Game Theory: Beware Crow 64 c̸̛̊rO̵̼̮͐̄́̀͘W̴̘̪͈̆ 6̵̓͛͒4̴̈͗̃̋ c̶̾́́̀̑Ȑ̸̲̪̅͘O̶w̵̄̀̆̅̕͝ 6̴̞̓̒̈́̇4̶̩̘͗͌̉
Summary
TLDRIn this episode of 'Game Theory,' the host delves into the enigmatic world of 'Crow 64,' a mysterious ARG (Alternate Reality Game) centered around a fictional N64 game. The creator, Adam Butcher, weaves a tale of tragedy and puzzles, inviting viewers to participate in unraveling the story of Manfred Lorenz and his family. With intricate codes, hidden messages, and a fully explorable game environment, 'Crow 64' challenges the community to solve its riddles, offering a deep and immersive experience for mystery enthusiasts.
Takeaways
- 🕵️ The video discusses 'Game Theory' and an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) called 'Crow 64', which is a mysterious, ongoing game with a narrative that invites players to solve puzzles.
- 🎮 'Crow 64' is described as a real-life version of 'Ben Drowned' with elements of 'Petscop' and 'Accounting Plus', suggesting a game with a deep lore and interactive mystery.
- 📺 The video is part of a series that explores and invites viewers to participate in solving the ARG, with the script hinting at the depth and complexity of the mystery.
- 🕵️♂️ The ARG involves a fictional game cartridge for an N64 game called 'Catastrophe Crow', which was supposedly developed by a company called 'Opus Interactive'.
- 👨💻 The creator behind 'Crow 64', Adam Butcher, is highlighted as a quality content creator who has a history of making unique and engaging videos.
- 📝 The script mentions a detailed and extensive community effort to decode puzzles and messages within the game, with a 76-page Google doc and a 26-page sub-document as evidence of this.
- 🔍 The video provides an in-depth look at the clues and codes within 'Crow 64', such as the 'Crow Language' cipher and audio-based codes that lead to further unraveling of the story.
- 📚 It discusses the narrative of 'Catastrophe Crow', which involves a tragic story of a developer named Manfred Lorenz and his family, possibly tied to the game's development and mysterious events.
- 🔑 The ARG has multiple layers of puzzles, including the use of a Vigenere cipher and other cryptic messages that players must decipher to progress in the game.
- 💻 The script also mentions the release of the source code for 'Catastrophe Crow', allowing players to explore and interact with the game's assets, indicating there are still many clues to find.
- 📧 An email address associated with the game's narrative was discovered, which was responsive to players' inputs, adding a real-time interactive element to the ARG.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the video script?
-The main topic of the video script is the exploration of the mystery surrounding a fictional game called 'Catastrophe Crow', which is part of an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) on YouTube.
What is the significance of the game 'Catastrophe Crow' in the video?
-In the video, 'Catastrophe Crow' is presented as a long-lost N64 game that has been turned into a playable ARG, complete with a narrative and puzzles that viewers can engage with to help solve the mystery.
Who is Adam Butcher and what is his role in the video?
-Adam Butcher is a content creator on YouTube who is responsible for the video that introduces 'Catastrophe Crow'. He acts as a retro game reviewer uncovering the story behind the game and inviting viewers to join the mystery-solving community.
What is the narrative behind the game 'Catastrophe Crow'?
-The narrative involves a game developer named Manfred Lorenz who created 'Catastrophe Crow'. The game's development is tied to a tragic event in Manfred's life, possibly the injury or death of his child, leading to the creation of an 'eternal revival system' within the game.
What is the 'eternal revival system' mentioned in the script?
-The 'eternal revival system' is a feature within the game 'Catastrophe Crow' that is hinted to be a way for Manfred Lorenz to keep his child alive in the game, possibly as a coping mechanism for a tragic event in real life.
What is the significance of the 'Crow Language' in the ARG?
-The 'Crow Language' is a coded language used within the ARG that players can decipher to solve puzzles and uncover hidden messages, adding depth to the mystery and the game's narrative.
What is the purpose of the email address mentioned in the script?
