Portal has to be after Combine Defeat

[CLASSIFIED]

All tech is combine based. The Portal gun reminds a little of the Gravity gun by the way it holds items in the air. Those blue walls that don't let some materials pass through are definitely the ones that the combine use. The torrents looks like an upgrade of the combines' ones. The energy balls are absolutely the same ones that the combine uses. Not to mention , the combine had a more advanced portal tech, and Judi was hunting the combine tech in HL2. There might be a connection between combine portal tech to the kind of very advanced portals we have in "Portal"

Black Mesa could have been rebuild or at least refunded. Others wise, Black Mesa was a secret no-body should have known about so they could not have rivals back then.

 

[Malfunction]

All the technology is not Combine based. The Portal Gun is unable to lift objects of any size, dissimilar to the Gravity Gun. The blue walls that don't allow portals to be shot through are not the ones the Combine used. The turrets in Portal look entirely different from the Combine turrets. The energy balls seem similar, but do not appear to be the same, at least not by my eyes. The Combine had far less advanced portal technology than Aperture did. Do you not remember in Half-Life 2, when it took extremely long for their own portal in the Citadel to warm up before its use? The portal technology present at Aperture is not only handheld, but it is instantaneous.


:/

 

[McGooTheWise]

All tech is combine based. The Portal gun reminds a little of the Gravity gun by the way it holds items in the air. Those blue walls that don't let some materials pass through are definitely the ones that the combine use. The torrents looks like an upgrade of the combines' ones. The energy balls are absolutely the same ones that the combine uses. Not to mention , the combine had a more advanced portal tech, and Judi was hunting the combine tech in HL2. There might be a connection between combine portal tech to the kind of very advanced portals we have in "Portal"

Black Mesa could have been rebuild or at least refunded. Others wise, Black Mesa was a secret no-body should have known about so they could not have rivals back then.

Excuse me for asking, but what do you mean by torrents?

Definitions of torrent on the Web:

• * downpour: a heavy rain
• * a violently fast stream of water (or other liquid); "the houses were swept away in the torrent"
• * flood: an overwhelming number or amount; "a flood of requests"; "a torrent of abuse"
• wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
  
• * BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer (P2P) communications protocol for file sharing. The protocol was designed in April 2001 and implemented in Summer 2002 by programmer Bram Cohen, and is now maintained by BitTorrent, Inc.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.torrent
  
• * Torrent is a TV Show on G4techTV Canada, that premiered April 6th, 2006, at 8pm ET/6pm PT. Torrent was originally hosted by Amber MacArthur, and is now hosted by Matt Harris. The show covers the best video podcasts and air selected clips and bits from shows such as Hak5* and commandN.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrent (TV series)
  
• * Torrent is a 1926 silent American film directed by an uncredited Monta Bell based on a novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez. It was released on February 26 1926 and stars Ricardo Cortez and Greta Garbo.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrent (1926 film)
  
• * Flow with high velocity and great turbulence.
• amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/browse

I think you meant turrets. ^^

And to respond, I think that someone else can explain this better than me, but I'm gonna do my damnedest to do it...

The things you mentioned were most likely devised by GLaDOS or Aperture before it's demise. See, GLaDOS took strong measures to make sure that "whatever's out there" didn't get inside the facility. We also know that the combine just improved on human tech, so Portal could be the day after the 7 hours war. The combine found aperture and got all these technologies and used them. They probably already has energy sockets, but the force fields look quite a bit different than aperture ones. Besides that the Aperture fields weren't force fields, merely confiscation fields. The turrets were probably take and improved upon by the combine to be less easy to tip over. I did notice that you could tip over Portal turrets by just bumping them, but Half-Life turrets had to be thrown, or hit with something to fall. They are also less easy to spot from around corners, as the laser on the portal turrets is a big giveaway.

 

[RangerMoose]

I think the "energy balls" you're referring to that are used in Portal as well as in HL2, even though they have the same behavior, are supposed to have nothing more in common than the model.

 

[Psychanalysis05%]

The energy ball similaries: Just let it go. Valve decided to use a stock model, nothing more.

And it would be easiest (and safest) to assume that by the end of Episode 1 at least, the Combie haven't found Aperture. If they had gottena hold of those portal gun blueprints... yeah, she shazbot would definately have hit the whirling blades of imminent destruction.

 

[Link]

I think you meant turrets. ^^

Unless he plays NS, in which case he may have meant turrents.

