Star Trek ARG Report 9: Uranometria + augmented reality + another video from Malak0

The Star Trek ARG is heating up this week with more real world sightings of clues, leading to more clues and at this point it looks like the Romulans may be all over this planet…oh no! See below for our usual breakdown of all the latest stuff happening.

 

 

Uranometria, augmented reality, another video from Malak0, …

APRIL 30th STAR TREK ARG REPORT 9

NOTE: if you are new to the Star Trek ARG see ‘Quick review’ at the bottom of this article

April 27th Clue 1: Contain The Threat makes contact, shares grid clue
Shortly after the last TrekMovie ARG update, Contain The Threat responded to inquiries with a variation of this email:

For your own safety, send us all information you have on these rogues. They want to destroy your planet, and we are here to help you stop them. We know these traitors all too well and can figure out what their plans are if you send us any of their belongings or any information you intercepted. We have their coded key from Berlin-Madrid but if we are to access the data it hides, you must send us the combined access-point quad. If we do not get to this data first, the rogues could unleash destruction unlike anything you can imagine. We have no time, if you want to save your world, tell us now what we need to know. Do you know how this connects to the quad?

Some people received the following images attached images from the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, no doubt taken after Sunday’s event.

"thebruce" at Unfiction noted that the second image is a rotation of "APUS":

Unfortunately, the clues yielded no further progress on cracking the johannbayer.eu grid puzzle, so community members continued to press Contain the Threat for more clarity. Some emailed the QR codes found so far. Contain The Threat followed up with a second email and a diagram illustrating the correct placement of the CHAMAELEON QR code on the input grid:

This is helpful to us. However, if the rogues are using a combination of the quad, they therefore have an input grid. You must help us find it. Only then can we properly use the rotation and coordinate indicia to enter the pieces of the quad.

April 29 Breakthrough: ‘GeneLaBarre’ breaks johannbayer.eu puzzle to yield … another puzzle.
Two days after the reveal of the johannbayer.eu, many players were frustrated and despondent with the lack of progress, and particularly, the all-or-nothing nature of the johannbayer.eu: twenty minutes worth of clicking grid pixels could result in no feedback on how close one’s attempt was.

Commenter "GeneLaBarre" suggested a solution:

@139 – Did anyone try turning the codes based on the letters like in the picture from Madrid, meaning APUS = 4, turn by 4 pi (0 degrees)? Chamaeleon works, too, based on the clue from the containthethreat gmail – 10, turn by 10 pi (180 degrees)

doh – math a bit off, meant 4 * pi/2 and 10* pi/2 (to give the degrees above) – Anyone tried that?

Hours later:

If no-one has tried mine, i will try entering it now.

It was correct! It took my email, and now there is a new box. the solution here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37172624@N06/3485860036/

Nice work, "GeneLaBarre!"

April 29 Clue and Breakthrough: ‘warp_10’ figures out Uranometria acronym
Shortly after "GeneLaBarre" broke the grid puzzle, the first three users through (AyandesS, GeneLaBarre, and one other?) received emails from ContainTheThreat:

We have been diverting your quad entries. You were one of the first three to pass to the next entry point. We may require some more help to gain access. Do you understand the meaning of this document discovered with one of the rogues?

Community members quickly recognized the attached image as the cover of Johann Bayer’s star atlas, Uranometria. There was also a new puzzle up on johannbayer.eu: an 11-character password.

"Bev" had the following musings on TrekMovie:

I am sure the containthethreat email said something about the coded key from Madrid and Berlin (’anomadsclue’?) was useless without the quad. I guessing it means they needed the quad (grid?) out of way to be able to use the ‘coded key’? I am thinking about the title yet. It has eleven letters, this is right? And eleven WORDS in the proper title, and some commas. Has anybody made progress with that?

"Bev’s" mention of "anomadsclue" refers to the Berlin-Madrid QR code from the last update: 4,N0M4D5,C1U3:.

