MINERVA: Episodic, Single-Player Half-Life 2

Orthomyxoviridae -

Please excuse the recent silence - it appears that my pathetic, feeble frame of meat and bone has been subverted once again by another crude bundle of nucleic material. And lo, the virus did go forth and multiply, reprogramming my cellular protein manufacturing systems towards its own, mindless schemes...

Yep, I'm using the "sorry, I'm ill" excuse again. I'd cough up another nice lump of phlegm to illustrate its reality, but you'd probably all complain.

So instead, in the spirit of ARGs and digital archaeology, I've produced an intriguing little file which you dear Acolytes might love to get your teeth into. A little owl tells me that it might contain actual high-quality screenshots of publicly unseen parts of MINERVA - although time and incompetence has rendered them into a truly archaic format.

So, ladies, gentlemen and undecideds, please ready your hex editors - and have fun!

Oh, and this merry little wild goose chase took about half an hour to make, so no complaining about me getting distracted... ;-)

Article Comments (now closed)

inomine's gravatar

1. Argh!

Posted by inomine at 3:50PM, Monday April 23 2007

:cries

SkUrRiEr's gravatar

2. Congratulations

Posted by SkUrRiEr at 4:49PM, Monday April 23 2007

Thanks Adam for wasting those two hours as I attempted to view of those images. =)

For those playing at home, version 4 of the pertinent software doesn't work properly with version 2.06 of the other pertinent software, at least for me. (however I'd love to be enlightened as to the right way to do all this)

Adam, you are crazy and wonderful and I love your work.

Oh, and from the small glimpse I obtained, I *cannot* wait. - I need more MINERVA more than I need a Wiimote to play it with =) (and to hack with of course)

SkUrRiEr

Kage's gravatar

3. Archaic Format

Posted by Kage at 8:46PM, Monday April 23 2007

I have six files in front of me, but no way to open them. I've been fooling around with this for the last hour. I feel like I could do this all day, but it's finals week and I have to leave for my first soon.

Good luck to the others who try this; I hope you get farther than I did.

kast's gravatar

4. Files??

Posted by kast at 8:51PM, Monday April 23 2007

Six!? Gaaah :( I think I was totally barking up the wrong tree with .iff formatting

Elyscape's gravatar

5. Confusion

Posted by Elyscape at 8:53PM, Monday April 23 2007

Argh, I can't figure it out. Anybody got a hint?

fuzz's gravatar

6. hmmmm

Posted by fuzz at 9:17PM, Monday April 23 2007

as an amiga owner I feel sullied :(
I'm going the appl route, might work better SkUrRiEr
(this is when we need the forum back, so we can share results without giving spoilers to those that don't want them)

mnemonik's gravatar

7. Well, there's this stuff...

Posted by mnemonik at 9:21PM, Monday April 23 2007

Dunno if this will help, but a quick check of the 'images' file in NotePad++ shows this stuff at the end of the file:

#G 03 FF 000 *.APP@ @ @
#G 03 FF 000 *.PRG@ @ @
#Y 03 FF 000 *.GTP@ @ @
#P 03 FF 000 *.TTP@ @ @
#F 03 04 000 *.TOS@ @ @
#M 00 00 00 FF A PHOTOCHROME@ @
#M 01 00 00 FF B FLOPPY DISK@ @
#T 00 03 02 FF AMIGA@ @

-might be an Amiga floppy disk image, perhaps? (maybe SD even, since it's only 720K!) I know very little about the Amiga OS and disk/file formats, tho...

kast's gravatar

8. amiga

Posted by kast at 9:21PM, Monday April 23 2007

I used to have an amiga... I was five :P Learnt to use the computer with it - command line interface and everything. Oh, memories. :)

mnemonik's gravatar

9. Oops!

Posted by mnemonik at 9:26PM, Monday April 23 2007

Hope my post didn't spoil anyone's fun! Looks like the "amiga" info is already out of the bag at this point, though.

fuzz's gravatar

10. oh?

Posted by fuzz at 9:29PM, Monday April 23 2007

it's an amiga image? I loaded it in an atari ST emulator?! now stuck on finding something that opens pcs files...
(because when I looked at the hex I found NEWDESK.INF, which apparently is an atari thing)

fuzz's gravatar

11. stuck

Posted by fuzz at 9:51PM, Monday April 23 2007

ok, 6 files, but not in any image format that I can find a pc program to open (which should rule out common amiga and atari formats).
someone else?

kast's gravatar

12. Piggin' latin

Posted by kast at 9:53PM, Monday April 23 2007

Siderbar:

A quick google search and a click to Wikipedia reveals that Orthomyxoviridae (the thread's title) is the name of the family of viruses that cause various forms of influenza.

Lovely :(

rb_lestr's gravatar

13. oh my god.....

Posted by rb_lestr at 9:53PM, Monday April 23 2007

This is just mean......

I mean really, really mean........

kast's gravatar

14. RE: oh my god...

Posted by kast at 10:01PM, Monday April 23 2007

almost sadistic, even. and we practically flaggelate ourselves in desperation for tidbits from our master's table.

And that is the worst mixed metaphor I have ever uttered

rb_lestr's gravatar

15. ........

Posted by rb_lestr at 10:14PM, Monday April 23 2007

I check here everyday, almost like a religious ceremony, i hit "h" in the searchbar and this is the forst place it brings me, desperate for any kind of progession or announcement......

And now, after a week or so of silence,
THIS

,,,,,,,,

Elyscape's gravatar

16. I agree with...

Posted by Elyscape at 11:06PM, Monday April 23 2007

I agree with the last part of what rb_lestr said. Specifically, I, too, feel "comma comma comma comma comma comma comma comma".

MrHappy's gravatar

17. why o why

Posted by MrHappy at 12:31AM, Tuesday April 24 2007

:-(

Cyk's gravatar

18. Installing an Amiga emulator now...

Posted by Cyk at 1:10AM, Tuesday April 24 2007

I WILL SOLVE THIS, DAMMIT!

Also, can we hold off on releasing the new episode until I reinstall Windows? :D

Kage's gravatar

19. Got It

Posted by Kage at 1:34AM, Tuesday April 24 2007

I've successfully opened the files, though the method I'm using results in images that don't exactly fit the definition of "high-quality screenshots". I'll see if there's a way to make them look a bit better.

Hobbes's gravatar

20. A hint maybe?

Posted by Hobbes at 2:34AM, Tuesday April 24 2007

Just a little one, please? lol
It obviously has something to do with Amiga.
Kage, can you give a hint as to how you even managed to get to the files?

Eh, I would try but I don't really have the patience or time.

Thanks in advance.

Kage's gravatar

21. A Hint

Posted by Kage at 2:46AM, Tuesday April 24 2007

There's a handy tool on unix based systems called "file". It looks at a file and gives you its best guess on what type of file it is. Since not everyone has access to it, I'll share what it says about the file that's packed into images.gz:

images: DOS floppy 720k, IBM

Follow this clue to see the files. However, opening them takes a bit more work.

Jumbles's gravatar

22. 14 Hours

Posted by Jumbles at 3:51AM, Tuesday April 24 2007

It taken me about 14 hours but I got there!

Semiloki's gravatar

23. Oh no.

Posted by Semiloki at 3:59AM, Tuesday April 24 2007

Adam, why the torture?

<bangs head against wall>

Derek's gravatar

24. Pandora, perhaps?

Posted by Derek at 4:03AM, Tuesday April 24 2007

Okay, so I have Windows XP...how am I supposed to get these screenshots? Could someone put them on photobucket, for those of us who don't want to use UNIX hex editors?

Jumbles's gravatar

25. Don't look here...

Posted by Jumbles at 4:13AM, Tuesday April 24 2007

uggc://serrfcnpr.ivetva.arg/whfgva.zvref/Zvarein/

anansi's gravatar

26. As long as is needed

Posted by anansi at 4:41AM, Tuesday April 24 2007

my wish was to find actual proof that MINERVA was doing well in these early months, and with the undeniable proof that these few screenshots deliver my faith in this mod is restored.

I will wait as long as is needed.

Sirc's gravatar

27. A Viral Warning

Posted by Sirc at 5:00AM, Tuesday April 24 2007

Accursed bug from foreign lands,
Banished soon back to the sands,

You've caused us grievence you shall pay,
The immune system shall win the day,

But what small victory is this cost?
When time we once had is now lost?

We'll no not how much turned to waste,
The time which you hang implaced.

Though I worry not for you'll get your due,
And so dear bug, I bid adieu...

kast's gravatar

28. *sob*

Posted by kast at 5:01AM, Tuesday April 24 2007

It was everything I dreamt of *sniff*

Kage's gravatar

29. Cat, bag, etc

Posted by Kage at 6:01AM, Tuesday April 24 2007

For those still interested in the method:
The key clue for me was in NEWDESK.INF. If you're interested in opening the six files, check what's mounted on drive A.

Lewk's gravatar

30. re: Cat, bag, etc

Posted by Lewk at 7:48AM, Tuesday April 24 2007

I don't have a drive A. I never installed a floppy drive on my new pc. Plus I still don't understand this whole thing...

Waz's gravatar

31. cat? what cat

Posted by Waz at 2:33PM, Tuesday April 24 2007

Its all very well to do the agent orange secret encoding, but not everyone is intelligent or even bothered enough to fanny about. Sorry if i sound snappy, but i think this isn`t right.

Not to mention that after all the work envolved, you get 6 little piccies. One of which i can see anytime too.

Enough teasing, start releasing please

Sortie's gravatar

32. There goes my day.

Posted by Sortie at 3:37PM, Tuesday April 24 2007

Yep. No work on my mod is going to be made today. I HAVE to solve this riddle. :D

Jumbles's gravatar

33. Ooops!

Posted by Jumbles at 4:12PM, Tuesday April 24 2007

I didn't mean to spoil it for anyone, but it took me 14 hours and I used to own an ***** **** and most of the software involved so I had an unfair advantage.

I figured if there was anyone who wanted to carry on and solve it would ignore the pics, but people who didn't even know where to start could look at them.

Sorry if I spoilt it for anyone.

Holy Socks's gravatar

34. well....

Posted by Holy Socks at 4:29PM, Tuesday April 24 2007

I'm glad to see that MINERVA is coming along well but I would've preffered it if we had 1 or 2 high definition pics rather than 6 low def ones.

Oh and thanks Jumbles, I would never have figured it out myself; I just didn't have a clue what I was doing.

Sortie's gravatar

35. Meh.

Posted by Sortie at 4:45PM, Tuesday April 24 2007

Had a lot of floppies, but now they're gone. Meh, I can't finish that task; I'll just cheat. Damn me.