 

[Planetary]

I knew it! The Combine are inter-dimensional pirates! No wonder they invaded Earth!

 

[Andrew LB]

Portal couldn't take place after the combines destruction. Here is a screen shot of a projector in Portal referring to both companies, Black Mesa and Aperture Science in the present form.

I believe this also shows that the artificial intelligence (GLaDOS) is somehow associated with the Borialis in Episode 3.

 

[Psychanalysis05%]

For a start, the projection image in that photo isn't 'present', as it's pretty obvious due to evidence found throughout the game that it's set after the exploding of Black Mesa. That's an old projector left running its slideshow after years of abandonment.

Crazy long-living bulb in that thing though.

 

[Andrew LB]

You're probably right actually about it being after black mesa. I do think though that we'll encounter some sort of AI like GLaDOS in Episode 3 considering this thread about the Borealis and blueprints of the ship which mention GLaDOS.

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=132377

 

[Andrew LB]

GLaDOS says something like... I don't know what's going on up there... but I'm the only one between us and THEM.
The "them" probably refers to the Combine.

 

[Viperidae]

What says the Combine didn't capitalise on human ie Aperture's technology?

 

[Narvi]

Ahem. The gravity gun is human technology. Not Combine.

 

[Thesheep]

And the enrichment center has been in its current state of tech since the 1980's so portal technology was there, then.

 

[Grand Architect]

And the enrichment center has been in its current state of tech since the 1980's so portal technology was there, then.

Err no, maybe...

GLaDOS could have perfected the portal gun after cleansing the facility (remember she is still doing science). Those PC cases all over the place are at lest from the 90s if not later. Plus the LCD screens with the cake recipe I mean when did LCDs that size come out? In the final part of the game there are screen with flashing pictures, one of a cake date 4, July 2006. The way I see it, the AS employees most take pictures of their birthday cakes at the office parties as a kind of way to remember the party and this was the last one before GLaDOS killed off the staff.

I think Portal take place around just before HL2 to HL2EP2. On X-Play last night Gabe was interviewed and he stated that Chell is an important character in the HL universe and would meet up with the current known line up of characters. So I bet Chell will be talked about in some form in EP3.

edit:: added the cake image in my next post.

 

[Thesheep]

Spoiler

See the woman in the calendar. Shes lying on one of the raising platforms and it looks too similar to the current aperture science lab. Plus thats when, according to the aperturescience website, portal technology went well.

 

[alehm]

Portal couldn't take place after the combines destruction. Here is a screen shot of a projector in Portal referring to both companies, Black Mesa and Aperture Science in the present form.

I believe this also shows that the artificial intelligence (GLaDOS) is somehow associated with the Borialis in Episode 3.

Portal could definitly take place after the Black Mesa incident. At some point previous to your characters experience in Portal Glados went crazy and nerve gassed apparently most of the employees at Apeture. The slideshow that you show would have been what was happening on that particular day when people were gassed, not the same day you happened to escape.

The character you play is obviously awaken from some kind of state- other people had been awakened before you to be 'experimented' on by Glados obvious by the clues they left written on the walls. These experiments could have been going on for some unkown time.

 

[Grand Architect]

Spoiler

See the woman in the calendar. Shes lying on one of the raising platforms and it looks too similar to the current aperture science lab. Plus thats when, according to the aperturescience website, portal technology went well.

That picture is so out of place with the rest in the room. It's a cartoon women yet every other picture in that room is not of a cartoon. So I don't put any faith in that image at all.

This is the most recent date I've seen in the game, It has to take place after it.

 

[Thesheep]

Is it possible it was an apperture science person who went mad? That would explain where the powers of getting pictures of CC and the other things, like the calendar and the pictures of that man.

Could the man in those pics be CJ?
And yes I see what you say about the calendar being out of place but really, would a mad person really make a calendar just to put a pic of the cube over the face? I highly doubt it.

 

[Grand Architect]

Could the man in those pics be CJ?

He is.

"Our Founder"

 

[Thesheep]

That box behind his arm looks like a newer pc

 

[Crash Happy]

It's a theory that's wrong for lot's of reasons. The events in Portal do seem to take place at some point after the incident in BM though.

 

[Para]

One thing people don't seem to realize in these threads is that GLaDOS is a set of software running on a set of hardware. What happened in the end of Portal affected one set of hardware and one installation of software, but nothing says that there couldn't be other instances around. I mean, we all have our own personal installations of various Windows versions instead of just piece of software everyone uses simultaneously, right?