"SarahB" set up a spreadsheet for community members to log their attempts at cracking the password. After nearly 100 attempts, "warp_10" entered the ARG chatroom, asked what the puzzle du jour was, and astutely (and immediately) observed that ANOMADSCLUE is an anagram of the acronym for the full title of Bayer’s Star Atlas: Uranometria Omnium Asterismorum Continens Schemata Nova Methodo Delineata Aereis Laminis Expressa.

Community members rearranged the letters into the correct order (UOACSNMDALE) and then transliterated the original "133tspeak" letters, yielding: U04C5NMD413.

This successfully accessed the next part of johannbayer.eu…

April 29 and 30 Clue Smorgasbord: PHPChatUsers wake up, another Malak0 video, augmented reality …
"warp_10’s" breaking of the johannbayer.eu passcode triggered a flurry of updates. First, viral chat site 2387-42.com updated:

PHPChatUser5: Are you OK?

PHPChatUser4: Sí, pero somos solo nosotros ahora. Tienen Janus.

PHPChatUser5: What happened?

PHPChatUser4: No lo sé, Sólo sé que no puedo quedarme aquí nunca más. ¿Dónde estás?

PHPChatUser5: I’m back.

PHPChatUser4: ¿Dónde?

PHPChatUser5: I don’t know if I’m more surprised he sent them after us, or that they actually listened. If he wasn’t insane, I’d be flattered he saw us as a threat.

PHPChatUser4: Perdimos todo, pues, porque es tan difícil creer su reacción?

PHPChatUser5: How can you ask that?

PHPChatUser4: No perdamos tiempo al discutir si su venganza puede ser justificada, Kaleh, no puedes ver que no tenemos ninguna oportunidad contra ellos separadamente. Nuestra única oportunidad para igualizar es estar juntos. Esto no es de nosotros nunca más, es de averiguar que nuestros amigos no hayan sacrificado todo por nada.

PHPChatUser5: Well, the test signals proved we need more than just us to amplify to their scanners…I hope Karnis got his history right.

PHPChatUser4: El plan de Karnis fue tonto.

PHPChatUser5: It may be the only reason there’s still two of us.

PHPChatUser4: ¿Qué vas a hacer ahora?

PHPChatUser5: Finish this, fix and send this damn warning. It looks like our old friends are tampering with Janus’ model – but I think we can still get the orbit coordinates from it. Then, we can try the original frequency and we have to get the waveform from Karnis’ comm!

PHPChatUser4: Veré lo que puedo hacer, pero entonce debo venirte.

PHPChatUser5: Maybe, just watch your back.

PHPChatUser4: Sí, tú también.

____PHPChatUser4 has disconnected____

____PHPChatUser5 has disconnected____

And a translation, courtesy of "Banana9" at Unfiction:

PHPChatUser5: Are you OK?

PHPChatUser4: Yes but it’s just us now. They have Janus.

PHPChatUser5: What happened?

PHPChatUser4: I don’t know, only know that i can’t stay here no longer. Where are you?

PHPChatUser5: I’m back.

PHPChatUser4: From where?

PHPChatUser5: I don’t know if I’m more surprised he sent them after us, or that they actually listened. If he wasn’t insane, I’d be flattered he saw us as a threat.

PHPChatUser4: We lost everything, why is it so hard to believe in what he did?

PHPChatUser5: How can you ask that?

PHPChatUser4: Lets not lose time arguing if his revenge is justified, Kaleh, can’t you see that we don’t have a chance against them if we stand eachone alone. Our only chance to fight back is to stay together. This isn’t about ourselves anymore, is to make sure that our friends haven’t sacrified everyhting in vain.

PHPChatUser5: Well, the test signals proved we need more than just us to amplify to their scanners… I hope Karnis got his history right.

PHPChatUser4: Karnis’s plan was stupid.

PHPChatUser5: It may be the only reason there’s still two of us.

PHPChatUser4: What are you gonna do now?

PHPChatUser5: Finish this, fix and send this damn warning. It looks like our old friends are tampering with Janus’ model – but I think we can still get the orbit coordinates from it. Then, we can try the original frequency and we have to get the waveform from Karnis’ comm!

