Hey guys, lurking this thread for too long…
What’s the current progress on this ARG? It looks to me that someone is close and I believe it’s about that HALOS.txt file.
Current progress is that HALOS.txt file you were talking about. Basically, it’s a big pile of hex digits that we have no idea what to do with. We’ve tried things like converting it into text or an image or what-have-you. Right now, we’re talking about things like ciphers and encryption protocols and stuff that I don’t really understand. Reminds me of that time I read Digital Fortress. Anyways, Storm has said one of us is already close, so we have to sift through old ideas to find an answer. I believe the file in question is downloadable from the wiki or from a post in this thread a few pages back.
EDIT: Do you remember that Storm said that “The CIA couldn’t brute-force it.” That might be significant, if we look for unbreakable codes or something.
The only thing (that I know of) that the CIA can’t brute-force is the fourth part of the Kryptos code. This is something that sits outside of the CIA headquarters, and was also somewhat alluded to in one of the first hints we got from Storm which involved coordinates. It’s possible this has some significance–either in the sense that “Kryptos” or some derivative thereof is a keyword, or that the cipher is similar to those found on Kryptos.
That thought has crossed my mind as well–whether there’s an ulterior meaning in the statement “The CIA couldn’t brute-force it”, other than underscoring the infeasibility of trying to brute force the solution.
I just noticed something. At the base of the Kryptos statue, there is this whirlpool. This could just be a coincidence, but one the of hash algorithms I was talking about the other day, happens to be called Whirlpool.
It doesn’t have to be Kryptos. There are many modern ciphers and hashing algos that CIA can’t brute force. Things like AES, 3DES, RSA, Blowfish etc are designed to thwart any kind of brute forcing even by resourceful governments like China, otherwise they don’t deserve to be used at the first place.
Note that CIA is capable of brute forcing DES, even if the assumptions listed in my previous post are all false.
On the other hand, CIA can’t brute force 3DES (and many others, but 3DES seems more relevant in our case). Dr. Horn is a smart guy, it makes sense that he decided to use a currently unbreakable cipher.
Has anyone tried disassembling the hex code?
We need not attempt that. We have good arguments based on “entropy” and “randomness” to believe that the hex code is not a program. To quickly convince you however, let’s have a peek at its assembly output, assuming x86 architecture. If you’re relatively well-versed in x86 assembly, you shall see no meaning in this random sequence of instructions.
Hi all…
My name is Gameblossom, and I spent three days last month reading from post 1 to now…my hubby and son thought I was nuts. I’ve tossed Guns a couple of PMs but now that my posting has been approved, I wanted to say hi and share some of what I’ve got so far.
Most of my insights come from what I’d say is an outside perspective - my 23 year old son James is the half-life player, not me. I tried to get him interested in BM and the ARG, cause he really likes these kinds things, but so far he’s pretty absorbed in other RL things, he just got a new job and a fairly new GF. But since I’ve never played HL/HL2, I keep having to ask him questions. I finally installed Steam and BM after I had asked him about the 45th question, and he grumbled at me “Why don’t you just load it and play it?” (Of course then he had to show me the keyboard mechanics, I’m WAY too used to Blizzard games and keep trying to walk with my mouse instead of the WASD keys. I’ve made it to outside though!)
Anyway, like I said, I kinda think most of my perspective as a non-player gives me a little objectiveness, and hopefully some insight. I’ve been slowly trying to write my thoughts and ideas (as they are SO-FAR - by NO means am I complete with all my hand-scribbled notes yet! LOL) I’ll also be adding my notes as I go, and I’m not saying any of it is going to be terrably organized - I have Adult ADHD, so my brain doesn’t always whiz by in the most organized fashion…lol
Anyway… As I decipher my own notes, some things didn’t add up…
(And a side note - the wiki says P. Bottomley is Administrator, but according to the “lists” journal note found on Welsh’s resume image, Dr. Montero is the main administrator…not Bottomley.
