Half-Life Easter Egg - Purple Halflife Box (NOT AN EGG)

what do you mean by command line?

For all thos people that read this is no eggs or funny thing that the programmer put in. The box is just that a box. The purple things with the HL logo, a texture called AAATRIGGER to remind them where the triggers are and stuff like that. How he saw a monster is beyond me but if someone decomplises this(bad)mabye some light would be shed

Ya your right but there are many other thing like that throughout the game

Warning: The following may be inaccurate. hl-Half-Life q1-Quake. q2-Quake 2. What he saw is almost certainly a container for some king of trigger or entity. If he saw a monster there then it was probably a holding place for the monster until it was teleported elsewhere in the map. Note: I have done no hl mapping but as hl is based on the q2 engine it's probably similar. In order to get monsters to a place that the player has been before they must exist on that level when it's loaded. This is true for unaltered q1 and, AFAIK, is true for q2. To do this you place the monster in an enclosed box that is filled with a teleport entity. Somewhere in the map you place a trigger entity that activates the teleport entity, thus teleporting the monster to a specified destination.

just so you know.. that is the default texture for a box when you are mapping halflife maps.. i make maps, so i know.. it's just a box the maker of the map left out there, and i guess forgot to delete..

To use the cheats you add the following to the end of the shortcut for Half-Life: -dev -console

In HL, you have a Monstermaker entity to create monsters that don't exist at design time... quite cool

ummm. you seem to be slightly mistaken. HL is NOT based on the Q2 graphics engine at all, that's why people's mouths can move and that kinda stuff. If you've played Kingpin, a game that IS based on the Q2 graphics engine, you'll notive that the Q2 graphics engine doesn't support the dynamic skins (aka, a perosn's mouth moving) and besides that, the graphics don't look anything alike.

Actually, Half-life is based on the Quake 2 engine but its HEAVILY MODIFIED. Basically, they took the Quake 2 engine and rebuilt it from the ground up.

I have no idea where this popularly perpetuated myth was spawned, but whoever told you that Half-Life was made with a Modified Quake 2 engine was wrong. Half-Life was made with a Modified Quake 1 Engine. for proof, HL does not support "pain-skins" Quake 2 does. Quake 1 uses *.mdl files, Quake 2 uses *.md2 Guess what Half-Life uses? yep, *.mdl

Actually you are both wrong... Half-life is based on the Quake ONE engine... Valve never licensed it... They worked on it shortly after Q1 was released

Go to Valve's web site or look in the documentation on the CD, HL is based on a VERY HEAVILY MODIFIED QUAKE 2 ENGINE! it's there plain as day in those 2 places, and on countless game web sites, most of which actually talked to the HL developers at Valve. The modifications allow mouths to move, and could keep skins that are not HL-specialized from working. Just because 2 games look different doesn't mean they are built on different engines either. Look at all the games based on the Q3 engine. The only common ground they share is the high graphic quality and large rendering area. If you want to believe that HL was built on a Q1 engine, then take this into consideration: the Q1 engine didn't allow mouse-look, while HL does, that's something that even a heavily modified version of that engine cannot do.

Just my tuppence worth, but q1 _does_ allow mouse look, although it has to be turned on at the console (+mlook). However, the original q1 did not support hardware rendering, which would be much harder to add than a mouse look function.

Quake1, Quake2, Half-Life, and Quake 3 all use the same engine, they are all very different, but that is because they are all modified to suit the developers' needs. NOTE: this is no opinion, or guess, but a fact.

So much to the off-topic (Half Life is Q1 engine :-))... but now i want to tell you what this Box is: First of all: Its NOT a place holding monsters. HL-Engine does spawn monsters on an other way (for the experts: entity "monster maker"). Its just a box that holds some Geometry of the level while the Compile progress. Valve often used it to do "lighting" correct for some stuff (like doors, trains and other [moving] stuff). Sorry for my bad English but i am German :-)

The Half-Life engine is 25% Quake 1 engine code, 75% new code.

Half Life is a heavily modified Quake II engine, hence the popular WorldCraft map-editor/creator can be used to create/edit HL and Q2 levels without changing virtually anything. Valve initially used the Quake 1 engine to design the first couple of levels but then the Quake 2 engine began to be licensed out, so Valve started from scratch using the Q2 engine (which they pulled apart and reconstructed to allow for polymorphic skins and meshes). I believe this switch early on in the program is what is confusing some people. Simple mistake though.