PHPChatUser4: Gonna see what i can do, but then i’ll meet you.

PHPChatUser5: Maybe, just watch your back.

PHPChatUser4: yes, you too.

"Mel" used the chat transcript to piece together the most thorough character analysis yet:

We know now the Romulans true names:

1. Sargash
2. Karnis
3. Janus
4. Candir
5. Kaleh

1. Sargash is a relative young man and a hothead. He was the one with the Sudokus who tried to get our help.

2. Karnis is also a man. He has lost the device in Paris, which MalakO found. He is probably missing or even dead.

3. Janus is a quite grumpy man. He was the one sleeping and hiding in Berlin at the Kunsthaus Tacheles. He got caught and was hurt by the other Romulans who are behind the containthetheat warning.

4. Candir is a man, too. He is quite level-headed. He has a relationship with Kaleh.

5. Kaleh is the only woman of the group. Also very level-headed. She has a lot of authority in the group. She is the woman in the picture with the forehead tattoo who hold the shield with the Berlin and Madrid coordinates. She is in a relationship with Candir.

At around the same time, Malak0 sent out a frustrated email:

Arrêtez de m’embêter à la fin! Qqn au nom de Ferdinand m’a envoyé des instructions qui ont fait marcher l’appareil- donc je suppose que c’est à vous. Envoyez l’argent- stop playing games.

Malak0

Translation from the Mibbit chat (thanks "Mel," unfortunately don’t recall who this was):

“Stop mocking/bothering me. I’m finished! Someone named Ferdinand sent me the instructions to make this device work. I suppose it’s you? Send the money — Stop playing games.”

The morning of April 30, Malak0 posted a new video, letting us know that he’s figured out how to get the device working:

"GeneLaBarre" graciously translated what Malak0 was saying in the video:

IT’S WORKING

Ok. So, I’ve had a lot of replies after the video I posted online recently. And I’ve also had several interesting offers. But it was actually before I managed to make this device working. I’m going to show you how it’s like. It’s pretty incredible.` You have to do this… It’s a kind of a 3D hologram projection, pretty incredible. You can interact with the content this way ; moving it. I can show it from a closer angle. If you’re the person or the organization who’s lost this object, I imagine you want it back so contact me to make me an offer. Voilà.

Am I the only one who thinks that melodic sound will be set over a phat beat and used as music when the credits roll for this ARG? I am? Oh well …

And for those of you who worried — Malak0 assures us that those footfalls he’s reacting to are his mother, and not "Fe" coming to finish him off!

And finally … if you enter warp_10’s solution to the passcode puzzle on johannbayer.eu (U04C5NMD413), download the requested plugin, and have a webcam handy, you’ll be treated to our next puzzle: an augmented reality star chart. Have no idea what that is? Check out the videos from "Raphael" and myself ("aliotsy"):

The stars and planets show up when one waves QR codes and the background image to johannbayer.eu at one’s webcam. Occasionally, when a star or planet is highlighted, the "Location Signifier" box lights up with a number. Also occasionally, a "Submit" button appears, where one can "confirm a location signifier." What does it all mean? Does it related to the holographic projections from Malak0’s found device?

Thank you!
I just wanted to take a moment to thank all the folks who have been dropping by from the chatroom to keep the TrekMovie comments up-to-date with the latest progress, especially "Mel," "Matt," "ATVNPF," and "Tom." I appreciate you for making an effort to ensure that those who can’t participate in the chat can still stay informed.

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 TrekMovie articles on the Star Trek ARG:

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

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.

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this one i havnt been following.

Woah.

It is really cool and all, but how is anyone ever supposed to remember all this? Talk about complicated. I hope it leads to something fun! Thanks for the update! That can’t be easy to keep track of.

I believe Steven Hawking is working on this one…….

3
LOL

Aliotsy – Thank you for your work on this. Great update.

I really doubt that, he’s sick from what I heard.