 

[Grand Architect]

^^ possible,

Spoiler

The borealis may very well have a GLaDOS of it's very own, but to say all versions have gained awareness is debatable IMHO. Plus GLaDOS was experimental to begin with and likely unique to that site.

 

[CLASSIFIED]

All the technology is not Combine based. The Portal Gun is unable to lift objects of any size, dissimilar to the Gravity Gun. The blue walls that don't allow portals to be shot through are not the ones the Combine used. The turrets in Portal look entirely different from the Combine turrets. The energy balls seem similar, but do not appear to be the same, at least not by my eyes. The Combine had far less advanced portal technology than Aperture did. Do you not remember in Half-Life 2, when it took extremely long for their own portal in the Citadel to warm up before its use? The portal technology present at Aperture is not only handheld, but it is instantaneous.


:/

It's pretty much does. The wall functions the same, it doesn't matter it looks different because it could have upgrade or done differently yet stolen from the same source. As GLAdos says "This Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid will vaporize any unauthorized equipment that passes through it - for instance, the Aperture Science Weighted Storage Cube." So maybe the combine's one is blocking human D.N.A, this one is blocking equipment (or vaporize it, again, like combine tech would). And save it, I'm not dumb, I know it clears the portals as that's its purpose in the game

If it wasn't inspired by combine tech then how come this tech is so similar to combines and is also very high. If humans were so advanced, more than the combines (look at the portal tech) how come we couldn't hold the combine? The world seems so primitive, and so for years of combine control, no-body actually knew about Aperture tech?

Yes the turrets look different, so? their design is different yet They are shielded, they also talk. Of course they point a laser, because it's part of the test.

Those are of course the very same Combine energy balls. Why would valve see any trouble designing something different if they wanted it to mean something else? that's because VALVe style is about the little details. They didn't just put it for no reason. It's not their style (anymore)

Those energy balls, look the same, act the same, sound the same and actually has the same purpose they have in Half=Life: to supply energy.
Make things work. If they were shot faster they would move faster.
They even "die out" the same way. It's more than a model, it's a total same. You gonna lie yourself denying this.

And of course it took a long time to warm up, we were back stabbed. Remember when the combine were making a huge portal to bring in reinforcements? when was it.. hmm EP1 and EP2. I don't think if their tech was that poor, they could have taken earth in 7 hour war. Honestly they aren't such a great warriors. All they really have is the advisers. It's their numbers and tech.

Excuse me for asking, but what do you mean by torrents?

Definitions of torrent on the Web:

• * downpour: a heavy rain
• * a violently fast stream of water (or other liquid); "the houses were swept away in the torrent"
• * flood: an overwhelming number or amount; "a flood of requests"; "a torrent of abuse"
• wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
  
• * BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer (P2P) communications protocol for file sharing. The protocol was designed in April 2001 and implemented in Summer 2002 by programmer Bram Cohen, and is now maintained by BitTorrent, Inc.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.torrent
  
• * Torrent is a TV Show on G4techTV Canada, that premiered April 6th, 2006, at 8pm ET/6pm PT. Torrent was originally hosted by Amber MacArthur, and is now hosted by Matt Harris. The show covers the best video podcasts and air selected clips and bits from shows such as Hak5* and commandN.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrent (TV series)
  
• * Torrent is a 1926 silent American film directed by an uncredited Monta Bell based on a novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez. It was released on February 26 1926 and stars Ricardo Cortez and Greta Garbo.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrent (1926 film)
  
• * Flow with high velocity and great turbulence.
• amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/browse

I think you meant turrets. ^^

And to respond, I think that someone else can explain this better than me, but I'm gonna do my damnedest to do it...

The things you mentioned were most likely devised by GLaDOS or Aperture before it's demise. See, GLaDOS took strong measures to make sure that "whatever's out there" didn't get inside the facility. We also know that the combine just improved on human tech, so Portal could be the day after the 7 hours war. The combine found aperture and got all these technologies and used them. They probably already has energy sockets, but the force fields look quite a bit different than aperture ones. Besides that the Aperture fields weren't force fields, merely confiscation fields. The turrets were probably take and improved upon by the combine to be less easy to tip over. I did notice that you could tip over Portal turrets by just bumping them, but Half-Life turrets had to be thrown, or hit with something to fall. They are also less easy to spot from around corners, as the laser on the portal turrets is a big giveaway.

Someone give this guy a cake.

