[Spoilers] Timeline of events

[ríomhaire]

I do not claim to know everything. If you make a logical and objective debate with canon evidence that I find convincing enough I will change this.

Assumptions: I'm going to ignore the 3 Tier/Gameinformer timeline because Portal 2 has proved almost all of it wrong anyway. I will also be assuming that GlaDOS take over the Aperture Labs shortly before the Black Mesa Incident, which is why no rescue or investigation occurred or at least succeeded. I've heard that this has been official confirmed by Erik has confirmed this though I haven't seen the confirmation myself.

1940s – Cave Johnson uses his shower curtain money to buy a disused salt mine in Michigan and builds the first enrichment centre.

1940s and 1950s – Aperture Science develops first portal device. Test participants are astronauts, Olympians and the best of the best. Receives runner up award from Department of Defence behind Black Mesa.

1970s – Aperture falling on hard times pays bums and hobos $60 to perform tests. Also possibly the timeframe in which the Borealis test vessel was constructed and vansihed.

1980s – Aperture begins forcing staff to act as test subjects. Also (judging from the banner they use) the beginning of Aperture holding Bring Your Daughter to Work Days. Cave Johnson dying of lunar dust/conversion gel poisoning orders the scientists to work on the copying of a human mind into a computer.

1990s - 200X – Aperture scientists continue working on the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System and Caroline's mind is copied/transferred into it. It attempts to kill everyone in the facility every time they turn it on. After it attempts to flood the Enrichment Centre with a deadly neurotoxin they install a morality core to stop it flooding the Enrichment Centre with a deadly neurotoxin.

March 200X – The Hazardous Environment Combat Unit is trained for a mission to the Black Mesa Research Facility. They are not told the nature of the mission.

May 5th to 15th 200X – Gordon Freeman begins his employment at the Black Mesa Research Facility.

Unknown date* 200X – Other than some hostility against cats, GLaDOS appears to have calmed down. They decide to have an official unveiling at the Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. GLaDOS takes over the facility and captures or kills all of the staff and the daughters, including Chell. Shortly afterwards the Black Mesa Incident occurs, prevent rescue or investigation.
*Possibly December judging from the in-game calenders in Half-Life.

2010s - 2020s – The events of Portal occur.

2010s or 2020s – The events of Half-Life 2 and Episodes occur.

Years later – Portal 2 occurs.

 

[Sloth]

Do we have any rough date on when Cave dies? I assume its around the mid 1980s but I'm not sure...

 

[ríomhaire]

I think his lemons rant was in an 80s test chamber so he probably didn't last long after that.

 

[Durango Doug]

2 Things. First where is Aperature located? From what I learned in the second game it seems to be set in Michigan but the wiki says its set in Ohio. If Michigan isnt HQ might be interesting to have a game set there.

Also where did you learn this?

March 200X – The Hazardous Environment Combat Unit is told to be in a state of readiness about a possible mission to the Black Mesa Research Facility. They are not told the nature of the mission

 

[ríomhaire]

2 Things. First where is Aperature located? From what I learned in the second game it seems to be set in Michigan but the wiki says its set in Ohio. If Michigan isnt HQ might be interesting to have a game set there.

The plans for the Borealis as found in the Episode Two files give an address for Aperture Science in Ohio (bottom right, above the word BOREALIS). The Michigan thing is from this newspaper seen in Portal 2. It's possible that Aperture just have an office in Ohio or that the facility is large enough to span two states given how bloody enormous it is.

Also where did you learn this?

Opposing Force manual. Read Adrian's diary entries scribbled on various pages. (Some of them go off the page but you can highlight them and copy-paste them to a different programme to see the hidden writting). I've slightly edited that part of the post too. What I said was slightly incorrect.

 

[Godron]

Didn't Cave Johnson die of mercury poisoning after developing seven deadly mercury-infused shower curtains to be sent to some government officials he didn't like? It was on www.aperturescience.com, back when there was that command-prompt thing, before it got replaced with the holiday vault camera feed. You had to log in with Cave Johnson's username and password (found on a wall in Portal 1), then there were some notes you could read about Aperture's history. Now it seems he died of eating ground up moon rocks. Does this mean we can't trust anything from aperturescience.com anymore?

