"Scientist's Revenge"   -Ian Hamilton   3-31-99

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 Notes

"Scientist's Revenge" is my second "work" in the world of Half-Life audio.  It's also a bit more complicated.  The theme here is that a scientist is often picked on by the same Barney every day.  The sound begins with the bullying security guard threatening the scientist with a headcrab just for kicks, the most recent in a string of cruel jokes.  The guard shoots the beast before it can move in for the kill- but just barely.  The scientist decides he's had enough of this daily torture and picks up a dropped shotgun with the intent to make the Barney pay.  How? Just listen and find out. Special guest appearance by the Female Vox!

Unfortunately, I have to admit that this is harder for the Half-Life noninitiate to follow. The headcrab's sounds are meant to convey its actions, but this is apparent only to anyone who's played the game.  Suffice to say, it does attack the scientist at one point, just before the guard kills it.  Also, the subtle nature of the Guard's sadism is slightly masked by the inability to change the tone or mood of the phrases.  Assume he's being sarcastic at all times.  Lastly, the exact phrases I wanted to use simply did not exist in the libraries, so I had to try for slightly less direct substitutes at times.  

Of my two "testers," the one who had played the game said that after a few listens he managed to decipher what was going on.  My non-gamer tester said simply, "I had no idea what was going on, but it was damn funny." I guess it works for everyone on some level  ;-)

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 criticisms.

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

Comments, Questions, and Feedback:
Direct to Ian Hamilton  (Jabberwocky@planethalflife.com)