If thesurvivor2299.com is a hoax website, it has to be the most elaborate hoax I have ever seen. The site first appeared over a week ago and was a wet dream for any fan of both Fallout and Morse Code. I discussed the translation of the code and hidden audio files in the first episode of Regurgitated News.
With the countdown clock drawing ever closer to completion, the site received an update last weekend. The new message on the site reads as follows:
KVNGR REV ALPHA PPS VT PIZ UHMYLPVOQ CM XHWMZP. NBJB SPI’F BYQS QT D’Y BYFGEOB FI VQDYL MAQ. -NGQHT 5120- Nuclear winter has come
Apparently Mister Mxyzptlk is the webmaster on this site. This is the point where that Fallout fan that is also a fan of Morse Code and Keyed Vignere ciphers just soiled himself. Using the phrase “Vault Tec” as the cipher for the section past “PIZ” (the first part being the passphrase) will give you this message:
THE INSTITUTE IS SEALED. THEY WON’T HELP US I’M HEADING TO BLACK ROW. -TBNLS 5120-
Accompanying the encrypted message was another Morse Code radio station:
Calling all stations, this is overseer 119 emergency enemy unknown, SOS. Vault 119 Quabbin 7667, repeat, SOS, Vault 119 Quabbin 7667 enemy unknown
The Institute that the message refers to is a location that’s already been mentioned in Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Before the Great War, it was MIT, which would place it physically in the Commonwealth… a location in which many of the clues on the teaser site allude to. The Morse Code could be referring to the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts.
This is the point where that Fallout fan that is also a fan of Morse Code and Keyed Vignere ciphers just soiled himself.
It has been hotly debated on whether this site is a hoax. There have been links to Bethesda’s parent company, Zenimax. The timing of the countdown also coincides with Spike TV’s VGX awards (in which several new games will be revealed). Interplay’s rights to Fallout also expire on December 31st, giving Bethesda 100% of the rights to the series.
Personally, I just find this too complex to be fake, and it’s a no brainer for Bethesda to make a next-gen Fallout 4. We should know what this all means in 8 days… double rainbow all the way.
