New Portal patch/achievement

fustercluck

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2002
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Updates to Portal have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted.

Portal


Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations

^_^

Link

Out of the blue yesterday, Valve released a new patch for Portal on PC. The patch notes said nothing more than:

Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations.

While most gamers scratched their heads at what this meant, it was noticed that a new achievement had appeared for the game too. It was simply called “Transmission Received”.

What followed was avid Portal players attempting to figure out what they had to do to get the new achievement. Apparently you need to carry a radio with you through the game and pick up 26 broadcasts at key locations. But the broadcasts seem to hold more information than initially thought, and gamers are attempting to extract it.

The sequence of events is nicely summed up by Steam forum poster relaxeder:

In a nutshell:

* Portal gets surprise update yesterday afternoon
* People see new mystery achievement
* People play and see the radio in the beginning room now has a green light
* Carry it around and notice it makes strange broadcast interference noises in certain places
* Locate and place all 26 of these mystery radios for achievement
* Smart people yank wav files out of game content folders and run them through steganography programs
* Produces 26 weird cryptic image files in a numbered sequence
* Some dude runs the number string through an md5 hash translator and gets a landline number
* Internet traces it to Kirkland, WA (near Valve HQ)
* People find out its not a phone/fax line but a data line hosting a BBS and telnet it
* Use a clue from one of the files to figure out the BBS user/password login info
* End up with a bunch of weird ASCII artwork
* We’re trying to figure out wtf it means

Kinda interesting. Wonder what the dealio is. Probably just to add some hype to Portal 2.
 

CountZero

Golden Member
Jul 10, 2001
1,796
36
86
^_^

Link



Kinda interesting. Wonder what the dealio is. Probably just to add some hype to Portal 2.

Maybe they'll release Portal 2 and episode 3 together in late 2011!

Would actually be kind of neat if they added some post glados levels that were like a teaser for Portal 2.
 

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
4
0
That sounds like too much work for essentially an easter egg.
 

fustercluck

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2002
7,404
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Well I know I'm probably not going to go through it again because it makes me want to hurl.
 

daishi5

Golden Member
Feb 17, 2005
1,196
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That sounds like too much work for essentially an easter egg.

Valve knows their player-base too well it seems. I want to read this at home but, how long did this take to figure out? The post by the OP seems like people followed the clues very quickly unless it is missing some details.
 

GoodRevrnd

Diamond Member
Dec 27, 2001
6,803
581
126
Aren't you instructed at the end of Ep2 to go to the Aperture Science research vessel or something? Sounds like it's probably some Portal2 / Hl3/Ep3 hybrid announcement.
 

Modular

Diamond Member
Jul 1, 2005
5,027
67
91
This is why Valve is awesome. They delve into the inner geek and make the game even more interesting. Amazing marketing to be sure.
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
This is why Valve is awesome. They delve into the inner geek and make the game even more interesting. Amazing marketing to be sure.

Delving into my inner geek would require less Left for Dead and more Half Life Episode 3.
 

Wag

Diamond Member
Jul 21, 2000
8,286
4
81
I like eggs!!!:D (you don't know how long I've been waiting to use that)
 

Liet

Golden Member
Jun 9, 2001
1,529
0
0
Oh, how I love the extra-game content with Portal, like the great Aperture Science website with the employment questionnaire. I really give Valve a lot of credit for all this stuff, it shows they're putting real effort into making sure we enjoy their products, and aren't just throwing unfinished shit out there for a quick profit.
 

ussfletcher

Platinum Member
Apr 16, 2005
2,569
2
81
Oh, how I love the extra-game content with Portal, like the great Aperture Science website with the employment questionnaire. I really give Valve a lot of credit for all this stuff, it shows they're putting real effort into making sure we enjoy their products, and aren't just throwing unfinished shit out there for a quick profit.
*cough* left for dead 2 *cough*
 

2dt Drifter

Senior member
May 23, 2007
253
0
0
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicola

I went through portal again last month. Fun game, I love credits song. I wouldn't have a problem if a Portal 2 was released.