-The email address is part of the ARG, where players can communicate with a person who is believed to be Manfred Lorenz. It is used to receive hints and possibly advance in solving the mystery.
What is the significance of the timestamp '666' in the video?
-The timestamp '666' is noted in the video as it appears during a particularly eerie moment, possibly symbolizing the devil or evil, adding to the creepy atmosphere of the ARG.
What is the role of the community in solving the 'Catastrophe Crow' mystery?
-The community plays a crucial role in deciphering codes, solving puzzles, and piecing together the narrative of the ARG. Their collective efforts contribute to the unfolding of the mystery.
What is the final message that players are trying to decode in the ARG?
-The final message that players are trying to decode is a letter from Manfred Lorenz to his children, expressing regret and asking for forgiveness, which is revealed through solving various puzzles within the game.
What is the significance of the source code drop in the ARG?
-The source code drop allows players to not only play 'Catastrophe Crow' but also interact with every object and asset in the game's development environment, providing an enormous amount of new clues to explore and solve.
Outlines
🕵️ Introduction to the Mystery of Catastrophe Crow
The video script introduces 'Catastrophe Crow,' a mysterious N64 game that has become an internet ARG (Alternate Reality Game) sensation. The game, which was supposedly created by Manfred Lorenz and his company Opus Interactive, was never released but has now become a playable game with a narrative that makes sense. The script hints at a deep and complex mystery involving the game's development, Manfred's personal tragedy, and the game's potential connection to real-life events. The audience is invited to join the mystery hunting community to solve the enigma, with references to a 76-page Google doc and a 26-page sub-document detailing evidence.
🎮 The Story Behind Catastrophe Crow and its Creator
This paragraph delves into the backstory of 'Catastrophe Crow,' which was based on a drawing by Lorenz's daughter and initially aimed to save the father's business from the villainous Sir Cat. However, during development, Manfred's personal life fell apart, leading him to create unusual game assets. Eventually, Manfred disappeared, leaving behind a cryptic note and a sequence of numbers. The script discusses the discovery of a copy of the game on eBay and the subsequent gameplay that reveals a secret area with a talking crow and a series of eerie events that hint at a deeper narrative related to Manfred's life and disappearance.
🔍 Deciphering the Codes and Clues of Catastrophe Crow
The script explains the various codes and ciphers used throughout the ARG, starting with the 'Crow Language,' a substitution cipher that the community used to decode messages within the game. It also discusses an audio-based code from a song in another game, 'Ocean Quest,' which helped identify key characters in the story. The community's efforts to solve puzzles and the discovery of an email address that responds in real-time to players' queries are highlighted, emphasizing the interactive and evolving nature of the ARG.
🎉 Unraveling the Mystery and Inviting Further Exploration
The final paragraph wraps up the current state of the mystery, mentioning the discovery of the source code for 'Catastrophe Crow,' which allows players to explore the game's assets and clues in-depth. The script encourages viewers to subscribe for updates on the unfolding mystery and hints at the need for a birthday and a place to solve the ongoing puzzle. It also promotes the channel's merchandise and other video series, inviting viewers to join the community in solving the ARG.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Game Theory
💡Creepypasta
💡ARG (Alternate Reality Game)
💡N64
💡Manfred Lorenz
💡Eternal Revival System
💡Puzzle Solving
💡Crow Language
💡Source Code
💡Community Engagement
💡Thea, Nils, Marta
Highlights
Introduction to the ARG (Alternate Reality Game) 'CatastroCrow', a mysterious N64 game with a deep narrative.
The game is a blend of 'Ben Drowned' and 'Petscop', offering a real-life mystery with a playable game.
The game's creator, Adam Butcher, is known for high-quality content that often takes a long time to produce.
The game's backstory involves Manfred Lorenz, a developer whose personal tragedy influenced the game's development.
The game features an 'Eternal Revival System', possibly a metaphor for Manfred's attempt to cope with loss.
The game includes various codes and ciphers that players must decipher to progress in the ARG.
A community effort has compiled extensive documentation on the game's clues and puzzles.
The ARG involves multiple YouTube channels, each contributing to the unfolding of the game's mystery.
