In Popular Culture
The video game Portal, in an internet update of the program files three years after its original release, provided in-game radio objects, whose sound effects became part of an alternate reality game-style analysis by fans of the game hinting at a sequel of the game - the effects included Morse code strings that implied the restarting of a computer system, and could be decoded as SSTV images from a grainy video. These images included further hints of a BBS phone number that when accessed, provided a large number of ANSI-based images relating to the game and its potential sequel. The sequel, Portal 2, was later confirmed.
In the aforementioned sequel, Portal 2, more SSTV images are broadcast in Rattman dens. When decoded, these images are pictures concerning elements of the game, such as the Weighted Companion Cube on the moon, and slides with bullet points on how the aforementioned ARG was done and what the outcome was, such as how long it took the combined internet to solve the puzzle.
Read more about this topic: Slow-scan Television
Famous quotes containing the words popular and/or culture:
“There’s that popular misconception of man as something between a brute and an angel. Actually man is in transit between brute and God.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“Both cultures encourage innovation and experimentation, but are likely to reject the innovator if his innovation is not accepted by audiences. High culture experiments that are rejected by audiences in the creator’s lifetime may, however, become classics in another era, whereas popular culture experiments are forgotten if not immediately successful. Even so, in both cultures innovation is rare, although in high culture it is celebrated and in popular culture it is taken for granted.”
—Herbert J. Gans (b. 1927)