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The April Fools ARG is an event that took place on the official Discord server of CP3D on April 1, 2022. It was an event where members of the community worked together to solve four puzzles to form a password for the itch.io site. Ever since then, the site is occasionally updated with a new log from Gary the Gadget Guy along with some design changes to the site.
The site is https://cp3d.itch.io/database, and the password is 24527613.
History[]
The image for the announcement (Note the Tic-Tac-Toe message at the bottom).
It started when SoupsSB shared an image in the announcements channel, joking about an upcoming party: The "Holiday Party 2: Electric Boogaloo (and Knuckles)". In the corner of the image, there was text in Tic-Tac-Toe code, which decoded to a link: https://cp3d.itch.io/database. The website acted as a database for the Penguin Secret Agency, containing the logo for the agency, some messages written in hexadecimal, and an input field to type something.
| “ | Hi penguins! We know the Holiday party has overstayed it's welcome a little during this hiatus so I thought I'd give you all a sneak peak on what's to come once it ends! The last 3 months have been VERY busy because of the sheer scale of this party. I'd say it's the biggest in CP3D history! The party in question is the:
We hope you are as excited as we are to welcome such an ambitious custom party!!! |
” |
— SoupsSB's announcement
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The Site[]
Decoded Hexadecimal Messages[]
As the site updated with more submitted logs, the hexadecimal messages changed.
- Top left: "All the leaves are brown
and the sky is weird.
I've been for a walk on a winter's day.
I'd be warm and safe if I was in the island.
Penguin island dreamin' on such a winter day." - Top right: "Now with fixed bugs and less leaks for the idiots!"
- Bottom: "Penguin Secret Agency Database Penguin Secret Agency Database Penguin Secret Agency Database"
- Top left: "All the leaves are brown
and the sky is weird.
I've been for a walk on a winter's day.
I'd be warm and safe if I was in the island.
Penguin island dreamin' on such a winter day." - Top right (after April 5): "Did i really had to come here?
All around me is weird
Nothing is normal, gravity is gone
Great view, but what is that?
Eh...
Road ahead is [REDACTED]" - Bottom: "Penguin Secret Agency Database Penguin Secret Agency Database Penguin Secret Agency Database"
- Top left: "Between all
Of dimensions
Xen is the border" - Top right: "The Sky is falling down"
- Bottom: "Penguin Secret Agency Database Penguin Secret Agency Database Penguin Secret Agency Database"
- Top left: "Oi mundo porque te acabas?
Porque abandonas tu normalidad?
Porque desvanecen las luces y el caos aparece?
Porque la isla se abre y tiembla
hace frio, todo ha cambiado
Nuestra hora mas fina ha llegado" - Top right: "The Sky is falling down"
- Bottom: "danger" repeated many times
- Top left: "Down in the
Enlonged
Prolonged
These areas are surrounded
Habitat? impossible
Stay where we can see you" - Top right: "error" repeated many times
- Bottom: "ERROR" repeated many times
- Top left: "Error" repeated many times without spaces
- Top right: "Error" repeated many times without spaces
- Bottom: "Error" repeated many times without spaces
Designs[]
The Puzzles[]
The password needed to be inputted in the field was an 8 digit number combination, in which 4 complex puzzles needed to be solved to get 2 numbers each. Each puzzle was composed by a different staff member: Kwakuyaa, SoupsSB, OlieGamerTV, and Domohead.
The GIF posted on Kwakuyaa's Twitter.
Kwakuyaa's puzzle started with a GIF being posted on his twitter, which contained the letter 'X' on the left side, and a clock. The clock would shift to two images: An hourglass, and a stamp. This implied the phrase "time stamp". The time on the clock translated to 10:49, implying that it could be the timestamp of a video.
This video was found to be Tiny Virtual Avatar Adventure Episode 10, timestamped at 10:49 where a character mentions the number 24. So, the final number for the password was 24.
The decoded image from the spectrogram.
The images provided by OlieGamerTV.
The whole image when decrypted and put together.
OlieGamerTV's puzzle was a complex decrypt and decode puzzle. It started with a tweet by him that contained a link to a Google Drive file, which contained two images, both of which appeared to be broken at first.
The tweet contained this description:
DATA_FILE INTERCEPTED ERROR: [ENCRYPTION] DETECTED P1: LINE 14 37 102 | P2: LINE 19 71 97 REMOVAL OF [ENCRYPTION] REQUIRED (N"($P#*++ RECOMMENDED)
"P1: LINE 14 37 102 | P2: LINE 19 71 97" was meant to signify which image it was referring to, and the numbers in the LINE area refer to the text lines, where "[ENCRYPTION]" strings laid, hinted at by "REMOVAL OF [ENCRYPTION] REQUIRED".
