Trials Evolution: The 100 Year Easter Egg
So, this started out as what was going to be another one of my “Searching for the Greatest of All-Time” series, as I was going to look for the greatest Easter Eggs in pop culture history. But then I found this and suddenly there was no contest. This IS the greatest Easter Egg of all-time. Period.
History of the World
In 2009, the third game in the Trials series was released, Trials HD, a 2.5D physics-based motorbike platformer. Over time, players began to notice various easter eggs in the background and fourth wall-breaking riddles throughout the game. These ranged from mysterious artifacts, obscure illustrations, signs with binary and roman numerals, and sets of numbers and dates. It was eventually discovered that each of these represented important landmarks in human history and the development of mankind. They were references to historical people such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Charles Darwin, and historical artifacts such as the Voyager 1 Golden Record. These easter eggs were meant to encourage people to learn more about humanity's history and the world itself. But as interesting as this idea was, it would pale in comparison to its sequel.
The Evolution
Trials Evolution was released in April 2012, and with the precedence of Easter Eggs set by its predecessor, fans had certain expectations. In the beginning, the hidden secrets were reminiscent of the first game, albeit requiring a little more effort in order to find. Altogether, players found:
A map of Lake Toba, a super volcano that erupted 74,000 years ago.
Two stone murals with random markings, which when combined formed the Arecibo message, an interstellar radio message meant to illustrate information about humanity that was sent to the star cluster M13 in 1974.
Ancient writings from the Indus Valley Civilization, a 5,000 year old script that is still undeciphered.
A fox carving belonging to the Göbekli Tepe archaeological site in Turkey, dating back to the Neolithic Period.
A carving known as one of the Bhimbetka Petroglyphs, originating as early as 700,000 BCE.
A gear-like structure referencing the Clock of the Long Now, aka the 10,000-year clock, a giant clock currently being built inside of Mount Washington in Nevada that is designed to keep time for 10,000 years.
A photo containing a portion of the Voynich Manuscript, a written and illustrated codex that has also yet to be deciphered but is believed to be a medical textbook.
A photo of Jōmon period pottery from Japan dating as far back as 1500 BCE.
Down the Rabbit Hole
However, everything would change with the release of the Riders of Doom DLC in December 2012. Players started finding wooden signs on various tracks with seemingly random, incomprehensible text written on them. Given the obviously intentional spacing of the letters, it was clear that all the signs needed be gathered together in order to see the full message. Once all 10 signs were gathered, it would be another few months before the message would be deciphered. Although, this was still a lot sooner than it otherwise would've been.
VN-ZUDE XFQQPMV NJQM LLR UMQG VPGQQND
QILNLV DAYNW KNMOWUMJIMAH.
FWEIX XNP XNSL BVR HIELT MLTNKRSQAM.
SICG ZTWM EZX RUGY FGK WIFD QR LZS SQBT JITO.
BYFAGHX LZGSE QBVVR-
CH, FOOR, HD, PSYU, UC, LQWY, OMXM, LZHHG
It was discovered early on that within the DLC Skill Game Circus track, Moneyball, was a hidden room. Upon starting the track and inputting ↑↑↓↓←→←→AXAX, a modified version of the Konami Code, the player would be transported to an empty 6x10 grid. But this room would go unsolved for 4 years until 2017 when a prominent Trials community member, Professor Fatshady, uploaded a video of him solving the puzzle after receiving a hint from the developer. When using the ball to display the Fibonacci Sequence on the grid, a wooden sign appeared with the message: “Blaise de Vigenere: Naturally, in this case no mechanical disturbance of the system under examination can take place in the crucial stage of the process of measurement.” A quote from the Bohr–Einstein debates, a series of public disputes between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein about quantum mechanics, with “Blaise de Vigenere” hinting at the cipher to be used.
But going back to 2013, a Murdoc Loch was able to discover this key without the hidden room through some logical brute forcing, inadvertently skipping a step in the riddle. Applying the Vigenère cipher translated the message to:
IN-GAME MUSIC TO 0 FROM THE GAME OPTIONS
NATURE CALLS WITH SCORPION.
START AND PASS THE FIRST CHECKPOINT.
LEAP FROM THE ROCK AND STOP ON THE NEXT ROCK.
PUSH THE RIGHT STICK-
UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT
The message was a set of instructions to perform a specific maneuver with a specific bike on a specific level, which upon doing so, triggers a hidden song to be played. Players concluded that the lyric “Your ears may not catch them, You might have to transform them into visible form” was advising then to run the song through a Spectral Analysis, a method which allows you to visually display a signals various frequency components. Doing this revealed a message in Morse code:
-.-. .... . -.-. -.- / ... --- -. --. / ... .--. . -.-. - .-. .- / .. -. / . .- -.-. .... / ... --- -. --.
