Talk:Timeline of the Half-Life universe

Relevance
Not convinced about this page. What does everyone else think? Coming Second 16:16, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

This is basically just an outdated copy of the Half-Life Saga Story Guide's timeline. So even if we do keep it it'll need updating. Also, did whoever put this up get permission from it's creator? I don't think we have any way of knowing.

I vote we delete it. --MattyDienhoff 04:35, 8 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Aaargh. Despite a lot of people's best efforts, this is still terribly written and laid out.  Just thinking about editing it into some sort of shape depresses me, so this is a vote for deletion. Coming Second 16:10, 4 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Nobody asks me stuff anymore, lolz, I vote delete, sorry dude that wrote this. -- Mega Sean 45 1:57 PM, November 4, 2008 (UTC)

Localized Teleport Technology...
The timeline, in the 20 year gap, makes no reference to the 'cat incident' or the localized teleport tech kleiner developed, removing the need for the xen relay. There's not a particular time frame mentioned, Barney just says "not after last time", but I still think it warrants a mention. 167.206.128.33 04:59, March 2, 2010 (UTC)gildedlink


 * Added. Do you have issues with signing?... Klow 11:13, March 2, 2010 (UTC)

Black Mesa Incident and GLaDOS' takeover dates revealed?
Gameinformer, continuing with their Portal 2 supplement this month, just released a timeline of Aperture Science. While seemingly old information at first glance, it altered some of the dates, and most notably of all, may have revealed the date for which the events of the original Half-Life occurred. It states:

"1998 – The untested AI is activated for the first time as one of the planned activities on Aperture’s first annual bring-your-daughter-to-work day. In many ways, the initial test goes well: Within one picosecond of being switched on, GLaDOS becomes self-aware. The "going well" phase lasts for two more picoseconds, at which point GLaDOS takes control of the facility, locks everyone inside, and begins a permanent cycle of testing. Her goal: beat the hated Black Mesa in the race to develop a functioning portal technology. Days later, that race is lost when Black Mesa successfully deploys an interdimensional gate through which an alien race emerges and effectively ends the outside world."

If this is true, and it seems Gameinformer are getting info more or less straight from Valve, is this not one gigantic retcon? For years it has been accepted that the events of Half-Life take place on May 16 between 2000 and 2009, but Gameinformer now states that it was 1998, days after GLaDOS' takeover of Aperture Labs. Whether a mistake or genuine, I know we should wait for confirmation from Valve, but I thought I'd point out this potentially huge revelation. The full supplement may be seen here: Aperture Science: A History. - Halo-343 22:59, March 24, 2010 (UTC)


 * Placing HL from 2000 to 2009 could place it in 2000, which is only 2 years after 1998, so it's actually not that far. And if that date is actually directly from Valve, this is INDEED awesome, as we can now put HL2 around 2018, and deduce the birth dates of several HL1 series characters, for instance Gordon who'd be born around 1971. However it's not very original to choose the same date as the game release date, imho. They could have chosen a bit earlier or later. And of course we should be sure it's true before jumping to gun, but I'm afraid Valve might never confirm this. But the article introduction really suggests this is all from them. Klow 23:41, March 24, 2010 (UTC)


 * I just checked ApertureScience.com, unfortunately it hasn't been updated with that new paragraph. Klow 23:44, March 24, 2010 (UTC)


 * I felt like asking the validity of that new paragraph directly to the lady who posted the article. Since she gives many contact ways, I chose the Facebook way. She was kind enough to answer me 11 minutes later this: "Nope! All of that information, aside from the introduction, was supplied directly from Valve! Hope that helps!". So, there you go, this is real. We can now unleash this huge retcon through the wiki. :-P Klow 00:30, March 25, 2010 (UTC)


 * On the contrary however, a couple people over at Steam Forums have emailed valved about this, and received the response "There's no way it could have taken place in the Nineties, since Gordon didn't start at Black Mesa until sometime in the Noughties!" from Marc Laidlaw.Mr. Someguy 04:15, April 10, 2010 (UTC)


 * I wrote to Marc yesterday, and he told me the same. We are more or less back to square 1; we'll correct it soon on the wiki. Klow 09:08, April 10, 2010 (UTC)


