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For the fictional location this game is based in, see Black Mesa Research Facility

Black Mesa (previously known as "Black Mesa: Source") is a third-party total conversion mod for Half-Life 2. The ultimate goal of the mod is to recreate the original Half-Life from the ground up, using the advanced capabilities of the Source engine, the improved graphics quality of Half-Life 2 and enhanced character AI, to create a new and more engrossing in-game world by introducing more varied, complex environments and more challenging, realistic gameplay. Black Mesa will be playable by anyone with copies of both Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source. Computer and video games redirects here. ... The logo of the Black Mesa Research Facility, depicting a mesa mountain against the sky The Black Mesa Research Facility (also referred to as simply Black Mesa in the games) is a fictional complex located in the desert of New Mexico, United States, and is the setting for most of... A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates video games. ... Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation. ... A game engine is the core software component of a computer video game or other interactive application with real-time graphics. ... The Source engine is a 3D game engine developed by Valve Corporation. ... In computing, a platform describes some sort of framework, either in hardware or software, which allows software to run. ... Windows redirects here. ... A stylised illustration of a personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a computer whose original sales price, size, and capabilities make it useful for individuals, intended to be operated directly by an end user, with no intervening computer operator. ... Further information: Game classification Video games are categorized into genres based on their gameplay interaction. ... This article is about video games. ... In computer games and video games, single-player refers to the variant of a particular game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. ... Online gaming redirects here. ... A contemporary computer mouse, with the most common standard features: two buttons and a scroll wheel. ... A 104-key PC US English QWERTY keyboard layout The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard layout A standard Hebrew keyboard showing both Hebrew and QWERTY. A computer keyboard is a peripheral partially modelled after the typewriter keyboard. ... Categories: Computer and video game stubs | Input devices | Computer and video game terminology ... For other uses, see Mod. ... Half-Life 2 (commonly abbreviated to HL2) is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game that is the sequel to Half-Life. ... Half-Life For a quantity subject to exponential decay, the half-life is the time required for the quantity to fall to half of its initial value. ... The Source engine is a 3D game engine developed by Valve Corporation. ... Game artificial intelligence refers to techniques used in computer and video games to produce the illusion of intelligence in the behavior of non-player characters (NPCs). ... ...

Overview

This section may contain an inappropriate mixture of prose and timeline. Please help convert this timeline into prose or, if necessary, a list.

An article in the magazine PC Gamer about Black Mesa.

Black Mesa, which began in November of 2004, was born of the discontent fans experienced when playing Half-Life: Source; when considering the living environment Valve created with Half-Life 2 using the Source engine, the original game fell far short of what many players thought could be done with the software, basically being a straight port, except for improved water and lighting effects. According to the developers, Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Prose is writing distinguished from poetry by its greater variety of rhythm and its closer resemblance to everyday speech. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (536x700, 155 KB) Summary This is a scan, hosted with permission of PC Gamer UK, of an article written about the Half Life 2 modification Black Mesa. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (536x700, 155 KB) Summary This is a scan, hosted with permission of PC Gamer UK, of an article written about the Half Life 2 modification Black Mesa. ... PC Gamer is a magazine founded in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. ... // These water valves are operated by handles. ... In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed (e. ...

Black Mesa won the Mod DB "Golden Spanner Award" for the most anticipated Half-Life 2 mod of 2005. Most likely due to the amount of publicity given to an unofficial third-party mod, Valve Corporation privately asked the producers of the mod to remove the "Source" part from the title to avoid confusion on whether it is an official Valve product or not. Mod Database, or Mod DB, is a website related to general computer game modding. ... Valve Corporation is an American video game developer based in Bellevue, Washington, USA, made famous by its first product, Half-Life, which was released in November 1998. ...

Some of the chapters are nearing completion and they have released images of skins for the science personnel, and for some Xen aliens. It is also currently planned to include co-op gameplay^[1], something only the PlayStation2 version of Half-Life offered. Islands in Xen Xen (pronounced Zen) is the origin of the alien species that appear in the science fiction video game Half-Life (Valve Software, 1998); the expansion packs Half-Life: Opposing Force (Valve Software and Gearbox Software, 1999); Half-Life: Blue Shift (Valve/Gearbox, 2001); and Half-Life: Decay... Doom popularised co-op on the PC. Cooperative gameplay (often abbreviated as co-op) primarily refers to a feature in video games that allows players to work together as teammates with the absence of player-controlled competitors. ...

