Over the weekend TrekMovie reported on a Viral ‘Alternative Reality Game’ for the new Star Trek movie with clues being left in images and on various websites. Although we think we solved one of the clues, it appears there is more to this game than originally thought. Today we have some more found clues, which only lead to more questions about the scope of the overall game.
[article updated with more clues found by TM community members]
More Star Trek ARG clues [UDPATED]
Over the weekend TrekMovie, with the help of some of the community members, tracked down the URL for a website, based on clues from other websites (see full story). Originally the clues indicated that this website (http://97.74.158.186/) would go live on Friday, but it is already live with some cryptic clues that have shown up over the last couple of days.
Here is what is there now (Wed. afternoon):
PHPChatUser1: テスト中、テスト中。誰かいる?僕が時間より早いのはわかってるんだけど、誰か応答もらえた?
____PHPChatUser1 has disconnected____
PHPChatUser2: Carrefour de la Rue de la Fédération et Rue de Presles
____PHPChatUser2 has disconnected____
The first bit is in Japanese and a translation (thanks to TM Twitter follower Ben Warren) is:
Testing, testing. Is anyone there? I know that I am early. Will someone answer?
The second ‘PHPChat’ message is in French an translates to identifying an intersection between two streets (Rue de la Fédération and Rue de Presles). Those are real streets in Paris and they do intersect, close to the Eiffel Tower. You can see the intersection at Google maps, including a ‘street view.’ The only thing really of note is a cafe ‘Les Presles.’ It isn’t’ clear if this is the clue, or if there is something on that corner. la Federation does translate into ‘Federation’ which has an obvious link to Star Trek, but Presles is just and onld French name and does not have an obvious Trek connection.
(TrekMovie has asked our friends at Unification France to send a man to the intersection tomorrow to see if there is anything there…we will report any findings)
If anyone has any ideas what the above French and Japanese clues could lead to, type it into the comments below.
UPDATE: French clues leading to email address?
Many TM community members have noticed that the French intersection is showing up in a number of posts on various French websites, like this one at this one at lepost.fr. All the posts are being left by a ‘Malak0’ who joined these sites on April 15th. The posts are notices that Malak0 found an electronic device. Here is a translation from Eric Saussine of Unification France:
I just put an announcement on Vivastreet for Appareil: rue-de-la-federation-et-rue-de-presles It looks like a PALM with a large digital screen – bigger than a phone but not really a laptop. I didn’t succeed in making it work but I will try again. All I get from it is a rather annoying buzz. I was sitting at the café at the intersection of rue de la Fédération and rue de Presles when a guy ran through. He fell by hitting the chairs and started shouted loudly at every people without reason who tried to help him. He was running so face I coudn’t see his face. Once on his feet, he ran towards the bank on the other side of the street. When the waityer came back to put the chairs in place I saw the funny machine. If you’re the one who lost it and if you’re no serial killer and if you’re not crazy, you can contact me by email. I think such an item deserves a reward!
Now the email address for Malak0 is mklvnd@aol.fr (notice the middle letters ‘klvn’ for USS Kelvin?). Emails sent to this address so far get no reply. [and I apologize to Malok0 if you are not part of this Star Trek ARG.]
UPDATE: New ‘stardate’ website
Also some Trek fans have found out that http://www.2387-42.com/ is the same website as the IP website (http://97.74.158.186/). It is worth noting that Stardates in the movie use that same format with the real year and then 42 would signify which day of the year (so that stardate would be for February 11th, 2387). This date seems to line up with the events of the "Star Trek Countdown" comic series, which is a prequel to the Star Trek movie.
Well done TM community, keep the clue search going!
From original article…
Sound clue?
Even though a URL was discovered from that first set of website clues, there may still be more clues to the game embedded. We still don’t know what the Roman numeral VI means that shows up on all the sties. Also TM reader Matt Wiley think he has found Star Trek effects sounds, when he slows down the audio from the flash movies that play on the various ‘binary’ sites. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN.
Number clue on official site?
TM community member ‘WhatInBlueBlazes’ has been looking closely at the official site at startrekmovie.com and noticed that the number 680 pops up in a few places around the bridge panoramas. It could just be a coincidence, or it could be a clue.
What does it all mean?
Even if this is not a clue, it is possible there are other clues on the official site. The way these ARG things work, clues tend to be on multiple sites. Our last article was focused solely on clues found in pictures from Star Trek Dance Parties at TheCobraSnake.com, but that does not mean that is the only location for clues.
If you think you have solved something or just are on to something, let people know in the comments below. Also if you think you are on to something, feel free to send it in an email to: tips at trekmovie dot com.
Hopefully it’s not an XboX promotion.
NERD NERD NERD! YES! Awesome!
Hmmm… well the fact that the message (in part) translates to “I know that I am early” might still indicate that something additional will happen on that URL friday!
Now for the commentary , who is this Viral for ? Whats the demographic? Me? The old time Trekker who’s sick of computers by the time he gets home from work ?
lol, I love viral marketing but not this late to release date….
Maybe someone needs to be at the intersection on FRIDAY since that was the date indicated before?
Obviously there is a…. pattern?
I cant open up the sound file
As for the audio clue… I’ve modified it to account for temperature, density and salinity factors to see what it would sound like underwater and it appears to be whale song. Just sayin’.
Humpbacked…people??? :)
Wow this is cool! I will admit I have a massive soft spot for viral marketing! I often find it very poetic especially as the world is so small these days, what with globalisation and all! Very exciting stuff indeedie…no idea though, sorry!
On Tuesday April 14th, J.J. Abrams, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoë Saldana and Eric Bana all came to the Hotel Parc Hyatt in one of upscale districts of Paris to talk to the press about Star Trek.
hm..maybe they drunk some romulan ale there
what’s the point of all this?
