Aperture Laboratories
From Combine OverWiki, the Half-Life Wiki
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| Aperture Laboratories | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Location | |
| Usage | |
| Era(s) | |
| Affiliation | |
| Game information | |
| Map(s) |
any Portal map |
| Designer(s) |
Jeremy Bennett (concept art) |
The Aperture Laboratories are the headquarters of Aperture Science and the main location for Portal. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA,[1] the facility is monitored by the computer GLaDOS. Parts of the place were damaged when GLaDOS was "destroyed".
Contents |
[edit] Overview
[edit] Enrichment Center
The facility is used to test one of Aperture Science's most successful achievements, the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center, or simply Enrichment Center.
[edit] Test Chambers
The Enrichment Center contains numerous "Test Chambers" where test subjects are trained to perform simple to complicated tasks with the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. The tests are monitored by GLaDOS and security cameras. Aperture Science scientists can watch the tests in small offices spread around the test chambers. GLaDOS once filled most of the center with a deadly neurotoxin, leading to her Morality Core being added.
A notable feature among the Test Chambers is the stark atmosphere. All of the walls and floors are a plain gray, and the overall feeling is one of a clinic or clean room. This motif continues until Chell escapes, at which point the atmosphere becomes dark and foreboding while Chell navigates through the innards of the Enrichment Center. The known Test Chambers range from Test Chamber 00 to 19.
[edit] Maintenance areas
These areas are in a very bad condition, suggesting they have been abandoned for a while. There can be seen tube network (with sometimes broken tubes) that brings the Weighted Companion Cube and Weighted Storage Cubes into the Test Chambers, elevators bringing the Sentry Turrets and other machinery.
During her tests and then her escape, Chell also came across Rat Man dens while going through the maintenance areas.
[edit] Offices
The offices are rooms that the Aperture Science staff used to watch test subjects executing their task in the Test Chambers. They contain chairs and computers and seem to have been last used long ago. Computers seem to be stuck into some sort of loop, some are disconnected, their cases open, and several chairs are knocked over. Clipboards and empty cups are scattered on the desks. Other offices contain projection rooms where a slideshow called "Dollar$ and SENSE: Competing with BLACK MESA" can be seen twice.
It is currently unknown if the Test Chambers offices were still used after GLaDOS was created.
[edit] GLaDOS's room
GLaDOS is stored in a big room with a small amount of computers, hanging from the middle of the ceiling.
[edit] Trivia
- The projectors used for the "Dollar$ and SENSE" slideshow appear to be based on the model LC-XT1 by the Eiki company. The texture file includes a remote not seen in-game.
- One of the ambient sounds heard in the Test Chambers is recycled from one of the Ravenholm's.
[edit] Gallery
[edit] Concept art
 Cake poster. |
 GLaDOS' room. |
 Ditto. |
 GLaDOS detail. |
 GLaDOS detail. |
 GLaDOS detail, with Chell. |
[edit] Pre-release screenshots
 Early puzzles. |
 Ditto. |
 Ditto. |
 Early Test Chamber 00 with placeholder props. |
 The early Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device and Weighted Companion Cube. |
[edit] Retail screenshots
 Test Chamber 00. |
 Test Chamber 01. |
 Test Chamber 02. |
 Test Chamber 03. |
 Test Chamber 04. |
 Chell in Test Chamber 04. |
 Test Chamber 05. |
 Test Chamber 06. |
 Test Chamber 07. |
 Test Chamber 08. |
 Test Chamber 09. |
 Test Chamber 10. |
 The enhanced Portal Gun in Test Chamber 11. |
 Test Chamber 12. |
 Test Chamber 13. |
 Test Chamber 14. |
 Test Chamber 15. |
 Turrets in Test Chamber 16. |
 Rat Man's den near Test Chamber 16. |
 Test Chamber 17. |
 Test Chamber 17. |
 Ditto. |
 The furnace waiting for the Companion Cube in Test Chamber 17. |
 Rat Man's den near Test Chamber 17. |
 Test Chamber 18. |
 Ditto. |
 Test Chamber 19. |
 Signs indicating that after Test Chamber 19 comes the exit and cake. |
 The furnace right after the signs. |
 Typical maintenance area at the end of Test Chamber 19. |
 Typical messy, decaying Enrichment Center office. |
 Typical maintenance area. |
 Ditto. |
 Desk and red telephone in GLaDOS' room. |
 GLaDOS in her room. |
 Ditto. |
 Ditto. |
 The Rocket Sentry. |
 GLaDOS is destroyed. |
 Ditto. |
 The remains of GLaDOS near Aperture Laboratories' entrance. |
 Typical maintenance area of the Aperture Laboratories. |
 The cake. |
 The cake in GLaDOS' room. |
 Unused wet floor sign, humorously referencing the film 300, and the infamous meme "This is Sparta!". While not model exists, the texture file is located in the folder "props_facemovie". |
 Clipboard texture. |
 Clipboard texture for a failed subject, apparently a chicken. |
 Radio model, set on 85.2 FM. |
[edit] List of appearances
- ApertureScience.com (First appearance)
- Portal
[edit] References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 As seen on Borealis blueprints in the Episode Two files.
