Portal's Weird Beta Maps

Covid's been kicking my ass as of the past few days, but I managed to get this video done for y'all to enjoy - enjoy a nearly 20 minute long video on some funky Portal beta maps :) Also, doing a sequel to this video of weird Portal 2 beta maps is impossible, since I already covered all the beta maps we do have when some of them leaked a few months ago.

1:04 how dare you, this sound triggers my muscle memory to open discord

Seeing skyboxes in Portal is super weird. Yes, i know, the ending.

You might have the Beta maps but just you wait until the GAMMA maps come out

That "YOU WIN" text is funny. It really reminds me of the infamous win screen from BIG RIGS: Over The Road Racing :D

The Combine APC was once meant to be drivable in HL2, so there's probably just still some broken logic attached to it. I've also noticed some styleguides and zoos before have been just simply cut/cordoned off from full maps before leaving things in the void. Both Portal betas are quite interesting, hell I'm interested in every game that came from the Orange Box and it's sequels. Even knowing this stuff already, it's fun to see it again and get refreshed on it.

We actually do have the code for Trigger_Portal, surprisingly! It's dummied out in the officially released Source SDK, alongside all the other dummied out Half Life 2 stuff! It can be pretty easily reenabled and used in mods. It's basically a trigger_teleport, but it also takes into account relative position and momentum. It's a really cool entity for not just faking portals, but also for seamless transitions and smooth feeling teleports as well! I tried to make a mod awhile back with a 'portal gun' that simply relocated those brush entities around the map. Worked surprisingly well, though they're not nearly as advanced as regular portals and will clip the player into geometry if not placed with care. Still really cool that we have that.

1:05 discord sound.

2:23 I’m honestly a bit surprised to see they would have tested something like this so extensively, since it’s such a small and seemingly easy to miss detail in HL2

7:40 I misheard this as "incredibly early versions of the Cuban buttocks"

1:04 this thing really got me

The collection of vents in the void may have been a prefab to copy sections of to fit other rooms

15:55 The last BTS styleguide map actually looks really good in the lighting sense! I love the orange, retro and dim light bulbs showcasing the industrial metal structure and painted signalling around theses spaces, much like an actual factory. I kinda wish they used this instead of the white lights in the original escape sequence, because this brings in a crushing atmosphere, much like it should be transmiting.

These deep dives are fascinating. I'd love to see a video about all the strange retcons from Portal 1 to 2 like how all elevators are different, how the rocket turret totally disappears, the aesthetic of the original Aperture backrooms being abandoned, etc. I know it mostly comes down to new art direction but to me, the two games never quite felt connected, ya know?

I like how alot of the beta maps give me the same vibes as underground aperture in portal 2

Hearing someone explain what a cycler_flex is music to my ears, I like exploring source and beta source sometimes

"oh there's lots of room here..."

hearing about liquid portals and then seeing it function is the most bizarre thing ive ever seen for this game

i love how the combine in beta portal have localized teleportation via the portal gun, yet still choose not to kill off humanity

I can watch this all day! 13 year old Krystal would have LOST IT watching this! I used to be a HUGE portal fan