Technically speaking, almost all games today share at least small parts with the Quake 2 engine. Almost every First Person game on the market has the same basic features and commands. To name a few, the console, mouse looking, same basic cheats, same basic multi-player, menu layout, plus all those technical items and more. And the Quake 2 engine was also a revision of the countless older engines. You would have to virtually write a whole new one to change the similarities between games, and even then they still have most. I know that Half-Life in general is a re-written Quake 2 clone. Quake 2 was a re-written Quake clone. It even states in the Half-Life manual: "25% Quake 2 engine, 75% Versa-Life engine. Also, Quake 1, along with various other older games, does support mouse-looking. You would have to manually enable it though, because it was obviously in an earlier stage. And we always have to keep thanking ID, because they also, in pure fact, built the grandmother of all first person shooters, Wolfenstien 3D. Even its more primitive components are still being used today.

Could anyone actually clarify how to get all weapons please? Thanks.

No the reason Quake didn't have coloured lighting was because it was in an 8-bit paletted mode (only 256 colours, as opposed to today's 16.7 Million :). Because Half-Life was able to use Direct3D and OpenGL, stuff like coloured lighting was easy (hardware lights etc).

Listen, isn't it obvious? If you go in the box, the monster will attack you. First, take note of how it attacks you. Next, take note of what it looks like. Next, listen to the sounds it makes as it attacks you. Put it all together, and what to you get? The flame shooting big guy that you fight the fourth time the boss warps you! Get it? The box is a code piece that contains the creature until it is activated by your fourth warp, bringing him into the area.

In quake 1, you fight Cthon (boss of episode 1) he comes out of the lava the second you grab the rune, killing him is quite a nuisance but after you've done it, a bridge comes up in the lava leading to the exit. when you exit the level, chuncky kibbles of Shamblers and Zombies start bursting around like fireworks. But ask yourself this... at the start werent there 24 monsters to kill? cthon was just 1 and the game didnt lie to you so the shamblers/zombies were hidden somewhere on the map. open up the console and type noclip (i think its that one) and explore the level outside the walls of cthons house, you should see a big black room. upon entering the black room you will find yourself under attack by dozens of shamblers and zombies! same goes with half-life its just a box that holds monsters that teleport around in the real map.

Actually the Half-Life engine is based on a very, very, very heavily modified Quake II engine. The Q2 engine is in return based upon the Quake 1 engine. This is claimed to be Valve Softwares own words. The pink box is in fact composed of the texture AAATRIGGER, the texture used for making triggers. I don't know why it is visible however since it's automaticly invisible when it's an entity, obviously the mapper forgot to delete it or turn it into an entity...or it actually serves a purpouse.

Half-Life IS based on the Quake 2 engine. As a fact HL began as a Quake 2 modification and sort of grew out of control after that. The reason why Half-Life doesn't have any pain skins like Q2 is not because of the engine, it's because of that Valve loosed the idea at the final stages of the development for some reason I can't remember.

With reference to Yoshimitzu's earlier comment, from a mapping perspective anything that the mapper doesn't expect the player to see, either because it is on the outside of the world or because it is an invisible entity, needn't have any particular texture assigned to it. The purple texture is called aaatrigger, and is the first texture in the halflife.wad texture file, hence it becomes the default texture in the hammer mapping utility, and is used primarily for invisible entities such as ladders, monstermakers etc. as it is too revolting to be used for anything visible.

Right, I've been working with the HL engine for quite some time and I have become an extremely competent mapper so I shall try and explain some things to you. Firstly, the box you saw is covered in the AAATRIGGER texture. This texture is only used for entities such as trigger_hurt and trigger_multiple etc. In order for one of these entities to be used, the player MUST either touch it ure go through it (otherwise, it would be a point based entity rather than a brush based entity). The brush only becomes invisible when an entity is applied to it. So why you saw this outside of the world is beyond me. The most likely thing is that the mapper was just messing around and decided to leave it there. A second point I would like to make is that when monsters spawn, they don't have to come from anywhere. They can just be spawned instantly and don't have to be teleported from somewhere else. (Hence the reason that the amount of times that a monster can be teleported into an area is unlimited). And one final thing, you say that the HL engine is a modified Q2 engine. I don't know where you've heard that from, if you ask me thats BS. The Q2 engine was extremely laggy with rather pants graphics. The HL engine has good graphics, is nice and smooth, has 3D sound etc. Also, I doubt that ID software would be very pleased about their engine being used to make a new engine. If you have any other questions about mapping and the like you can visit http://www.gameshq.net and go into the forums. Go into the "Mapping" section and post your questions there. I assure you, I can answer them.

