GlaDOS, Aperture and the rest: How does it all tie up?

[Polaris]

I don't think ApSci weren't getting funding because the government diddn't want it, ApSci just wasn't very safe.

Mainly they had a psychotic boss (administer? is that what it's called?) who was dipped in radiation and went crazy

ApSci and Black Mesa were rivals for military budgets, according to business data Black Mesa was better.
Founder of ApSci, Cave Johnson was insane and suffered from mercurialism because he failed when he wanted to kill NAVY officials with mercury poison.

 

[ellimanest]

We really need to know when Portal Is set to make any reliable guesses. I don't think it took part after the renossance cascade.

Firstly, if the combine were already on earth, why would they not of destroyed the facility? It is not likely that GLaDOS is holding them at bay with defences, she probably doesn't have any. And if she was, would the combine simply leave it and forget about it, no. They would do whatever it took to get into the facility.

Secondly, the shot from outside. Perfect trees and car park, and the security booth is still fully intact. It is clearly not within any city, and should therfore be over run by all sorts of Xenian creatures. Again, it is highly unlikely that the place has turrets and what not guarding the place from the outside.

 

[Eagle555]

Hey, wait a sec. That's not the worst of ideas. Okay, what if Glados has a copy of some experimental 3D holographic software. She creates the G-Man. She doesn't have perfect control over his form- thus the funny way he speaks. This also explains his ability to appear in locked rooms and such. Gotta love the portal technology. If Glados is aboard the Borealis, then maybe she has power over the portals.

She talks a bout being the only thing standing between us and them. Well, through the HL series, who is the big person who has been standing between us and them? Freeman. And who "controls" Freeman? The G-Man. (ignoring the whole purple Vorti's thing). G-Man's ability to move Gordon around and such is due to Glados' power over the portal technology.

Hm. While I doubt that this is goign to be the real story, it certainly explains things rather nicely.

Plus, it would be in Aperture's best interest to mess up Black Mesa back in the day by giving them a sample to cause a resonance cascade to mess them all up. Maybe aperture didn't realize what the result of this would be.

Damn, this goes through and explains a lot actually.

In terms of technology, Aperture was a joke compared to Black Mesa. Black Mesa managed to create portals that were much better than Aperture's, and didn't end up creating an AI that was extremley faulty. So if Black Mesa had better technology than Aperture, surely they would have already developed something far better than a hologram. Also, it wouldn't make any sense for Aperture to develop hologram technology. They're competing for funding by racing to teleport something. If they don't get this funding, they're going to most likely collapse due to the lack of money. If this is the case, why spend money on creating a "g-man" like figure?

The G-man is also shown to be incredibly powerful. It took quite a large number of Vortigaunts to stall him, let alone stop him. You're telling me that a company which has created basic portal technology and a faulty AI is capable of also creating on of the most powerful characters in the Half Life Saga? Hell, the G-man managed to destroy the combine's hold on Earth in little over a week! Not to mention the fact that the Nihilanth seemed to reference the G-man (how would he know about the G-man if he was created by GLaDOS and on Earth?)

 

[Broklynite]

You know, I keep hearing people talk about how the BM portals were "better" than Aperture's. I still disagree. They weren't better- they simply were for a different use. A tank's engine can't be compared to a Porsche's engine, in terms of power, speed, etc. They both are for different purposes.

If you want a portal to take you from one place to the other on EARTH, Aperture's was superior. They had managed to come up with a device which was handheld. It was stable. The portals were found to be harmless. I mean, really harmless. Like, if you try to change the portal, you don't get cut into parts, but instead get shoved out. That's damn safe. It has no limit to the amount of matter you can put through it. It's long-term stable. The size is, I'm sure, directly related to the amount of power put into it or something. The fact is that Apertures portals were damned impressive in their own right. Did they have an accident with the Borealis? Yup. And Black Mesa had a resonance cascade. Which one affected humanity more?

But it's beyond that. They also had AI. Nobody else had that. From what we could see, the only two companies competing for the funding were Aperture and BM. You're telling me that the government would give all their money to the one and almost none to the other? I find that difficult to credit. What's more useful for the military?

Beyond that, keep in mind that these are all relative amounts of things. The Aperture facility, while nowhere in the same league of size as BM, was also quite large and sophisticated. Even if they only got 2 or 3 billion while BM got 20, that's still 2 or 3 billion.

Just had to put that in. BM's portals were unable to transport people within the same dimension, only between dimensions.

By the way, I was replaying HL 1 the other day and thought I shoudl point out a couple of other things.

First, my talking about the Gman as hologram and alll- I don't relaly believe it. I just think it's a fun theory to rake over the coals.

Second, there was holographic technology already. It existed in BM- I'd completely forgotten about the training regimen. Anyone remember that? The thing to train you in how to move and all used a hologram. So they did exist. They probably developed it. And that's another thing. BM had tons of projects they were working on, not just portals. Whereas Aperture was only a few things- portals, AI, and apparently military androids (Robot hell is a real place....still cracks me up).

 

[Eagle555]

You know, I keep hearing people talk about how the BM portals were "better" than Aperture's. I still disagree. They weren't better- they simply were for a different use. A tank's engine can't be compared to a Porsche's engine, in terms of power, speed, etc. They both are for different purposes.

