[ARG] The Pizza Code Mystery

With the recent redesign of the site including a link to bmrf.us, which is apparently part of this ARG, I just had a horrible thought. This will never be true, but what if the Xen release date is is tied to the ARG, and everyday this drags on, will be one delayed day until Xen? Impossible, but a good motivator, if you keep it in your head while working.

Well, we can’t access the terminal.BMRF.us site, so I guess the DALSystems site is in all-hands-on-deck status.

I’m not 100% sure it’s a part of the ARG. It’s possible Hubi just liked the ASCII art so put that in the HTML coding and credited bmrf.us where it came from.

Though, the HTML source on that DALSystems site is suspicious. There’s a bunch of numbers and letters inside hidden input tags and such like that there, such as one that begins with “eHkB01CXox3NzXE7veBGOL…” and goes for 4,880 characters (according to the count when I copied into a Word document). I don’t know anything about that but it’s something for you guys to think about, I guess.

It’s an ASP.NET project. It makes hideous looking code. The hidden input tags are mostly for session management.

Yeah, I had no clue myself. Just thought I found something. Proceed. :slight_smile:

Anyone remember this:

It’s right by Dr. Horn’s desk in the game.

There are others in the QE chapters that have a username and a hidden password inputted:

Considering the two are within the QE chapter, which we know by now is Storm’s playground, perhaps we have our answer–or at least an idea of where to look for one.

EDIT: The first pad also has the “Department of Energy” in the background, much like the logo on the BMRF.us site. Granted, this could merely be for canon purposes, but the direct link is nonetheless there.

Just a thought, the BMRFpass user password has 6 characters.
There are 6 IRC clues to date.
Perhaps a single character from each is used? The site is still apparently under construction, so whatever we try, we should try again after any updates to it - it’s likely whatever the next clue is, being able to access it will be the last thing put on the site so we don’t uncover it before they’re ready for us to.

Guys, I think we might be getting a bit ahead of ourselves. Well still didn’t solve the 752 hex code, and I have a strong feeling it needs to be implemented in the grand scheme of things somehow.
Also, Santiago, that keypad can only enter numbers, so that may say something about the user name and password.

Speaking of the website though, there is an option for someone to retrieve a password by entering an email address. Do you guys have any ideas for an email address?
Edit: It says that this option is currently unavailable. That’s too bad.

Thinking of learn how to play golf. Maybe?
https://www.blackmesagolfclub.com/
Anyway, at dalsystems.com/Home.aspx, the page code show a serie of letters and numbers. It changes every time the page is reload.
At https://bmrf.us/ at the bottom of the page it says “DALsys employees login” it goes to terminal. There the message is “[SYS MESSAGE]: Please try again later”.
This got stuck?

I realize also that something at terminal. It says “Copyright 200X, version 1.65” and at bmrf.us each name has the 200X

If the numbers are joint there are 5 IP to me
17.08.1.65
16.08.1.65
10.08.1.65
12.08.1.65
16.08.1.65

Well, I did lookups on the addresses (two are the same anyways, so it’s already not likely), but all those IP addresses are owned by major corporations.

The 200x is a throwback to the real HL1, because the exact year of the the Black Mesa incident is unknown. It is known, however, that the incident happened between 2000-2009.

Just a random thought that has probably been voiced before, has anyone tried running Benaloh on the 731 Hex Code and then Paillier on the result of that?
I’d try it myself, but I have no idea how to run the algorithms.

i have no idea what they are lol :smiley:

So I’m new around here, but i couldn’t help noticing that, while most of the pages of the DALsystems website were blank, the privacy policy and terms of use pages weren’t, and both had an email address on them. Could that be important?

Edit: just for the fun of it I sent this email to it :
Hey I’m a potential customer for buying some of your video communication panels for my business. During a recent visit to the Black Mesa Research Facility I couldn’t help but notice the high quality of your products. In trying to find information on how to buy some myself, however, I ran into a rather large problem: the pages on your website are almost all blank! In fact, the only pages with information were the privacy policy and the terms of use, where I found this email address. I hope my email helps you repair your website so I may further look into purchasing your products.
Best wishes,
Link2434 of LBL Gaming
Watching to see if I get a response. :slight_smile:

The department of energy logo is most likely just there to stand in for a generic US gov’t eagle logo. I can’t imagine that whoever textured it meant for it to be examined that closely.

I think you may be underestimating the dev’s (devs’) attention to detail. Isn’t the Black Mesa Research Facility a type of facility that would have been part of the US DOE National Laboratory System? If that’s true, the use of the US DOE logo makes perfect sense.


I have written a page about bmrf.us on the wiki, but I wasn’t sure whether or not to mention the dalsystems.com site there, so I left it out. The fact is, except for the name, there is currently no evidence linking dalsystems.com to the ARG. But then again there is no evidence to the contrary either.

Also, recently, after having added a link on the Code D wiki page to the download page where the SECOM cipher tool can be found, I checked out some of the other tools found on that page, written by the same author who made the SECOM cipher tool. One of the tools listed there is an encryption tool called KRYPTA. The cipher the tool is using seems to be a slightly modified version of the ARCFOUR (RC4) stream cipher (the algorithm is described in the readme.txt file), and the tool can output the ciphertext in hex, base64 or letters-only. I’m not sure I believe this tool was used to encrypt the 752 Hex Code, but nevertheless I think it’s worth adding to our list of possible tools/ciphers.

I don’t know if this is any help but when you goto retrieve password there is an info button that says your username will typically be a email. Anyone know of any email addresses that could be used?

We can do this it seems like everyone is giving up on this since the posts are grinding to a halt. Dont give up!

…The webmaster email maybe? I know it’s a long shot but it may be worth a try. Also, on the subject of whether the DalSystems website is actually part of it, on the terms of use page it states that the company is fictional, and i’d say that’s pretty solid proof. (Maybe)

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.