Nesretep's gravatar

36. Just out of curiosity...

Posted by Nesretep at 5:18PM, Tuesday April 24 2007

How many of us that frequent this blog actually know how to mount a DOS floppy image? Not me, unless you can either burn it to a CD and that would would work or if there is a not-to-hard-to-find tool that would do it easily. I may know a bit about computers, but I'm mostly just knowledgable enough to be dangerous in this situation.

vecima: I see you found me on your mods' forum...

kast's gravatar

37. say what now?

Posted by kast at 5:35PM, Tuesday April 24 2007

Not a clue, mate.

Kevlmess's gravatar

38. Yay for me.

Posted by Kevlmess at 7:59PM, Tuesday April 24 2007

I'm currently surveying a grainy broadcast from previously undiscovered areas of this little Combine installation of ours. The coast looks clear for our inevitable incursion... for now. I'm afraid we won't get in before considerable oppression has built up, though.

(Unwrapping this media release was fun and the images look great, although I wouldn't mind a greater resolution.)

fuzz's gravatar

39. I'm happy

Posted by fuzz at 8:21PM, Tuesday April 24 2007

Well, I'm enjoying myself at least, even if I can't find something to view the images with...

and to at least help everyone who's got as far as I have so far



*Spolier*





the file "images" is a disk image.
If you open it in a Hex editor and just poke around you might notice the bit of text "NEWDESK.INF"
google that and you get some pages about it being part of the Atari S(hi)T OS.
So go find an atari ST emulator, I found Steem.
guess how to make it run, make sure you give it a directory to use as a harddrive
rename "images" to "images.st" adn steem will allow you to mount it at a floppy drive that the st can read.
in the ST open the disk and have a look, you will find 6 files.
copy them to the atari's harddrive, and then you can get at them.

bang head against wall repeatedly as you try and work out what opens a pcs file :(

*spoiler*

ew, as an amiga owner running an St emulator made me feel ikky :(

Kevlmess's gravatar

40. RE: I'm happy

Posted by Kevlmess at 8:40PM, Tuesday April 24 2007

Booting Steem from the floppy image may just give you the answer. ;)

Actually, the aforementioned answer was the starting point for my search as I totally ignored NEWDESK.INF. It was a bit bumpy road but it got me there, although from a bit different angle.

Misleaded by the information in the second post I was struggling with the (un)mentioned pertinent software until I found out that I was really looking for something else that came with it. Versions 4 and 2.06 work together nicely, at least for me.

rb_lestr's gravatar

41. PCS

Posted by rb_lestr at 8:59PM, Tuesday April 24 2007

PCS?
Help?
How?

fuzz's gravatar

42. aha

Posted by fuzz at 9:30PM, Tuesday April 24 2007

cheers Kevlmess, that was just what I needed, for those that need the software:
uggc://jjj.ngnev-sbehz.pbz/ivrjgbcvp.cuc?g=238

(as I can't work out how to control the slideshow app I now have a small but perfectly formed set of pics flicking past in my steem window, oh, and this being the first time I've every played with an atari, come on? how is this better than an amiga?)

Kage's gravatar

43. PCS

Posted by Kage at 10:30PM, Tuesday April 24 2007

#M 00 00 00 FF A PHOTOCHROME@ @

*************************************************************************
* *
* PCSVIEW2 now searches the path from which it was run! *
* *
*************************************************************************

rb_lestr's gravatar

44. yussssssssss

Posted by rb_lestr at 10:45PM, Tuesday April 24 2007

After blood, sweat, and plenty of tears,

I got them,

and has completely restored my faith

Adam, i am sorry for doubting you.

Now release it..

Tekgo's gravatar

45. fun

Posted by Tekgo at 1:01AM, Wednesday April 25 2007

this was a fun exercise, but you should definitely release these images for the greater audience in a few days.

also, where are the enemies?

Yar Kramer's gravatar

46. The Cheat Is Not Dead

Posted by Yar Kramer at 2:15AM, Wednesday April 25 2007

Heh, okay, nice cute small images. And hooray, new topic for us to waste time on, though this at least includes its own game, as it were.

The Internet's gravatar

47. It's pretty clear

Posted by The Internet at 7:55AM, Wednesday April 25 2007

Pretty awesome diversion, but this is definitely a hint of things to come.

Obviously, the rest of MINERVA's only coming out only for the ST!

It is dark. You are likely to be blown up by a zombine.

Elyscape's gravatar

48. Dark

Posted by Elyscape at 8:28AM, Wednesday April 25 2007

It is dark. You are likely to be blown up by a zombine.
It is dark. A zombine is likely to be eaten by a grue.

rb_lestr's gravatar

49. aaaaaaaaand?

Posted by rb_lestr at 2:53PM, Wednesday April 25 2007

How about a progress report Adam,
now that you've got yourself up and running could we get an estimate like the last one, but possibly more,.... accurate this time?

I will wait and wait if needs be,
but its nice to know how long i must wait.

The suspense is killing me..

irondragons's gravatar

50. RE: aaaaaaaaand?

Posted by irondragons at 12:52AM, Thursday April 26 2007

People People. Don't hassle him.

Remember "The Godfather 3"?
Ever wondered what went wrong there? :O

Elyscape's gravatar

51. Oh, and...

Posted by Elyscape at 1:06AM, Thursday April 26 2007

You can't forget Duke Nukem Forever.
Remember, people: the more you hassle the developers, the longer it takes.

Kerath's gravatar

52. Inability to open certain files

Posted by Kerath at 12:52PM, Thursday April 26 2007

has anyone been able to open those pictures, if so could the hypothetical anyone upload them somewhere for the viewing pleasure of people unable to open those pictures...
please?

.

Vague Deductor's gravatar

53. Sure!

Posted by Vague Deductor at 2:49PM, Thursday April 26 2007

All you have to do is go here:

uggc://serrfcnpr.ivetva.arg/whfgva.zvref/Zvarein/

and hope you're better at cyphers than you are at... whatever's needed to access the files normally.

Qjuad's gravatar

54. Well

Posted by Qjuad at 11:20PM, Thursday April 26 2007

Turns out I'm better with cyphers.

Nice screens.

Yar Kramer's gravatar

55. Better at cyphers

Posted by Yar Kramer at 11:36PM, Thursday April 26 2007

Heh ... now *that* was easy. I just echoed the cypher, piped it into the TR command, using u -> h as a reference point ...

Campaignjunkie's gravatar

56. Cyphers are fun!

Posted by Campaignjunkie at 11:36PM, Thursday April 26 2007

Hey, that cypher was actually pretty doable - unlike this crazy Amiga DOS disk mounting thing!

wargamerROB's gravatar

57. relief

Posted by wargamerROB at 2:20AM, Friday April 27 2007

the cipher was much more doable. recognized it after 2 seconds, and the last part was rather obvious. looks like we've finally gotten somewhere

Dracko55's gravatar

58. Decrypted, but...

Posted by Dracko55 at 2:27AM, Friday April 27 2007

It tells me it can't find the page.

Elyscape's gravatar

59. In that case...

Posted by Elyscape at 6:12AM, Friday April 27 2007

You are doing it wrong.

line's gravatar

60. thanks, kindred spirit

Posted by line at 8:31AM, Friday April 27 2007

I decoded the image, but there seems to be absolutely no way to open PCS on Windows XP, so THANKS for the links.

For all those that still don't get it ..
may you rot in the 13th circle of hell! Seriously.

Also, nice screens.

Kerath's gravatar

61. ...

Posted by Kerath at 8:59AM, Friday April 27 2007

[SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO SOLVE IT THEMSELVES]


yay, i just translated that url...

only freespace says the site doesnt exist.. blegh

yhmghnj's gravatar

62. yghyhgj

Posted by yhmghnj at 10:57AM, Friday April 27 2007

Minerva has to be capitalised in the url.

gerdfgerdfgdrfg's gravatar

63. 4redfgre

Posted by gerdfgerdfgdrfg at 10:58AM, Friday April 27 2007

://freespace.virgin.net/justin.miers/Minerva/

Jumbles's gravatar

64. Eh?

Posted by Jumbles at 12:25PM, Friday April 27 2007

where did the cypher come from?

Jumbles's gravatar

65. Moved...

Posted by Jumbles at 12:48PM, Friday April 27 2007

I moved them from my freespace account to...

http://profile.imageshack.us/user/jumbles

vecima's gravatar

66. nice.

Posted by vecima at 10:53PM, Friday April 27 2007

@Tekgo: "also, where are the enemies?"

trust me, they'll find you.

Semiloki's gravatar

67. The rush

Posted by Semiloki at 4:47AM, Saturday April 28 2007

Well Done, Adam. I can wait a bit longer. Images provided again prove you have a wonderful talent.

Perhaps May 1?

MrHappy's gravatar

68. hmmm

Posted by MrHappy at 7:12AM, Saturday April 28 2007

adam said he missed 25 days (one week of work, one week of sickness, 11 days from last post in previous news to this one)., and its been 28 days since march ended...perhaps the release is imminent?

nah, im getting my hopes up to much

Yar Kramer's gravatar

69. Release

Posted by Yar Kramer at 8:07AM, Saturday April 28 2007

Heh ... y'know, if this was me, at this point it'd NEVER get done. Always look on the bright side ...

kast's gravatar

70. Idea!

Posted by kast at 12:33PM, Saturday April 28 2007

Quick, quick, everyone look away! Don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain and he might publish his masterpiece :D

*Whistles with an utter excess of nonchallantce*

Holy Socks's gravatar

71. 28 days later...

Posted by Holy Socks at 12:52PM, Saturday April 28 2007

Thats some nice logic there MrHappy , if it comes out any time in early May i'll be extremely happy.

rb_lestr's gravatar

72. intramexican

Posted by rb_lestr at 1:36PM, Sunday April 29 2007

"Foster says that he's “not going to release ANY screenshots until it's released.” "

...

Sirc's gravatar

73. More Puzzles?

Posted by Sirc at 6:06PM, Sunday April 29 2007

So what? Are yous saying that it is hidden on the site somewhere?

...

BLARG!
(I want the game for its puzzles, not puzzles for the game!)

(;P)

Andy's gravatar

74. hid and seek...ok just seeking

Posted by Andy at 5:52AM, Monday April 30 2007

rb_lestr has a good point the mod might have already been released and is hidden some where on this site! Everyone commence a thero search of the website immediately

Elyscape's gravatar

75. ...

Posted by Elyscape at 7:46AM, Monday April 30 2007

You people can't be serious.

kast's gravatar

76. Indeed

Posted by kast at 1:49PM, Monday April 30 2007

What Sirc said, "I want the game for its puzzles, not puzzles for the game". I quite agree.

Al137's gravatar

77. Need Pics

Posted by Al137 at 4:03PM, Monday April 30 2007

Someone I have been trying for a while now, someone plz host pics on filebucket or something

vecima's gravatar

78. 28 weeks later...

Posted by vecima at 8:13PM, Monday April 30 2007

... is more like it.