Players have discovered a real working email address that responds to the community's inquiries.
The game's source code was released, allowing players to explore and interact with the game's assets.
The ARG has a significant community following, with players actively working to solve its puzzles.
The game's narrative involves a tragic incident involving Manfred's child, possibly leading to the game's creation.
The game includes disturbing and mature themes, requiring discretion from the players.
The ARG has a complex narrative with multiple layers of meaning and symbolism.
The game's puzzles and codes are intricately linked to the game's backstory and characters.
The ARG has a dedicated community working on deciphering the game's many puzzles and codes.
The game's creator has planted various 'easter eggs' and hidden messages throughout the game.
Transcripts
[Music]
hello internet
welcome to game theory the show that we
back up weekly on various outdated forms
of physical media just to start a
creepypasta in 20 years
theorists i cannot tell you how excited
i am for today's episode oh man
this is a good one this is a very good
one
this is ben drowned but in real life
it's accounting plus if
accounting plus actually had a solution
it's petscop but it's playable
and it has a narrative that actually
makes sense and best of all best of all
it
is still ongoing this is a mystery that
you can play
right after watching this video and help
solve it is so cool it is so well put
together can you tell that i'm excited
about this one because
oh man am i excited about this one
ladies and gentlemen let me introduce
you to the mystery of the long-lost
n64 game catastrophe crow youtube's
latest creepypasta arg
sensation all right sensation might be
too strong of a word
youtube's latest criminally underrated
masterpiece that i hope today
we can help make a sensation because let
me tell you it deserves it admittedly
today's video is going to be a little
less on the theory side and a little
more of an
invitation to join this mystery hunting
community as they try to solve one of
the cleverest games i have
ever had the pleasure of playing and
note that today we're only
really scratching the surface of a
mystery that already has itself a
76-page google doc going over the
evidence not to mention a 26-page
sub-document going over all the evidence
from just
one source alone so join me my friends
as we start to explore the mystery of
crow 64. but before i move into the
episode proper i have to remind you that
our new theory ware is only available
for one more week
right below this video that includes
brand new items that we've never offered
before like our game theory watch i
don't know about you but totally reminds
me of ben 10
the theory boy vegan leather card holder
which holds everything that you need
while keeping your pockets nice and thin
our signature slip-on shoe eat your
heart out vans the long-awaited pikachu
plush will be the perfect addition to
your family and our premium tech hoodie
complete with double lining thumb holes
and dipped drawstrings
in fact of all the items in this merch
launch the three pack of theory
notebooks would probably be perfect for
keeping notes and solving mysteries like
crow 64
on your own this theory is brilliant
this doesn't make any sense
assuming of course you know which ends
up links for all of those are right down
below this video get them before they go
the way of an internet mystery and
disappear forever or at least for the
next 20 years now i have to warn you
that the crow 64 mystery deals with some
mature and disturbing topics so right at
the top here theorist discretion is
advised our internet story today begins
with the criminally overlooked creator
named adam butcher who does the thing
that's the instant death of any youtube
channel he
makes quality content by that i mean his
stuff is always very good but it takes a
long time to make and so the algorithm
is like nope one part game designer one
part filmmaker each video on adam's
channel is completely different from his
story of a game that took him 13 years
to make to his most famous work the
popular internet story where he tells
the tale of a vlogging mystery hunter
and his connection to a mysterious death
out in the fields of the uk
no joke it is a 9 minute video that has
better storytelling and pacing than most
movies you will watch in your life
link is down below in the description
along with a lot of other links because
there's a lot that you're going to want
to follow after this one my friends
anyway it's his latest video that i want
to focus on today a video uploaded back
in october titled
what happened to crow 64. in this video
adam acts like your typical retro game
review channel and covering a piece of
lost media think channels like kadiris
or gaming historian
in this case he's stumbled across a
development cartridge for the unreleased
n64 game
catastrophe crow and uh just as a
reminder here this is just like petscop
this
undiscovered game was never really a
game that was meant to exist
it was created for the purpose of being
in this creepypasta i bring this up
because it can get kind of confusing
