Have those radios really been there for 5 years?

[Boksha]

In preparation of playing Portal 2, I decided to do another playthrough of the first game, only to find that there's a pre-activated radio added to every damn test chamber in the game apparently, loud enough to be audible from pretty much every corner of the area.

After some research, I've found that this was added 5 years ago, and people have been asking for a way to permanently remove the extra radios since then, and they're still there. This was a promo for Portal 2, which has been around for 4 years itself. Why the hell are these radios still there with no option to get rid of them? I know you can completely get rid of the muzak version of Still Alive by replacing the audio file with an empty one, or use console commands to destroy every single radio, but this removes the song everywhere, even in the places where it was supposed to be playing in the original version of the game, like when you pick a radio up. The radios were there for a reason and originally added to the game instead of pissing all over it.

I've tried going to offline mode, disabling the Steam cloud, removing pretty much every configuration file associated with Portal, even emptying configuration files and setting them to read-only but the radios are still there blaring their noise over the rest of the game's audio everywhere I go.

Needless to say, I'm not happy with this whole situation.

Is there any way to get rid of the extra radios? Not get rid of all radios altogether or get rid of the audio file: I just want the game to be back to normal the way I paid for it, and the way it was originally designed before someone had the brilliant idea of implementing a permanent April fool's joke.

[Calmly Frenetic]

In the old forum thread, Any way to disable the radios for Transmission Received?, we found a way to temporarily remove all the extra radios, and I just updated it after testing again.
It will allow you to play as though you have no achievements yet, but you can still start a new game from any chapter.


EDIT: Updated details of how to remove the radios, and also change the music, can now be found in this guide:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=432359161

[Boksha]

I already tried that yesterday, and it didn't work; the radios still show up even after deleting the mentioned files in Offline Mode.
However, I did notice that when I started Steam about 30 minutes ago, I got the option to start in Offline Mode straight away (as opposed to the "Restart in Offline Mode" option you get after starting in regular Online Mode) and with all the files I had already deleted (or well, moved out of my Steam folder), then the radios stopped showing up. After a little more experimenting, I found this to be the only way I could get it to work (additions marked in bold)

Originally posted by Calmly Frenetic:

First, set Steam to Offline mode.

Exit Steam completely, either by right clicking the icon and choosing Exit, or by choosing Exit from the File menu.

Then, rename these two files:

...\Steam\SteamApps\common\portal\portal\gamestate.txt
...\Steam\appcache\stats\UserGameStats_<numerical user ID>_400.bin

(A simple way is to add a .bak extension (backup) to the end of the filename.)

Start Steam. When prompted, choose START IN OFFLINE MODE.

Finally, play the game, with no extra radios.

To return to normal:
- Delete the two files that have been recreated in place of the ones you renamed.
- Rename the two backup files back to the original filenames (remove the .bak extension).
- Set Steam to Online mode.
(Alternatively, just switch back to Online Mode and Steam will ask you if you want to synchronize with the cloud; I figure it's perfectly safe to just delete the files instead of renaming them as well, since they're stored online anyway, but I guess it's better to be safe than sorry)

There is no need to change any Steam Cloud settings.

So now it finally works; the extra radios are gone, and the old radios are back to their original volume. (it turns out the update also cranked up the volume of the newly red-lighted radios by a huge factor... eeeeesh) I think it's bizarre Valve thought making Eternal Obnoxious Muzak Mode so hard to disable (seems they intended for it to be impossible) would be a great idea.

Anyway, looks like I'll get to play the game properly this sunday afternoon. Thanks a ton for your time and setting me on the right path!

[Calmly Frenetic]

Thanks for finally sorting this out! I've updated my original post with your additions.

I still recommend renaming rather than deleting files, because Steam Cloud may not keep track of progress toward achievements such as Transmission Received.

[Jables]

Shouldn't be that loud..