After a flurry of updates at the beginning of the week, the Star Trek ARG fell strangely (ominously?) silent for over 48 hours, with no new clues. Until, today with a lot of new chatter and a possible Romulan sighting in the UK. See belove for a full breakdown of the latest in this intriguing viral game.
APRIL 23rd STAR TREK ARG UPDATE 6
NOTE: if you are new to the Star Trek ARG see ‘Quick review’ at the bottom of this article
April 23 Clue 1: More chatting at 2387-42.com
The viral chat site 2387-42.com activated at approximately 6:30pm GMT…
PHPChatUser3: OK, ihr habt recht. Der Kleine ist verrückt geworden. Was machen wir?
PHPChatUser4: Pienso que deberías dejarlo estar solo.
PHPChatUser5: Just be ready, both of you, I’ll have your locations by Saturday – Fe, yours will likely be near the museum right by you with the rusty towers. “Al”, the other is on the eastern side of Berlin, by a derelict building in Mitte. I’ll need you to go the next day AT the time I give! Look for me in one of our spots. Also, I’m handling Sargash.
PHPChatUser3: Ach wirklich, und wie willst du mit "Si" fertig werden?
PHPChatUser5: Just worry about sending the test signals, and the rest of your research. Keep in mind that even their WPANs can pick this up in those areas, so keep it coded.
PHPChatUser3: Leider muss ich Dir sagen, dass unser Geheimnis gelüftet wurde. Ein gewisser Geoff Greatbatch beobachtet uns anscheinend im Auftrag von „A40 Curbridge“ und erzählt allen von unserer Landung.
PHPChatUser5: Between this Greatbatch and what Sargarsh’s done, we may have to go public.
PHPChatUser3: Ich habe noch mehr wichtige Neuigkeiten. Ich glaube, ich habe ein Päckchen von “Ca” erhalten. Er muss gewusst haben, dass er in Schwierigkeiten ist, als er es verschickt hat. Es beinhaltet die Korrektur für die Frequenz. Mit dieser Fehlerbehebung brauchen wir nur die Wellenform und den Zielort, um das Ding auszurichten, und wir sollten es noch einmal versuchen.
PHPChatUser5: Yeah, well some idiot has Ca’s comm. unit. So how do you plan to get the waveform?
PHPChatUser4: Aún si lo haremos, todavía necesitamos ampliar esta cosa, y esto supone que funciona finalmente.
PHPChatUser3: OK, wir haben viel zu tun. Ich verschwinde. Los geht’s.
____PHPChatUser3 has disconnected____
PHPChatUser4: Nunca me contestaste.
____PHPChatUser5 has disconnected____
____PHPChatUser4 has disconnected____
And a translation of the Spanish and German, courtesy of TM community member "Slaynest" and "Raphael" at Unfiction.
PHPChatUser3: Okay, you’re right. The little one has gone crazy. What are we going to do?
PHPChatUser4: I think that you should let him be alone.
PHPChatUser5: Just be ready, both of you, I’ll have your locations by Saturday – Fe, yours will likely be near the museum right by you with the rusty towers. “Al”, the other is on the eastern side of Berlin, by a derelict building in Mitte. I’ll need you to go the next day AT the time I give! Look for me in one of our spots. Also, I’m handling Sargash.
PHPChatUser3: Really?? What are you going to do with "Si"?
PHPChatUser5: Just worry about sending the test signals, and the rest of your research. Keep in mind that even their WPANs can pick this up in those areas, so keep it coded.
PHPChatUser3: Unfortunately, I have to tell you that our secret is out. A guy called "Geoff Greatbatch" is watching us, he has done so on behalf of "A40 Curbridge" and he is telling everyone about our landing.
PHPChatUser5: Between this Greatbatch and what Sargarsh’s done, we may have to go public.
PHPChatUser3: I have some more important news… I believe I received a package from "Ca". He must of known he is in trouble when he sent the package. It contains the correction for the frequency. With this new information we only have to find out the waveform and the destination to align the thing and we should try again.
PHPChatUser5: Yeah, well some idiot has Ca’s comm. unit. So how do you plan to get the waveform?