CHECK SONG SPECTRA IN EACH SONG
When running a spectral analysis on each song on the Trials Evolution soundtrack, they were found to have a similar Morse code sequence:
.-- .-- .-- .-.-.- ..-. .. -..- . -.. .--. .- - - . .-. -. . -. -.-. --- -.. . ... .-.-.- -.-. --- --
www.fixedpatternencodes.com
When the website was first discovered it contained a single image with a second background image hidden within the site's CSS code. Overlaying the two in Photoshop and applying an exclusion filter would then reveal a Latin quote from De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things), a first-century BC didactic poem by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius.
postremo pereunt imbres, ubi eos pater aether
in gremium matris terrai praecipitavit;
at nitidae surgunt fruges ramique virescunt
arboribus, crescunt ipsae fetuque gravantur.
Lo, the rains perish which Ether-father throws
Down to the bosom of Earth-mother; but then
Upsprings the shining grain, and boughs are green
Amid the trees, and trees themselves wax big
And lade themselves with fruits; and hence in turn
The race of man and all the wild are fed;
Following the discovery of the poem, the website would remain silent until September 2013, when it would display a new image every day for 26 days. Each image representing a different scientist throughout history, with the first initial of their surnames forming the English alphabet.
On October 9, 2013, the website was updated to display several of the images in a specific order and a prompt for an answer. Using simple letter substitution translated the message to “BIG FREEZE WITH NO COMPLETE END”, one of the most widely supported hypotheses for the eventual end of the universe.
When answered, the website updated one final time to reveal a set of four new messages, each one containing a location, instructions, and GPS coordinates, suggesting that the next discoveries were waiting in Helsinki (Finland), Sydney (Australia), Bath (UK), and San Francisco (USA).
IRL
In Bath (UK), Trials community member Lord Melchett found a small box hidden behind the gravestone of Henry Herbert Hale under the canopy of a tree.
In Sydney (Australia), community member Batguy retrieved a similar box from within a sandstone wall.
In San Francisco (USA), community member Maurice found another box buried underground.
In Helsinki (Finland), hometown of developer RedLynx, the coordinates led to the Finnish gaming magazine office, Pelaaja. When community member Danil asked for the metal plate as instructed, he was provided one, along with 3 additional documents dating back to the 1700's pertaining to a land sale of French property. One of which contained a drawing hinting at the true location of the Helsinki box. Following this led Danil to a cemetery where he found the box in addition to an antique watch.
Each box contained a key and a plaque. Inscribed on the plaque was the message “It seemed like forever ago”, a quote most commonly recognized from John Green's The Fault in Our Stars – “It seemed like forever ago, like we've had this brief but still infinite forever. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”
Most importantly though was the message on the other side of the plaque:
Midday in Year 2113.
1st Sat in Aug
One of Five keys will open the box
Underneath the Eiffel Tower
Arrangements Have Been Made
However, this time it wasn't a riddle, clue, or metaphor. Antti Ilvessuo, Creative Director of Trials Evolution and creator of the riddle, has been very clear that on August 5, 2113, something WILL happen. In an interview with the aforementioned Professor Fatshady, Antti stated “I made sure that in 100 years [...] that something happens exact time for people who have the key. I made sure... that's like, that's no joke. Happening in real world, 100 years exactly this location, four people with the keys and something happens.”
But there's literally 1 problem, the plaque says ‘5’ keys and only 4 have been discovered. In 2014's Trials Fusion there's an achievement titled ‘The Fifth Key’ for using the Track Editor to find and pick up the ‘Fifth Key’ in the Fusion world. However, in the same interview with Professor Fatshady, Antti says the riddle is complete and is “not moving to any other game.” Thus, many believe that this achievement may just be a subtle reminder from Antti that there's still one key left to find.
Conspiracy Theory
In a Kotaku article by Professor Fatshady which accompanied his video interview, he asked Antti if he had any final words for the readers, Antti responded:
“We may all look back and see Portrait of a Young Man on old images. I outlived Raphael. Next step is to be there. Probably not. Make most of your End of time.”
The End of Time by Theoretical Physicist Julian Barbour is a book in which he argues that time is merely an illusion. But more interesting is him mention of Portrait of a Young Man, a painting by Italian Renaissance artist and architect Raphael that has famously been missing since World War II. Stolen from the Princes Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, Poland by the Nazis, it is considered the most important painting to go missing during World War II and is valued at more than $100 million in today's money.