Alas! I was incorrect. I did the following experiment: I went onto the last level where you have to destroy Nihilanth and i turned on no-clip and went for a wander round. I went into the part of the map that you get teleported to and you have to destroy the gargantua (the big thing that runs around screaming and spraying you with fire) and I noticed that it wasn't actually there. I then went to look for this box and would you believe it, I found it, and surely enough, inside it was a gargantua! So I decompiled the map and this is what happens: In the actual game, you may notice that the outside walls have a texture scrolling at a very high speed. This indicates that they do not have an entity applied to them and consequently, are simply world brushes. Directly below the gargantua is another brush (or block if you like) that isn't scrolling in the game. This is because it has an entity applied to it, a func_breakable. Surrounding the gargantua is a trigger_teleport (which you can't see in game because it has the AAATRIGGER texture applied to it and it is a trigger entity). Using a fairly complicated system of triggers, multisources etc, the basic idea is that once you have been teleported into the area where you have to kill the gargantua, the func_breakable beneath the gargantua breaks and it is teleported into the area using the trigger_teleport surrounding it. Now, you've said that this would have to happen to ALL monsters but this is not strictly true. It seems that the gargantua has to be put in a different place before it is brought into the main arena quite simply because it is a larger and more complicated model. But for monsters such as alien slaves and houndeyes, they do not have to be stored elsewhere. This is reason that you can spawn an unlimited amount of these smaller monsters without having to store them elsewhere. Question answered (correctly finally)!

I just tried it and there isn't a visible monster from the outside of the box, but I went inside to find a Gargantua (big blue guy with red face) that could attack me if I was near or inside the box.

Half-Life DOES NOT use the Quake 2 engine. In Half-life, to make a brush partially transparent (for example), you have to make it a func_wall and set its rendermode. In Quake 2, you just set a surface flag. Also, the software and Direct3D renderers are integrated into the engine. In Quake 2, the software and GL renderers are in DLLs. Just a bit more proof...

GET BACK ON TOPIC! Anyway the aaatrigger symbol is used to trigger things such as effects and moving objects. They are basically in the form of a brush that a developer uses. Therefore if you see a wall in noclip with this on it will let you know that something will happen in the game, whether it is a landslide or whatever. These are most commonly seen in the CS mod for half life because of the amount of things that you have to do, but you only see them where you can 'interact' with the surroundings. For example in the de_rats map for counter strike you can see the symbol under the sink plug which starts when you walk over it, inside the mousetrap, which starts when you open it, and the camera control panels in cs_assault, these are the most obvious ones.

Sorry mate, but the rest of the guys here ARE right. HL IS BASED ON THE QUAKE ENGINE (either one or two I'm not sure) ID licenced the engine to Valve (any company can pay licence fees and develop with an existing engine) and Valve were of course allowed to modify the code for their own game; Hence the moving mouths, different graphics etc. DOn't believe me? Take a look at the Half life CD box. On the back, in very small black writing, you'll see "Contains software articles licenced by ID tehcnologies Copyright 1997-1998(C)"

It is actually based on it. It even uses the same damn map editor, allmost the same map format, allmost the same .wad texture format (like quake 1) Those other things like mouth movement are just added. are just added by valve.....

These trigger boxes are used to store an object until its needed. They are littered throughout HL and you can find them with the help of noclip. EXAMPLES:

These trigger boxes are used to store an object until its needed. They are littered throughout HL and you can find them with the help of noclip. EXAMPLES: In "We've Got Hostiles" when the scientist is like "FOR GOD SAKES OPEN THE SILO DOOR!" Noclip into the room and watch the guard get pulled away by the zombie, then go through the wall and you will find a tiny room with 1 scientist, who is later teleported into the room. He will start making the speech he makes when you emerge from the vent later in the the level ("you can trust them... You can trust all of us.") In Op4 at the part when you see the Barney and hey says "Are you crazy? I'm not opening this door until someone turns that bomb off", if you noclip into the wall next to the gate, you will come across a rather large room containing another barney. With all my sadistic pride, I gibbed him and after I deactivated the bomb, the corner of my screen (I have -devconsole enabled) started flashing "[whatever the barney was named] found, but can't play!" and the room that the scared guard was in was empty. So as you can see, these rooms carry scientists, barneys, monsters, etc until they're needed.

"I have no idea where this popularly perpetuated myth was spawned, but whoever told you that Half-Life was made with a Modified Quake 2 engine was wrong." Read this: http://www.gamespot.com/features/halflife_final/part22.html Half way down the page, you'll see 'Licensing the Quake engine' and a big id logo too. Note that this is not specifically the Quake 2 engine, but still the Quake engine.

Off topic: For those of you who say that Half-Life is based on the Quake 1 engine, you're almost right. For those who say Half-Life is NOT based off the Quake II engine, you are mistaken. Half-Life is actually based off a heavily modified Q2 engine.

HALF LIFE IS BASED ON A Q2 ENGINE. My friend works for Valve, he told me. It's a very VERY heavily modded and rebuilt q2 engine. It's 92% modded, 21% q2. You can mod graphics too.