It’s a deep, slow burn.
What happens when this is even solved? Does this magically grant us the release date to retail BM? Did they already have plans for a retail release before the free release? Is this why we are getting treated like lepers every time we ask “when is xen release”?
No, this is a game to pass the time, which I believe was expected to have finished a long time ago. Completion has no bearing on any release date whether it be the Steam version or Xen.
No-one is being treated by lepers (I think you misunderstand that particular condition); it’s just that the answer has not changed since the original release. Xen will be released when it’s finished. This is not the correct thread for any complaints about the lack of release.
^This
What kind of data would be compressable (and with what sort of algorithm) with a ratio of 21 to 1?
There is nothing that suggests the directory index listing was handmade. The Apache webserver generates listings just like it.
I suppose a compression algorithm like the one used in pkzip/zlib/gzip could achieve a compression ratio that high if there are long segments of continuously repeating characters or byte values in the data. But that wouldn’t leave much room for anything interesting in the data.
EDIT: While on the topic of data compression… I’m wondering if I may have found a reference to data compression in the Tau Cannon message: The message is dated “Aug 09”. August 9 happens to be the birthday of late Dr. David A. Huffman who invented Huffman coding, which is a well-known technique used in lossless data compression.
(there was a comment about how 21 doesn’t divide 752 here, which was stupid.) I’m gonna look into all stuff Huffman soon tonight.
If it was a block encryption, we’d need 64 bits (16 bytes) more for a blocksize of 128 or 256. Also Benaloh’s cryptosystem mentions variable blocksize (which is supposed to hold the property of blocksize divides (p - 1), where p is one of the primes used to construct the private key).
On the topic of 16, the scrambled ending of the said comment consists of sixteen distinct characters (0, 6, 7, 9, A, F, S, ^, &, *, (, ), _, ! and .). Let me know if I’m getting too grainy for this, I like to follow even most obscure paths of reasoning in these types of puzzles.
One of the crypto sites has a Huffman encoder. It’s only a simple encoder and there is no decoder to go with it. But I’m thinking maybe this encoder might have been used to compress a password to get an encryption key for a block cipher. It would be an unusual way to make an encryption key, though. And I can’t really say I’ve found anything else in the previous clues that seems to point towards compression or Huffman coding in any definite way.
In theory, we should have been able to solve the hex code puzzle with the clues leading up to and including HALOS.txt, with the Tempus omnia revelant clue as the final piece of the puzzle. Anything that came afterwards, is either the trailhead leading up to the next puzzle, or additional hints or clues to help us solve the current puzzle. At least, that’s how I perceive it.
Yeah, I remember noticing that there seemed to be 16 distinct characters, but it’s probably just a coincidence.
This post here analyzes the scrambled text in terms of how it would have been typed on a keyboard (edit: the post raw_bean mentioned below).
A while back I looked into this scrambled string and I think I showed fairly conclusively that it was generated as intentionally random garbage characters using fingers on a keyboard ‘drumming’ at keys. I don’t know squat about cyphers and encryption so I haven’t contributed to this ARG really, but I have pretty good pattern recognition and analysis skills and I was able to recreate how the string was typed. If all I can do is rule out one dud path that’s helping, right?
Yes, that’s the directory listing format most default Apache installations are configured to use. But it can also be configured to generate a simple ul li list:
<Directory /var/www>
IndexOptions -FancyIndexing -HTMLTable
# This will also work:
#IndexOptions SuppressLastModified
</Directory>
The listing format can also be controlled with a URL query parameter. Try this link, and now try this link.
Also, the main BM site also lists its image directories: https://www.blackmesasource.com/images/
Aye, I haven’t managed to walk through the entire thread yet, just dived into the material. Prolly should take care of the said backlog first.
we should probely just start a new threat with only found information, because the 100 pages are keepping away from getting on track
On the subject of neatening up, is the irc channel still used/in existence? I’ve tried connecting in numerous fashions, via the webchat, via an irc client, and it’s always empty, not even a subject, or a bot. If it has died, it may well be worth while removing the link on the first post.
I’m all for neatening up via a new thread–perhaps a mod could help us out by throwing up a sticky and reserving a post for all the up-to-date relevant info?
Someone recently removed the link to the IRC channel from the main page of the ARG wiki. I decided to put the link back up on the page, but put it in a “Community Resources” section at the bottom of the page and made a note that the channel was more or less inactive. If the IRC channel is officially dead, should we just remove the link to it altogether from the main wiki page? But I still think there should be a link to it or mention of it somewhere on the wiki for historical reasons (although, I’m not sure where to put it, maybe somewhere on the IRC clue 1 page?).
EDIT: ↓ Mr. Sir Shpee is obviously referring to the topic that was mentioned on the previous page, which was about starting a new thread with up-to-date relevant information.
Hopefully. That would be helpful.
I really wish I could contribute to the ARG more, but like I’ve said before, I know nothing about encoding and such.
I’ve made a little something for the ARG peeps. It’s a password-checking core, that can load modules for different encryption methods. At the moment, it tries every password with every encryption technique, and then logs the result to the terminal. At the moment the modules have to be written in Python, but I can add support for C&C++ (I don’t know about other languages). Here is the github page: https://github.com/Tuqz/cryptocore. To use, you’ll almost certainly want to remove the caesar shift module, as it only takes ints.
Hopefully that can help with the cracking of these confounded cryptographic puzzles. If anyone writes a module for it, I’ll check the code over (just for security), and then add the module onto the git master branch.
Hello there…
So… no news are good news?
On the ARG? No news would be no news.