when you're talking about fake histories
of fake games as though they're real so
the game was fake it was never meant to
be it's all for this story well it's it
was a fake game but now it's a real
totally playable game
we'll get to that so thanks to adam's
research we learned that catastrophe
crow was the brainchild of the
successful
developer manfred lorenz and his company
opus interactive despite looking a lot
like a clone of super mario 64
lorenz promised to make catastrophe
crows something special with new
features never before seen in a video
game the team promised fearless
exploration and something groundbreaking
called an eternal revival system
probably just a bad translation
that's right something called an eternal
revival system
sorry that's just my alarm that goes off
anytime there's a story about an indie
video game where people either get
sucked into the game or get revived by
the game bad light
bad bad light we don't know yet that
anyone's in that game
sure we can strongly suspect it but we
don't know
don't give me that look don't give me
that look light you know what you did oh
i can't be mad at you who's my bad life
who's my bad like oh you are so
catastrophe crow was originally based on
a drawing lorenz's daughter made and was
based around saving your father's
business from the villainous sir cat
unfortunately during development
something tragic happens that causes
manfred's home life to completely fall
apart he starts spending all his time at
work and asks his developers to create
weird unexplained assets then one day
manfred disappears
alongside all the company's hardware his
boat is later found floating off the
german coastline
the only thing left behind is a
mysterious goodbye note written in
german
alongside a sequence of numbers and now
the twist
after years of catastrophe crow being
lost to history adam seems to have found
himself a copy on ebay he ends his
historical retrospective with some of
the public's first look at gameplay from
this long lost game
and oh man this is where the puzzle
solving
really begins as adam plays through
catastrophe crow things
start off like your typical platformer
grassy landscape simple shapes bright
colors but he quickly finds himself in a
secret area that includes a crow typing
on a computer
with some weird things to say after that
a cut scene of a house plays before the
player is brought back to the first area
of the game
now things replay but slightly
differently
the sign on the workplace has gone out
and a weird scarecrow stalks the player
character from afar
only to disappear when he's approached
after failing to answer a ringing phone
adam runs through a glitched section of
the wall
behind which is this animation of a crow
holding computer equipment jumping off a
boat
knowing the history of manfred lorenz
his disappearance the lost boat the
stolen computer equipment it's easy to
make the connection that this is likely
a recreation of what happened to manfred
himself
when the player character jumps in after
the npc they're brought to a misty
forest where they can find an old crow
crying over what appears to be a grave
labeled crow
except the headstone is actually an n64
cartridge the grave isn't even the
creepiest part though
as when adam tries to leave the site we
hear the phone ringing again
before his character falls down a flight
of stairs causing all kinds of trippy
imagery to appear including a brain scan
and the arrival of two skeletal figures
come to take the crow
away and while i'm almost 100 sure that
this is a coincidence i do find it
interesting as i make this that the
timestamp
for that image just so happens to be at
time equals 666
the devil not an mcu yet but maybe in
catastrophe crow the video ends with a
cut scene of an older crow
walking into the bedroom of a younger
crow before these disturbing events play
out a headless crow is kept on life
support while the room fills with water
until more monsters
steal the crow into the blackness to me
there's one pretty clear interpretation
for all this
manfred's child falls down some stairs
which gives them severe brain damage
hence the brain scan
and the headless crow in the hospital
bed manfred receives the call about this
while he's at work which is why the
phone sound effect is so prominent
throughout these scenes
but likely he doesn't answer it which is
why the phone can't be answered or he's
haunted by the memory of that phone call
which is why the phone never stops
ringing
there's also probably a lot of guilt
associated with the fact that he wasn't
there for the kid hence all of this
happening while it's in an office
building
as a result of the child's severe injury
he changes the game that his company was
working on to include an eternal revival
system
to keep his child alive in some way
classic petscop move you know the child
though
eventually dies as evidenced by the
monsters taking the hospitalized crow
away
which causes manfred to go off the deep
end literally
after realizing that he couldn't
actually bring the kid back to life he
takes
all of his hardware out into the middle
of the ocean and jumps off a boat
now that alone would be a really cool