PHPChatUser4: Even if we’ll do it, we still need to amplify this thing, and this assuming it finally works.
PHPChatUser3: Okay, we have loads to do. I am leaving. Lets go.
____PHPChatUser3 has disconnected____
PHPChatUser4: You never answered me.
____PHPChatUser5 has disconnected____
____PHPChatUser4 has disconnected____
April 23 Clue 2: Crash site near "A40 Curbridge" with Romulan markings
Several community members immediately Googled "A40 Curbridge," a major trunk road in the UK. The top result…
Strange markings on ground, A40, Curbridge, Oxfordshire UK
Several people recognized the markings as Romulan letters, with the larger markings translating as "2 3 2."
Analysis – What did "Si" do? Is Malak0 safe?
The context of the chat seems to suggest that "Sargash" is "Si," aka PHPChatUser1, aka "the Kid." He’s noticeably absent in this chat, and there’s a clear sense that he’s done something crazy. Community members were expecting some sort of update from "Si" over the past two days, and having received none, it’s possible that a clue was missed. The PHPChatUsers are also aware that Malak0 has the "comm. unit" … is he in danger?
Other questions:
- What are the landmarks that the team is referring to (museum with rusty towers, derelict building in Mitte)?
- Where is Sargash now?
- What is the meaning of the constellation clues found earlier in the week?
UPDATE: PHPChatUser1 has a Facebook page.
Persistence pays off. TM community member "LtPiper" has found a Facebook page for "Sargash Si" with a photo album full of access points!
Access Point from Facebook page
UPDATE 2: Sudoku puzzles actually another QR code
After "Tom" and others ascertained that the sudoku puzzles posted in Sargash Si’s profile were, in fact, unsolvable, "wildo" pointed out something interesting: the sodoku puzzles could be rearranged into a QR Code! All six puzzles were numbered, corresponding to a spot on a nine-square grid representing a QR code, with the positioning blocks left out (see below for illustration). "Osh" quickly put together a black-and-white, machine-readable version, and "CptnValdez" was the first to read it: INDUS 13-06. Excellent teamwork, all!
Sodoku clue
Indus is, unsurprisingly, yet another constellation near Apus and Chamaeleon.
Star Trek ARG – A quick review
The Star Trek Alternative Reality Game began a couple of weeks ago after some fans spotted URLs on the walls of ‘Star Trek Dance Party’ photos up at thecobrasnake.com, these clues led to more sites, which in turn led to more clues. Here are the previous four TrekMovie articles on the Star Trek ARG:
- April 10th – first article identifying ‘binary’ sites
- April 15th Update, identifying ‘Malak0’
- April 17th Update: more ‘PHP chat’
- April 20th Update: Twitter conversation leads to "APUS:01-05"
- April 21st Update: Malak0 posts video of dropped device, leading to "CHAMAELEON:13-23"
Also, all TrekMovie articles regarding this are now in a single Star Trek ARG Category.
What do you think? — and A NOTE before you comment
Before you post clues or speculation in the comments below, check the previous TrekMovie articles (including comments) to be sure they haven’t already been covered.
Star Trek ARG Forum
TM community member "Tom" hosts the very active ARG chat where much of the problem-solving is taking place. He has set up a forum for posting clues and speculation. It also includes links to the chat.
Other resources
- ARG site Unfiction also has a thread dedicated to the game
- Thread at startrekmovie.com
- This Star Trek ARG wiki is a great place to get caught up on the chats and their translations
Any new clues or theories? Let us know!
but again, be sure to check previous posts to make sure they haven’t been covered. If you really think you are on to something, send in a clue to tips [at] trekmovie [dot] com. However, please keep tips to new (at least semi) verified clues, and not just speculation, that is what the comments are for.
Whoo Hoo Romulans in the UK!
First post?
Curiouser and curiouser!
Why must the internet constantly get more confusing?
This better be leading to something awesome…
I’m all for publicizing the new movie, and I really really hope it succeeds, but talk about preaching to the choir. There isn’t a single person following this that wasn’t going to see the movie anyway.