@Holy Socks, get it? get it?

Yar Kramer's gravatar

79. No Screenshots 'Til Release

Posted by Yar Kramer at 10:57PM, Monday April 30 2007

Maybe he changed his mind.

... would be my final word, except I don't want to ruin the lovely atmosphere of cheerful paranoia around here.

Sirc's gravatar

80. Side Effects Include...

Posted by Sirc at 2:24AM, Tuesday May 1 2007

He may have forgotten that comment (Crosses Fingers), otherwise it is hidden well.

The problem from this paranoia is that he may NOW hide it when he finally releases it to see how often people check the main page and the site in its entirety. In which case...


NOOOOOOOOOO!!

Lewk's gravatar

81. Excitedly waiting.

Posted by Lewk at 6:17AM, Tuesday May 1 2007

That's a cool Idea. Release it a few days early for the finatics in a puzzle or hidden somewhere.

Although, I couldn't figure out the image puzzle. I downloaded an amega emulator but it asked for some sort of rom you had to buy, so I gave up and looked at the images that guy posted above.

So maybe lock the release in a puzzle in which more than 3 people can crack would be cool, that way they wouldn't have to tell everone how to do it...

Elyscape's gravatar

82. Stupidity

Posted by Elyscape at 6:50AM, Tuesday May 1 2007

I simply refuse to believe this.

Sortie's gravatar

83. Déjá release

Posted by Sortie at 9:14AM, Tuesday May 1 2007

It's already released? Great, HTML/PHP puzzles are just me. :D

fuzz's gravatar

84. how to

Posted by fuzz at 9:36PM, Tuesday May 1 2007

It's not an amiga disk image, it's an atari ST one.
and once you've got it in there, you'll need a graphics program called photochrome to view the files, there's an obscured link to download it above, there's an app called PCSVIEW2 which just plays images in a slideshow.

This might help too:

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
nopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm

Yar Kramer's gravatar

85. Re: how to

Posted by Yar Kramer at 12:49AM, Wednesday May 2 2007

And if you'd rather just plain cheat, Jumbles put 'em in a link (as per above).

Mada's gravatar

86. the

Posted by Mada at 4:30AM, Wednesday May 2 2007

link is somewhere on this page.

Or is it?

rb_lestr's gravatar

87. noo

Posted by rb_lestr at 2:13PM, Wednesday May 2 2007

Sifted though most of the HTML,

Nothing hidden there......

Elyscape's gravatar

88. My god

Posted by Elyscape at 2:16PM, Wednesday May 2 2007

I was sincerely hoping you people were joking. I guess that's what I get; I should know better than to get my hopes up about anything.

Sirc's gravatar

89. I'm Paranoid

Posted by Sirc at 6:34PM, Wednesday May 2 2007

I think it is possible that the comment quoted earlier might not be relevant for this release. It is highly likely that the Creator is still working on MINERVA.

WHEN MINERVA is released, there is a MILD possibility that the Creator might find a trial by fire to prove our worth to recieve MINVERVA.

But I doubt the Creator is that cruel...

Right?

fuzz's gravatar

90. but are you paranoid enough?

Posted by fuzz at 10:57PM, Wednesday May 2 2007

mind you, I always check http://www.hylobatidae.org/minerva/ after I've read the posts on here, just in case...

Holy Socks's gravatar

91. ??????

Posted by Holy Socks at 6:03PM, Thursday May 3 2007

I really dont think that MInerva is hidden somewhere on either the blog or the MINERVA site, and I would be extremely surprised, and disapointed, if MINERVA was released as part of some online puzzle.

@Vecima: I get it, a reference to the upcoming film and the delayed release of MINERVA. I've also had a look at your SP Mod/map pack and its looking very promising :-)

vecima's gravatar

92. too bad Adam didn't have one of these at his disposal...

Posted by vecima at 11:11PM, Thursday May 3 2007

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showpost.php?p=1422652&postcount=30

a conversation piece at any popular U.U. hangout, i'm sure.

@Holy Socks: thanks. without spoiling anything, that project has required new code, models, textures & sounds. as such i usually feel justified saying 'mod'.

Yar Kramer's gravatar

93. Re: Conversation piece

Posted by Yar Kramer at 7:01AM, Friday May 4 2007

That looks like someone built some kind of Combine scaffolding around a facehugger-egg from "Aliens."

kast's gravatar

94. Yawn

Posted by kast at 1:59PM, Friday May 4 2007

Old news. It's a 'Big Momma's egg sack.

Remember in Half-Life, right at the end, you take on a great big four-legged crab with what looks for all the world like a ball sack hanging around? Keeps spitting out little white headcrabs? Well you're looking at that thing's egg sack surrounded in Combine structure. Overall, that will come to be about 15-20 feet tall.

The idea is that the Combine use it to mass-produce head-crabs for use in their missiles.

Minoiva's gravatar

95. Mininova?

Posted by Minoiva at 5:13PM, Friday May 4 2007

Mininova? Minoiva?

What's that got to do with New Jersey anyway?

Bloody fast zombies.

Cryptologist's gravatar

96. Top Sekrit!!!1

Posted by Cryptologist at 9:01PM, Friday May 4 2007

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

MrHappy's gravatar

97. If only I cared

Posted by MrHappy at 1:01AM, Saturday May 5 2007

screw HD

Yar Kramer's gravatar

98. Re: 09 F9 11 02 Etc

Posted by Yar Kramer at 1:45AM, Saturday May 5 2007

Been there, done that ... stared in a mixture of amazement and amusement at the fact that there was, in fact, a t-shirt ...

MrHappy's gravatar

99. I'd like to know...

Posted by MrHappy at 9:44PM, Saturday May 5 2007

What the first part of Chronoclasm will be called...

if any thought to that has yet been applied

Yar Kramer's gravatar

100. Re: Chronoclasm 1

Posted by Yar Kramer at 11:44PM, Saturday May 5 2007

"Push To Start."

you know who's gravatar

101. Pandora

Posted by you know who at 1:23AM, Sunday May 6 2007

What's in this box?

Yar Kramer's gravatar

102. Re: Pandora

Posted by Yar Kramer at 11:17PM, Sunday May 6 2007

To'lly off the wall, but I'm guessing lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride, and hope.

fuzz's gravatar

103. Ep2

Posted by fuzz at 4:54PM, Monday May 7 2007

Valve have just put out a few bit's of concept art from Episode 2:
http://storefront.steampowered.com/Steam/Marketing/message/1026/
for some reason they didn't see fit to package them in an atari disk image?!

(especially liking that MI-17, I've always loved the look of coldwar era soviet tech)

zhark's gravatar

104. Mounting images

Posted by zhark at 6:32PM, Monday May 7 2007

You can mount the images on Linux (or equivavelent) easy enough, just mount -o loop -t msdos images foldername.

you know who's gravatar

105. less talky

Posted by you know who at 1:02AM, Tuesday May 8 2007

more Minerva

everybody's gravatar

106. It has been more than 1.5 years

Posted by everybody at 1:09AM, Tuesday May 8 2007

When will it be released? Any date? How much is done (in percent)?

you know who's gravatar

107. when it's done

Posted by you know who at 9:45PM, Tuesday May 8 2007

I'm sure Adam doesn't want to release a buggy version and get thousands of pissy emails about bugs, so have patience with the man.

Minerva will be here when she's ready.

Sirc's gravatar

108. Like Another Game We're Waiting For...

Posted by Sirc at 10:57PM, Tuesday May 8 2007

A good game is a good game because time and effort has been put into it.

If it was released now, you would have no right to complain because it was released when it was 'Not Ready.'

So....
BE PATIENT!!!

(Do Something to Bide Your Time...)

pox's gravatar

109. Do Something to Bide Your Time...

Posted by pox at 2:44AM, Wednesday May 9 2007

like waiting for:

1. NightFall: Initiation

2. Half Life 2: Episode 2

3. WATCHMEN the movie

4. J.D. Salinger's brain to be inserted into a sentinel-like robot modelled from "The Matrix".

5. Chuck Palahniuk's new novel "RANT"

.....oh, and don't forget that one thing...uh....hmm..oh yeah, Minerva!

you know who's gravatar

110. Do something...

Posted by you know who at 3:23AM, Wednesday May 9 2007

You forgot...

Wait for Black Mesa Source
Wait for FH 2.0 (for BF1942 fans)
Wait for Duke Nukem 4 Ever

Kosmos's gravatar

111. Emergency Broadcast System needed

Posted by Kosmos at 5:31AM, Wednesday May 9 2007

Adam how about letting us sign-up for a mailing list that way we can get notified within minutes of ‘breaking news’ or rants from Minerva her self ?

Sanjuro357's gravatar

112. Limited Broadcast available....

Posted by Sanjuro357 at 11:09AM, Wednesday May 9 2007

Such a system does exist. There is an RSS feed available for this blog....

Jumbles's gravatar

113. RSS feed

Posted by Jumbles at 11:13AM, Wednesday May 9 2007

Kosmos - There's an RSS feed so you can get notified as soon as Adam posts a new topic. Don't ask me how to subscribe though. I managed it by clicking on random buttons and swearing. I think there's a way to subscribe to individual messages as well but I have even less idea how to subscribe to that!

fuzz's gravatar

114. and...

Posted by fuzz at 6:51PM, Wednesday May 9 2007

also waiting for:
Final Fantasy on the DS
and/or Zelda DS (then I shall have no free time, hooray!)

Left For Dead
28 Weeks later
(dunno why, as I really *hate* zombies)

Spore (next year apparently)
Portal

new William Gibson book
new Portishead album (if it's not shit)

Yar Kramer's gravatar

115. HL2ep2

Posted by Yar Kramer at 9:09PM, Wednesday May 9 2007

Ah yes, someone else to come here and complain about the fact that it's not out, as if MINERVA was the only source of entertainment in existence.

For that matter ... try some HL1 mods. I've just gotten into "Afraid of Monsters", and it's creepy in an awesome sort of way. Or maybe it's the other way around.

And if you're interested in a parody of Someplace Else, try Legacy in "Issues" (the sequel to "Project: Quantum Leap", in which SE originlly appeared). That was awesome if you're a MINERVA/Someplace Else fan ...

MrHappy's gravatar

116. Gibson?

Posted by MrHappy at 9:29PM, Wednesday May 9 2007

New William Gibson book coming out?! Where, when, what?!

I'm reading Mona Lisa Overdrive right now, only one of his I haven't read

you know who's gravatar

117. Gibson

Posted by you know who at 11:41PM, Wednesday May 9 2007

New Gibson book is Spook Country, due this fall.