The whiteboard with the note about J.D. Marcel says “Paul - can you call Dr. JD Marcel on ext 1187.463 about the niobium 5 HE needs for that AI project ‘thing’ - Dr. Montero” (emphasis mine)
This says to me that Dr. Marcel is the one building an AI ‘thing’ (not anyone at the BM facility,) which research into the TV show Bugs shows is correct, i.e. Cyberax…NOT Dr. Bottomly OR Dr. Horn… The second part of this season’s cliffhanger was called “A Cage for Satan” which I believe is where the quote is from. However… is it possible that the docs of the BM secret project traded N5 for JD Marcel’s technology, and are using it on aliens in the secret labs in X01 and X02, controlling them? I haven’t seen the show, so I don’t know what cyberax did to people…
Next, the extension of “1184.463” left for JD Marcel does not look like any extension I’ve ever seen in any phone system… it DOES look like something computer related though, although I can’t think what off the top of my head. It could also possibly be part of a Lat/Lon location, but finding where the divisions are might require a bit of sleuthing - although we have another L/L where we’re told the N5 has been moved to - something we REALLY need to look more into…
Next, on the “budget” whiteboard, there are some questions written all in the same handwriting. Two things stick out. One, the person writing is asking what is being hidden, and what the gman is telling “them” (whoever “them” is.) Two, farther down, a note (to himself?) to cancel anchovies on the pizza because of complaints. This implies that the person who is questioning the funding is also ordering the pizzas!! And complaints by whom, since this person is obviously not freely sharing with the guards and most others? Another thing we keep forgetting to take into consideration is our character, Dr. Gordon Freeman - one of the three people who established the facility, was in on the goings-on in the lab - we may find WE are the villain and just don’t remember it! And why were WE the one that got sent into that chamber instead of some lower-paid lacky? None of the other primary players were doing grunt work… was someone trying to kill US?
The message on stormseeker’s site (terminal page) says:
“I have long suspected that there was something stRange going on during the development of this facility. The unexplained disappearances, misappropriation of funds regarding cheesy oven-baked bread products and an ominous feeling that something is constantly watching this all from the shadows, Have added up to create something that needs solving, and sOlving fast”
If we run under the idea this is Dr. Horn (reasonable,) it almost seems as if Dr. Horn is not ordering them the deaths nor the pizzas, although this contradicts other evidence. But then who is? And what unexplained disappearances? Dr. Stone? Are we instead looking for Dr. Stone or his killer? What would be Dr. Horn’s motivation for offering a reward to those who compromised the security and knowledge of his secret lab(s)? It doesn’t make sense.
Another thing - Stormseeker (we assume, which is bad,) originally popped into the IRC room as “Dr. Horn” then popped out. Ever since then, it has NOT been Dr. Horn, but “Watcher” who we CAN NOT CONFIRM is Dr. Horn! Given the kind of subterfuge we’ve seen from Stormseeker and his co-horts so far, I seriously suggest this is for a definite reason - it’s just too obvious.
Someone had found a “lego man” and then later there was a comment about needing a 32-bit code -which made me think of old 32-bit graphics…like perhaps a minecraft-looking “lego man.” I think someone should decompile/look more at the graphic of the lego man if someone can find it. Just seemed of note.
Something I think we ALL need to remember about the IRC codes - once the code is decoded all the information contained within it is suspect, even the IP addresses, seemingly machine codes, and anything else. The coded part may look like normal messages, but it’s constructed to look that way by Stormseeker and his friends, and would be very easy to overlook something staring us in the face.
In IRC message 2, we again see the “dslgb.com” but this time it’s from .177 instead of .164 - Watcher gives us the code three times before, then says ‘ignore IRC error - incoming message.’ Then all the same codes as before plus one grouping of code, says “add” and “end message” and logs out. Was the “ignore IRC error” meant as a sincere drop in character, or a red herring? What does “add” mean? To add all the lines together? (And I know the final outcome was the 4 Lat/Lon codes. There’s way more to those too!!)