If you want a portal to take you from one place to the other on EARTH, Aperture's was superior. They had managed to come up with a device which was handheld. It was stable. The portals were found to be harmless. I mean, really harmless. Like, if you try to change the portal, you don't get cut into parts, but instead get shoved out. That's damn safe. It has no limit to the amount of matter you can put through it. It's long-term stable. The size is, I'm sure, directly related to the amount of power put into it or something. The fact is that Apertures portals were damned impressive in their own right. Did they have an accident with the Borealis? Yup. And Black Mesa had a resonance cascade. Which one affected humanity more?

But it's beyond that. They also had AI. Nobody else had that. From what we could see, the only two companies competing for the funding were Aperture and BM. You're telling me that the government would give all their money to the one and almost none to the other? I find that difficult to credit. What's more useful for the military?

Beyond that, keep in mind that these are all relative amounts of things. The Aperture facility, while nowhere in the same league of size as BM, was also quite large and sophisticated. Even if they only got 2 or 3 billion while BM got 20, that's still 2 or 3 billion.

Just had to put that in. BM's portals were unable to transport people within the same dimension, only between dimensions.

By the way, I was replaying HL 1 the other day and thought I shoudl point out a couple of other things.

First, my talking about the Gman as hologram and alll- I don't relaly believe it. I just think it's a fun theory to rake over the coals.

Second, there was holographic technology already. It existed in BM- I'd completely forgotten about the training regimen. Anyone remember that? The thing to train you in how to move and all used a hologram. So they did exist. They probably developed it. And that's another thing. BM had tons of projects they were working on, not just portals. Whereas Aperture was only a few things- portals, AI, and apparently military androids (Robot hell is a real place....still cracks me up).

Aperture's flaw is that you'd have to set up the portal in two places, so the portal gun would have to be transferred over half the world before it became useful. We know that black mesa WERE working on local technology, just the RC stopped them before they got anywhere, meaning it had to be finished off in half life 2. This local teleportation is far superior, it can transfer large people, is stationary and much better for local teleportation.

Aperture didn't have a chance to have a major flaw, but GLaDOS did apparently go rampant on its own due to failure of the programmers, Black Mesa had a RC due to many external sources (theories still exist that Breen could have planned the RC with the combine, and the fact that the crystal which created the RC was delivered by the g-man, it does not seem like a simple fault).

 

[baboo00]

Portal Prelude

Play Portal prelude. It is a mod and it takes place while the humans are still in Aperture. At the end *SPOILERS!!!* GLaDOS "floods the Enrechment Center with a deadly neurotoxin" as mentioned in the original portal and kills everyone. Someone helps you outside, and in the little room next to the entry gate thing, the G-Man appears. It is epic. :thumbs: I think it is made by some of Portal's original creators, but I am not sure. It is hard, but original and worth playing. After you finish the tests, you get *MORE SPOILERS!* cake! And not just any cake, moist and delicious cake!

 

[baboo00]

GLaDOS did apparently go rampant on its own due to failure of the programmers.

The thing is, they made it so intelligent that it took complete control of Aperture.
Can't blame them for that. :E

 

[kupocake]

I think it is made by some of Portal's original creators, but I am not sure.

No, No and No.

 

[Broklynite]

It's pretty plainly spelled out on their website that they aren't official.

 

[Borealis]

The Aperture Science Enrichement Center is located in Cleveland Ohio as detailed by this schematic of the Borealis:

Black mesa scientists by the Borealis, fat chick girl....bscly

A GlaDOS is on board???

where did u get these?

 

[ChiliFan]

Aren't they some of the images on GlaDOS' screens in Portal?

Looking at this one:

There are some signatures and dates written at the top, one of which looks like 99/1/28. Presumably that means the Borealis was either being prepared for its voyage or being built on January 28th 1999.

 

[CombineHunter]

Aren't they some of the images on GlaDOS' screens in Portal?

Looking at this one:

There are some signatures and dates written at the top, one of which looks like 99/1/28. Presumably that means the Borealis was either being prepared for its voyage or being built on January 28th 1999.

But thats not how a date is written out.
If it was the 28th January 1999 it would be 28/01/99 or the American way 01/28/99

 

[Pyroxic]

To me it looks like '94, not '99.

Also, irrelevant kinda, maybe it's my crazy mind, but am I the only to notice this? |:

 

[CombineHunter]

To me it looks like '94, not '99.

Also, irrelevant kinda, maybe it's my crazy mind, but am I the only to notice this? |:

Yeah you are right i didnt notice it until you pointed it out it does look like 94 not 99.

 

[Broklynite]

Mmm. And to the right of the dates is obviously Valve having a joke (read it- Steam Steam Valve Steam Valve Valve, etc.). I wonder if this is meant to indicate that the blueprints are another red herring like Alan Shephard.

 

[Broklynite]

Hunh. For that matter, if you look directly south of the dates....does that say Loading Gun? Pardon my ignorance, but WTF is a loading gun? When does one use a gun to load something? Don't tell me it's used to load a gun, because then it would be Gun Loader.

 

[CombineHunter]

Mmm. And to the right of the dates is obviously Valve having a joke (read it- Steam Steam Valve Steam Valve Valve, etc.). I wonder if this is meant to indicate that the blueprints are another red herring like Alan Shephard.

Yeah i noticed that too.