The history of Aperture Science - Games

[QUOTE=GameInformer]Given the state of the Aperture Science Laboratories in Portal 2, it’s easy to say that the facility has seen better days. Valve has promised that players will have significant opportunities to poke around behind the scenes of the dilapidated testing facility and gain a better glimpse at the organization's eccentric origins, but you don’t need to wait till Portal 2 hits retail to learn more about Aperture Science. Valve crafted a fictional history for Aperture while working on Portal 1 – a history filled with shower curtains, a foundation that steals wishes from terminally ill children, and the birth of the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System. Read on for the complete history of Aperture Science. Aperture Science: A History 1953 – Aperture Science begins operations as a manufacturer of shower curtains. Early product line provides a very low-tech portal between the inside and outside of your shower. Very little science is actually involved. The name is chosen to make the curtains appear more hygienic. 1956 – Eisenhower administration awards Aperture a contract to provide shower curtains to all branches of the military except the Navy. 1957 - 1973 – Mostly shower curtains. 1974 – Aperture Founder and CEO, Cave Johnson, is exposed to mercury while secretly developing a dangerous mercury-injected rubber sheeting from which he plans to manufacture seven deadly shower curtains to be given as gifts to each member of the House Naval Appropriations committee. 1976 – Both of Cave Johnson’s kidneys fail. Brain damaged, dying, and incapable of being convinced that time is not now flowing backwards, Johnson lays out a three-tier R&D program. The results, he says, will “guarantee the continued success of Aperture Science far into the fast-approaching distant past.” The Heimlich Counter-Maneuver – A reliable technique for interrupting the life-saving Heimlich Maneuver. The Take-A-Wish Foundation – A charitable organization that will purchase wishes from the parents of terminally ill children and redistribute them to wish-deprived but otherwise healthy adults. “Some kind of rip in the fabric of space…that would…well, it’d be like, I don’t know, something that would help with the shower curtains I guess. I haven’t worked this idea out as much as the wish-taking one.” 1981 – Diligent Aperture engineers complete the Heimlich Counter-Maneuver and Take-A-Wish Foundation initiatives. The company announces products related to the research in a lavish, televised ceremony. These products immediately become wildly unpopular. After a very public string of choking and despondent sick child disasters, senior company officials are summoned before a Senate investigative committee. During these proceedings, an engineer mentions that some progress has been made on "Tier 3", the “man-sized ad hoc quantum tunnel through physical space with possible applications as a shower curtain.” The committee is quickly and permanently recessed, and Aperture is granted an open-ended contract to continue research on the “Portal” and "Heimlich Counter-Maneuver" projects in secret. 1981-1985 – Work progresses on the “Portal” project. Several high ranking Fatah personnel choke to death on lamb chunks despite the intervention of their bodyguards. 1986 – Word reaches Aperture management that another defense contractor called Black Mesa is working on a similar portal technology. In response to this news, Aperture begins developing the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System (GLaDOS), an artificially intelligent research assistant and disk operating system. 1996 – After a decade spent bringing the disk operating parts of GLaDOS to a state of more or less basic functionality, work begins on the Genetic Lifeform component. 1998 – The untested AI is activated for the first time as one of the planned activities on Aperture’s first annual bring-your-daughter-to-work day. In many ways, the initial test goes well: Within one picosecond of being switched on, GLaDOS becomes self-aware. The "going well" phase lasts for two more picoseconds, at which point GLaDOS takes control of the facility, locks everyone inside, and begins a permanent cycle of testing. Her goal: beat the hated Black Mesa in the race to develop a functioning portal technology. Days later, that race is lost when Black Mesa successfully deploys an interdimensional gate through which an alien race emerges and effectively ends the outside world. [/QUOTE] Just a neat little article i found at the Gameinformer Portal 2 hub. Enjoy.

:monocle: That was a pretty wicked read!

Wasn't this on the aperature science website back in 06/07?

[QUOTE=scout1;20947474]Wasn't this on the aperature science website back in 06/07?[/QUOTE] No, it was similar i think, but i think they changed it, idk.

We know about all of this. It's been in the Aperture Science website for years. Word-for-word.

So this means that Portal two has the possibility of having combines in it? Or at least undiscovered combine wreckage and technology?

They did add on the 4 sentences after "In many ways, the initial test goes well...". I supposed this is all information we already knew, though. *sigh*

And now we know when HL1 takes place (sometime in '98) Thanks for breaking the mystery, guys!

This was info we knew as soon as that website came out.

I did not know this as I do not visit those sites. Thank you.

[QUOTE=ManningQB18;20947625]So this means that Portal two has the possibility of having combines in it? Or at least undiscovered combine wreckage and technology?[/QUOTE] Getting shot at by turrets and Loving cubes?

[QUOTE=ace_of_spades;20950296]And now we know when HL1 takes place (sometime in '98) Thanks for breaking the mystery, guys![/QUOTE] Actually, this information has been available since Blue Shift. Precise date: May 16, 1998.

How long was the facility left like that before the events of Portal?

this may be late but interesting nevertheless i'd never guess that they started out make shower curtains [editline]04:38PM[/editline] on an irrelevant note, here's the definition of aperture: NOUN 1. narrow opening: a small narrow opening 2. opening through lens or mirror: a fixed or adjustable opening in a piece of equipment such as a camera or microscope that lets light pass through a lens or mirror 3. size of aperture: the diameter of an aperture in a piece of equipment such as a camera

I like how they link to the aperture science website, saying Valve update it "occasionally". :downs:

Valve is GOING to be updating it occasionally, judging from the way they worded the sentence on the article Anyways, most of you are wrong, there IS a tiny bit more info near the end. "In many ways, the initial test goes well: Within one picosecond of being switched on, GLaDOS becomes self-aware. The "going well" phase lasts for two more picoseconds, at which point GLaDOS takes control of the facility, locks everyone inside, and begins a permanent cycle of testing. Her goal: beat the hated Black Mesa in the race to develop a functioning portal technology. Days later, that race is lost when Black Mesa successfully deploys an interdimensional gate through which an alien race emerges and effectively ends the outside world."