They don’t seem to be putting half the energy or creativity into making the movie interesting for my non-Trekker friends.
Wake me up when somebody figures out this mumbo-jumbo.
this is reeeeeeeeeeeally big for a viral marketing ….
Instead of “232,” could that be “2^32,” meaning, “two to the thirty-second power?” I ask only because the first “2” is quite large compared to the other numerals.
They really seem to be increasing the scale of this ARG. I am very eager to see where this goes…
I still dont have any clue the heck is going on with all this.
Im glad there are people with the time to Go through all this.
Interesting to see how it all ends
Well, I think the english-speaking “Romulan” refers to the german-speaking one to be near some derelict building in Berlin-Mitte and the spanish-speaking one to be somewhere near that museum with rusty towers (maybe somewhere in Spain) on saturday, time TBA. I am from Berlin, but I have no clue which building could be the one in question, if I find out I’d go there on saturday, on any given time… OR they’re both in Berlin, in different locations at the same time. In any case I don’t know a Museum with or near rust towers…
#4
Slusho.
I’m wondering if that last character in the field is some kind of flag, emblem or insignia?
Also, I had posted on the other part here that I was wondering if the “museum with the rusty towers” could possibly be the Alhambra Museum in Spain?
Sargash Si is at Facebook!
http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=611830#611830
And he has some Sudoku to solve!
http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=611837#611837
It looks like the fellow that posted the picture in CNN’s iReport has an e-mail address on his iReport profile under biography:
greatbatchatfsmaildotnet
I’ve posted this in the previous ARG update, but I guess I’ll put it here too…could the Sudoku be disguised QR code? If we were to black out the boxes that contain numbers or symbols, would we get any usable code out of it?
#14
I’ve already sent a message to greatbatch, but still no answer
11. THX, I really hope not.
IPv4 uses 32-bit (4-byte) addresses, which limits the address space to 4,294,967,296 (2^32) possible unique addresses
The “rusty towers” with a museum could be the old flak-towers/bunker in Berlin-Wedding (part of Berlin-Mitte) which is part of “Berliner Unterwelten” (Berlin Underworld) that also run a museum nearby… http://berliner-unterwelten.de/home.1.1.html
Here’s the Google-Maps Link http://maps.google.de/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=de&geocode=&q=flakbunker+wedding&sll=52.544077,13.373086&sspn=0.005585,0.021973&ie=UTF8&cd=1&ll=52.547323,13.384561&spn=0.001474,0.003455&t=h&z=18
I GOT IT!!!!
It was ………Captain Kirk….In Sickbay……….With a Tribble
What do I win!!!!
This viral stuff is really quite easy
Thanks Michael. Our suspicion is that this museum is in Spain, because user4 (Fe) has been writing in Spanish. Nobody’s positive, of course.
Yeah, but still, there’s some derelict building here that needs to be found ^_^
Sodukus + photoshop =QR Code =INDUS:13-06
Solved! (Not by me, but by the fine members of the “mib-chat”
Chat : http://trek.tvdw.eu/arg/
23 Michael – You are absolutely right! And that’s still a mystery.
I love this month
I would presume that some of us have to be in those places by saturday, to maybe pickup theire Network
I guess, so. That’s nice, central Berlin is crowded with wifi networks/APs…
24 – INDUS (“the Indian”) is another southern constellation…
Me too, AJ. I got suckered into that Cloverfield thing and it went nowhere. I still liked the movie, but I’m a sucker for the bugs. Hopefully JJ and the rest of his team learned from that.
You seem to be ahead of the curve on this one.
They used a different Romulan font for the Countdown comic… I tried to translate all the names in the star charts there… but only Hobus and Romulus make sense.
232 IS AN ADDRESS, OR MILE MARKER OR SOMETHING…..used google map and search “232 A40 Curbridge” and it led me to an approximate location of some sort of milemarker but if you pan to the right at low magnification, you’ll see an area familiar to the picture.