Maybe the stress of making this ARG is what lead to his bad health ;)

I’m sorry, I followed this at the beginning but now I’ve almost completely checked out.

Thank you Aliotsy, for putting all the news together. I do it in another language so I know it’s hard, and you’re very helpfull. Thanks!

What is this? Is this a game?

Well, it’s all very interesting, and very convoluted, but I hope the end of this leads to something which can be enjoyed by all, not just those who have figured out the clues to this ARG game.

I draw the line at this sort of nerdishness.

If they put this much thought into a freakin’ MARKETING CAMPAIGN, then the movie had better be made of pure awesome.

(I’m pretty sure it will be, but just sayin’…)

Just wanted to say it’s been a blast working with everyone in the chat room to solve these puzzles. It’s been challenging, friendly, and fun for a group from across the globe. Afterall, that’s what Star Trek is about, isn’t it?

I really think we are nearing the culmination of this whole thing. Stay tuned…

This whole AR~G should be novelised to make it understandable.

PUSA. So that band, the Presidents of the United States of America, must be up to no good! =)

14. I can’t get the player to load. Anyone else having this issue?

Nevermind, it starts at 9 easter! haha

Wow…augmented reality has waded into this one too! Blimey! Even with these updates I feel a little lost but then I can’t dedicate as much time to it as some people! Still I think its cool! If anyone needs any help doing boring stuff let me know :D

#17 That’s a great idea, richardmartin. Perhaps they can commission Alan Dean Foster to do the job! It would tie in with the official movie novelization, and perhaps also include novelizations of the Countdown comic, the Paul Pope Spock comic, and the prequel to Countdown. ADF could make a meganovel out of all this. Call it “Prelude and Fugue on the Future Begins” This ARG is definitely the Fugue! And if anyone’s ever studied the playing of fugues, you know the headaches they bring!

#0 Aliotsy! Superb job with the review again, and the cat-shepherding you’ve been doing. Thanks also to Anthony to his willing to give the ARG attention here. Yet again, making trekmovie.com the new one-stop Trek spot.

#ARG I can’t help but think we’re looking at the local Solar Neighborhood. Has anyone tried matching from the few-years ago “Star Trek Maps”, or from the original FJ “Technical Manual” of the nearest stars? Any solitary yellow star could be the Sun. And there’d be a triple system (Alpha Centauri) nearby with two yellows and a small red.

Daoud, we sort of have. And by “we” I don’t include me, since I can’t actually see the webcam stuff. There’s a neat little flash thing:

http://kisd.de/~krystian/starmap/

This is our stellar neighborhood. But I’m not sure if it’s a match with whatever they’re seeing. Never really got confirmation on that.

(Regardless, that’s pretty cool on its own)

There is a new reference to the Eridanus constellation on the unfiction board…

http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=613179#613179

(hope the link works…)

Well, Eridanus contains two nearby stars of importance, epsilon Eridani (a/k/a Pelione) and 40 Eridani (also known as omicron-2 Eridani, home to Vulcan)…

#23 Thanks! I couldn’t remember where his site was. It’s really cool on its own, that’s for sure. Somewhere out there is yet another one I’ve seen. Also, there’s the excellent Star Trek Dimension site:
http://www.stdimension.org/int/Cartography/cartography.htm

25 – Daoud, I’m hearing happy rumblings in the chatroom because of the link you posted. Not sure what it means, but still I thought I’d pass it on.

I’ve input the code three times, and get nothing. Help?

Which input code are you referring to?

Oh, i mean the password for the johannbayer.eu website.

Has anyone translated the Romulan characters on the johannbayer.eu background image? I tried, but its kind of difficult to the untrained eye? Are the characters rotated 90degrees clockwise??

@29 – To get to the place we’re at now, it’s U04C5NMD413

@30 – On the chat site I know it was worked on. Don’t know of a final translation. I’ll poke around and see ‘what’s what’ with that.

#30 Yes, indeed they are rotated 30 degrees.