way to tell the story making a fake game
to make a fake retrospective to tell a
creepy and tragic tale of loss but
believe it or not there is
so much more here you know those iceberg
meme charts that show you the depth of
knowledge on any given topic well this
one atom video is only the tip of the
iceberg adam was clearly working on this
arg for a long time before he launched
that big video
considering that it seems like he
planted five sister channels
each with one video of a random gameplay
session just to make them seem legit
followed by one or more videos of
catastrophe crow gameplay
each one predating adam's original video
the only channels that are known to be
canonical entries in the series are adam
butcher
n64 long lost lore 90s retro gaming fred
n64 excavation man childhood memories 64
and ultra 64 forever and it was here on
these other channels that we started to
get the necessary hints to start solving
clues left behind in adam's original
video
for instance what about that weird coded
language from the crow in the computer
well at the beginning of one of the
sister videos catastrophe crow n64
playthrough from the n64
long lost lore channel we see a fairly
standard pause screen
later that same video though the pause
screen is scrambled
this fairly simple substitution cipher
turns out to be something the community
dubbed crow language
and it can be used to decipher many of
the puzzles throughout this game
using just the letters from this pause
screen we can decode the message from
before
h is i w is a q is
m that one's in and h e
oh my maybe that mephisto joke from
earlier was a bit more on the nose than
i suspected or else you know working on
a video game is
heck incarnate which gotta admit that's
what i've heard from many of my
developer friends
so yeah we feel ya crow we feel ya and
this crow language gets used a lot
throughout the mystery for instance in
the video titled
underground level from the childhood
memories 64 channel we get a classic
spell something
out on the ground and the letter lights
up in a different color puzzle kind of
like you'd see out of banjo-kazooie back
in the day
except here what you're spelling out
doesn't make a whole lot of sense
wow blizz hojo quovlo
it's not german not swedish it's crow
using the crow language cipher you get
the phrase
please forgive me both of you oh boy
we're getting serious now but that's not
all
listen to the clip from that gameplay
segment
every letter has an associated sound
meaning that what seemed just like one
puzzle solved via crow language is
actually giving us a second alphabet
that we can use
one where sound effects can translate
back into words and that is not our only
audio based code we get
opus interactive manfred's fake game
company had one
other project that they had worked on a
game titled ocean quest for the super
nintendo we learned this by pausing
adam's original video on a fake game
magazine article talking about
catastrophe crow here in the text we see
quote this will be the first
n64 outing from opus interactive a
german developer helmed by director
manfred lorenz whose action-adventure
ocean quest was a surprise late hit for
the snes
searching for ocean quest on youtube you
find one video from the ultra64 forever
channel of the game's end credits song
it's very chill right well something
that the channel jonathan rose lyon
noticed on youtube was that the song
starts with a
26 note ascending sequence
26 notes for 26 letters later in the
song you have little riffs like
this
[Music]
so what jonathan did was extract those
notes match them to the tones from the
beginning of the song
and translated them to the following
thea nils
marta manfred thanks for playing can you
see
why this is such a cool puzzle and why i
am so excited to be talking about this
and this gives us our key players and
their names remember that decoded
message from earlier said forgive me
both of you but our initial
interpretation of the events of crow 64
only had
manfred and his kid so who else is here
well based on the ocean quest audio it
seems like we have our cast of
characters
manfred our protagonist thea his
daughter nils
her brother and marta his wife this is
also supported by clues elsewhere in the
mystery
thea's name also comes from a splash
screen which appears for just a moment
when booting up the game the first line
reads that which of course is crow
language that translates to
my dearest thea and funny enough thea
translates directly into crow
using crow language which is one very
strong indication who this game was
originally for
and we can also confirm marta's name
from that farewell letter to marta
before he disappeared off on the boat
but now we get to theory country my
friends because i and most of the
community have noticed that there are
four different crow avatars appearing
throughout all the gameplay videos each
representing a different member of the
family the large crow with glasses is
the father manfred the other large crow
is the mother marta the small crow with
a bandage who serves as the primary
player character is thia and the other
smallest crow is her brother nils
the rest of that splash screen with
