to go geocaching or anything do we?)

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.