"N"($P#*++" referred to Notepad++, a popular program for editing files.
After you removed those strings, it would form a whole image, which would reveal 4 different strings.
"DIGITS RECIEVED" "UZEROVWRUFIVEUWQ" "UZEROlY" "THE SIZE OF THE CODE MATTERS IN THIS BASE""UZEROVWRUFIVEUWQ" and "UZEROlY" were the important ones, as they were encoded in Base64. Decoding them revealed the words "SEVENTY" and "SIX", which were the numbers you needed from the puzzle.
"THE SIZE OF THE CODE MATTERS IN THIS BASE" was a hint for the small "l" in one of the Base64 codes. Olie had a hint in his Discord status earlier when people were solving the puzzle, which read "WORDS_CAN_BE_NUMBERS", which was for the "ZERO", "FIVE" and "ZERO" parts to convert them back to numbers. So, the final number for the password was 76.
The image that appeared on the ninth page of the catalog.
The image that was on the Imgur link.
The QR code.
Domohead's puzzle started in his fan-made Discord server, 'CP3D Zone'. He tells everyone to look at the backgrounds in his catalog, which contained a cryptic message in wingdings. When translated, it said to look at the ninth page of the catalog. That page contained an image with Domohead's signature duck in the center, with a line of text at the bottom. This ended up being in Base64, which, when translated to standard text, reads "basetPin wPZ8Y0fz", which decodes to "Pastebin wPZ8Y0fz". This then turns into a link for a Pastebin file: https://pastebin.com/wPZ8Y0fz
The only text on the page is this: "###://###.###/###/319315314884083712/319319042240413696/773345936910188564". This was quickly worked out to be a Discord message link, which contained a random message from 2020 edited to this:
edit: haha made you see thIs aboMination aGain anyway the final step is Uhhhh i foRgor 💀 SOTIpM7The code at the end is an ID for an Imgur image, which contains some blocks of color with the caption "Focus on the corners...". This ended up being a QR code, which, when scanned, turned into "NUMBER THIRTEEN". So, the final number for the password was 13.
The Solved Puzzle[]
A frame of the sticker.
Once all of the pairs of numbers were known, all that was left was to figure out what order they went in to form the password. This was revealed through a sticker of a Spy Phone in the Discord server, which occasionally flashed a combination of 4 letters in Tic-Tac-Toe code, which translated to "KSOD". This references for the first letter of each of the staff members who composed the puzzles: Kwakuyaa, SoupsSB, OlieGamerTV, and Domohead. The meaning of this was to put the number pairs in the corresponding order of the puzzles from those staff members.
And so, when pieced together, the final password is 24527613. When inputted into the field on the website, the user is sent to a database containing various different log submissions by Gary the Gadget Guy. As the days went on, different log submissions were inputted.
Gary's Logs[]
The first log, on April 1, was Gary giving a message confirming that an April Fools Party is coming, once the snow from the Holiday Party clears out. The hexadecimal message at the bottom reads, "Situation in development" twice.
On April 5, another log was submitted, saying that Rookie noted that boxes in the Box Dimension were wackier than normal. He said that research will be conducted on it soon.
On April 7, two more new logs were submitted, saying that since Rookie spends the most time in the Box Dimension, there is a high chance that his concerns are accurate. Another log that was released later stated that he has gotten equipment working in order to conduct experiments ASAP. This suggests that an April Fools Party could be starting in the next 1-2 days. When these logs were released, the screen changed as well. Gary's icon image would slightly glitch, the "UNDER CONTROL" text changed to "UNDER INVESTIGATION", and the hexadecimal message at the bottom changed to "Investigation in progress Investigation in progress".
On April 14, another log was submitted, with the database having lots of glitching effects. The log was simply stating the challenge of calculating mean values in a parallel dimension.
After this, there was an almost month-long break before any more logs were submitted, most likely because of CP3D's downtime during this time. However, another log was submitted on May 12, with Gary concluding that, for the most part, the Box Dimension should be safe. The hexadecimal read "ERROR" many times. After almost another month, on June 9, a seventh log was submitted, saying that the fluctuations in the Box Dimension are increasing in frequency, which raises concerns about a supposed April Fools Party, which is puzzling. After this log, no more have been posted for almost two months, so it seems that there will be no more logs at this time.