Portishead disc should be cracking. They aren't the types to release shyte.

fuzz's gravatar

118. portishead

Posted by fuzz at 6:41PM, Thursday May 10 2007

yes, butbutbut
massive attack
I'm just worried about what it'll turn out like, I mean how can it be as good?

random fact, I drive past portishead every day on the way to work :)

You Know Who's gravatar

119. Portishead

Posted by You Know Who at 11:33PM, Thursday May 10 2007

It wasn't really Massive Attack.

I think Portishead will come out with something good. Maybe we'll be able to listen to it while we play Minerva.

You Know Who's gravatar

120. Minverva, you got some splainin to do!

Posted by You Know Who at 9:04PM, Friday May 11 2007

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/minerva/html/minerva-home.html

Juan's gravatar

121. Minerva 3 = DNF

Posted by Juan at 9:47PM, Saturday May 12 2007

lol Minerva is the new Duke Nukem For(N)ever

:P

Moholinth's gravatar

122. DNF

Posted by Moholinth at 10:38PM, Saturday May 12 2007

No, not at all.
Duke Nukem have been delayed since 1998 or so, Minerva is only a month late atm.

FinalWarning's gravatar

123. Don't Pick on Adam

Posted by FinalWarning at 12:31AM, Sunday May 13 2007

If you pick on him then Minerva may do like Elvis and leave the building ( For Good ) .

vecima's gravatar

124. ELVIS IS NOT DEAD!

Posted by vecima at 5:28AM, Sunday May 13 2007

though we do find him in MINERVA pt3.


sorry adam, i could keep my silence no more.

You Know Who's gravatar

125. BC to play Zombie-killing Elvis in Minerva 3?

Posted by You Know Who at 3:41PM, Sunday May 13 2007

http://www.moviecitynews.com/reviews/images/bubba_hotep.jpg

Cargo Cult's gravatar

126. Crash Bang Whallop

Posted by Cargo Cult at 6:11PM, Sunday May 13 2007

MINERVA's currently slowed down because of a happy-fun crashing problem with metastasis_4b. I'm not entirely sure what's causing it - so I'm not sure which corporate headquarters a mob of angry acolytes should descend upon.

Current candidates are:

* Microsoft - 'cause it manages to break Windows;
* Apple - 'cause it is they wot made me laptop;
* ATI - ' cause it does appear to be graphics-related, only occurring in DirectX 9 with full spangly HDR and everything.

The last map version I tried (with a bunch of extraneous junk deleted) managed to cause screen corruption and an apparent lock-up, which then mysteriously disappeared a few seconds later. The map worked fine after that. WEIRD. Normally I have to power-cycle the machine.

It's a bit cold and damp here today, so I'm wondering if it's just the GPU overheating. Doesn't affect any of the other maps - which are all just about done. It's just metastasis_4b I'm behind on...

Elyscape's gravatar

127. Perhaps

Posted by Elyscape at 6:14PM, Sunday May 13 2007

Try on another computer?

Cargo Cult's gravatar

128. Airfl-O-Matique(R)

Posted by Cargo Cult at 7:02PM, Sunday May 13 2007

At the suggestion of a friend that it did indeed sound like something was overheating, I've now placed the aforementioned laptop on a patent-pending Airfl-O-Matique(R) system unit - in other words, a thick wire mesh tray thingy normally used for cooling freshly baked cakes.

All hail the elder sister for providing me with chocolate brownie-making implements!

Laptop is now solid as a rock - there was obviously something particularly GPU-humping about metastasis_4b. I just wish I'd thought of this earlier. I'd been puzzling over the problem for over a week...

rb_lestr's gravatar

129. maybe soon?

Posted by rb_lestr at 8:15PM, Sunday May 13 2007

Well if everything is now hunky-dory,
with some work left on metastasis_4b,
can we expect a release date soon?

I know its the last thing you want to hear, i'm not really bothered whenever it comes out, take your time, i was just curious about a release date.

vecima's gravatar

130. you speak, o giver of MINERVA, and we hear you

Posted by vecima at 4:03AM, Monday May 14 2007

i wonder if any released mod hasn't had to tango with it's share of technical problems such as yours. heck, often enough some steam update renders me useless for a week or two. currently: unable to use faceposer or modelviewer.

but, good to hear that things appear to be on strait and narrow.
and so my dear set your fears outside to feed the sparrow.

?

Sirc's gravatar

131. Innovation, Comedy, and Musings

Posted by Sirc at 4:12AM, Monday May 14 2007

Reminds me of an iteneration famous quote...

"Necessity is the mother of innovation..."

Glad that it was nothing world shattering... Actually funny in my opinion...

But I digress... The acolytes are ever impatient... As long as there is progress I'm sure they will be appeased...

(To the impatient mull on this:
"If there is nothing to look forward to, is there any reason to still exist?")

Anonymous's gravatar

132. Hmmm

Posted by Anonymous at 5:10AM, Monday May 14 2007

"If there is nothing to look forward to, is there any reason to still exist?"

Do you mean "we don't know anything to look forward to" or "the likelihood of anything happening that could conceivably be looked forward to has been eliminated"?

Sirc's gravatar

133. My interpretation...

Posted by Sirc at 7:58AM, Monday May 14 2007

'If we truly have nothing to look forward to, then that means that we have no reason to see the future.'

Essentially, Be glad that there is always something on the horizon, something we wait for. Some people who become suicidal often have lost all things they look forward to and see no value in living into the future.

This is the negative side of the coin.

I am on the positive side of it.

I am glad that I am waiting for something. That means my life has value and that there are better things on the horizon.

Ergo a philosophy of mine:
"Relish in waiting, for that means you have hope for the future."

(Off topic but a nice distraction in my opinion.)

Any personal philosophies others wish to share?

Naurgul's gravatar

134. Personal Philosophies?

Posted by Naurgul at 8:52AM, Monday May 14 2007

"I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn't have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody. If anybody wanted to tell me something they'd have to write it on a piece of paper and shove it over to me. They'd get bored as hell doing that after a while, and then I'd be through with having conversations for the rest of my life".


Just kidding, of course! :p

MrHappy's gravatar

135. Well, at least it's your fault and not source's

Posted by MrHappy at 12:48PM, Monday May 14 2007

Coulda taken months to get fixed if it was the otherway around. But hey, everyone get's lured in by shiney white things. Form always sells over function.

kast's gravatar

136. Pretty lights

Posted by kast at 1:28PM, Monday May 14 2007

Like little angels...


*thump*

Sortie's gravatar

137. Reverse your development!

Posted by Sortie at 3:45PM, Monday May 14 2007

Great to hear an update. Sounds like a messy bug you got. I suggest reversing your development: Making a backup of your map vmf, and then just start deleting things in the order they were added until you find the error. Then you open your backup and deletes the cause(s). It works for me. :D

jagoff's gravatar

138. hey there..

Posted by jagoff at 8:05PM, Monday May 14 2007

he said he already figured it out ..ya donkey dick

jagoff's gravatar

139. hey there..

Posted by jagoff at 10:16PM, Monday May 14 2007

J/K

Yar Kramer's gravatar

140. Overheating

Posted by Yar Kramer at 12:18AM, Tuesday May 15 2007

Oh dear. Yes, I have that kind of problem all the time. I now more or less have a desk fan constantly blasting at my laptop from above and to the left, while a laptop cooling pad pokes at it from below. I'm going to be looking into getting a new computer as soon as I can get my hands on some sort of income ...

Huntress's gravatar

141. Overheating and other mumblings

Posted by Huntress at 3:32AM, Tuesday May 15 2007

I have also been suffering with this affliction only on a desktop...and using a desk type on floor to ease it's pain and mine! LOL It was caused partly by card's overclock proggie and me not changing back to standard when not needing it, etc.

I am also pleased to read the updated info regarding continuation of project due to finding a solution caused by overheating and not a game bug. Additionally, I want some of those chocolate brownies so I can munch on those instead of my fingernails whilst playing the last chapters, please, please. heh

I also told one of my friends about this Mod as he had HL2 et. al. and said he loved it...another acolyte conversion for ya!

Nesretep's gravatar

142. I don't know what to put as the subject

Posted by Nesretep at 7:09AM, Tuesday May 15 2007

/speaking in character as a devout Minerva acolyte

Praise Minerva! Another lost HL2 player has been brought into the light of this mod and its gaming goodness. Let us all turn to page 25 in the Minerva Hymnal...
/end

OK, I was getting a *little* crazy there. Come to think of it, if he has played all of the currently available parts of Minerva, it won't be long before he finds this blog and joins the masses of whiny acolytes begging the Avatar of Minerva (aka Adam) for the next installment.

I wonder if the Valve gets as many whiny comments, email and other communique(sp?) regarding HL2 Ep2? Many things to ponder...

Sortie's gravatar

143. Thy end is near

Posted by Sortie at 8:49AM, Tuesday May 15 2007

So, the maps are 99% done and 4b is kinda bugged. So that must mean that when 4b is fixed, the mod is ready for release. Even though there is a helluva lot shit to be done before a mod can be released; eg. soundcaches and stuff like that.

fuzz's gravatar

144. macbooks

Posted by fuzz at 7:20PM, Tuesday May 15 2007

My flatmate has one of those lovely shiney black MacBooks (mmm, teh lovely) and whilst looking gorgeous it also gets fucking hot, to the extent you can burn your fingers by touching it.
Which isn't good for a computer that's supposed to sit one layer of clothes away from your reproductive organs, methinks.

Naurgul's gravatar

145. Heresy!

Posted by Naurgul at 7:24PM, Tuesday May 15 2007

This is heresy, Nesretep. The orthodox Minerva way doesn't use written hymnals! Actually, the only acceptable form of Minerva's words are ascii characters transferred as signals in obsolete modulator/demodulator equipment. And since only Her words can sooth our souls, our religious texts consists solely of Her transmissions.

So... all acolytes follow my lead:
*begins to recite as if being an actor at a Greek Tragedy play*
"I am your Athena, you are my bastard Perseus, and our Medusa for today is this island; our aim is to infiltrate, reveal, destroy."

Jumbles's gravatar

146. 3dfx Banshee

Posted by Jumbles at 12:56AM, Wednesday May 16 2007

My Soundblaster AWE-32 just died so I've upgraded to a Soundblaster Live! Unfortunately it's PCI so I had to free up a slot. I took the opportunity to upgrade my Orchid Righteous 3dfx card to a shiny new 16MB 3dfx Banshee.

So now I'm ready and waiting for some glorious HDR Minerva action!

xbskid's gravatar

147. Banshee?

Posted by xbskid at 4:13AM, Wednesday May 16 2007

HDR at 640x480 or less is certainly not glorious.

Elyscape's gravatar

148. Joke

Posted by Elyscape at 5:16AM, Wednesday May 16 2007

xbskid, Jumbles was joking. The Banshee wouldn't be capable of HDR at any resolution, let alone 640x480. Hell, it wouldn't even run the Source engine.