Off the deep end Mr. Scott!
Thanks to all of you very smart people for digging these up for all of us (nearly as) smart people who just don’t have time to do all of this on our own!
Really, honestly, thanks. I get such a tickle out of all this…
You propose we go back in time, pick up some humpback whales, bring them forward in time and hope the hell they tell thing what to go do with itself?!
Not now Madeline!
089 is the telephone prefix for Munich…
13> it’s a little thing that most people call FUN ;)
interesting sound, sounds like the bridge background noise and an engine starting up???
If you do a view->source on the PHPChat page, you can see that there is a timer set to update the page every second, however, upon page load, it stops the timer.
Based on that and the rest of the source, it looks like a half-implemented web chat client, if the name PHPChat wasn’t obvious enough. If you removed the part of the page that stops the page load, and add a text box that posts back to the server, I would think you’d have your text chat client all set. There is an AJAX library used by the page and it’s really in depth.
I don’t know if there really are clues here. Someone could be testing something on the site before it or something else goes live.
My first thought is that perhaps the intersection is where the Federation HQ, Palais de la Concorde, is located at in the future, but that’s not right.
It’s possible it’s the location of the bar scene in the movie.
Interesting — I just looked at the sourcce for the page, as well…
Glad to know there’s someone else on the same wavelength…
@ post18: there´s a nightclub in munich called 089 ;-)
but i think thats not a clue.
maybe the st crew went to cafe presles to get a drink or two yesterday. i dont think that there´s more on the google picture. only the beer name “kronenbourg”, barcleys bank and 279QDX75 on a car
Is it the bar that Lt. Paris created in the Holodeck? Or, at least the future location of Paris’ bar?
20 – that’s in Iowa.
All of this is WAY over my head, but I noticed something about that sound file that I can’t help but mention. I’m not hearing sound effects from the new movie (in part because I don’t know what that would sound like), I’m hearing another Trek tie-in — V’Ger. Does this not sound like that? At least parts of it, the “whoooping” sounds.
I’m sure that V’Ger doesn’t factor into anything… it would seem like a major detour from what they’ve already done. But that was my impression of the audio clue.
Oh… before I “say it!”… I’m convinced some of this is backwards too. I know this was talked about in the other thread, but some of this sounds clearly reversed.
This particular type of viral marketing is – in a word – stupid. The only people who are willing to spend the time to work it out, and enjoy the process of working it out, are people who are ALREADY going to see the movie. This approach will likely not put one more butt in a seat come May. I have no idea why anyone at Paramount would authorize such an ad campaign . . . but if you like puzzles have at it!
20. LoneStranger — the bar scene in the movie was in Iowa
Computer? Ah! Hello, Computer.
The french bar Lt. Paris created was in Marselles
I know he’s a Ruskie but he’s a retard or something!
What did you say she’s got?
Cramps.
It all means, “Drink more Ovaltine.”
:)
this all means diddly squat to me, overload overload! the only thing i can see on this site is spocks jelly fish, on the grey static, lol this a magic eye thing yeah?
I hate to say it, but these are the lamest viral games ever. I wasn’t a big viral game fanatic to begin with, but I remember following the viral campaigns for “The Dark Knight” and even “Cloverfield” (guess which movie let us down the most). This is just boring, even for “Star Trek”.
Although I still think that some of these sounds resemble V’Ger, I’m sure that’s not the direction they’re going. I reversed the .wav provided by Matt Wiley and what I hear is very distorted music (sorry, don’t have a way to post it). One of the sounds, loud and clear, is what sounds like somebody banging on industrial cables, but rhythmically. It’s almost a drum beat.
Perhaps someone with more audio processing savvy can dig in a bit more. Maybe a melody is discernible, and with that a new clue?
Sounds more like a turbolift if you ask me
What is the Latitude and Longitude for that intersection?
If I recall correctly, the President of the Federation has their office in Paris. Maybe this site is what will become the headquarters of the Federation in the future…
MAYBE TRY PLAYING IT BACKWARDS
I am curious about this bit of the source for the website:
var sid = Math.random();
new Ajax.Updater(‘chat_box’, ‘index.php?sid=’ + sid , {asynchronous:true});
pageScrollBottom();
So it appends a random number to the end of the index page address. What is sid?
I’ve plenty experience with Java but not with JS.
I can’t think of any solid connection offhand, but Romulans, Nero and the Roman numberal VI are all references to Rome.
To frakking hard for me… I am enjoying watching what you guys are posting and following along…
Seattle Trek Fan,
I think you may be on to something. The Federation Government is in Paris.
I still think that this is like the radio signals that travel through space, but we are getting them from the future.
What ever this is, it’s made this 41 year old excited about Star Trek again.
Long live Star Trek!
The Enterprise – E is 680 meters long
6 stands for internet protocol version 6
I played it backwards and didn’t hear anything special. =/
32: “Drink more Ovaltine.”
Well played! Maybe they’ll give out leg lamps as prizes.
VI could stand for Vancouver Island, Canada.
Or the British (or American) Virgin Islands.
Or it could stand for Vidi Infra which means “see Below”
Just throwing it out there. :)
to me it sounds like various sounds used for the transporter throughout the series/movies/generations all mashed up together. especially the sound used for the transporter in ST II and III, just distorted. Or the new warp drive sound or something. I can’t see into it any further than that. :/ …fascinating…
Where do we order those awesome T-shirts that some of the cool kidz in Paris are wearing in the Trek-themed dance party pictures?
~Please let me know as I want to order them from any vendor available!
mvh@gmx.us
@20 and 21 – I did the same thing as soon as I saw the page :P