Half-Life turrets are same. But I can't tell you this for sure because we didn't have any shooting weapons to find out how armored it is. However. They use the same AMMO the combine use, energy bullets.

By the way, I'm curious. It would make sense but where is it stated that Combine built their tech upon ours? (if so then again the big question is: how did we let the combine take earth with superior tech in our possession? however I could see how Dr. Breen would tell on Aperture as they are a rival company)

I think the "energy balls" you're referring to that are used in Portal as well as in HL2, even though they have the same behavior, are supposed to have nothing more in common than the model.

They are more than a model. If VALVe meant it to be something else they would make sure it would be different. Again, it's not their style anymore. They are trying to create some kind of a real world with meaningful details.

I knew it! The Combine are inter-dimensional pirates! No wonder they invaded Earth!

What do you mean invaded earth? what about the Iranian threat? what day is it today? what year?! where am I !?!!?!

Portal couldn't take place after the combines destruction. Here is a screen shot of a projector in Portal referring to both companies, Black Mesa and Aperture Science in the present form.

I believe this also shows that the artificial intelligence (GLaDOS) is somehow associated with the Borialis in Episode 3.

Maybe, At first I was sure it has to be after the combine were gone, now I doubt it since someone here replied that Newell said we will hear from Chell and since I haven't noticed before that Borealis also has the Aperture signs on it (cool! must.. hold.. ON... TILL... EPISODE.. ARGGG.. THREE!!!!)

Hmm maybe it happened before Black Mesa incident, and Aperture provided Black Mesa with the tech (we already know the g-man brought the crystal) to sabotage Black Mesa (and we do remember the technical problems in Black Mesa back then) and Aperture had a very advanced techs that the combine took advantage of.

Ahem. The gravity gun is human technology. Not Combine.

Yes, but it doesn't mean they couldn't steal the formula from Black Mesa East. Which reminded me by the way that Aperture, whenever it is.. Is probably at the U.S. Or else.. hmm what are the chances they were at Europe since the beginning (and G-man sent us there with this in mind)?

This could explain the presents of U.S personal in Europe. especially of Black Mesa workers .

And yes, the portal gun doesn't function like the gravity gun. It doesn't pull things to you then throw them away. But it does hold Items in the air just like the gravity gun. The portal gun already has enough functions. Grabbing objects is a little addon it has to it. And if you don't believe me, press E to pick up an object WITH the portal gun. Notice it's still infront of you (unlike HL2 gameplay which suggests your hands are busy)

 

[Andrew LB]

The combine are definitely not gone since GLaDOS says that she is "the only thing between US and THEM".

More than likely, GLaDOS gassed and killed the Aperture Science employees over time and developed through it's artificial intelligence the portal gun while being alone all those years.

If you play Portal with the developer commentary, when you enter the final battle there is a comment box next to the desk under GLaDOS where the developers talk about the red phone being for making a call to shut down GLaDOS if it becomes self aware. Obviously that didn't work because it became self aware and everyone got killed.

... well. Except for those people the computer decided to use as human lab rats.


"I'm doing science and I'm still alive".

 

[alehm]

One thing people don't seem to realize in these threads is that GLaDOS is a set of software running on a set of hardware. What happened in the end of Portal affected one set of hardware and one installation of software, but nothing says that there couldn't be other instances around. I mean, we all have our own personal installations of various Windows versions instead of just piece of software everyone uses simultaneously, right?

But if your Windows suddenly gained awareness it might want to replicate itself or update other versions to be like itself for preservation you think? Think of it as 'cyber sex'

 

[Viperidae]

My point was that as the Combine steal technology from every race they encounter (hence their freaking name), what's to say that the designs of the turrets and the energy balls weren't stolen from Aperture? Surely some of their technology was actually used by the US government outside of the facility, which seemed to have remained hidden from the Combine.

I wonder if the Portal storms are what messed GLaDOS up.

EDIT: Mostly what Classified said.

 

[ríomhaire]

So it's impossible for human scientists to invent dark energy tech without stealing it from the Combine?

 

[Ennui]

My point was that as the Combine steal technology from every race they encounter (hence their freaking name), what's to say that the designs of the turrets and the energy balls weren't stolen from Aperture? Surely some of their technology was actually used by the US government outside of the facility, which seemed to have remained hidden from the Combine.

I wonder if the Portal storms are what messed GLaDOS up.

EDIT: Mostly what Classified said.