Nesretep's gravatar

149. Re: Heresy!

Posted by Nesretep at 6:27AM, Wednesday May 16 2007

Naurgul: Does it count if the hymns are sung to tune of a modem handshake? :) Difficult to do, but the faithful put in the effort to show their devotion to Minerva. Now we know that Minerva communicates to *us* in ascii text, but how does one communicate with Minerva? There has been no precedent thus far as to how this should be done (unless you count forum discussions). Perhaps we should defer this question Her Avatar.

Whoa...I was beginning to sound like I was on the forum again. I've gotta watch these late night postings!

Elyscape's gravatar

150. In the meantime...

Posted by Elyscape at 8:53AM, Wednesday May 16 2007

While we wait, if any of you guys have Starcraft, check out this amazing replay of mine. It's epic beyond all words:
http://elyscape.livejournal.com/217393.html

Yar Kramer's gravatar

151. Re: Contacting Minerva

Posted by Yar Kramer at 2:16AM, Thursday May 17 2007

You don't, of course. If there is to be any communication, Minerva calls you.

You Know Who's gravatar

152. The First Rule of Minerva

Posted by You Know Who at 3:21AM, Thursday May 17 2007

...is you don't contact Minerva.

Sortie's gravatar

153. Elementary Foster

Posted by Sortie at 8:09PM, Thursday May 17 2007

You guys fail to realize the simple fact that Minerva and see and hear everything you see and hear. If you say anything, Minerva hears it, and might reply.
Of course, Adam is clever and prevents us from using our speech.

Cargo Cult's gravatar

154. Awakening

Posted by Cargo Cult at 9:44PM, Thursday May 17 2007

ASCII, from Minerva? Doubt it - some mangled form of EBCDIC relayed via a dead mainframe is more her thing. Internationalisation support via the grotesque UTF-EBCDIC, of course.

Non-MINERVA news: a single-player mod! Released! Screenshots are spangly, and it looks a fantastic piece of work:

http://awakening.hl2files.com/

Downloading right now - and working on metastasis_4b in the meantime...

Sortie's gravatar

155. MINERVA IS THE MOONLANDING

Posted by Sortie at 11:29PM, Thursday May 17 2007

All lies. Minervas text messages are processed via an ascii based localization file. With the possible possibillity of being UTF based.

Yar Kramer's gravatar

156. Re: Awakening

Posted by Yar Kramer at 1:32AM, Friday May 18 2007

Oho. I'm getting this as of now, k.

Sirc's gravatar

157. Awakening... Meh

Posted by Sirc at 3:36AM, Friday May 18 2007

Played it...
Beat It...
(Under an Hour)

I must say that it does make me respect the polish that MINERVA has comparitively. Even though MINERVA does have a mostly linear nature, it felt far more natural than that game...

Conclusion:"Now I want MINERVA more... Thanks alot..."

Siman's gravatar

158. ...

Posted by Siman at 4:24AM, Friday May 18 2007

I knew the it will be out in a week couldn't be trusted.... nice pics ?:' )

FinalWarning's gravatar

159. Дайте Ему Время

Posted by FinalWarning at 7:18AM, Friday May 18 2007

Geduld ist eine Tugend.

You Know Who's gravatar

160. Awakening

Posted by You Know Who at 2:28PM, Friday May 18 2007

Anyone else incredibly annoyed by the voice acting in The Awakening?

It was a good mod but I automatically hate anything with antlions in it.

rb_lestr's gravatar

161. Awakening

Posted by rb_lestr at 7:18PM, Friday May 18 2007

.... Is terrible.
The Dev's have no clue about gameplay whatsoever.

jammer669171's gravatar

162. ummm....

Posted by jammer669171 at 7:33PM, Friday May 18 2007

Adam you wrote "Downloading right now - and working on metastasis_4b in the meantime..."

now i dont mean to sound like a jackass but arent we all waiting for part3...???

Sirc's gravatar

163. Don't Check Much Do You?

Posted by Sirc at 8:51PM, Friday May 18 2007

The third update is 3 and 4...

The original third map got so big it needed divisions so it became map 3 and 4...

So be glad two will be given to you at once...

Naurgul's gravatar

164. Re: ummm....

Posted by Naurgul at 9:03PM, Friday May 18 2007

I even spotted him posting at SUF today! I'm shocked. Don't forget, Adam; you are the representative of a deity that has a no-representatives policy. So you have to work harder if you don't want Her to notice how meaningless your existence is.

Joking aside, I'll have to say: Take your time, Mr. Foster; it's not like we're here all day waiting for you to release the next chapters. When you're done, we'll be glad to play but you have all the time in the world to finish what you're doing, that being Minerva or otherwise.

Elyscape's gravatar

165. SUF?

Posted by Elyscape at 10:42PM, Friday May 18 2007

SUF? What's SUF? A quick google search led me to the Secret Unicorns Form (seriously, search for "suf forum" sans quotes).

Naurgul's gravatar

166. Systematic Unified Focus

Posted by Naurgul at 10:54PM, Friday May 18 2007

Actually, it's just Steam Users Forums, formerly know as "SPUF".

You Know Who's gravatar

167. Minerva was the original name for Uranus

Posted by You Know Who at 11:12PM, Friday May 18 2007

But I'm an ass to mention it.

Sanjuro357's gravatar

168. Restricted Broadcast

Posted by Sanjuro357 at 10:57AM, Saturday May 19 2007

The BBC has actually provided staff guidelines on the pronunciation of Uranus. No more tittering about "Your anus" on the beeb. I think the approximation is "You run us" now....

Sirc's gravatar

169. Makin' Jokes, Killin' Time

Posted by Sirc at 2:59PM, Saturday May 19 2007

Now it sounds like a cheesy punchline to a joke about the government...

One where all politicians come from 'You Run Us' ...

I think I have to go make a political joke now ...

Good a FUN distraction....

xbskid's gravatar

170. URAYNOOSE

Posted by xbskid at 5:08PM, Saturday May 19 2007

I would figure it would be "Ura-nis".

LNL(coldshock)'s gravatar

171. ?!?

Posted by LNL(coldshock) at 1:19AM, Sunday May 20 2007

wtf happened to the other forum

i see this and after not havin my computer for a couple weeks i wonder..................

seriously does this mean from wat iv read that adam's almost done with the next part or am i just wishin!!!??.........."_"

well u figure out wat the pics r of

Candul's gravatar

172. I pose the question....

Posted by Candul at 3:53AM, Sunday May 20 2007

Minerva has been delayed another month.

Why?

Look at the post above me.
Admire the pure time taken to use grasp of the English within this messege, out of the crowd! Admire it.

Then look at the posts above it,
sheer un-interlectual slang messeges sprun all down the page. Its blantly obvious these guys did'nt take the time typing their messeges and saved their time using letters for words like "u" and "r", time they will later spend waiting infront of a microwave for that egg to boil.

(Or is it opposite day? Perhaps....)

Huntress's gravatar

173. Just a side note

Posted by Huntress at 3:54AM, Sunday May 20 2007

in case you missed it...there will be no "Black Box" for HL2/Ep2 et. al. Orange Box only but it will still contain the three new games plus a copy of HL2/Ep1...apparently you can donate those two for someone that doesn't have it if you wish. Seems like a reasonable offer and if I remember correctly (at least in the States) think it will be around $50.

Ha, ha..more ppl have the game more ppl can play Minerva! :-)

Yar Kramer's gravatar

174. Re: no Black Box

Posted by Yar Kramer at 8:52AM, Sunday May 20 2007

All I have to say about that is: [citation needed]

Jumbles's gravatar

175. Re: [citation needed]

Posted by Jumbles at 11:55AM, Sunday May 20 2007

I was looking up The Wicker Man on The IMDb and came across a post about Harlan Ellison. He went onto his Wikipedia page and asked them to change some facts that he claimed were wrong. An argument broke out saying that having citations from the man himself wasn't enough!

rb_lestr's gravatar

176. eh, look maybe?

Posted by rb_lestr at 5:08PM, Sunday May 20 2007

Its true, it was on IGN
How about some google before asking for proof?

ooger's gravatar

177. awakening

Posted by ooger at 9:40PM, Sunday May 20 2007

Pretty cool single player mod, but it crashes on ant lion infestation for me.

Yar Kramer's gravatar

178. Citation awakened

Posted by Yar Kramer at 2:11AM, Monday May 21 2007

Point taken, I'm just used to seeing people post threads with links. ;)

As for Awakening: yeah, I got a crash, too.

Now that I've gotten as far as I'm going to get, it has an interesting premise -- the opportunity to play as Shephard is definitely what hooked me -- and the level designs are mostly good. That said, methinks it needs work. The terrain isn't always modeled as well as it could be, and the jumping puzzle on those two submarines on the dock could've been done better, especially since it's possible to render the game unwinnable if you accidentally drop that broken catwalk in the water. The teleport from the fort to the Citadel Foundations is fairly jarring, since ... well ... first of all, it doesn't fit in the Half-Life 2 continuity. Judith Mossman says in HL2 that the Combine can only teleport between dimensions. That's why she's working with the Combine in the first place. The voice acting is fine; it's just that the voices they used didn't match with the characters very well at all. I'm not saying they should've been identical; that's beyond the scope of a fan-created mod, unless the original actors get it into their heads to help on their own, which is probably breaking their contracts or something. It's just that they could've been better, especially the G-Man. (Another option for him, at least, is to take individual words from existing G-Man voice clips and then splicing them together as-is, since he sounds like that to begin with.)

LNL(coldshock)'s gravatar

179. ..........

Posted by LNL(coldshock) at 2:21AM, Monday May 21 2007

Well well looks like there's some people around here who don't know as much as they think they do.

well.....................A month delay, so when was it or is it expected to be ready for all of us to enjoy.


And on that note I bid you ado.

xbskid's gravatar

180. Moo.

Posted by xbskid at 4:14AM, Monday May 21 2007

Adam didn't say it was delayed another month, he said he spent a month working on his overheating problem.

MrHappy's gravatar

181. Moo Poo

Posted by MrHappy at 7:54AM, Monday May 21 2007

By month you mean week yes?

Errant's gravatar

182. Ellison was a nub

Posted by Errant at 10:43AM, Monday May 21 2007

What he actually did was make up a press release and tried to sub it for the article. Then got a load of mates to do the same thing when it was deleted :(

The fool :)

xbskid's gravatar

183. Moo Poo Moo

Posted by xbskid at 1:27PM, Monday May 21 2007

Yes, I mean week. Whatever. :D

M_Gargantua's gravatar

184. Awakening

Posted by M_Gargantua at 10:36PM, Monday May 21 2007

I say Meh. It was Ok, I'd rather have been playing Dwarf fortress for the two hours but I guess it was worth it. Still no where near the quality of Rock 24 or minerva.

I left a bit of a review on the SA thread about it.

