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Post by ironhold on Oct 4, 2017 5:12:27 GMT
I can't find the thread we had for video game myths, so here goes.
-> Go to the 14 minute mark
(note: NSFW due to violence, blood, and occasional cursing)
The video is a walk-through of the 6th level of the game "Half-Life: Blue Shift", released circa 2000.
The premise of the original "Half-Life" trio of games is that something massively bad went down at the Black Mesa Research Facility. The people in charge were being pressured by the US government to continue their projects despite a series of mysterious difficulties with various systems throughout the entire facility; while the topside residential blocks were unaffected, the main lab blocks themselves were having to deal with something interrupting everything electrical and electronic. Electronic locks wouldn't disengage, computers were stuck on the blue screen of death, equipment wasn't working right, et cetra.
The decision to continue with the experimentation under these circumstances led to a catastrophe that opened a series of portals between Earth and an alien world known as Xen. Creatures started coming through, leading to the scientists and security guards who survived the explosions the catastrophe caused having to fight their way out.
In Blue Shift, you play as Barney Calhoun, a security guard who survived the initial catastrophes. You've been making your way through the facility in an effort to try and escape, working with whatever survivors you can find to do so. One lead scientist has managed to get a teleportation device working, but he needs you to go down to the generator room and bring back more power cells. On your way down there, you discover that one of the military units now swarming the base tried to blast open a secured, hardened door; however, before they could, however, the aliens got to the demolition crew.
Not only was the crew killed, one of the aliens cut the wire leading from the detonator to the explosives. What you're supposed to do is drag a metal barrel over to where the wire is and use the barrel to complete the circuit. The game shows you simply moving the barrel into place on top of the wire. That's it. You don't splice the wires, directly hook them up to the barrel, or anything else. You just move it into place and you're done. You press the plunger and the door disappears.
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Post by silverdragon on Oct 4, 2017 9:17:06 GMT
So what is the problem?. The last paragraph may help.
If you are questioning the mere act of completing a circuit by dropping a metal pipe over two ends of wire, I suggest you Do Not Try This At Home try dropping a spanner on the two terminals of a battery.
I have.
[many years ago, by accident]
I had a rubber handled hammer to hand at the time so took a swipe, took a second swipe, and then really put some welly into the third, because the spanner sparked, fizzed, and then "Heat welded" its self onto that battery...
I still have that half-inch open ended A/F spanner in my tool box and it still has the scars.
What you are describing is the touch to complete act of closing a circuit that just about every single manual switch in the world relies upon to make a closed circuit.
As long as the barrel doesnt have paint, debris, is caked in dirt, or have extreme amounts of rusting or oxidisation on the surface, it will complete that circuit just by touching the wires.
To replicate an experiment, small circuit with a AA size battery and a LED bulb, but leave part of the circuit open, use a paper-clip to touch both ends of that open wire.
If, However, the wires concerned are insulated, you may have to strip insulation.
Thats what insulation is all about, it prevents current "leakage" if the wire touches something it shouldnt?.
However, if the wires have a cut that exposes "just enough" of the inside metal, that may be enough to complete a circuit.
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Post by the light works on Oct 4, 2017 15:09:50 GMT
the key component is whether the barrel can displace the insulation on the wire. the second key component is whether this is a loop circuit and you are trying to bridge both wires with one barrel.
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Post by wvengineer on Oct 4, 2017 15:48:19 GMT
I loved the original Half Life game. I may have to play Blue Shift now.
So going on 10 years of vaporware for HL3...
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Post by ironhold on Oct 4, 2017 17:16:25 GMT
I loved the original Half Life game. I may have to play Blue Shift now. So going on 10 years of vaporware for HL3... Big Mac Davis, the guy who does that, has full walk-throughs for Half-Life, Half-Life: Opposing Forces, and Half-Life: Blue Shift. Thing is, many of the episodes are 30 - 75 minutes, if not more, because of how large the areas are and how much he has to show everyone in order to help them get full completion. He's pretty good at walk-through videos, but unfortunately he quit updating his channel about two years ago, leaving his walk-through for a fan-created "Doom" game incomplete. No one's heard from him since based on what I'm seeing in the comments. As far as 3 goes, 2 had Gordon Freeman emerge from suspended animation, brought the G-Man back, and showed that Barney Calhoun had gone undercover as a security guard at the Combine citadel itself. But Corporal Adrian Sheppard, the protagonist of Opposing Forces, to my knowledge hasn't ever shown up. If someone ever does get around to doing it, perhaps they could have him emerge from suspended animation as well. |
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Post by ironhold on Oct 4, 2017 17:20:42 GMT
the key component is whether the barrel can displace the insulation on the wire. the second key component is whether this is a loop circuit and you are trying to bridge both wires with one barrel. It's a single wire leading from the plunger box to the explosives. So there's only one wire you need to somehow connect using that barrel. |
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Post by GTCGreg on Oct 4, 2017 17:33:34 GMT
the key component is whether the barrel can displace the insulation on the wire. the second key component is whether this is a loop circuit and you are trying to bridge both wires with one barrel. It's a single wire leading from the plunger box to the explosives. So there's only one wire you need to somehow connect using that barrel. Do you have a time stamp on where this is in the video? I'm not going to waste a half hour searching for it. |
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Post by ironhold on Oct 4, 2017 19:18:19 GMT
It's a single wire leading from the plunger box to the explosives. So there's only one wire you need to somehow connect using that barrel. Do you have a time stamp on where this is in the video? I'm not going to waste a half hour searching for it. Should take you straight to the 14:05 mark, where he actually goes to maneuver the barrel in place. From there, the whole thing takes less than a minute. The barrel is moved into place, the plunger is pressed, you see one spark where the first half of the wire touches the barrel, another spark where the second half of the wire touches the barrel, and then you have the explosion. The door is breached, and the combination of the shockwave and the flying debris takes out the barrel as well. |
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Post by GTCGreg on Oct 4, 2017 19:55:06 GMT
OK, so in the real world, there are two wires inside that one cable connecting the plunger generator to the detonator. You would have to have something completeing the circuit of the two wires, without shorting the two wires to each other. A single barrel isn't going to do that.