thea's name by the way contains blank
slots for secret messages scattered
throughout the game
i'm not gonna spoil how to solve every
line in this video because honestly it's
just a lot of fun to do it for yourself
and there is a whole community document
outlining all of it so if you are
interested and want the answers you can
look for it over there and by the way a
huge thank you to the document editors
lucasim a buggy replay mozark paradox
factor bmb and bird for keeping track of
all of this
plus everyone else who contributed to
this big mystery so far
anyway once you've figured out all the
secrets the message decodes to the
following
my dearest thea i am sorry i could not
be with you in the end i was too afraid
i ran
and now i am in hell one i made myself i
dreamed of you playing this one day but
you never will
please forgive me my little crow please
forgive me both of you
dad this is only for your little brother
now you'll notice that some of those
letters fall on spots that are
highlighted in the original splash
screen
if you take all those letters from the
final message they spell out dearest
nils
the little brother nils it seems is the
key
sometimes quite literally n64
exclamation man's video forest level
includes a vigenere cipher that requires
two keys to break one alphabetic and one
numeric the code from manfred's note
307-813-54841 plus the name nils
repeated doing that the puzzle solves
for nils
i'm alive so is manfred actually alive
seems to be back in october the
community worked out an email address
that's currently been removed from the
dock with good reason
it's a real working email address that's
clearly being manned by a real
person it's not just blasting back auto
responses it is responding to what
people say
in real time as the game grew more
popular more and more people started
spamming the email hoping for hints and
eventually
it just stopped answering for that
reason i'm not going to be telling you
the email but if you want to you can
figure it out though i warn you
do not use it unless you think you have
a solution for the next part of the
puzzle that we're gonna talk about
because we don't wanna burn out the
goodwill of whoever
is on the other end of that thing when
the email was still working it sent
messages from
ml clearly manfred lorenz one of the
earliest responses set the community up
with the puzzle that everyone is still
stuck
on my dearest boy after all these years
i have much to say
your birthday is not too far from now i
hope we can meet the day after
in the place we holidate every year i
will be there em
there we have ourselves two clear things
that we need a birthday and a place
since that email a lot of people have
tried to get answers from manfred but
most have failed the thing is
shortly after that address stopped
replying we got one of the biggest drops
i have ever seen in an airg the source
code a twitter account pretending to be
an
ex-employee of opus interactive dropped
a huge
zip file containing the entire source
code of catastrophe crow
that's right you can now play
catastrophe crow the game and not only
that you can now go behind the scenes
and
interact with every object and asset in
unity which means that there is still
an absolutely enormous amount of clues
to dig through and solve
in all honesty i think that this arg is
one of the best organized i've ever seen
well i've covered a lot of args on the
channel few come to the table with most
of the solutions already set up multiple
channels of gameplay posted well before
the main tease of the game i
really really hope that by introducing
you all to this mystery today i've
created a few more crows out there to
delve into the incredible mystery that
is
catastrophe crow who knows maybe one of
us theorists will finally be the one to
crack the next big mystery
all we need is a place and a birthday
until then remember
it's all just a theory a game
theory
anyway if you like that video which you
clearly did since you made it to the end
make sure you subscribe to this channel
because we will definitely be revisiting
this game when there are more
developments to talk about speaking of
cryptic creepypasta style games you
heard me mention it a couple times
throughout this video check out our
series on petscop another one that's
criminally underappreciated and that i
should probably finish talking about at
a certain point
also one final reminder that theoryware
is directly below this video and
available only for a limited time
including some items that we've been
trying to get made for over three years
specifically that pikachu plush so grab
it before it too
becomes a long lost internet mystery
i'll see you in the next one guys
Voir Plus de Vidéos Connexes
Game Theory: Buckshot Roulette's NEW ARG Is Unsolvable... For Now
Game Theory: Welcome To Your NIGHTMARE! (Garten of Banban Chapter 6)
Film Theory: I SOLVED The Book of Bill! (Gravity Falls)
MiSTer FPGA N64 Core Updates! Conker Freezing Fixed with a Patch
E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy Review
Open World & viel Zerstörung: Enshrouded ist nach Palworld gleich der nächste Spaß! - Test / Review
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)