[ARG] The Pizza Code Mystery

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#2461

I already imagined that it was not that, but since I have no idea about how common is to execute encrypted code… Well, one thing less to look into.

If Benaloh stands for benntoh storm is out of his mind. And I’m not saying the idea is ridiculous, it does make sense, I’m just saying that storm is out of his mind, or at least he was when he thought this puzzle. If that’s true, then Paillier probably stands for something else, pizzalie? We need to narrow this down, if we go for what it could be we’ll never end. Theres also EBCDIC encoding, and thousands of transpositions that we could apply at binary, nibble, byte… level.

EDIT: I’ve been messing around, interpreting the code as little endian and changint it to big endian, then decoding using 3DES, DES and AES with different keys, but no luck. Somebody had the idea of looking through the forum’s sourcecode for clues, since it was made by hubicorn. I’ve been looking but there seems to be nothing, only a bunch of ASCII art lambdas and the direction to bmrf.us, but maybe I missed something.

#2462

Well i have checked the broadcast page and nothing has changed there, also gets the terminal page and nothing has changed. seems that still a dead send.

#2463

i guess the 21 into 1 thing meaning january 21st is bust

#2464

Somebody commented on the wiki that their google doc document got a comment telling him to change the code.

thepizzaisalie.wikia.com/wiki/75 … #comm-2361

If the ip is not visible, it’s probably not stormseeker, just a troll.

#2465

they restricted directory-level access to bmrf.us, maybe update inbound? or already there waiting? it seems to be the exact same at first look/listen.

#2466

Probably right, as there nothing we have to either replace the 21 characters, nor anything to add to the end of it that is in HEX.

#2467

Ive been doing some snooping on stormseekers website, using the img someone screenshot [https://i.imgur.com/NP5dEtj.png]

most of the pages now link to a OH HAI text, has that changed since then?

EDIT : also in his c2a4d_ev1_5 Map Plan for the top level of QE, i did a Dot to Dot of the numbers, 86-106 is missing ( assuming its on the lower level ) numbers 36 and 116 are on there twice(Possible Clue), and 117 ( assuming that the Event that happens towards the end ) is in a square with lines around it. Dont know if its important but its only on the Version 1.5 of the Map.

#2468

Hey, I’m new to the ARG (I didn’t hear about it until I saw an article about the recent changes to bmrf.us) so I apologize if this has already been investigated, but is there anything about a Dr. “J.O. Marcel”? I found a reference to him on this whiteboard in Unforeseen Consequences, I believe. I wouldn’t have paid attention but I know we’ve had references to Dr. Montero before and isn’t HALOS an AI of some sort? (I thought I read that on the wiki).

#2469

MrNameisme, yes, we know, it’s a refference to a British tv show called Bugs, one of the story archs involves Dr J. D. Marcel, who stoles an AI and niobium to construct hardware to contain the AI and make it evolve. That’s probably what is doing Dr. Horn in the ARG, but it’s not completely certain if it is the case.

#2470

HOW DID I NOT SEE THAT!!!

also a fun fact Episode 10 Season 2 is named “A Cage for Satan”

#2471

Oh. That’s cool, then. Neat reference I suppose XD

#2472

So has HALOS been cracked yet?

#2473

Is this thing current?
https://thepizzaisalie.wikia.com/wiki/The_Pizza_Code_Mystery_ARG_Wiki

#2474

Yes it is. There has not been significant progress in the last two years.

#2475

It’s more or less current, but I think it could use some more work, though. For instance, the Emergency Broadcast Message should probably have its own section (or page) with a little bit more information than what’s there now, and there are a couple of references in the clues that haven’t been mentioned or elaborated on (e.g. the references to the Bugs TV show, Portal, etc.). Furthermore, I think there’s more that can be written about the wiki clues, although a lot of it is just interpretations and theories.

Also of note is that all the reference links to relevant forum posts are broken as a result of the recent forum upgrade :frowning: . So all these links will have to be updated, unless the forum admin can add some URL rewriting magic to the forum server to make the old links work again.

It’s been said that the wiki can be a bit confusing and difficult to comprehend for those who haven’t been following the ARG since the beginning, or read through the whole forum thread. This is understandable, seeing as how the wiki started out as (and still is) a tool by the players for the players to collect and organize the ARG information. Maybe the information can be organized better and presented in a way that’s easier to grasp for newcomers, or some sort of summary be written that will help newcomers quickly get up to speed.

#2476

Im currently working on the bugs refferences at the moment, there not a whole lot tbh, but a few things mentioned in the series do crop up in the BMS world.

#2477

Who can decode this?
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=wv7h

#2478

That’s base 64, though that last bit, =wv7h seems to be either misplaced or something else.

#2479

It’s not decoding as b64. Where you found it?

#2480

Blarg. That made me find and reset my password.
People delurk over stupidest of things, I guess.

It is 100% valid base64 (copypaste from the beginning to the == padding), decoding to a 673-byte binary file that doesn’t seem recognizable as anything.
That “=wv7h” part is not part of base64 - dunno, might be part of a decryption key. (The format reminds me of U.S. radio station callsigns, though!)