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Post by silverdragon on Oct 5, 2017 7:01:23 GMT
OK, so in the real world, there are two wires inside that one cable connecting the plunger generator to the detonator. You would have to have something completeing the circuit of the two wires, without shorting the two wires to each other. A single barrel isn't going to do that. Your on a metal floor?. |
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Post by the light works on Oct 5, 2017 7:11:57 GMT
OK, so in the real world, there are two wires inside that one cable connecting the plunger generator to the detonator. You would have to have something completeing the circuit of the two wires, without shorting the two wires to each other. A single barrel isn't going to do that. Your on a metal floor?. to grasp at straws, suppose it was detcord instead of wire. would setting the barrel on it let the charge bridge the damaged cord? I suspect not, but hey, it is a single line means of triggering an explosion |
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Post by wvengineer on Oct 5, 2017 9:59:16 GMT
I's been a while, but I remember the handing electric cable was a common trope in Half-Life. IT could be it's a single lie, double wire cable. Heck, maybe it's just a line of 12/2 Romex. In that case, you have two wires to complete a circuit. IF those wires were goong to the switch for the power supply, that could be enough to make sense. But was it explained that way in the game?
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Post by GTCGreg on Oct 5, 2017 10:15:24 GMT
to grasp at straws, suppose it was detcord instead of wire. would setting the barrel on it let the charge bridge the damaged cord? I suspect not, but hey, it is a single line means of triggering an explosion If you look at where the cord connects to the plunger, it splits in two. I don't think detcordworks that way. |
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Post by the light works on Oct 5, 2017 13:49:58 GMT
to grasp at straws, suppose it was detcord instead of wire. would setting the barrel on it let the charge bridge the damaged cord? I suspect not, but hey, it is a single line means of triggering an explosion If you look at where the cord connects to the plunger, it splits in two. I don't think detcordworks that way. as I say about people who call with blocked caller ID: I'm not THAT curious. |
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Post by GTCGreg on Oct 5, 2017 14:32:08 GMT
as I say about people who call with blocked caller ID: I'm not THAT curious. That's my feelings toward video games in general. DKDC (Don't Know, Don't Care.) And that includes the Myths that go along with them. |
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Post by the light works on Oct 5, 2017 14:52:47 GMT
as I say about people who call with blocked caller ID: I'm not THAT curious. That's my feelings toward video games in general. DKDC (Don't Know, Don't Care.) And that includes the Myths that go along with them. I recall one kid back when the official boards were still boards, who was either a poe, or actually thought the "double jump" was plausible. (double jump is when you press the "jump" button to jump, and then pressing it again makes you go higher or farther without actually having anything to make a second jump off of) |
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Post by ironhold on May 16, 2018 23:52:32 GMT
Big Mac Davis, the guy in the video in the OP, is doing Half-Life 2, and so with it here's something else to test... hence my re-naming the thread.
Premise: due to the events of the first game and its expansion packs, a race of aliens known as The Covenant have invaded Earth, successfully conquering it.
Gordon Freeman, the main lead of the original game, is back, this time trying to coordinate with the remaining resistance members in an effort to stage a coup against the Vichy-like world government that has since emerged.
In this part of the game, he's traveling through what is supposed to be a canal system - a system that includes a fair part of the city's sewer system as well - in order to make it to a designated meeting point. While in a section of the sewer system, he's spotted by guards standing on grates up above. After shooting some of them down, another guard drops explosive barrels into the water in that section in the hopes of killing Gordon. But because Gordon is far enough underwater, he's unaffected.
What is affected? A supply crate that's floating on top of the water. When it blows up, it scatters some ammo clips you can pick up.
So:
1. How far underwater do you have to dive to survive an explosion at the surface?
2. Would clips actually float as in the video?
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Post by wvengineer on May 17, 2018 3:14:02 GMT
What is in the barrels that makes them blow? As with must video games they are filled with explodium. A substance that is highly flammable and somewhat explosive, but not ever well defined. Based on when I played HL2, the exploding barrels didn't really do that much damage as compared to real life. The best example would be a burst tank of compressed air. Keep in mind that two barrels caused extensive damage to the Oklahoma City Federal building in the mid 90's. In the game, they only hurt people standing close and never cause structural damage. I would guess their actual damage would be around the effectivness of a hand grenade in real life.
So that would help define the conditions for your test.
I can't think of any gun with magazines that would float, outside of some custom job.
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Post by silverdragon on May 19, 2018 15:45:43 GMT
Question, post one on this thread, I am getting a "handshake fail" from the server on that video, is it just me?.
Has the vid been removed or something?.
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Post by mrfatso on May 19, 2018 16:36:56 GMT
It's working for me.
So it's not a region lock thing either.
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