The log from April 1-5.
| “ | Consulted by Rory about construction for this year's April Fool's Party today. According to my forecast, the heavy snow should be subsiding soon! I told Rory that once the snowfall ceases, he and his construction team should be safe to finally dismantle the Holiday Party decorations and begin preparations for this year's April Fool's Party. | ” |
— Gary's first log
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The log from April 5-7.
| “ | Agent Rookie called this morning. He informed me that on his bimonthly rubber ducky walk through the Box Dimension, the boxes seemed 'kinda wackier than usual'. I told Rookie I'd read it into it to console him. Whilst it most likely is a false alarm, the Box Dimension is unpredictable at best. Further research will be conducted in the near future. | ” |
— Gary's second log
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The logs from April 7-14.
| “ | Discussed Rookie's concerns with The Director. We concluded that since Rookie has the most experience of the Box Dimension out of anyone, there's a high chance that his observations were accurate. They urged me to begin studies ASAP. | ” |
— Gary's third log
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| “ | After several attempts and plenty of coffee, I've finally managed to get the necessary equipment up and running! Reworking some of my old tech was a nightmare, but everything's ready to conduct experiments tomorrow. Or today, rather. It's past midnight. | ” |
— Gary's fourth log
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The logs from April 14-May 12.
The logs from April 14-May 12 (full animation).
| “ | Note to self: calculating mean values in an inherently chaotic parallel dimension is tricky at best. This is proving to be quite the challenge. | ” |
— Gary's fifth log
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The logs from May 12-June 9.
The logs from May 12-June 9 (full animation).
| “ | Initial observations indicate slight instability in the Box Dimension. After running some statistical tests, there was no significant difference when compared to earlier experiments, such as that of April 2018. Things seem safe enough for now, but more time is needed before I can draw any solid conclusions. | ” |
— Gary's sixth log
|
The logs from June 9-onward.
The logs from June 9-onward (full animation).
| “ | The fluctuations in the Box Dimension's stability are increasing in frequency. This does raise concerns about the safety of the upcoming April Fool's Party. | ” |
— Gary's seventh log
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The End[]
The video of Gary (converted to GIF for viewing sake)
Soon after the announcement that CP3D would be closing, a video was posted in the Discord server and on Twitter, showing Gary in the PSA HQ, when suddenly all the monitors on the I.S.E.E.U. display SMPTE color bars, all of the lights on the map of the island flash red (except for those of the Welcome Room and Iceberg), purple sparks fly, and the video feed cuts out.
The image posted by OlieGamerTV.
On August 26, 2022, an image was posted by OlieGamerTV in the announcements channel of the CP3D Discord server, showing a blurry image of an igloo with a Fireplace and Mullet Fish, and a knocked over Bamboo Chair. Soon after this, Olie posted a message in the wiki's Discord server, encrypted in hexadecimal, which reads 4D 45 54 41 44 41 54 41. When decrypted, it translates to 'METADATA'. Soon after, it was discovered that the author of the image posted was set to be 'AUNT_ARCTIC', depicting that the image itself takes place in Aunt Arctic's igloo.
Almost 10 hours after the initial image was posted, Olie edited the message to give a hexadecimal message reading 61 48 52 30 63 48 4D 36 4C 79 39 6B 63 6D 6C 32 5A 53 35 6E 62 32 39 6E 62 47 55 75 59 32 39 74 4C 32 52 79 61 58 5A 6C 4C 32 5A 76 62 47 52 6C 63 6E 4D 76 4D 56 42 50 54 58 52 57 4D 56 70 70 53 7A 68 5A 65 55 6C 79 54 46 68 6D 63 46 70 4D 4E 6E 42 33 65 6C 64 4D 55 7A 46 66 4F 48 5A 68. When translated, it turns into a Base64 message reading aHR0cHM6Ly9kcml2ZS5nb29nbGUuY29tL2RyaXZlL2ZvbGRlcnMvMVBPTXRWMVppSzhZeUlyTFhmcFpMNnB3eldMUzFfOHZh And when that is translated, it turns into a Google Drive URL: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1POMtV1ZiK8YyIrLXfpZL6pwzWLS1_8va
In the drive, there are two JPEG images, both of which are corrupted, and need to be uncorrupted in a specific way. When they are, however, they become these two images:
The buildup of the ARG was likely The Rift event, leading up to the closure of CP3D.
Contributors[]
The following list of people is everyone who helped in solving each of the puzzles, by their Discord usernames.
- alexsssi
- D3iviz
- Devious Purrloin
- Kokomo
- NorwayDuck
- Sammany
Minor Contributors[]
- Enzo
- Yoshi
- Yoshi3108
Gallery[]