On November 26, 2006, the Black Mesa website was relaunched with a brand new layout. The launch coincided with a promised media release, including level shots, character models, weapon models and music samples. is the 330th day of the year (331st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

On December 16, 2006, media release "Stage 2" was released, which featured a revamped website, updated weapon models, revamped and new maps, Gargantua render, an animation movie of the mod's Houndeye and pictures of the Bullsquid. [1] is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

On January 25, 2007, Black Mesa once again won the Mod DB "Golden Spanner Award" for the most anticipated Half-Life 2 mod of 2006. The development team also submitted a teaser video which includes flybys of the Test Chamber, Blast Pit, Residue Processing, Lambda Core, and Surface Tension dam areas. is the 25th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Mod Database, or Mod DB, is a website related to general computer game modding. ...

On January 26, 2007, an announcement was made looking for people to serve as voice actors. is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...

On May 25, 2007, the Development team announced that they had enough voice actors, and were searching for effects artists. is the 145th day of the year (146th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...

On December 24, 2007, a devblog (developer's blog) was first introduced on the Black Mesa website. Written by developers, it features weekly updates, including development news and tips on using the Valve Hammer Editor. is the 358th day of the year (359th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Valve Hammer Editor, formerly known as Worldcraft and now commonly called Hammer, is Valve Softwares map creation program for their first-person shooter computer game Half-Life and for all of its mods, sequels, and expansions, as well as all games using the Source engine. ...

On December 25, 2007, a new media release was submitted. Also most of the older screenshots were released again in a higher resolution. is the 359th day of the year (360th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...

Soundtrack

An original soundtrack composed and produced by the mod's sound designer, Joel Nielsen, will be released along with the modification itself, as well as independently shortly after the mod's release. Several songs for the game are already available at the official Black Mesa website. In film formats, the soundtrack is the physical area of the film which records the synchronized sound. ...

Development team

A complete and up-to-date list of developers can be found on the team page.

Gallery

Security related issues

Source code leak

On May 10, 2006, the developers of Black Mesa reported that a portion of the source code, codenamed "Alpha 5", was leaked. Screenshots of the internal alpha release were reported on at least two forums. is the 130th day of the year (131st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Shortly afterwards, the developers released an announcement about the leak and requested that if any pictures were found, to report it to the development team. This request appeared to stifle the remainder of the leak, at least for the time being.

On May 11, 2006, the developers reported that they had found the person responsible for the leak, and while he had not agreed to delete the actual alpha file from his computer, he would not take any further action against the Black Mesa team. is the 131st day of the year (132nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

However, on September 9, 2006, at 9:30PM PDT (14:30 UTC), a member of the Official Garry's Mod Forums, Facepunch Studios posted several links, including a torrent and several RapidShare download pages, to 478.6mb-sized archives named BMS.rar in a thread entitled "[RELEASE] Black Mesa Source! Woot! (Download Links)". The member closed his post with "Credits goes to me for releasing BMS". The thread has since been deleted and the links removed. is the 252nd day of the year (253rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Look up torrent in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...

Forums hacked

As of June 6, 2006, the Black Mesa forums were closed for repairs due to a hacker. On June 13, 2006, it was made known (though not widely) that the hacker(s) responsible either directly or indirectly damaged the forums beyond repair; the 3500+ accounts and most if not all of the forums' posts were lost. is the 157th day of the year (158th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A typical Internet forum discussion, with common elements such as quotes and spoiler brackets A page from a forum showcasing emoticons and Internet slang An Internet forum is a web application for holding discussions and posting user generated content. ... For other uses, see Black hat (disambiguation). ... is the 164th day of the year (165th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

As of June 17, 2006, the Black Mesa forums had been restarted, under Invision Power Board. The forums were hacked again the next day; it was assumed by the same hacker who had originally taken down the forums in the first place in response to derogatory comments made about them on the board; the attacker, known only as "r00t", left this message: is the 168th day of the year (169th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Invision Power Board (abbreviated IPB or IP.Board or IP Board) is Internet forum software produced by Invision Power Services, Inc. ...

