Frog Fractions 2
| Frog Fractions 2
| |
|---|---|
| The FF2 ARG began in March 2014 and its goal is the discovery of which game is secretly a sequel to Frog Fractions. | |
| Creator | Twinbeard/Jim Crawford[1] |
| Status | Ongoing |
| Discovered | 2014-03-10 |
| Completed | |
The Frog Fractions 2 is a sequel to Frog Fractions, a flash game by Twinbeard Studios that developed a sizable cult following. In March 2014, a successful Kickstarter campaign launched Frog Fractions 2. This ARG seeks to find the game, keeping in mind all of the following:
- It will not be named Frog Fractions 2 or likely resemble Frog Fractions
- It will not be credited to Twinbeard Studios as the creators
- Its release date is unknown so the game may or may not be available at present
- When the "jig is up" (the game is found), Kickstarter backers will received a copy of the game.
The launch of the ARG began with clues within the the pitch video itself, as it was quickly interrupted by a message from the year 2023 that warned the viewer "It's too late for our timeline, but it may not be for yours." Since then, there have been clues everywhere from podcasts by the developers to the Obama Shaving Simulator to real life events such as Indiecade and ARG-specific events around Berkley and LA.
For a quick reference of everything so far, see Frog_Fractions_2/Timeline.
Contents
Summary
Background
In 2012, a browser game called Frog Fractions was released by Jim Crawford/Twinbeard. This was ostensibly a simple game about 'learning fractions', but does not actually teach this, nor is any specific knowledge required to play. The game features a frog sitting on a lily pad and shooting out its tongue to catch various descending bugs, in order to protect some fruit towards the bottom of the screen. As gameplay continues, upgrades can be added and the play style varies (sometimes wildly) from that of the initial stages. The game is often considered an ironic or 'joke' game (not to diminish its impact) due to its subversion of established mechanics and surprising twists and turns.
In March 2014, after the success of the original game, a Kickstarter campaign was launched to fund the creation of the game's sequel, 'Frog Fractions 2'. Accompanying the campaign was a strange video, that appeared to be an deadpan proposal of a fun game for kids, but contained some sinister and mysterious content.
Kickstarter Video
The pitch video(720p) is first interrupted at 0:44 with a message from the year 2023. A different voice interrupts at 2:26 and 2:37 to stress the importance of "0451". This clue would not be solved until after the Berkeley Event.
At 3:20, a sepia toned broadcast addresses "people of the future". There is a great deal of writing on the blackboard:
The url at the top of the board leads to http://twinbeard.com/eolo5387.html . http://twinbeard.com/eolo5387.html leads to pictures of bread, prompting users to go to http://twinbread.com/eolo5387.html, which contains the same image but distorted. This lead to http://twinbread.com/
Twinbread
Brainfuck codes
In the source code of http://twinbread.com,there is a brainfuck code. This translates to the text (the top is supposed to read Twinbeard but it gets uglified in copy/paste):
__ .__ ___. .___ _/ |___ _ _|__| ____\_ |_________ ____ _____ __| _/ \ __\ \/ \/ / |/ \| __ \_ __ \_/ __ \__ \ / __ | | | \ /| | | \ \_\ \ | \/\ ___/ / __ \_/ /_/ | |__| \/\_/ |__|___| /___ /__| \___ >____ /\____ | \/ \/ \/ \/ \/
>> ONYX BF 1.9.7 May 26 1997 10:46:16 $$ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ >> MOTD 2011-12-02 $$ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ >> IT HAS COME TO MY ATTENTION THAT $$ >> SOME USERS ARE ATTEMPTING TO USE $$ >> ONYX BF WITH A WEB-BASED INTERPRE- $$ >> TER LOCATED AT BRAINFUCK.TK. LET $$ >> IT BE KNOWN THAT THIS PARTICULAR $$ >> INTERPRETER HAS SEVERAL KNOWN $$ >> ISSUES RUNNING THE ONYX BF CODE- $$ >> BASE AND IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED. $$ >> THANK YOU. -MGMT $$ �￫￬￬￭�￫￬￬￭�
For http://twinbread.com/eolo5387.html, a bunch of characters make up the source code. Removing all non brainfuck characters, it results in a text: watch?v=YzVP-gRfRTY. This text leads to a youtube video titled Kernal of Truth. The audio is a playing of a datassette signal for a 50Hz PAL computer.
The audio had to be inverted first and then converted into TAP with UberCassette and then baked into a prg with TAPClean then run 011 (0801-6F40).prg in VICE. Code reference here [pirate jim]
egb13.ugzy is ROT-13 encoded string rot13.html
From the source of twinbread.com/rot13.html, there is a link to castlevania_passacaglia_of_disrepair.rom which is actually a GameBoy Advance rom.
When run in Visual Boy Advance it produces an all too familiar tune and the following image: [rickroll]
Make Bread
http://twinbread.com/makebread.html contains the following instructions:
TYPE 101675 ON KEYPAD PUT FLOUR IN BREAD MACHINE PUT SALT IN BREAD MACHINE PUT MILK IN BREAD MACHINE PUT WATER IN BREAD MACHINE PUT BUTTER IN BREAD MACHINE PUT HONEY IN BREAD MACHINE PUT YEAST IN BREAD MACHINE PUT GLUTEN IN BREAD MACHINE PUT MALT IN BREAD MACHINE PUT SUGAR IN BREAD MACHINE PUT EGG IN BREAD MACHINE PUT CORN IN BREAD MACHINE PRESS START FORE FORE GO TO SLEEP
When these instructions are entered into the console during the text adventure portion of the original Frog Fractions game, the console displays the following:
"You wake to the smell of freshly baked bread. A wispy human figure in a bathrobe and crown walks in, carrying a loaf of sliced bread. "It's ready!" she says. Then she gets a good look at you. "Oh dear. No time for bread; you have to do something about that beard before your meeting starts!" She pushes you into the bathroom
The user is then taken to the site http://abeardforevervoyaging.com/leadership.html , which contains the Obama Shaving Simulator. 
At the end of each Obama Shaving session, some tweets are shown. If Obama is shaved perfectly, one of the tweets will contain the following message:
Kenneth Salazar @Salza . @OBeardy. If you want to see PUBLIC_FIGURE alive again, bring the money to 37.871764,-122.265303 at 2014-04-05, 3PM local time.
These coordinates coorespond to a location in Berkeley, California and the message announced the first real life event on March 24, 2014.