The link to compare against is at Omniglot:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/romulan.htm

We’ve never figured out what the 3 to the 4th power looking characters would mean. Notice also the small one-space-character/ligature “km” at the bottom of the middle column (after you rotate it all back). The last column I think was E X P.

#26 Matt, the STDimension site is a heap of a lot of fun too. Somewhere in it is a “real stars” 3D map that’s interesting too, like the link you brought forth…
http://www.stdimension.org/int/Cartography/RealStars.htm
(the bottommost section)

Do you remember specifically what was getting them buzzing in the chat room?

yikes… #30 in #32, I meant to say 90 degrees. Had #30 on the brain.

Oops, I was putting an O instead of a zero. lol. To all: I’ve been following the ARG as best as I can, but I’ve missed a few steps. My only question is, how on earth do we know how to translate Romulan? Is there a romulan alphabet somewhere?

As I just noted again in this thread in #32… and in previous threads…
The link to compare against is at Omniglot:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/romulan.htm
“Romulan alphabet is located there.”

You gotta use trigonometry to solve this?!

@32 – General words of thanks for the link. It seemed to be useful to multiple people. But I couldn’t tell you how since, well…. you know. No webcam.

Aliotsy,
I know I thanked you in the IRC chat, but I also want to do so here.
We would not have made it this farin the ARG without all your hard work.

Big thanks should also go to Mario, LtPiper, WarpTube, Raphael, Nebula, thebruce, chink2love, Dougrass, and many others…
plus all the mib’s. Their comments and the over-all exchange of ideas has been amazing.

I’m glad to have been a part of it and hope I’ve helped in some small way.
Again, Thanks!

-David (aka Commodore Redshirt)

I’m just gobsmacked by the complexity of all this.

WOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWW

Even the new home video gots some of them “lens flares” in it.

Im begining to think its not about Romulans at all. I think Lens flares have invaded…. Quick, smash all lights before tos too laaattteee!!!!!

My thanks also to Aliotsy for a great article, and to all those who have contributed to this incredible puzzle.

It is an INCREDIBLE puzzle, but it also seems VERY complicated. What fun, though!

Device tone pattern – a,b,ba – b, cd, efg

Commas are pauses, dash separates it into two parts. Repeated letters are the same tones. I assume numbers should go in the place of these letters, but as of yet I see no way of figuring out what those numbers might be.

There *are* Romulan characters in the hologram, but they are too blurry to make out, and Malak0 has already said he will not help in that regard.

Just to put another set of eyes on the Romulan script in the background of the Bayer site…

Rotate the background 90 degrees counter-clockwise (or just tilt your head to the right…) – the 9 at that top below is the right-most faded character of the bottom row with a faded green outline around it.

Note: Lower case letters signify subscript and ^ signifies superscript – The ? is because I’m not sure what that is. It looks like an M or a 7 but both would have to be rotated to fit the positioning of this character…

9
X
Lw
3^4 9
G (or 4?) Y X
fG M P
3^4 K^? K^?

And of course the formatting didn’t go though…

Okay, try this link. I used MS Paint to put my translations next to the Romulan letters/numbers.

http://s720.photobucket.com/albums/ww204/caseylee4ts/?action=view&current=background80765ud.jpg

@45 – Thanks. It seems to me that some people keep forgetting to follow through with translating this background.

Also, there’s no better program than MS Paint. ;-)

#43-5 Casey, I think that last line you mean 3^4 ^k^?

I think it reads km? “km” makes a lot of sense for kilometers, or kellicams.

Ahead of that G(4?) perhaps the little f serves as a decimal point, or as an opposite sign (a/k/a negative sign).

@42 Matt are you sure about the tones? I figured them out as

D G G D – G C G G D D G G D

but I could be wrong….

Also, maybe the superscript 4 is actually a degree symbol type indicator (or actually a G for ‘gon’ the rare metric unit 1/100 of a right angle. 100^g = 90º.)

@48 – The letters aren’t supposed to be their note values, they are just there to show the pattern. Think sonata form ;-)

(I mean, this isn’t sontata form. Just to preemptively clear up any confusion)