After letting the message sit for a few hours control of the board was returned to the Black Mesa team, which has issued a policy against making any further comments about the hacker, lest they suffer through another attack. They were then hacked again, the forums once more disabled. In hacker culture, a script kiddie (occasionally script bunny, skidie, script kitty, script-running juvenile (SRJ), or similar) is (sometimes) a derogatory term used for an inexperienced malicious cracker who uses programs developed by others to attack computer systems, and deface websites. ... Invision Power Board (abbreviated IPB or IP.Board or IP Board) is Internet forum software produced by Invision Power Services, Inc. ... A software bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program that prevents it from behaving as intended (e. ... Windows redirects here. ... An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a unique address that certain electronic devices currently use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard (IP)—in simpler terms, a computer address. ... In computer networks, a proxy server is a server (a computer system or an application program) which services the requests of its clients by forwarding requests to other servers. ... An exploit is a piece of software, a chunk of data, or sequence of commands that take advantage of a bug, glitch or vulnerability in order to cause unintended or unanticipated behavior to occur on computer software, hardware, or something electronic (usually computerized). ... This article is about Internet slang terminology; for information on the Indonesian drink, see Teh botol; for information on the Hokkien/Malay surname, see Zheng (surname). ... For other uses, see SIC. Sic is a Latin word, originally sicut [1] meaning thus, so, or just as that. In writing, it is placed within square brackets and usually italicized — [sic] — to indicate that an incorrect or unusual spelling, phrase, punctuation, and/or other preceding quoted material has been...

For other uses, see SIC. Sic is a Latin word, originally sicut [1] meaning thus, so, or just as that. In writing, it is placed within square brackets and usually italicized — [sic] — to indicate that an incorrect or unusual spelling, phrase, punctuation, and/or other preceding quoted material has been... For other uses, see SIC. Sic is a Latin word, originally sicut [1] meaning thus, so, or just as that. In writing, it is placed within square brackets and usually italicized — [sic] — to indicate that an incorrect or unusual spelling, phrase, punctuation, and/or other preceding quoted material has been... For other uses, see SIC. Sic is a Latin word, originally sicut [1] meaning thus, so, or just as that. In writing, it is placed within square brackets and usually italicized — [sic] — to indicate that an incorrect or unusual spelling, phrase, punctuation, and/or other preceding quoted material has been...

Forum move

As a result of these attacks, the Black Mesa team moved to merge the forums with GamerNode, a large commercially-based website devoted to videogames, who had already been hosting them for some time. The merge was completed on September 7, 2006. Lead animator Nathan Ayres had this to say on the subject: is the 250th day of the year (251st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Public website hacked

On September 15, 2006, Black Mesa's public website underwent an attack that wiped all files from the database. [2] The attack didn't seem to be directed at the team, but instead at the hosting service the website was on, M-E-Tech. Several other forums hosted by M-E-Tech, such as Leak-Free, were deleted as well. The public forums are still up and running on GamerNode's server and can be accessed by going to http://forums.gamernode.com/forumdisplay.php?f=4692 is the 258th day of the year (259th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

ModDB Status

On October 15, 2007 a posting was made by a ModDb staff member to the forums on Shacknews indicating that a member of the Black Mesa Team named Kester had contacted ModDB and requested the mod be placed in archival status. [3] The real Kester soon registered to indicate that ModDB was mistaken, he had made no such request, and the mod was still active. [4] is the 288th day of the year (289th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Shacknews, commonly referred to as The Shack, is a website offering news, features, editorial content, and forums relating to computer games and console games. ...

External links

• Black Mesa Official Site
• Black Mesa Official Forums
• Mod DB review & Video

Notable mentions

• Honorable mention at the Mod DB Top Unreleased Mod for 2007
• Mod DB Top Unreleased Mod for 2006
• Mod DB Top Unreleased Mod for 2005
• Online Recording of Gamers United Interview with Black Mesa Staff

References