Portal: ApertureScience.com (Possible Spoilers)

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I don't think going home is part of our job description anymore.

Reminds me of the line some of ther Marines used in Opposing Force. "Government coverups were not in my job description."
 
The thing is that nothing in the flash file points to any external source- they're not logging it. Also, almost none of the questions seem to have a solvable, objective answer, apart from the one about dissecting a cake.


How can you say nothing in the flash file points to an external source? Every answer you give is passed to a PHP file that we have no access to whatsoever. There could be mountains more to this game that we haven't seen yet, hundreds of other hidden websites and other flash files that we haven't seen. Or, this could be it. It could go either way really. All I can say is that people who are quit to discount there being anything useful just because they don't see it right away, usually aren't very good at ARGs.
 
So to all who have seen the Portal vid on Steam...this game looks a hell of a lot harder then I thought.

using gravity to slingshot yourself to a higher level?!!? holy shit!!!
 
Lol!!!
 

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Does anybody know the significance of the " (+L) " when it tells you to enter your UIN (+L) ? If you type "thecakeisalie" after logging in, and it tells you to press Enter if a supervisor walks by, it takes you to an invoice-looking screen (with some expensive thing called "INTUB-XLG"). At the top it says " (L) TOTAL " and the total of the invoice is 976,076.49.

I don't know if this has any bearing whatsoever, but I thought it might be worth considering. So, I've been reading this thread quite and bit and I assume that nobody (still) has been able to get past the prompt to enter your 64 digit UIN?
 
Thats because the code is case sensitive and there is no way to type the code in lower case.
 
BTW why no one has even considered so far that INTUB-XLG could mean something like "intubation tube-extra large"? All I've seen so far has been just "SI MUST BAE ARR TUB, OLOLOLO WHALE BAETH!!!1"
 
Does anybody know the significance of the " (+L) " when it tells you to enter your UIN (+L) ?
it says "user identification number (plus letters)", so the "+L" means "plus letters".

So, I've been reading this thread quite and bit and I assume that nobody (still) has been able to get past the prompt to enter your 64 digit UIN?
it is impossible to get past that prompt. i read, that the UIN(+L) changes everythime it flashes (i don't know if this is true, i don't even remember it to be flashing). also see the second post above mine.
 
You know what, what if the numbers or character on the shopping list mean something?

Perhaps adding 974999.99 together, or adding all of the other numbers together (first a total, then each number, etc) would give us something...
 
The main problem is simply deciphering the other hidden messages and/or clues (if they exist or couse), then we'd have to figure out where to use them. So far we've tinkered with the SWF to wits' end when it comes to its functionality. Then we have the PHP file which unfortunately is impossible to decompile. Our best bet is that there's a hidden querystring, or a special UID that comes from a from the SWF and converted to an MD5 hash. Our speculation is limitless...

Last but not least we have to ask ourselves "is there more at the moment?" It might well be possible that the rest simply isn't online or available. This is the true nature of the viral campaign.
 
I think we hit the limit so far and we have to wait and see what valve updates.
 
VALVe is the best. Ever. This game backs up my statement 1010%. Note that is not a typo.
 
Just something I realized. GLaDOS v1.07 (the "operating system" on the aperturescience.com) and MS-DOS were created in 1982.
 
Where to next?

It seems to me that the whole .swf file is only the first clue in the big puzzle that is Aperture Science. I think we're missing the point of 'thecakeisalie'. After we figured out that you need to type it, we are now stuck at a video feed that seems to be all there is to the whole puzzle. I think the secret message, video feed, and shopping (?) list are all the next clues to get us further into the puzzle. Sure we know that there's nothing else to aperturescience.com (via Getright Browser), but what if the next step is at a totally different website? Maybe there is a web address to the next clue hidden somewhere within the last part of the .swf file. Not literally, though. We know it isn't spelled out as we've decompiled the .swf file. I suggest that you have to figure it out from some clues that are right in front of us. That's the only thing that makes sense to me as to where to go from here.
-Osiris
 
BTW why no one has even considered so far that INTUB-XLG could mean something like "intubation tube-extra large"? All I've seen so far has been just "SI MUST BAE ARR TUB, OLOLOLO WHALE BAETH!!!1"

I'm sure it means "Inner tube - extra large"
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but the only useless thing so far is that UID (+L) number right? That should do something.

Questions give THECAKEISALIE. Thecakeisalie give video feed. Video feed give that bill. Okay, that bill and UID must mean something. If there is more to discover. I feel there is.

I wish Valve just encourage us by saying there is more to discover. Did anyone asked valve if there is more to discover? please do so, Gabe is known for his random kindness:)
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but the only useless thing so far is that UID (+L) number right? That should do something.
Well so far we know more or less how it's generated. It's possible that a specific and special UIN will unlock more things for us.
 