And it makes me wonder why HL1 had so many awesome SP mods while HL2 has two. TWO! Unless im forgetting one that I somehow missed.

And at the same time there are so many fun MP mods, Irongrip, dystopia, PVK2, etc.

macc's gravatar

185. Drainage

Posted by macc at 11:03PM, Monday May 21 2007

Haven't tried it yet, but this mod gets some good comments as well:

http://www.interlopers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17481&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Yar Kramer's gravatar

186. Re: so few HL2 mods

Posted by Yar Kramer at 3:43AM, Tuesday May 22 2007

Well. Half-Life is 10 years old; Half-Life 2 is, what, three? Give it time, give it time, the majority of the Really Awesome Half-Life 1 Mods can't ALL have come out in the first three years.

MrHappy's gravatar

187. HL1 mod's

Posted by MrHappy at 7:43AM, Tuesday May 22 2007

Yes, but there were alot that did. I think because on the whole a high quality SP mod took less work back in the day, there was no such thing as choregraphy, at leat not in such the advanced form it is now, such detailed and large environments weren't possible, Source resources (textures, models, etc.) are generally more detailed and take longer time to produce.

Another thing I think is that the textures in half-life were alot more versatile than those in HL2, so mod's these days need more custom content.

There are quite a few high-quality lookng HL2SP mod's on the horizon, but they are large, complex, andmany are TC's, so it'll be awhile.

In the meantime Drainage is quite awesome. Not on the level of Minerva, but I think I would rank it with, or at least close to, Rock 24.

Day of Redemption is also a nice one.


But there certainly not enough, there are a LOT of mappacks on planet phillip, but many of them are...lacking.

Divals's gravatar

188. Even the cats want more Minerva...

Posted by Divals at 7:49PM, Tuesday May 22 2007

Sorry if this is cliche, but this page is in my list of pages I check daily, right after 'icanhascheezburger.'

http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/Divals/stuff-on-my-keyboardcopy.png

Au-heppa's gravatar

189. re: no mods for HL2

Posted by Au-heppa at 12:13AM, Wednesday May 23 2007

yeah, Source is indeed much more complex than Gold, you need to know more stuff and learn more.

I think it's also because now everybody kind of knows the "fame" you can get from making a good mod, and they want to do it all themselves, they want new monsters and they want voice actors, etc. And it's just too much. And it's often that the mod team has, for example, modeller, but no animators, or texture artists (released model screenshots with no textrures always make me raise an eyebrow)

When you think about it, not too many HL1 mods had any new monsters, mostly many of the new monster models were unused models by Valve.


on SP mods for HL2:
Awekening: mapping very beautiful, sometimes ugly. voice acting horrible, couldn't hear a thing, subtitles were missing because of a bug
Rock 24: didn't like it one bit

MP mods:
I like Hidden and Zombie Master

Jumbles's gravatar

190. Where to get mods

Posted by Jumbles at 1:51AM, Wednesday May 23 2007

Where is a good place for getting mods? I first heard about Minerva from a site called Ten Four. It's a great site for HL1 and Quake mods but there aren't many mods for HL2 listed on it.

I know about MODDb and PlanetPhillip (doesn't seem to be working properly at the mo) but what I'd like is an extensive list of mods with a way of arranging them by some sort of score.

My second favourite SP mod is Mistake Of Pythagoras and my favourite MP mod is Hidden.

Sanjuro357's gravatar

191. Bad puns

Posted by Sanjuro357 at 10:41AM, Wednesday May 23 2007

Well, you can go to the Source.....

ahahahaha..... ahem. Try the following:

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Category:Single_Player_Mods

as well as

http://www.hl2mods.co.uk/released.php

You Know Who's gravatar

192. SP mods

Posted by You Know Who at 1:18AM, Thursday May 24 2007

Ditto on Rock 24. Not my thing, and the voice acting for the metrocops is dorky. I can't see them saying "Don't mess us around."

Some good SP mods:

Day Hard
Mistake of Pythagoras
Cite 14
HL2 Substance
SMOD
Coastline to Atmosphere
Combine Destiny

My favourite MP mods are:

Dystopia
Goldeneye
Eternal Silence (buggy)

Cargo Cult's gravatar

193. metastasis_4b...

Posted by Cargo Cult at 12:33AM, Friday May 25 2007

... appears to be nearing completion!

It took far too long to get the first section of gameplay to something I was happy with, but now I rather like it. I seem to have found a nice little seam of *fun* somewhere, and it appears to work.

Plus, it's combined with a hopefully not-too-fiendish puzzle, to keep you all on your toes.

I'm now turning the sketchy second half into a much more full-blooded version. Then, there's just the ending scripting to do, a load of visual and gameplay polishing, message rewriting and whatnot over everything, and then Metastasis should be done.

Release date? Oh, I don't know. Probably a couple of weeks at the barest minimum. ;-)

Semiloki's gravatar

194. Still on the case

Posted by Semiloki at 12:52AM, Friday May 25 2007

Good to see that you are still on the case Adam. So a mid summer release seems to be expected? Good for us. If you can get it out before July 1, then some of us in the US get a week or so to stay up late and play again and again.

kast's gravatar

195. Grimply grumply groo

Posted by kast at 12:52AM, Friday May 25 2007

"couple of weeks"... so, what's that? Christmas? ;)

Me, cynical? Never. Whatever gave you that idea?

rb_lestr's gravatar

196. cry

Posted by rb_lestr at 1:29AM, Friday May 25 2007

I will wait, and wait, and wait some more....

At least i will have Insurgency to keep me company at night.........

Omnivore's gravatar

197. #1 feature: shipping. #N feature: predictions.

Posted by Omnivore at 1:49AM, Friday May 25 2007

I love watching (if this can be called that) a perfectionist at play.

Happily for us, Adam knows that it's all moot if he never ships. I just wish he'd stop Valving (i.e., setting poorly predictive pseudo-deadlines) -- so much easier when there are no expectations.

Oh, Adam! Hi, sorry, didn't realize you were right there. Erm. Heh. Well, gotta run! See you...when it's done. ;)

MrHappy's gravatar

198. mmmmmmmmm

Posted by MrHappy at 2:17AM, Friday May 25 2007

that makes me salivate!

Yar Kramer's gravatar

199. Ahahahahahaha.

Posted by Yar Kramer at 8:41AM, Friday May 25 2007

Excellent. Assuming this actually DOES take a couple of weeks ... well ...

Well, first of all, I hope to have a job by then, but in the words of the G-Man: "Let's just say your hour has ... come again."

rb_lestr's gravatar

200. ibet.....

Posted by rb_lestr at 12:33PM, Friday May 25 2007

I bet this is just a ploy to get us to think we have to wait a few more weeks, when in reality,

SUPRISE RELEASE TOMORROW!!!

xbskid's gravatar

201. Re: ibet.....

Posted by xbskid at 6:13PM, Friday May 25 2007

Holycrap spoilers.

Sortie's gravatar

202. Heh.

Posted by Sortie at 12:52PM, Saturday May 26 2007

Valve should hire you. You are excellent at making games, and never get's around to finish them in time. :P
Well, a couple of weeks. Or 'a couple of weeks'?

Sanjuro357's gravatar

203. Re: Heh.

Posted by Sanjuro357 at 4:00PM, Saturday May 26 2007

After all, he seems to have a firm grasp of Valve time....

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time

Cargo Cult's gravatar

204. Delayed due to Partial Nudity

Posted by Cargo Cult at 8:23PM, Saturday May 26 2007

... fortunately just Halo 2 PC, not MINERVA - and you really, really can't make this sort of thing up:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/coders-gone-wild/esrb-comments-on-halo-2s-naked-ass-263707.php

Any allegations that I've been pointing my own bare, hairy arse at my MacBook Pro's camera are categorically denied. ;-)

(Other news: Metastasis is playable right the way through! Revealing slight pacing problems in certain areas, which I'm now fixing! Valve Time still applies!)

Cargo Cult's gravatar

205. ... and before anyone gets the wrong idea

Posted by Cargo Cult at 8:41PM, Saturday May 26 2007

Any hint of a potential release is *still* numerous weeks away. 'Pacing problems' mean 'building new architecture and gameplay'. :-P

rb_lestr's gravatar

206. yes?

Posted by rb_lestr at 9:50PM, Saturday May 26 2007

So this week then?

You Know Who's gravatar

207. I have an advance copy of Minerva 3!

Posted by You Know Who at 12:24AM, Sunday May 27 2007

No I don't.

silentcircuit's gravatar

208. Any chance of a HDR re-release of Metastasis 2 in the mean time?

Posted by silentcircuit at 6:52AM, Sunday May 27 2007

Assuming you've done the skyboxing, etc (I vaguely recall screenshots on the blog) wouldn't re-releasing Metastasis 2 HDR take a grand total of 30 minutes? That'd be awesome, and help in tiding some of us over as you work magic with the rest.

Just a thought.

Jumbles's gravatar

209. Pointer Sisters

Posted by Jumbles at 9:06PM, Sunday May 27 2007

I know the release is still weeks away but...

I'm so excited!

Daekkon's gravatar

210. When does chapter 3 come out?

Posted by Daekkon at 11:29PM, Sunday May 27 2007

sooo when does it come out? i need to kick some more combine ass in the dark!

M_Gargantua's gravatar

211. Deeeeeeeekon

Posted by M_Gargantua at 11:45PM, Sunday May 27 2007

Few weeks in valve time.

Deconstructionist By Day's gravatar

212. I'd have your babies if I wasn't male, fat & ugly

Posted by Deconstructionist By Day at 5:16AM, Monday May 28 2007

Mr. Foster,

I have played and replayed the first two installments of what I can only hope becomes more than the trilogy in nine parts as I've read - after discovering this, and subsequently reinstalling the original Half Life for the sole purpose of playing Somewhere Else, I have put "I wish for many clones of Adam Foster" on my list of things to wish for should I encounter anything able to give me three of them. I'm not talking about fight-scene-in-the-second-matrix amounts, but certainly at least four.

I apologize that you are number three on the list of three wishes, but you did bump wishing for world peace in my lifetime off, so do understand that I'd be apt to sacrifice millions of people for a handful more of you. That, sir, is at least a 1:750,000 ratio of you:other people. Money & Immortality in which to spend it, unfortunately, have just too far a lead to ever be overcome.

In all seriousness though, thank you enormously for this content; though shorter, I find it does play better than the commercial release found in HL2 or HL2:episode one. And I believe a magazine somewhere called HL2 'the best game ever made'.

I award you the internet, use it wisely.

Errant's gravatar

213. Praise indeed

Posted by Errant at 8:05AM, Monday May 28 2007

"I award you the internet, use it wisely."

Best quote ever :)

At least that post had me laughing as we wait... wait... wait....