Assuming it’s not a troll - and right now all signs point to “maybe” - one of you probably should look if this isn’t something familiar after all.

offset+hex+ascii dump:

00000000 a3 01 6d 51 6b 48 14 51 18 dd dd 32 5d 2b 4b d2 |..mQkH.Q...2]+K.| 00000010 a0 58 23 2f 22 59 b6 cc e3 de 9d 9d c5 47 f6 80 |.X#/"Y.......G..| 00000020 a4 88 4c 34 f2 d1 32 8f 3b eb b0 3a b3 3b bb 6e |..L4..2.;..:.;.n| 00000030 6d 6a 44 f4 40 08 09 45 28 da 82 94 02 c1 1e 60 |mjD.@..E(......`| 00000040 f9 40 23 21 cd c0 88 04 8b de f8 47 fd 11 49 19 |.@#!.......G..I.| 00000050 86 46 4a 77 c4 fe c5 fd 71 b9 e7 9e 73 be ef 7c |.FJw....q...s..|| 00000060 df d5 f5 ab 2c 36 6b fc 58 e1 86 f3 6d c9 6d d6 |....,6k.X...m.m.| 00000070 d1 c1 6f a2 a5 78 2a da 52 07 44 5d 8e 02 4f 1d |..o..x*.R.D]..O.| 00000080 f0 e3 e5 4b 51 35 1f 36 02 86 aa 85 81 07 40 1a |...KQ5.6......@.| 00000090 71 50 96 25 91 91 a0 04 39 c8 52 3c 72 d3 48 a0 |qP.%....9.R<r.H.| 000000a0 38 99 86 3c a5 b8 19 81 a1 69 81 01 d9 a0 4a 0f |8..<.....i....J.| 000000b0 99 0a 62 23 0a 21 ec 54 75 82 91 87 57 95 09 fa |..b#.!.Tu...W...| 000000c0 1f 7e ed f2 07 0d 15 84 14 9a 91 14 8e 45 10 52 |.~...........E.R| 000000d0 2c 8d dd 3c 25 b3 0a 85 58 81 a2 28 93 18 c2 86 |,..<%...X..(....| 000000e0 26 d4 60 c2 8e e8 92 10 ae 0d 81 86 6c 40 c0 88 |&.`.........l@..| 000000f0 2a 61 b3 65 b3 f2 0a 41 ac 31 14 a7 6e f8 88 2c |*a.e...A.1..n..,| 00000100 60 e8 61 5d d2 ab 09 5a 15 0e 07 3c a6 28 1c 0d |`.a]...Z...<.(..| 00000110 98 ac 53 58 f4 ae e8 bd a2 aa c9 24 32 11 44 b0 |..SX.......$2.D.| 00000120 11 52 75 0d 78 68 c2 94 c2 aa 69 48 43 8a 73 d1 |.Ru.xh....iHC.s.| 00000130 2c cb c0 6c 80 4f 07 54 03 7b 55 93 81 38 97 9b |,..l.O.T.{U..8..| 00000140 74 47 99 65 70 c4 1c 94 4b 40 2c c3 91 23 f3 1c |tG.ep...K@,..#..| 00000150 84 18 b9 04 17 25 52 58 64 28 48 72 b0 02 96 25 |.....%RXd(Hr...%| 00000160 9e 17 04 01 8b 88 95 25 8c 65 85 4c 16 b9 21 eb |.......%.e.L..!.| 00000170 e2 dc 22 96 80 99 28 a8 e9 c0 83 48 9b 82 8f 58 |.."...(....H...X| 00000180 86 54 9f 46 d2 1a 18 34 24 36 5a 1d ab 2d 56 9b |.T.F...4$6Z..-V.| 00000190 65 4d 9c cd dc 9a 25 d1 be f1 df 2e e7 a6 12 2c |eM....%........,| 000001a0 17 6f db 2d 9b 0f 1d 09 cd f6 97 e4 74 e4 e9 e7 |.o.-........t...| 000001b0 66 9a 7d 85 5c c9 f6 82 3c 6d 6b 51 30 33 35 ad |f.}.\...<mkQ035.| 000001c0 a8 ec d5 ba e3 b7 2e 5c ca 9c 9d f8 9c 9b 18 f4 |.......\........| 000001d0 df 35 32 bb ab 53 5b d2 9b 16 46 32 94 18 1c b7 |.52..S[...F2....| 000001e0 a1 ce d8 be 9e ef cf f3 77 e4 d2 52 ec 77 52 fb |........w..R.wR.| 000001f0 74 a3 63 4d 7b d6 fd 0f 59 03 63 19 cf 0a 1e 5e |t.cM{...Y.c....^| 00000200 fb 5a 5a fc 7e a4 42 7e d1 bb 34 34 ea d8 5b d9 |.ZZ.~.B~..44..[.| 00000210 e3 fc 39 3c 9f e0 2f 1b 3e 3a 77 30 ae 75 69 a0 |..9<../.>:w0.ui.| 00000220 35 a1 f3 c1 da ae 9d b1 d9 f4 eb 7b 1a bf dc 53 |5..........{...S| 00000230 dc d1 e0 a3 ae f8 14 eb 8d f6 b4 b3 ef 9c 4f 1d |..............O.| 00000240 76 3f 1a 6f f2 cc 8d a4 7e bc 79 19 37 1f 3b f9 |v?.o....~.y.7.;.| 00000250 6b 20 67 77 71 3f 18 ea 9b ec 48 b3 f3 93 49 29 |k gwq?....H...I)| 00000260 45 77 16 5f cb ea e3 d6 4a 3e f9 4a 9c 7d d3 8c |Ew._....J>.J.}..| 00000270 7d fa 49 de e2 db ee 2d 4d 7d 87 a7 ca 06 4b 93 |}.I....-M}....K.| 00000280 7e d4 97 fb a8 97 fb f5 fc 6d 0b cc ae fa 89 de |~........m......| 00000290 3f 63 67 2a 3e a1 37 39 e5 f3 c1 03 27 2a 5a fe |?cg*>.79....'*Z.| 000002a0 02 |.| 000002a1

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.