I think we’re missing a LOT of obvious things. It’s got to be driving Stormseeker NUTS, as we’re probably looking in these obscure, harder-than-they-have-to-be places and missing what’s right in front of our faces. This is even more emphasized by him saying someone is close, and we’re still sitting here looking like cocker spaniels in front of a speeding car asking “what’s runned over?”
And did you see this in Stormseeker’s profile here in the forums? (Bold and underlining mine)
About stormseeker:
Biography
Like cake, pizza and buckets of chicken.
Location
Airstrip One, Oceania
Interests
Complaining about things, cake.
Occupation
IT Consultant
Steam ID
stormseeker
We know what the cake is, we have an idea of the Pizza, wonder what the bucket of chicken is about? And The Location??? I’ve noticed pictures of Airstrips all over the place, not the least of which is the ones in the secret shack. And did anyone notice that backwards in the window of the secret shack in the layer-removed version it says “secret code” or something like that? (I tried to find the pics again, but couldn’t.) I really really think we need to look at the taco shack more. One of the uses of Niobium (which as also called “mithril” by the way…) is in making pipes, and there’s a invoice on the board in the taco shack and from what I could see it looked like a very large shipment of pipes… a covert way of getting a Niobium supply?
OK, those are it right now… but I felt they were important based on the running assumptions of the group at this point. They put serious kinks in our reasoning, and means we re-evaluate some assumptions… of which re-reading the forums, there are a LOT of…
Something worth noting is that Airstrip One is a location in 1984, and corresponds to the British Isles in real life, though I think that this is simply a creative way of expressing his location than anything ARG related.
This is all really good stuff, Blossom. I’m curious to see if we can get anything from it; personally, I’m going to have to go back and take a closer look at all the things you mentioned. I do recall Storm mentioning that we would benefit from coming up with a summary of how the story has progressed thus far, and this could very well indicate that there is some greater picture we are missing.
Thanks for this!
Hi Gameblossom!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and ideas here. I think your perspective on the ARG is refreshing and you bring up many interesting points.
I’ve read through your post and I have a few comments:
I think a problem we’re all struggling with in this ARG, is that it isn’t at all clear exactly who (or what) is doing what. This makes it difficult to make sense of what’s going on in the story, without being creative in order to fill in the blanks. But coming up with “credible” ideas that fit all the evidence, seems to be rather difficult. But I suppose that’s part of the challenge.
I’m just playing with an idea here; it almost seems as if there are two versions of Dr. Horn at work here, sort of like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde case. One is good, the other evil. One loves tacos, the other is obsessed with pizzas. When Dr. Horn is himself, he has no recollection or memory of what his alter ego has been doing. But he soon realizes that something strange is going on, and proceeds to investigate the matter. Maybe “the good” Dr. Horn is able to sense some of what’s happening to him on a subconscious level. This would feed his paranoia and his ominous feeling that something is watching it all from the shadows. He can’t trust anyone at the facility, so he enlists our help.
If this is the case, it might explain some of the contradictory evidence. But why is Dr. Horn then suffering from this split personality disorder? Could it be that he’s a victim of mind control exerted upon him by the mysterious AI we’ve been hearing about, or some other entity, to be used as an instrument for some ulterior purpose?
Outside Dr. Bottomley’s office there’s a sign that says “Dr Bottomley, Administrator”. His office is located in the Biodome Complex, which houses the Advanced Biological Research Lab, where we find Dr. Horn’s office and labs. Presumably, Dr. Bottomley is Administrator of the Advanced Biological Research Lab. So, it looks like Dr. Montero could be the administrator of the entire Black Mesa Research Facility (although in the original Half-Life series, the Administrator was a character called Dr. Breen.) Also, note that Dr. Montero is an in-game character named after Carlos Montero, who is the project leader of the team that is developing the Black Mesa game.