The Combine have not taken anything from Aperture, it's impossible. Here are a few reasons:

1) The Combine arrive on Earth when all of the Citadels sort of appear/embed themselves in the middle of huge cities. These Citadels are largely powered (as we saw in the end of HL2 and some of Ep1) by those very energy balls. Since this is the first time we know they were on Earth, they couldn't have stolen the tech.

2) The Aperture teleportation technology is vastly superior to anything the Combine have. If they had stolen it, the storyline of HL would not work because the Combine teleporters would be much better.

 

[Crash Happy]

I think it's a stretch to say that the ASL teleporters are vastly superiour. Certainly humanity (both BM and AS) has been dealing with some theories that appear to exceed the Combines grasp. The test centre though is designed to operate within the contraints impossed by the testing procedure which means that it's actualy difficult to accurately judge the technology other than within those parameters.

 

[Acepilotf14]

1: AS is far away from the Combine, and currently NO ONE knows about the Portal tech other than GLaDOS.
2: GLaDOS is, very likely, on the BOREALIS as well. Here's proof.

 

[Crash Happy]

Isn't that proof it designed the ship rather than being on it? Show me part of the plan that says 'GLaDOS lives here'.

 

[Andrew LB]

Isn't that proof it designed the ship rather than being on it? Show me part of the plan that says 'GLaDOS lives here'.

It's right here on a slide which was being shown in a meeting room at Aperture Science. Note the use of the project, the inclusion of GLaDOS, and how at the bottom it specifically says "arguably alive".

 

[Grand Architect]

1: AS is far away from the Combine, and currently NO ONE knows about the Portal tech other than GLaDOS.
2: GLaDOS is, very likely, on the BOREALIS as well. Here's proof.

just for a peek

Spoiler

 

[Acepilotf14]

lul, at the bottom right of the second pic, it says;

boiler stop valve
G.S. ---- steam to -----
steam to superheater
and so on..
Oh Valve, you and your easter eggs.

 

[Tweek]

OOh ooh my turn to have a stab at the conspiracy theories.

The "combine energy balls" could be from a third race the combine have conquered in recent decades. As someone said they obviously arn't human tech based on the fact that at the time HL1 we are running on standard "year 2000" tech with the exception of a few secret developments in teleportation, computer AI? and shower curtains o.0 which arn't known about by the general population.

How does this affect... well anything? Hmm, I guess its pretty irrelevant but it might explain why the combine seem so advanced in some areas but totally dumb in others. They may not totally understand everything they use and are to busy conquering to make new advancements.

Also we know the G-Man is helping us, I think it would be premature to say he has Earth's best interest in mind but assuming hes preparing Earth against the combine to either fight them directly or to stall them/weaken them enough to mount some kind of behind the scenes attack, its possible that the G-Man arranged to have the plans for such an energy source find its way in the Apertures hands.

This is of course assuming we're not simply reading to much into it. I'm fairly new to this whole Valve community but it makes since that valve would use something familiar to base its puzzles on. Like the turrets, its not cool to second guess the story based on the gameplay design but lets face it, the reason those turrets have lazers is to show off the cool new portal technology and to help aim the portals for energy ball redirection

Anyway, there seems to be more evidence both in game and given by valve to suggest the game happends around the time of the episodes (or at least between HL1 and HL2:Ep3), I mean sure GLaDOS cut the wire on the red phone and gased the facility but no one from outside has attempted to come and shut down GLaDOS or free the prisoners, which sorta leaves one to think thay are otherwise occupied with the combine. However thats a weak argument since by that point everyone who knew is probably dead or may have just simply forgot, something in the water prehaps .

Yes I'm rambling, thinking out loud (text loud) I guess, gotta do something while bored at work. I wonder if old mate the G-Man played a part in keeping the enrichment center hidden all this time, hmmm

 

[Psychanalysis05%]

Take another look at those blueprints.
Pieces of note:
MATERIAL EMANCIPATION GRID

UNSTATIONARY SCAFFOLD


Familiar?

Also, the GLaDOS note just seems to be an OS watermark, like if an Excel spreadsheet were to carry 'Microsoft' on the footer.

 

[Narvi]

You know, dark energy balls aren't restricted to the Combine. It's not like the wheel is restricted to the Stone Age, after all.

 

[Logic]

As I was playing through Portal the first time, my first thought when GLaDOS started glitching was "Wow, I might be stuck in some testing lab within the citadel, right as Gordon is starting to tear the place up."

I was almost a little disappointed that that wasn't the case, though it will be very interesting to see how it all ties together.