Minerva does it better than Valve does for maps and gameplay yes. So why does Adam stick to Valve time?? LOL

;-)

Sirc's gravatar

214. Earnest Musings

Posted by Sirc at 9:04AM, Monday May 28 2007

At least we're thrown the occassional puzzle to ponder over to pass the time...

The nine parts comment reminded me of something...

Was the fourth section of the next update an unexpected addon or a bonus map?

Let me elaborate...

Is it a map that was necessary to create due to the large size of map three?
OR
Is it the next in the series that just happened to be synonimous enough with the previous map to warrant a double release?

To simplify...
Is it a trilogy in nine parts or ten?

Research, Hypothesize, or Guess...

An effort to help my fellow converts pass the time...

Your humbled priest...
Sirc

(I felt unusually devout at this moment for some reason...)

MrHappy's gravatar

215. pegasus

Posted by MrHappy at 11:04PM, Monday May 28 2007

I suggest that it is a new fourth part of metastasis, rather than the first part of carcinogenesis

to me the name suggests that it will end in some sort of flying vessel

xbskid's gravatar

216. Metastasis 4

Posted by xbskid at 6:34AM, Tuesday May 29 2007

MrHappy: Carcinogenesis is the first chapter of Metastasis, not the followup episodic saga to Metastasis.

Now, Adam has already said that the third part of Metastasis had to be broken down into two parts (metastasis_3 and metastasis_4). If Adam has kept to that, then "Metastasis 3", as all of you so incorrectly put it, will simply add that third chapter as two maps, which would be the final product--not chapter 3 and an additional chapter 4.

The point I'm trying to make is that "Metastasis 3" should really be referred to as the third chapter of Metastasis. Referring to the releases as "Metastasis X" insinuates that each release is a sequel--which then insinuates completely independant storylines--which is incorrect because each release adds one or more maps that simply (And directly) extend the gameplay. When Alien 2 came out, even though it was directly related to the first movie, it didn't pick up exactly where the first movie left off and had an independant storyline that anyone could understand without having to see the first movie. I believe Adam has already commented on this and will be releasing the final product sans number (Read: The final version will simply be named "MINERVA: Metastasis").

In the long run, I'm hoping to see some sort of MINERVA collection that includes Metastasis, Chronoclasm, and whatever comes afterward--possibly including ports of Somewhere Else and the unfinished Parallax. Some sort of 'MINERVA: The Legacy' thing.

MrHappy's gravatar

217. brainfart typo

Posted by MrHappy at 10:06AM, Tuesday May 29 2007

I meant chronoclasm, not carcinegenesis lol

anyway, if memory servers 4a and 4b are titled "Pegasus" meaning a fourth chapter in the first episode of minerva

thats what i was trying to get at...

Sanjuro357's gravatar

218. Earlier (possibly fictional) broadcast......

Posted by Sanjuro357 at 10:11AM, Tuesday May 29 2007

Has anyone tried Kronos? I believe it was made with Doom...... (exclusive to the Sega Saturn).

Esvandiary's gravatar

219. Weeks?!

Posted by Esvandiary at 2:10PM, Tuesday May 29 2007

WEEKS?! O_O

I'm starting to think there is no Adam Foster, only the cruel, twisted Minerva!!

Make haste, make haste! Hmm, actually... Wait until my exams are over, that might be in my best interests... :|

Naurgul's gravatar

220. Wait?

Posted by Naurgul at 8:15PM, Tuesday May 29 2007

There seems to be 2 new chapters since we know two new titles, Pegasus being one of them.

As for waiting; my exams start at 15 June and end at 15 July. Will you wait for my exams to end as well, Esvandiary?

Esvandiary's gravatar

221. Re: Wait?

Posted by Esvandiary at 1:40PM, Wednesday May 30 2007

Yeah, two new chapters sounds very good.

My exams finish on the 21 June... I suspect at least one of us is going to be a little distracted from revision, heheh. :)

Nesretep's gravatar

222. Oh the wait!

Posted by Nesretep at 5:09PM, Thursday May 31 2007

The wait isn't so bad for me at least. I am being kept busy with other things, but I still check here regularly even though I may not say much. So keep on keeping on Adam! I'm sure you'll make it worth the wait.

Sky's gravatar

223. Stability

Posted by Sky at 7:49PM, Thursday May 31 2007

First off, I want to applaud you for making such a fantastic mod, Adam! I've played some of the other said "good" mods, and they all have really disappointed me. I cannot for the life of me understand why Rock 24 gets so much love when the voice acting makes me want to tear my ears off (they pronounced "Mesa" wrong. At that point I was done). Other mods are alright, but not of great quality. This mod is an entirely different story. Even though it lacks any voice acting whatsoever (besides the standard Combine communication and screams), it manages to create a gripping story that leaves me wanting much more. The maps are outstanding (even though I got lost once because I was thrown off by something MINERVA said), and you certainly make use of every single area of the map through the backtracking, etc. I applaud you.

Now, I have a quick question about Metastasis 3. From what I can tell, it's a mod of HL2: E1. Unfortunately, the standalone game is completely unplayable for me unless I force it to use DirectX 8.1 shaders, and then the quality is much lower than it should be (I have a monster of a machine: E6700 and an 8800GTX, so I should have no problem with the advanced graphics, and I can play Lost Coast with everything turned up high just fine). My question is this: will Metastasis 3 be likely to exhibit the same behavior as Episode 1? I certainly hope not, because Metastasis with HDR will certainly knock my socks off.

xbskid's gravatar

224. Re: Stability

Posted by xbskid at 12:56AM, Friday June 1 2007

I believe Adam said it was a mod of Episode One, unless he decides to port it to that Source SDK Base thing. Also, I didn't think nVidia's DX10 cards would have to revert to DX8 like their predecessors. I thought that was only for the 5xxx series.

Sky's gravatar

225. Re: Stability

Posted by Sky at 2:54AM, Friday June 1 2007

I honestly don't think it's a problem with the card, seeing as I'm able to run Half-life 2 at max settings as well as Half-life 2: Lost Coast. If the card was having issues with Source, I would think it would have become apparent earlier.

Personally, I think Episode 1 is just flat out broken (for me on my machine and reportedly for many others). Perhaps it's got something to do with me running Vista x64, but still.

Sirc's gravatar

226. Low Tech, Yet Full Functional

Posted by Sirc at 6:31AM, Friday June 1 2007

My computer is by no means top of the line...
At all...

But I have yet to have ANY problems with the Single Player campains in the Half Life Franchise...

I guess it just doesn't like certain things?

Rivan's gravatar

227. Re: Stability (or in this case instability)

Posted by Rivan at 6:40AM, Friday June 1 2007

The problem is Vista x64 HL2EP1 is not a compatible program.

I hate Vista!!! :O

fuzz's gravatar

228. stability

Posted by fuzz at 6:44PM, Friday June 1 2007

well as a desktop support tech my first course of action would be to turn it off and on again, but I guess you've tried that...
re-install?
or maybe it's the drivers? I heard they were having problems with 8800's on vista

Psychoceramics's gravatar

229. stability

Posted by Psychoceramics at 9:37PM, Friday June 1 2007

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=500297

a well-known issue with ep1. I experience it as well unless I knock it down to directx 7

Sky's gravatar

230. Re: Stability

Posted by Sky at 11:23PM, Friday June 1 2007

@Psychoceramics: That's precisely the issue I'm having, though occasionally it fails to even load the map (pointing not to the card, but to the application itself, perhaps it not liking Vista). I'm hoping that whatever causes this issue doesn't crop up in Metastasis 3, but it's highly likely it seems. =(

@fuzz:

Of course I've tried a reboot. =P I haven't re-installed the game, but I've verified the local game content several times. I would highly doubt it's the drivers due to previous games I've played not having any issue, and a lot of them are pretty demanding (F.E.A.R., HL2, HL2: Lost Coast, Counter-Strike: Source, CnC3, Battlefield 2, Oblivion, etc). I'm not using any beta drivers, so they aren't in the slightest flaky. Not that they don't have issues, but I just have a feeling it isn't them. Who knows, it might be (I don't claim to have infinite knowledge of the card's workings), but signs seem to point toward the game itself.

MrHappy's gravatar

231. Re: Re: Stability

Posted by MrHappy at 12:08AM, Saturday June 2 2007

Ya, it's probably a combination of the game and the card. I suspect the game is calling on functions of the card in a way that is no longer accessed the same way as in previous models.

fuzz's gravatar

232. early adopters

Posted by fuzz at 12:16PM, Saturday June 2 2007

Not that I havn't gone out and installed stuff as soon as they came out, but it's nice to think that by the time I can afford a new pc to run vista it might actually have been properly beta tested...

Sky's gravatar

233. Vista

Posted by Sky at 8:11PM, Saturday June 2 2007

@fuzz:

This is actually the first program that I've had any difficulty using within the Vista environment, and I was a very early adopter. Judging by the fact that many other people are having similar issues that aren't running Vista, I don't think Vista really has a lot to do with it. Granted, it most likely doesn't help in the slightest, but I don't think we can blame it on Vista entirely.

What really bothers me is the fact that Half-life 2: Lost Coast works just fine with HDR and all of the settings on high. What else was added into Episode 1 that would cause an issue? It just seems odd that every other Source-based game I've tried works just fine.

Valve is of no help. =P

M_Gargantua's gravatar

234. The Wait

Posted by M_Gargantua at 1:19AM, Sunday June 3 2007

I told someone I was bored and I was pointed to Gurren-Lagann, i've been entertained watching it since. Which is a rareity because of what it is. Hence the wait is nothing to me.

xbskid's gravatar

235. Re: Re: Re: Re: etc: Stability

Posted by xbskid at 6:15AM, Tuesday June 5 2007

@fuzz: Where did you learn your PC skills? Dell Customer Support?

fuzz's gravatar

236. heh

Posted by fuzz at 6:31PM, Wednesday June 6 2007

nope, somewhere worse :)

but turning it off and on again does work most of the time ;)

Cargo Cult's gravatar

237. Hello from Heathrow Airport

Posted by Cargo Cult at 8:43AM, Thursday June 7 2007

Upper Class lounge is spangly. Upgrades are even better. ;-)

Naurgul's gravatar

238. Heathrow?!

Posted by Naurgul at 10:58AM, Thursday June 7 2007

Oh, god... you're going to Valve HQ again, aren't you?

Also, please please please try to finish Minerva by next week. *cries*

*clears throat* Well, have a nice trip, Mr Foster... or have fun whatever it is you're doing.

Lewk's gravatar

239. Heathrow has an airport now?

Posted by Lewk at 12:44PM, Thursday June 7 2007

You make a great point Naurgul.

If it's true you're going to valve again adam, say hi to gabe for me!

