"Gordon Goes Postal"   -Ian Hamilton  Jabberwocky@worldnet.att.net 
2-18-99    Revision: 5-2-99

Legalese
This sound file was created by using the sounds from the game Half-Life.  Absolutely none of
the samples were recorded by myself, and I do not claim to have done so.  This file may be
distributed as long as it is not altered in any way and this file is included in its 
original, unaltered form.  My written permission must be secured before it is released in
any kind of compilation.  Half-Life is a registered trademark of Valve Software, etc, etc, 
etc.  Now then, on to the real information.  ;-)

Background
For those who have not played Half-Life, here are the important bits of info:  The game
contains lots of dialogue and character interaction.  There are literally hundreds of voice 
samples and sound effects that are easily woven into funny situations by Sound Recorder and 
a little creativity.  However, there is one teensy problem with this; namely, all of the 
samples for the characters have the same voice.  What this means is that all scientists, 
etc, have the same voice.  It is therefore difficult to portray, say, a group of scientists 
in a purely audio format.  However, I feel that I have done a fairly good job with these 
works.  

As Half-Life takes place in a government research facility besieged by aliens and the 
military, the major characters of Half-Life sounds are as follows:  Security guards, also 
known as "Barneys," scientists, military personnel, referred to in the game's code as 
"hgrunts," the facility's announcement systems (nicknamed "Vox" and "Female Vox"), and the 
various alien nasties.  

The Barneys and scientists have a large number of pre-recorded phrases.  Because many of 
them are made to be parts of conversations, quite a bit in the way of dialogue is possible. 
However, the hgrunts and both Voxes have an even greater potential, because rather than 
phrase libraries, they have word libraries.  This enables those of us who have taken up this
strange hobby to create whole sentences from scratch.  However, it must be said as a matter 
of record that I do not like the hgrunt sounds much because of the low quality derived from 
the "radio" effect.

Specific Story and Production Notes

"Gordon Goes Postal" was the first Half-Life wave I made.  **Note!** This is a revision of 
the original, redone for the SKC wave file contest.  After I released the original to the 
Wav Pool, I noticed lots of things that were bothering me about the execution (no pun 
intended).  The original won the "Wav of the Week" thingy at the Wav Pool, but as long as 
I'm rereleasing it anyways, I figured that I may as well touch it up.  Besides, I really 
should be doing some work if I'm gonna enter a contest! ;-) For the record, the retouch took 
about 1.5 hours, a little less than the time the orginal took to make, start to finish (I'm 
a perfectionist about these things). A list of changes appears at the end of this file for 
anyone who has the old one.

The story here is quite simple.  Gordon decides that he's sick of risking his life to 
protect the Barneys and Scientists of Black Mesa.  In fact, he realizes that they've made 
his life pure hell.  Yes, that's it...they must pay...yes...all of them...
Anyways, Gordon takes up his weapons and goes on a killing spree.  No one is safe, not even 
the unusually sarcastic Vox.

****For the purposes of the SKC contest; an event-by-event breakdown****

Gordon opens a door and wastes a Barney with his SPAS-12  (that would be the shotgun, 
for those who don't speak gun).  He then attempts to open the next door, but is denied
access by the Vox.  Gordon backs up and blows the panel away with his Grenade Launcher. 
The Vox capitulates and opens the door, but not before calling Gordon an asshole.  ;-)
In the next room, Gordon takes out his MP5 and fires into a group of scientists, 
killing all but one, who asks him if he's gone crazy.  Vox pipes up in 
confirmation, and gets a couple of shells for his trouble.  The panic-stricken scientist
makes a break for it, but can't outrun a Stinger missile, courtesy of Gordon.  Another
Barney comes in through the door, sees the carnage, and fires at Gordon, who takes out an
Egon and wastes the Barney's ass.  Finally, the Vox tries to warn the other people of
the Black Mesa, and Gordon places a tripmine on the panel and sets it off, killing
Vox for the third time.   Whew!

Special Thanks

Not_anne  for running The Wav Pool, the site dedicated to Half-Life wav files.

Matt Fay and Catherine Brown   for putting up with my enthusiasm over my new-found hobby and
giving me constructive (and, at times, not so constructive) criticisms.

Valve Software   for making my favorite game of all time (as of this writing).

Comments, Questions, and Feedback:
Direct to Ian Hamilton  (jabberwocky@worldnet.att.net)

*****Changes Since the Original*****

The First Barney Death:  One thing I noticed about the first death sequence (A Barney) 
just a bit drawn out.  The scream lasted too long to be very realistic, so I changed it.

The "Laugh" Bug:  Right after I sent the original off to the Wav Pool, I discovered, to my 
horor, that I could be heard laughing at one point in the wav.  I needed some "blank" space 
in the wav and hadn't realized the existance of the "comma" sounds at that point.  I hit 
record for a second, not knowing that the recourd source had been set back to my mike, or 
that the mike was so close.  It escaped detection because it's a little faint and I was 
listening at low volume.  I was mortified, and took this opportunity to get that newbie 
mistake out of there.

First Vox "Death":  Minor tweak.  The time between the explosion and the turret death sound 
was too long compared to the others.  I fixed it.  Yeah, so I was nitpicking at that point.

The Scientist's Deaths:  At one point, Gordon wastes a small group of scientists.  
Originally, I had tried to have him using the MP5, but I couldn't find the correct sound 
(turned out to be in the grunt folder, duh), so I took the way of the wuss out and used a 
grenade.  If you haven't heard the old sound, let's just say that it didn't sound quite as 
convincing as I would have liked.  

Some may be wondering why I released the original if I thought it wasn't done properly.  The
simple reason is that at the time I didn't really notice anything bad.  It was my first 
work, and I was happy that I had completed it.  