It seems as if the story in this ARG has been largely inspired by the season two story arc of the TV show Bugs. I haven’t seen the show myself either, but I’ve skimmed through some of the episode synopses/recaps found here: https://www.episodeguide.us/bugs.html. Episodes of interest are 2-7: “Schrödinger’s Bomb” and onwards. I found references to Niobium 5, Niobium 5 processors, a malevolent AI called Cyberax, which seemed to be able to take control over some part of people’s minds by means of some kind of headset. There are also references to something called the Technolopis Tower. Apparently, the character Jean-Daniel Marcel, who was a villain, desperately needed to procure Niobium 5 in order to finish his dream project–the Technopolis Tower–in time. I’m wondering if HALOS might be something similar to this Technopolis Tower.
The 1187-463 extension is also a reference from the show. 1187-463 was the prison cell number in which the character Jean-Daniel Marcel was incarcerated.
Reading some of these synopses piqued my interest, and now I’m actually considering ordering the complete DVD box set, LOL.
I think that might have been a genuine error, since it looks like the code exceeded the IRC line limit and got truncated, so the he had to split the code into smaller chunks.
I agree. The answer to the latest puzzle could very well be staring us in the face. I’ve looked over all the previous clues/messages, and I’m not sure if this could be evidence of a recurring pattern, but in at least two of the previous puzzles, there seems to have been a cipher hint in previous clues, and a key hint in the near vicinity or in the message that carried the code puzzle:
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The Bottomley code on the whiteboard, which was the SECOM cipher. The image found in the SSTV transmission had a clue as to which cipher was used, and the decryption key was in plain text right next to the SECOM code on the whiteboard.
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In IRC clue 4 - Navajo codetalker, Playfair. A hint to the codetalker code was found in IRC clue 3. I’m not sure if there was ever a hint for the Playfair code, but perhaps the Whitesands in Whitesands Missile Range, which was also mentioned in IRC clue 3, was a vague hint for Wheatstone–the creator of the Playfair cipher. In IRC clue 4 message itself, there was a hint as to the length of the Playfair key (in the “[********]”). Also, the “[Terminal.]” string, which is usually found in other IRC clues, was missing in this particular message. And indeed, the key turned out to be “TERMINAL”.
If this is indeed evidence of a pattern as to how the clues are designed, then we should be looking for cipher hints in previous clues/messages, and key hints in the “near vicinity” of the code.
Found this on a whiteboard in inbound, don’t know if it has already been found, but figured I would post it just in case. Hope this helps
I also found that on some scrolling computer (one in inbound where the guard opens the giant locked door for the tram) there is scrolling text that I googled that led me to this site. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6495-black-holes-haunt-ghost-particle-theory.html#.Uge8c5KQn8s
Yeah, that was found early in the ARG and was decoded shortly after by user Nefarious, see this post. It’s also described on the wiki. Whether it has any relevance to the ARG, is still unclear.
I think that has been mentioned before as well. Most likely, it’s just background material that adds to the immersiveness of the game, and is probably not related to the ARG.
Anyway, thanks for sharing.
About hints to the Playfair cipher, I didn’t follow any. I was bored, remembered the ARG, found the code, and Playfair was the first cipher that came to mind.
Again, more stuff that is probably already added, but found a whiteboard in an office in QE that has something about a cipher on it.
In the same section of the Wiki as your previous image. Whilst it’s great that you’re interested in the ARG, please check the Wiki and preferably run a search on this thread to see if you’re posting something that has already been posted.
Interesting that all of your posts, except one, appear only in The Pizza Code Mystery.
That one other post you made is about events that happened sometime between April and July 2012 and gives a rather detailed solution from someone who wasn’t even a member until December of 2012. https://forums.blackmesasource.com/showthread.php?p=554562#post554562
Makes you wonder how you knew so much about something that was going on a full eight months prior to becoming a member.
Maybe you should change your name to cluedropper?
I used to read threads that were made before I signed up as well, it’s probably nothing.
But there was no mention in the threads about the email issue. He even stated so in his reply. Look at what he said:
“Although it hasn’t been reported on the forums, I think there was a problem with the forum’s email host or email setup in the period april-july.”
If it hadn’t been reported in the forums, how did he know about it? A little inside info perhaps?