Oxenfree
| Oxenfree ARG | |
|---|---|
| The Oxenfree ARG had an emphasis on radio frequencies and morse code. | |
| Type | [[List_of_Investigations#Official|Official]] |
| Creator | Night School Studio |
| Discovered | Jan 15, 2016 |
Main Page > List of Investigations > Oxenfree
Oxenfree is an adventure game that was released on January 15, 2016, developed by Night School Studio. The player controls Alex, a high-school girl, as she explores an abandoned island with her 4 friends. The game included an ARG, which concluded on June 11, 2016.
Anomalies
As Alex, the protagonist, progresses through the game, she must tune her portable radio into different frequencies to unlock doors and hear hints. The game contains collectibles in the form of anomalies. To uncover an anomaly, Alex must stand in front of a location that is marked by a stack of rocks, and, by trial and error, tune her radio into a particular frequency. Once this is accomplished, the anomaly is revealed, and a short audio clip plays.
10 of the 12 anomalies found in the game start with a military callsign:
89.9 Able 9 (A9) 91.5 Baker 1 (B1) 94.6 Charlie 6 (C6) 97.9 Dog 9 (D9) 99.9 Easy 3 (E3) 101.1 Fox 6 (F6) 103.5 George 3 (G3) 104.7 How 7 (H7) 106.7 Item 3 (I3) 102.3 Jig 3 (J3)
Arranging them alphabetically reveals a phone number that can be called: (916)-936-3733. Calling the number, you can hear a song from Oxenfree's soundtrack, combined with Morse code that spells out the word MAGGIE, which is a reference to Margaret Adler, a character who previously inhabited the island that Alex and her friends explore in the game.
January 28
On January 28, those people that had phoned the number received a text message from it, comprised of Morse code:
--. --- --- -.. / .-- --- .-. -.- / -.. .-.. / -... -... / .-.. .. ... - . -. / -.-. .-.. --- ... . GOOD WORK DL BB LISTEN CLOSE
"DL BB" was determined to be an instruction: "Download Beacon Beach" (Beacon Beach being a song from Oxenfree's soundtrack). In the Bandcamp version of Beacon Beach, players found Morse code that translated to:
SEARCH TWITTER 4 NUM SEARCH TWITTER 4
Searching Twitter for 9169363733 (the phone number) brought them to @xray9169363733. This Twitter account reported on calls made to the phone number, including thedate of the call, the time of the call (in PST), the city and state from which the call was made, and a transcript of any message left after the tone of the number's answering machine. If no message was left, the transcript would read "No transcript available."
