[ARG] The Pizza Code Mystery

Black Mesa Archive The Cafeteria
#1501

Long time lurker first time poster etc…

This should be somewhere on wikipedia with the mention “how to utterly fail an ARG”.

The scavenger hunt in game was nice, and then it turned into this ridiculous nerdfest destined at the very few people who understand anything about encryption. Rest of us ignorant scrubs can just check the thread every few weeks to see if there has been any progress.

Hard to believe stormseeker actually thought anyone would have fun with that.

Good luck to the couple of people still interested in solving this.

#1502

Wow, that was really the first post you wanted to make? If you’re not interested in the ARG then just leave it alone. Definitely no need to refer to it as a ‘ridiculous nerdfest’. After all, you’re on a forum for a mod for an 8 year old game based on a 15 year old game…

#1503

Okay, so you “failed” the ARG, then please leave the rest alone.

Hmm, is this supposed to be a hint? :stuck_out_tongue:

#1504

The first post Stormseeker makes here in months, and it invalidates months of work. On the bright side, I can now try to contribute without feeling like I’m lost and confused in a world of salt shakers and hash browns.

#1505

U WOT M8

#1506

Too late :stuck_out_tongue:

I belive that now everybody is digging for the last idea that was not connected with encryption :wink:

#1507

Haha! If it makes you feel better, now I’m starting to feel all lost and confused. :smiley:

Hmm… what if Stormseeker’s rhetorical question was meant to have us look at the reasons why we think this has anything to do with encryption? Well, one such reason might be that the hex code was labeled with a ‘security classification’, like the inner code in IRC clue 5. In IRC clue 5, we have: “SECURITY LEVEL 7 ALPHA.” followed by the inner code. Also, note that in the IRC clue 5 solution we have: “[…] I have programmed HALOS to send in level seven cases. […]” (emphasis mine) (on a side note, 7-bit ASCII is also referred to as a 7-level code.) On the other hand, in the HALOS file, we have “[CLASSIFIED INFORMATION LEVEL 8]” right before the code.

Could there be something there we’re missing?

#1508

Can’t we get a pass on this one or something?

#1509

Haha, I like this idea, but then it would be too easy! I’m glad to see that there’s still some life here, and I’m going to have to start spending my library time at school checking into this again. That’s how I got started into it in the first place, so it’ll be just like last year!

#1510

Today is this thread’s one year anniversary.

#1511

I still watch to see if there is any progress, however don’t have time :frowning:

#1512

Long time lurker posting here - couldn’t see mention of this, for what it’s worth looking at the page source shows that the following is in bold and itallics
seekCodeout iswatching

And the rest is just bold
he Is AI

No idea if that helps?! :what:

#1513

It obviously refers to Artificial intelligence, it reminds me Portal with Glados and cake :wink:

#1514

“seek Code out he is watching”

Any thoughts on this? Who or what is “Code”?

#1515

Just to say that CIA(I) appears again. Just that.

Keep an eye on this ARG from time to time.
This has STICK in mi inconcience.

#1516

One (literal) interpretation could be that someone is advising the recipient/reader/us to look for a code that has been hidden in plain sight, in an attempt to conceal the code or message from someone else who is watching, and that this someone else is an Artificial Intelligence.

Has anyone looked for steganography in the Lies.jpg image?

#1517

Nothing in the file’s raw data to raise any questions. Typical Photoshop EXIF data, and no pen tool paths.

There’s an Image Resource Block though, signified with the magic numbers 0x0425. According to Adobe this means: “Caption digest. 16 bytes: RSA Data Security, MD5 message-digest algorithm”. The actual data for this block is meaningless though, just 16 bytes of NULL: “00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00”. It’s probably nothing.

#1518

When the IRC channel was active there was a user named “Code_” that was trying to help us out. On the forums his name is 0418_08151814

He hasn’t posted here in awhile, but it looks like he still logs in often.

#1519

His last post is in reply to this one (which does a Much better job of saying what I did…guess it had been spotted before :blush: )

https://forums.blackmesasource.com/showthread.php?p=527140#post527140

Need to check to see if anyone made any connections between Niobium and AI in relation to the clues in the game (back through the thread again!)

#1520

Does this help? It looks like the HEX code is a fingerprint.
https://securityinabox.org/en/pidgin_securechat

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