I've just e-mailed Gabe about it..Asking if we've discovered all there is to discover, or if there's more than meets the eye ;)
 
it is impossible to get past that prompt. i read, that the UIN(+L) changes everythime it flashes (i don't know if this is true, i don't even remember it to be flashing). also see the second post above mine.

Its impossible because the code is case-sensitive. You can't input lower-cased letters
 
Haven't read the entire thread but something is bugging me.

There is no 'supervisor' and there is nothing secret about the shopping list.

All it means is you (as a worker) looking at the screen happen to see the supervisor (of your work) walk by, press *key* and it brings the shopping list up, so if the supervisor happens to look, all you are doing is your shopping list...
 
The cake could be a birthday cake of some sort. Perhaps pointing to a release date or similar.
No anagrams found for "The cake is a lie" or "The cake is alive". Perhaps, and this is a long shot, but since it's tied to the hl2 universe, it involves the cat question from halflife2. "The Cat is alive" perhaps? Though the cake image ties in with it strongly. I'm still checking for other stuff.

The internet is a great place to look for similarities between Cake and Cats, expecially on the obscure sites and videos everyone has seen before.

http://thefriendsociety.com/anim.php?id=catsyrup&w=500&h=450
 
why does "cat" work like the dir command????

Also the php file its hosted in is using mysql
Warning: mysql_fetch_object(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /valve/www/www.aperturescience.com/index.php on line 30[br]
got that.
 
ok, here is what i have come up with.

This thing is made up to be an interview for a "job". I think that figuring out the clues (thecakeisalie) in a way gets you the job working for aperture sciences. Flash foward - Aperture Science is now in a lockdown, a fellow coworker has hacked into a security feed and sends it to you. He seems very worried why your in a lockdown which is probably why he is snooping around the security feeds. "if a supervisor walks by, press enter" so in this theoreticle job, if a supervisor walks by you wouldnt want him to see that you have hacked into a secret room so you press enter to make it look like a shopping list.

I think all that is a setup to the beginning of the game Portal by putting YOU in the shoes of the main character.

I hope you guys understand what i am trying to say, cause its kinda hard to explain.
 
This may be unrelated, but I'd figure I'd put it out there anyhow.
When my younger brother attempted to highlight the UIN(+L), he did so with a triple click. He kept it highlighted after he typed continue. But then 1 letter was highlighted in each question afterwards, but not the ones that faded in an out.
It's hard to explain in words, I'll just show you.







It eventually spells out (complete with spaces)

at82e3dc kis> t l>ttlDrrxpa2NI

that's all garbage to me... but maybe it means something to someone else
 
Something similar happened to be with the highlighting, its very odd. I'm not sure if it means anything, but it's always good to get all details out there for people to use. I'm still doing various tests, but i'm waiting for THIS SITE to open, because i reckon they'll hide something on it.
 
This may be unrelated, but I'd figure I'd put it out there anyhow.
When my younger brother attempted to highlight the UIN(+L), he did so with a triple click. He kept it highlighted after he typed continue. But then 1 letter was highlighted in each question afterwards, but not the ones that faded in an out.
It's hard to explain in words, I'll just show you.







It eventually spells out (complete with spaces)

at82e3dc kis> t l>ttlDrrxpa2NI

that's all garbage to me... but maybe it means something to someone else

Nice find. It works for me. Now to decode...
 
I would have passed it off as a glitch initially.... but you can never be too sure with these marketing things...
 
ok, here is what i have come up with.

This thing is made up to be an interview for a "job". I think that figuring out the clues (thecakeisalie) in a way gets you the job working for aperture sciences. Flash foward - Aperture Science is now in a lockdown, a fellow coworker has hacked into a security feed and sends it to you. He seems very worried why your in a lockdown which is probably why he is snooping around the security feeds. "if a supervisor walks by, press enter" so in this theoreticle job, if a supervisor walks by you wouldnt want him to see that you have hacked into a secret room so you press enter to make it look like a shopping list.

I think all that is a setup to the beginning of the game Portal by putting YOU in the shoes of the main character.

I hope you guys understand what i am trying to say, cause its kinda hard to explain.

that's the exact same thing you said in the steam forums, lol :-P
 
I just got this: {atedc kis> t lttlDrrxpa2N I}

I wonder if it's even relevant, I'm guessing it's something different each time you do it.
 
that's the exact same thing you said in the steam forums, lol :-P

Cause at first i wasnt registered for this forum so i put it there, when i had more time i created an account here and just copie pasted.:thumbs:
 
But it DOES work. You just dont have access to it. Though the actual directory exists. I said that already. Just in less words.
 
Does anyone else have ANYTHING like this? Its jsut awesome to be able to do this kinda stuff. choose-your-own-adventure is a very solemn sort of writing, and is VERY hard to do, msot people just write a book.. the very first one i ever read was a mario one.. it twas awesome.. but seriosuly, someone find another one.
 
It's not different when you do it, the highlighting thing. Just got -

AT82EE3DCKIS>TL>TTLDRRXPA2N
 
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