51.777433 degrees, -1.517752 degrees
33 – You’re right:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=A40,+Curbridge,+Oxfordshire+OX29,+United+Kingdom&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=FYUUFgMdbcvo_w&split=0&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=23.875,57.630033&ll=51.777581,-1.517975&spn=0.000923,0.002049&t=h&z=19
On second thought, it looks like Google Maps omits the 232 on the results. I don’t think it’s actually an address.
No, 33 is sort of right. 232 is NOT an address, google maps just threw that info away and went with “A40 Curbridge” and it showed you the crash sight. Which is logical, cause it HAPPENED there O__O;;
We already estabished that 232 Fr (that’s what’s supposedly between the squigly lines) is probably Francium, of which you have 199-232 of something (something involving weight, I’m not really sure). But it could be something else.
232fr the frequency for the test Saturday?
but I originally put in “A40 Cubridge” and got nowhere. it was only after i put the 232 in front of it and looked around a little that i found it put a marker on it and found lat. long. of it…..so maybe its a mile marker, or rather a kilometer marker
There are 34 known isotopes of francium ranging in atomic mass from 199-232.
Here’s more info on fr232
http://www.periodictable.com/Isotopes/087.232/index.html
I love reading people getting upset by this game — if you don’t understand it, or you don’t feel like reading up more on it, then don’t! Why the self-serving indignation?
“Several people”? Hrmph.
Anyway, clearly if you adjust for the angle of the “picture”, those are little f and r between the wiggly lines. So, who did this? Why, clearly PHPChatUser1, Sargash Si, Hori Kei… Maybe that’s why they’re saying he’s crazy, eh?
INDUS 13-06 breaks the pattern of number length, since we’d have expected 5 letters in INDUS, yields 13+5=18
But, if we have a pattern here…
#1 INDUS 13 – 06
#2 CHAMAELEON 13 – 23
#3 ?
#4 ?
#5 APUS 01 – 05
and the numbers are coded letters of the alphabet… then we’re playing Wheel of Fortune??
M – F
M – W
? – ?
? – ?
A – E
Well, if it would have just spelled William Shatner… I’d have laughed.
There here. Thepicture appears to show where the soil has been disturbed by a shuttle, the row of sticks, (transport enhancers?) lead to that mound of earth that looks like it’s been dug up and replaced. Also dug up is a white box thing, (monitor station?), and a grey thing.
Any idea where in the UK it is because i live here and would love to check it out, (dodgiong disruptor blasts:)).
Compare the sticks in a row of sticks and white box thing in the picture to the those in this good refence for Curbridge, Oxfordhire: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=A40,+Curbridge,+Oxfordshire+OX29,+United+Kingdom&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=FYUUFgMdbcvo_w&split=0&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=23.875,57.630033&ll=51.777581,-1.517975&spn=0.000923,0.002049&t=h&z=19
A circle of sticks, (a weapon or time vortex creator possibly?).
If anyone can get to to these locations do it quickly!
40:
The reason is that the game is fun. And the creators of the game are rolling out a mystery that many of us have the opportunity to help solve.
People get frustrated by games all the time, and if you have a look, we have computer guys, linguists, astronomers, and amateur footpads all in on it.
It’s either extremely addictive intellectual fun or it’s disposable marketing. Beats the hell out of Kellogs and E-surance tie-ins, for sure.
I guess it was an escape capsule. Even a shuttle is bigger.
I will be popping up to the landing site on Saturday to see if theres anything there… Fingers crossed!
ARTICLE UPDATED w/ Sodoku clue
well done all
Is this how Nimoy ends up on Fringe? :)
do these arg’s usually have a prize for the team that solves them? I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not nearly as smart as some of these folks and they are doing one hell of a job solving these riddles in my opinion.
From the A40 related article:
“This only took me a couple of hours but by the time I flew over the field again the aircraft had gone. What was left behind were these odd white markings. There were also deep gouges in the ground where the crash had been. It seems incredible that the thing had been removed so quickly and those markings left behind in such a short space of time.”
Cloaking? Everyone remember where we parked!
Sargash Si’s facebook status is in Japanese but translates to “Will try to repair the signal, and looking for good people.”