Nesretep's gravatar

240. Let the assumptions begin!

Posted by Nesretep at 2:17PM, Thursday June 7 2007

What could Valve want him for this time (assuming that actually is his destination)? Maybe an opinion on the progress of Episode 2? Or do they want to buy the rights to Minerva like they did Counter Strike and Day of Defeat? Only time will tell I suppose... :) The first is probably much more likely as they did give him a look at Episode 1 before its release if I remember correctly.

kast's gravatar

241. or....

Posted by kast at 2:43PM, Thursday June 7 2007

it could be a totally innocent visit for reasons in no way related to MINERVA, Valve or any other such thing :P

vecima's gravatar

242. well...

Posted by vecima at 3:43PM, Thursday June 7 2007

considering Heathrow Airport is in London, which is in the U.K., which is where Mr. Foster resides, why was there such an accepted assumption that VALVe HQ was his destination? Has all air traffic been stopped save for the Heathrow to SeaTac non stopper? (and quite a flight it would be).

Esvandiary's gravatar

243. Well, if he is going to Valve...

Posted by Esvandiary at 3:45PM, Thursday June 7 2007

... I'm sure they won't make the same mistake they made last time (letting him leave)... ;)

Sky: It's a (very) long shot, but strange and interesting problems are often fixed by forcing Steam to remake the ClientRegistry.blob file - I must admit that given the rather odd nature of the problem (other Source games working but not Ep1) it probably won't work, but anything's worth a try, right?

Just go into your Steam folder and rename ClientRegistry.blob to something else... Then start Steam. If it doesn't do anything and you're paranoid, you can always put the old one back afterwards! =P

vecima's gravatar

244. unrelatedly...

Posted by vecima at 4:00PM, Thursday June 7 2007

can anyone else find the descriptive word used by Mr. Foster not one, nor two, but three times on this very page?

kast's gravatar

245. yes

Posted by kast at 4:20PM, Thursday June 7 2007

spangly

it's a good word :)

Nesretep's gravatar

246. Mr Foster's Neighborhood

Posted by Nesretep at 6:54PM, Thursday June 7 2007

@vecima: Doesn't Adam live on the continent now? I thought he had moved to Brussels...or was I just totally mistaken on that one.

Does spangly have some kind of special connotation that I am not aware of (being that I am from the opposite side of the pond from Mr. Foster)? Or is it just one of those fun words you make up when nothing else seems to suit the purpose? :)

Sortie's gravatar

247. Heh,

Posted by Sortie at 7:35PM, Thursday June 7 2007

He posts a message on amounting to a few words; and the public are bound to belive he is going to the very Valve in question. Have fun.

FinalWarning's gravatar

248. spangly

Posted by FinalWarning at 5:56AM, Friday June 8 2007

spangly
A adjective
1 beaded, beady, bejeweled, bejewelled, bespangled, gemmed, jeweled, jewelled, sequined, spangled, spangly
covered with beads or jewels or sequins

Or possibly: www.spangly.org? Its in a holding page right now but it has an interesting server- Servage Hosting which states " Downtime is not an option as all systems are in redundant setups - even our servers is mirrored in a fail tolerant way. In the event one server should fail it is automatically replaced by the other cluster nodes. "

Errant's gravatar

249. Spangly.com

Posted by Errant at 8:54AM, Friday June 8 2007

That sounds a tad Minerva-ish!
Coincidence - or fate....

Errant's gravatar

250. I meant org

Posted by Errant at 8:58AM, Friday June 8 2007

Yeh I meant .org not .com. Gah!

Sortie's gravatar

251. Downtime is not an option, yeah right!

Posted by Sortie at 1:23PM, Friday June 8 2007

Well, the text has changed.
www.spangly.org
'Welcome to my holding web page'

Sirc's gravatar

252. Long Shot

Posted by Sirc at 9:04PM, Friday June 8 2007

The Following Is The Paranoid Comment Of The Week: "Perhaps the site where the MINERVA download will be posted when it is finished?"

(I doubt it, but it had to be said right?)

When I hear that word, spangly, for some reason I think of the US. (Star spangled banner and such...) Perhaps a hint for his arrival?

It is funny that so few words can lead to so much speculation. (Then again it is only natural for the human mind to 'fill in the gaps.')

As always, time will tell...

Yar Kramer's gravatar

253. Occam's Razor

Posted by Yar Kramer at 10:05PM, Friday June 8 2007

The simplest possible/necessary (but no simpler) explanation is: he's going somewhere for some reason, and doesn't consider either the location or the reason relevant or significant enough to tell us, and he's amused at all the paranoid responses we're liable to come up with in a vacuum of information.

However, the paranoid responses like "He must be going to VaLVE!" or "He's going to meet MINERVA herself!" are much more fun, so I'll go with that one. he's going to meet MINERVA herself!

M_Gargantua's gravatar

254. Conspiracy theory

Posted by M_Gargantua at 12:16AM, Saturday June 9 2007

Everything is one, they have a losing trackrecord.

Probability theories would be better to argue about. Its only probable that Adam is going to Valve.

hklown's gravatar

255. or maybe...

Posted by hklown at 8:16AM, Saturday June 9 2007

...he's just there to pick someone up? You never know :P

Boff's gravatar

256. Adam's trip

Posted by Boff at 10:06AM, Saturday June 9 2007

Gabe : "are you not done yet?"

Adam : "I'm still 'waiting' for your multi-core solution and to see how your new shadow systems so i can implement them so I don't have recompile and do an update later!"

Gabe: "darn, as we were waiting on you, as were were short on ideas for Ep2."

LNL(coldshock)'s gravatar

257. trip?

Posted by LNL(coldshock) at 10:17PM, Saturday June 9 2007

Well looks like as always when im gone for awhile some interesting news turns up....

So supposedly "THE" Adam is on a trip and some of us think he might be going to VALVE?

I think he's just playin with us, so Heathrow Airport is he ariving or departing and if so where to? Only time shall tell.............................

Cargo Cult's gravatar

258. Vague Deductions

Posted by Cargo Cult at 4:19AM, Sunday June 10 2007

Honestly, you lot and your conspiracy theories. The sensible thing to do would be to determine which airline has an 'Upper Class' and then, using that, figure out possible destinations.

I'd tell you which time-zone I'm in, but that would be cheating - although riding the cable-cars today was great fun. Them hills are *ridiculous*.

anon's gravatar

259. Location

Posted by anon at 4:51AM, Sunday June 10 2007

That would be San Francisco, CA. USA Pacific timezone.

Sirc's gravatar

260. Look at me! It's ADD!

Posted by Sirc at 5:12AM, Sunday June 10 2007

(Why does Rice-A-Roni keep popping up in my head? I've been brainwashed!?! NO!!!)

It is fun to make wild unlikely guesses as to your musings, cryptic or otherwise. It helps to distract us for the future release(s).

On a side note, should we start lobbying for a MINERVA day on 2009-10-15 and then an annual anniversery afterward? (;P)

Anyway, have a pleasant stay. Good luck on your trip, whether business or pleasure.

(I wonder if this falls under the heading of non-sequitur...)

Mercer's gravatar

261. Locus

Posted by Mercer at 5:39AM, Sunday June 10 2007

GMT -8:00 FTW!

Man, I gotta go to San Francisco haven't been in a while.

Jumbles's gravatar

262. Alliteration

Posted by Jumbles at 10:29AM, Sunday June 10 2007

Virgin to Vancouver

Esvandiary's gravatar

263. Do we know what Adam looks like?

Posted by Esvandiary at 3:08PM, Sunday June 10 2007

If so, I suggest we go and camp out Heathrow Arrivals until he comes back, bundle him into the back of a van and force him to work on Minerva in one of our basements.....


..... I'm normal. Honest. ;)

You Know Who's gravatar

264. Adam meeting Minerva?

Posted by You Know Who at 5:16PM, Sunday June 10 2007

Kramer said:

"However, the paranoid responses like "He must be going to VaLVE!" or "He's going to meet MINERVA herself!" are much more fun, so I'll go with that one. he's going to meet MINERVA herself!"

...or maybe Adam is secretly a furry and he's going to a furry convention as Minerva Mink.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minerva_Mink

Yar Kramer's gravatar

265. What Adam looks like

Posted by Yar Kramer at 5:27PM, Sunday June 10 2007

I dunno ... for some reason, I vaguely imagine him as looking like David "Dangermouse" Morgan-Mar of Irregular Webcomic fame ...

... Come to think of it, I imagine a bunch of "Web personalities" like that ...

M_Gargantua's gravatar

266. Adam looks like

Posted by M_Gargantua at 5:54PM, Sunday June 10 2007

Dr. Strangelove.

ka's gravatar

267. phosphenes

Posted by ka at 9:28PM, Sunday June 10 2007

I like it how you put in large, completely irrelevant words in every empty space you can find, you pretentious twit.

FinalWarning's gravatar

268. Hmmmmm!!!!!

Posted by FinalWarning at 11:37PM, Sunday June 10 2007

You know, Valve is in Bellevue, Washington which is only 800 miles from San Francisco. Thats only a hop on a shuttle flight.

Cargo Cult's gravatar

269. Only a hop...

Posted by Cargo Cult at 6:24AM, Tuesday June 12 2007

... but it kind of assumes the plane didn't get delayed.

And ka? Here's a large, completely irrelevant word for you: 'verisimilitude'. To be honest, I wish I could revert some of my more outlandish naming ideas, but I'd be accused of backtracking... ;-)

You Know Who's gravatar

270. Back to work you

Posted by You Know Who at 10:06PM, Tuesday June 12 2007

It goes back to HL2 mod-din,
or else it gets the hose again.

FinalWarning's gravatar

271. Verisimilitude

Posted by FinalWarning at 2:31AM, Wednesday June 13 2007

Truly, your movements conform to our sense of reality... >)

Muskieratboi's gravatar

272. re: Verisimilitude

Posted by Muskieratboi at 5:00AM, Wednesday June 13 2007

I reject your reality, and subsitute it with my own! Where Minerva 3 has already been released, and Adam's working on The next bloody chapter! :P

LNL(coldshock)'s gravatar

273. hahahahahahaha

Posted by LNL(coldshock) at 10:44PM, Wednesday June 13 2007

Damn, this is getting fun.

Like I said before he's havin fun watchin us with our crazy schemes and ideas.

He should put out a teaser trailer to keep us occupied. ;)

Adam and his mysterious ways. Wouldn't it be funny if he was already done with the next part of Minerva and was just keeping it from us to see what we come up with for his own ideas....

Well in a sense of verisimilitude, Minerva has it.

Way to go Adam. >)

pox's gravatar

274. we interrupt this discussion for a special report...

Posted by pox at 12:38AM, Thursday June 14 2007

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20070612/sc_space/earthsfutureglimpsedontitan


Can you say, "Dune"?

You Know Who's gravatar

275. Dune

Posted by You Know Who at 10:04PM, Friday June 15 2007

/me learns to walk without rhythm

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