 

[ríomhaire]

Didn't Cave Johnson die of mercury poisoning after developing seven deadly mercury-infused shower curtains to be sent to some government officials he didn't like? It was on www.aperturescience.com, back when there was that command-prompt thing, before it got replaced with the holiday vault camera feed. You had to log in with Cave Johnson's username and password (found on a wall in Portal 1), then there were some notes you could read about Aperture's history. Now it seems he died of eating ground up moon rocks. Does this mean we can't trust anything from aperturescience.com anymore?

Yes pretty much everything on it was contradicted in Portal 2. According to that site they were just a shower manufacturing company until Cave died in the 70s. In Portal 2 the first portal device was invented in the 50s and Cave died in the 80s. It's pretty much all wrong except that Cave did apparently make his cash from shower curtains (there's an award for it in the display cabinet).

 

[Lobster]

You could say the infomation given on aperturescience.com was the official statement given to the goverment or the public, but that the actual events were very different, they are a pretty secretive organisation afterall.

 

[Shakermaker]

You could say the infomation given on aperturescience.com was the official statement given to the goverment or the public, but that the actual events were very different, they are a pretty secretive organisation afterall.

Not that secretive.

 

[Tony]

They seemed to be a little more public in the 50's, hiring astronauts, athletes, and all. Cave mentions to the 70's test subjects that they might recognize Aperture from a missing astronauts case in '68. After the controversy, it looks like they became more secretive. You start seeing posters warning employees to watch out for any investigators or law personal the 70's test chambers as well.

 

[The Monkey]

Oh, so all that putting discs in the computer in the co-op is to restore Glados' systems?

 

[susko]

Question, how do we know that the portal gun was invented that early, the white gel for portals was in the 70s chambers if I remember correctly. Also curiously we know very little as far as early portal guns go.

 

[ríomhaire]

Question, how do we know that the portal gun was invented that early, the white gel for portals was in the 70s chambers if I remember correctly. Also curiously we know very little as far as early portal guns go.

There's a sign outside the first 50s test chamber reminding you to carry the Aperture Science Quantum Tunnelling Device.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Oh, so all that putting discs in the computer in the co-op is to restore Glados' systems?

It's to connect her systems to the old Enrichment Centre.

Question, how do we know that the portal gun was invented that early, the white gel for portals was in the 70s chambers if I remember correctly. Also curiously we know very little as far as early portal guns go.

I couldn't actually catch it on my second playthrough, but I think at some point either Cave says it or it says somewhere that all Aperture tests need an Aperture Handheld Portal Device to be solvable. Irregardless, without one, they are unsolvable.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

There's a sign outside the first 50s test chamber reminding you to carry the Aperture Science Quantum Tunnelling Device.

Does anyone find it odd it looks similar to the Gluon Gun in the 50's pic?

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Does anyone find it odd it looks similar to the Gluon Gun in the 50's pic?

"Black Mesa can kiss my bankrupt..."

 

[The Monkey]

I read somewhere (think it was Wikipedia) that the co-op takes place after the single-player mission. If that is the case, why does she want the robots to locate and "rescue" the humans, when she said to Chell that she doesn't need human test subjects anymore?

 

[IronicBob]

I think it was because she wasn't enjoying testing with the robots as much because they couldn't die.

 

[cjohnson]

She hints at it throughout - at one point questioning if it's even science.

 

[Lanthanide]

GLaDOS' idea of science seems to be people dying.

It's not clear what her 'test chambers' are really for anyway. The portal device obviously works. It seems that all she can be testing is the subjects ingenuity and ability to think 'outside the square'. Seems like an expensive way to do an IQ test really. Maybe she's also testing the turrets, buttons, light bridges etc, but again they all clearly work, and you don't need free-form tests for these sorts of things to prove they work, tedious laboratory work is more efficient and effective.

 

[cjohnson]

It's because she has an "itch" to test. Have you nopt played through Portal 2?

 

[Lanthanide]

Yes, I have played through Portal 2. Why does she need elaborate test chambers in which people can die. Surely she would get more useful "testing" done in a lab setting. That's how we do it in real life after all.

 

[Tunnelsnake]

Does anyone find it odd it looks similar to the Gluon Gun in the 50's pic?

I was thinking that the first time I saw it, but it probably has no significance.

 

[Mogi67]

Yes, I have played through Portal 2. Why does she need elaborate test chambers in which people can die. Surely she would get more useful "testing" done in a lab setting. That's how we do it in real life after all.

It's more satisfying to her. Plus there wouldn't be a need for a game