L O S T (Stage Three & Four & Five)

AKA, My Favourite Stage!!!

SO.......

This stage was kicked off after the discovery that Hugh McIntyre and his mistress(?) were bumped off by the villain Thomas Werner Mittelwerk. It was all launched by our protagonist Rachel Blake at the major geekfest that is, San Diego Comic Con...

The website she shouted out for all to visit was again real, and again is now defunct. The aim of this stage was for the world, yes, THE WORLD, to join together in a collaborative way to seek out hidden codes that reveal a segment of a video, an orientation film that, if you watched LOST through the 2nd season, you would understand by now the significance of. 

The codes in question looked like this: 

Or similar anyway. These were released in stages and were found in ad breaks on ABC, Channel 4 and Channel 7 of LOST, Jimmy Kimmel Show, LOST Magazine, Sydney Harbour and the list goes on until the final two codes were released which i'll come to in a second. 

A Wristband Worn By Jorge Garcia (Hurley)
in an interview

Found In A Window In The Orient Hotel

On Jimmy Kimmel's Mug

Now the biggest part of this experience was the two 'Glyphs' that were released in the UK. One located in London and the other in Manchester, it involved a mega hunt for it. Now while I try to find more solid information on these two hunts and not rely on memory alone, I have to say that this stage overlapped Stage Four, so i'll go in to that now.

Stage Four was simple. Give out free chocolate that is also a prop from the show. 

These bars had a website printed on them, whereisalvar.com, that encouraged players to photo themselves with the wrapper and tag their location in the world to show Thomas Werner Mittlewerk how many people are fighting him. There were also a load of Gold Logos that needed to be found in order to progress the game but that was about their only relevance really. 

In the UK, in order to obtain one, you had to visit the comic book store, Forbidden Planet and say a password of the day to get a chocolate bar. Pretty awesome, especially if you were a really hungry kid who only had enough money for bus fare to get home.

Not Me Or Anyone I Know But It Is Outside The One I
Went To In Birmingham

In the US, they had a tour bus that stopped in certain states so people could go obtain them. Not as easily accessible as the UK. There were other methods for the rest of the world, I mean, people in Africa had some, but probably bought off eBay. 

The website then provided a beautiful map of all the people playing the game, which leads me to believe this stage was designed purely for the creators of the game ego massage.

Taken at the start of the campaign

Anywho.....

Back to Stage 3 and we have all but 2 codes to find. These were the ones to be found in Manchester and London.

First was Manchester, and it was blogged by Ixalon:

When we arrived at the arch there wasn't another person in sight, but within about 20 minutes, conspicious groups of two started popping up all over the place! Somehow myself and Heidi (my girlfriend) and nick managed to work out who each other was, so we chatted a for a bit whilst everyone else hung out in their groups.

A little time (and a considerable lot of rain) later we were asked to gather round (there were about 20 of us) and was told the first clue was to be found from a curly haired bloke in the nearby pagoda. I asked the chap if he had a clue for us and indeed, he handed out lanyards to everybody, showing the glyph on one side and a cryptic message on the reverse; "In a park near an area known for mardi gras, find a man that has enabled society to go far."

At this point 2 folks ran off into the distance (obviously locals) and here's me and Heidi having no clue about the festivities of Manchester. Thankfully the pagoda was next to a carpark so we went off with Nick to ask the parking attendant who happily gave us pretty good directions. A few minutes later we found ourselves at the Alan Turing Memorial statue in Sackville Park! Whilst attempting to avoid the omnipresent photographer (must be a Hanso Clone) we read a sign which told us to "go to the buidling that celebrates discovery and change, where you will find a baby who will give you the answer you are looking for. You have until 5pm!"

I knew the answer to this one; the science museum (the only tourist attraction I knew about in Manchester having past it on the train). A quick walk and yet more very very wet rain later, we arrived. Having no clue where to go, we approached the ticket desk, where a friendly museum employee told us we were looking rather LOST. She told us we had to go head towards the back of the building. Thankfully my wonderful girlfriend picked up a guide to the museum and had noticed that "The Baby" was on the 2nd floor of building 2, so after a quick detour around an exhibition on the textile industry, we found ourself in the right building. Strangely enough floor 2 was sealed - no access for the public. Thankfully yet more highly useful museum employees told us to jump over the felt rope (mmmmm... felt rope) and head up the stairs.

We were there! We were greeted by what seemed like a crowd of Channel 4 employees and warned "DO NOT TOUCH". A little hunt later we found what we were looking for; "The Baby", a replica of the world's first computer built in Manchester back in 1948. A laptop was placed in front of it, cycling through an animation of the glyph... Argh! Panic! No code! Thankfully someone hinted "be patient" and an agonising minute or two later, the code popped up! I fired it into HE.com there and then via my mobile and that was that! :)

London was the following day and there is a detailed account of that hunt HERE

And a picture of ALL the glyphs and where they were discovered can be found HERE

And the video that all these glyphs were for can be seen HERE:

So this leads us to the final phase, Stage 5! Actually, balls to it, it's short so i'll make this Stage 3,4 and 5.

STAGE 5

This came in the form of an online podcast that broadcasted live on the internet the 2nd year anniversary of the crash of Flight 815, part of DJ Dan's radio show that was ongoing throughout the whole ARG. The radio show had the supposed death of the villain while calling in to the show, I think he blew something up. Later on it was found out he isn't dead but still...

There was a final video with Alvar Hanso declaring that he is the father of our protagonist and he was kept prisoner by Mittelwerk all this time.

The End!