 * I hope so! But its indeed very strange, Gameinformer has questionable sources.. --141.5.11.5 08:45, April 23, 2010 (UTC)

Portal Setting
Since I'm not like listening to 18 minutes of boring speech, please find and "copy" a quote where the Portal setting is in the Portal 2 podcast to me. ASBusinessMagnet 16:09, March 28, 2010 (UTC)
 * Just listen to it like everybody else. And I've listened to more boring stuff. Klow 16:49, March 28, 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I found it. They weren't saying that they assume Portal takes place after Half-Life 2, they just said that it does.
 * I posted that because on mAL I heard that they actually aren't sure of it, and that would criticize this timeline. ASBusinessMagnet 17:06, March 28, 2010 (UTC)
 * Don't worry, we made sure they stated it or suggested it before jumping the gun. Klow 17:39, March 28, 2010 (UTC)
 * Just saying that apparently, the real quote is:
 * The first Portal takes place sometime after some of the events in Half-Life 2, but [some Portal 2 stuff goes here]
 * That means it happens simultaneously with Half-Life 2. ASBusinessMagnet 17:47, March 28, 2010 (UTC)
 * Then he says that it's maybe a year later. Klow 19:28, March 28, 2010 (UTC)
 * Something tells me that even Valve haven't thought it through this much. Only the fans really want to know when it is... Bramblepath 20:10, March 28, 2010 (UTC)

Listing
I think that adding separates sections for the 1970's, 80's, etc. is redundant, and it overcomplicated the article. I just think it should be as neat as possible. --Fireman V2 19:15, April 18, 2010 (UTC)
 * It doesn't overcomplicate. There can be a more logical way than to clearly separate every decade. Klow 08:31, April 19, 2010 (UTC)

Retroactive Continuity
Is listing all the retcons really needed? Could we maybe just link people to the retcons page? I'm not saying we should, just asking if it'sa good idea. --65.100.114.216 19:32, May 7, 2010 (UTC)
 * We really list a few rectons here.
 * What about sticking to the timeline that can be found from the game? Would that solve anything?--128.171.41.221 23:53, April 28, 2011 (UTC)

Calendar
The calendar from HL1 with the globe on it has december 8th as a sunday. The only Sunday, December 8th between 2000 and 2010 was in 2002, perhaps 200- was 2002?

Valve has already stated time and again, that HL1 happened in 200-, Just because a calendar from 2002 is hanging up doesn't mean that the year HL1 took place in wasn't 2009 or 2004.

7 Hour War Month
Analysis of a newspaper clipping indicates that the 7 hour war took place in September, with the main note being that the month has a P in the second to last character position. http://cl.ly/431W273f3K0M3y2k0B1V (44, 2001 is arbitrary just to demonstrate the likeness). Another point of interest is that the day appears to be two digits long.

Also, the date format is inconsistent with a typical 200_ THE TIMES newspaper, as well as the entire front-page layout: This suggests that the date is some time after November 16, 2004 (HL2 release date), allowing for THE TIMES in-game to have changed their format after that date.

300 years between Portal and Portal 2
I've heard that 300 years separate Portal and Portal 2, can anyone confirm it? ASBusinessMagnet 22:30, April 16, 2011 (UTC)


 * Actually, I believe this is the Announcer bugging: "you have been in suspension for nine nine nine nine nine (bugs out)" 99999 days = 273.8 years. ASBusinessMagnet 07:34, April 19, 2011 (UTC)


 * Was Valve "bugging," too? I believe they said the same thing, too.

Timeline Redo
Since Portal 2 came out and retconed everything, a lot of dates need to be changed. Aperture was founded before or during 1943, went from shower curtains to actual science by 1947, had a working portal device by 1952, and Cave Johnson died between 1981 and 1986. signed a random user whos gonna get yelled at for not signing in 8:40, April 21, 2011
 * Also, he apparently died from meteorite dust and not mercury poisoning. Webrunner 16:02, April 23, 2011 (UTC)

Cave Johnson Moon Rock Poisoning
During the game [Portal 2] towards the last of the "Old Aperture" Cave Johnson states himself that he was poisoned due to the grounding of Moon Rock into Gel, not mercury poisoning as stated in the wiki.

