While I was playing through Portal again, the internet ablaze with Valve rumors, I recalled e-mailing John Guthrie, who used to run a popular site called Quake Command way back featuring the Quake mods he and his friend had made. There was an update one day that said he and his friend had been offered jobs by a company called Valve and that they were putting Quake Command on hold, which bummed me out, and I sent the e-mail asking if they'd ever go back to it. The response I received was "Maybe, if this Half-Life thing doesn't pan out."
Incredibly, their personal page on Valve's site still exists, along with the very rough, early footage of Half-Life I remember looking at before all the magazines started going nuts with coverage. Also here's the first bit of real promotional material I remember seeing. It's probably a good thing it got pushed back another year after that.
-K.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Thursday Morning Video: Very Early Half-Life Footage
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Still Alive (Updated)
Valve issued a patch to Portal last night that I had simply assumed was just another patch for all Source games that happens every so often, but later I came across a story detailing that the patch notes contained a single sentence reading "Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations." The patch also added an achievement titled "Transmission Received." Loading up the game you'll now find 26 radios scattered throughout the levels, when you pick one up and take it to a specific location the tune playing will change to a Morse code transmission. Clever people on the internet have already begun decoding the messages and finding strange images contained within the sound files. Possibly the most interesting development is that the hidden messages contain a phone number based in Kirkland, Washington, where Valve was founded, and connected to that number is an old school BBS, prompting for a GLaDOS login and password. Contained within the BBS are documents related to Aperture Science experiments and internal memos.
Current speculation is that this is all just a tease leading up to an official announcement of Valve's next game set in the Half-Life universe, likely Portal 2 or Episode 3, possibly both.
At the very least it's an excuse to play through Portal once again, this time with a funky new radio-finding minigame on top of it. Neat stuff, go Valve.
UPDATE: It appears Valve has released a second patch that very slightly alters the ending of the game, which you can view here if you don't wish to play through it again.
-K.