While this IS true, It has been stated Long before Portal 2 that Cave Johnson had contracted mercury poisoning from one of his shower curtain ideas. One of the symptoms of mercury poisoning is neuropsychiatric symptoms, Such as memory loss, Delusions and insomina. Or in Johnsons case, Thinking time flows backwards.

New portal 2 dates don't work with a lot of the old stuff....
I was looking at the trophy case in Portal 2 and Cave Johnson was awarded "Shower Curtain Salesman of 1943"; Aperture Science was awarded "Best New Science Company" by Science and Business Institute of America" and also awarded "Top 100 Applied Science Companies" by Mechanical Engineering World Journal in 1949. Knowing that the dates, old and new, came form Valve, how is this possible??
 * I'd assume that from now on we'll use the new dates and disregard the old ones. They're too contradictory to be able to coexist. SirMango 20:10, April 21, 2011 (UTC)
 * Is there a reason why dates like "1973: aperture is only producing shower curtains" When in game evidence shows that these are wrong. SajuukKhar 12:28, April 28, 2011 (UTC)

FIXED APERTURE TIMELINE
The people over at this thread have made a good timeline based off of all the new portal 2 info. it would help with fixing timeline errors. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1854081

Placement of Portal 2
What is the basis for Portal 2 being during the Half-life 2 events when Valve has pretty well confirmed Portal 2 takes place over 200 years after Portal 1?


 * I don't know, Valve is pretty much baseless on timeline issues. Last time I heard The Final Hour of Portal 2 mentioned Portal 2 takes place in 52,000 AD, which is WAY beyond acceptable limits. ASBusinessMagnet 14:38, April 27, 2011 (UTC)

Bring your Cat To Work Day
Does everyone seem to forget that the Lab Rat comic shows Glados's takeover was on Bring Your Cat To Work Day and not Bring Your Daughter to work Day. SajuukKhar 14:53, April 26, 2011 (UTC)

Actually, Glados Mentions "Bring Your Cat To Work Day" After her activation and locking down the facility, Since she states "Since the Installation of my new Morality Core,..." Which was only installed after she was activated. Sorry to shoot down your theory.

Goes back and rereads comic. Hmm Glados talks about BYCTWD before shes killed everyone so.... If it was after she took over why are all the scientists acting super chill about her locking down the facility and going on with their normal day Oh and not dead. One would expect that they would all be freaking out or dead. Also can ou explain why a DoD contractor that got billions in funding every year was left to rot from like 1993 to 2003 when the BMI occurred. SajuukKhar 08:36, April 28, 2011 (UTC)

Portal 2 Date
When playing the prologue of Portal 2 with closed captioning on, it says "nine nine nine nine nine ni-," implying at least 2739 years have passed since the previous time awoken. 67.167.224.151 00:46, April 28, 2011 (UTC)

I don't think we can assume that all the nines refer to any specific amount of time. It's possibly just because the computer is malfunctioning. Insisting on a connection to any specific amount of time is really just speculation.MattyG7 06:15, April 28, 2011 (UTC)

Portal '98 date is wrong
About the repulsion gel as a dieting aid: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oYExjn9VbiM/Tax-wh-tZ_I/AAAAAAAArAQ/FRV5oHVQrP0/s1600/gel_sign.JPG --128.171.41.221 23:52, April 28, 2011 (UTC)

Proposal: Discredit ApertureScience.com as a source
I think at this point ApertureScience.com is no longer a reliable source given (A) Portal 2 has retconned pretty much everything, and (B) it isn't a source anymore at all. Valve isn't granting access to the ApertureScience.com tier3 login interface anymore - instead you get treated to an animated Christmas scene. That seems to me to indicate that they want you to play Portal 2 to get Aperture's history. GregBFM 07:45, May 9, 2011 (UTC)

Portal 2 - the final hours
In this ebook, it was mentioned that the first Portal plays around the year 2010, which gives us a pretty good date to work with in the timeline. I just added it to the article very crudely, but I am no Wiki master (hell, I don't even have an account here) so I made a mess off of it. Someone, please clean it up. It was also mentioned that Portal 2 is set at least 50 thousand years after that.