Talk:Aperture Science

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Location

Portal 2 clearly indicates that Aperture Laboratories is located in Upper Michigan, an Upper Peninsula newspaper clipping found in Portal 2 states the facility was a salt mine purchased by "Local Entrepreneur" Cave Johnson. The Borealis plans do state that they were made for "Aperture Science Labs & Administration, Assisted Jaunt Center, Cleveland, OH", yet there is no indication that this Ohio facility functions as the headquarters of Aperture Science. This evidence either indicates a retcon or that Aperture Science has more than one facility within the United States. Perhaps it should be stated that "Aperture Science is a US based science company", or a "US based science company with facilities in Michigan and Ohio". Ericomplex 20:56, April 21, 2011 (UTC)

I edited the page and went with a compromise between the two pieces of cannon material: "...United States based scientific research corporation with facilities in Cleveland, OH and northern Michigan." Chrisbrl88 04:01, April 24, 2011 (UTC)

Uhm,there really are salt mines in both Cleveland and northern Michigan. Some are even connected as they exist under lake erie. You can see detroit from clevland suburbs on a clear night. Don't see why the two can't in reality be the same place. Just, you know, IRL FYI.

Pages That need to be Merged Within This One

Enrichment Center and Aperture Laboratories should be merged with this page. They waste room, they are stubs, they all related to one thing. Anyone else agree? --BlueFlamePRG

I disagree. Aperture Science is the umbrella organization, the laboratories are just a piece of many subsidiaries, and the enrichment center is just a part of one laboratory. By your reasoning, the Citadel, Nova Prospekt, and the Citadel Core should all be a part on the Combine article.--The Youth Counselor 02:58, January 24, 2010 (UTC)

random information

It says that episode two indicates that portal takes place at the same time as half-life 2, which is completely random and has no logical reasoning. --FireMan 04:56, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

I can't quote glados a little in her own article? The morality core was to make her stop flooding the enrichment center with a deadly neurotoxin. So get comfortable while she warms up the neurotoxin emitters. Does this article have to be all fact and no humor? I mean seriously now. Maybe you should marry the seriousness since you love it so much. Do you want to marry it? Well I won't let you! How does that feel? Have I lied to you? I mean, in this discussion? Trust me, leave that humor alone.

typo

• Another memo suggests that Cave Johnson had some issues with official accountants, likely responsible for founding from the state, as they seem to be an authority higher than him. — Unsigned comment by 68.161.167.116

Fix it then? Bramblepath 20:55, April 5, 2010 (UTC)

In fact, what is that passage about? It makes no grammatical sense. Bramblepath 20:55, April 5, 2010 (UTC)

I'm the one who wrote that - fixed now. Sorry, I was only 15 when I had my first English class. ;-) Klow 21:41, April 5, 2010 (UTC)

An easy mistake to make. Bramblepath 21:53, April 5, 2010 (UTC)

The calendar is a LIE

The calendar with the bikini campanion cube depicts the month of September 1883 starting on a Thursday. It should have started on a Saturday. 1883 Calendar --76.90.12.168 04:45, July 7, 2010 (UTC)

The calendar says the year 1983, not 1883. And on that note, the calendar's dates are perfectly accurate. Osumesu21 09:03, July 7, 2010 (UTC)

Rofl. 1883. Really. Klow 22:26, July 7, 2010 (UTC)

Logo Font Information

The font used in some of the Aperture Laboratories logos is Univers, not Helvetica. Doesntbodewell 04:17, August 22, 2010 (UTC)

I guess you're right. I did this logo a long time ago, and I recently found out something wasn't right. Univers is also used for the new Portal 2 tech, so that makes sense. Klow 08:33, September 13, 2010 (UTC)

I also don't see any Segoe UI font used in the logos. The font used in the Aperature Science Innovators logo is "Nimbus Sans D Cond Bold", as identified by WhatTheFont.com. Philklc 15:25, May 8, 2011 (UTC)

The fonts used in the Aperture Science Innovators logo is Univers Bold Ultra Condensed and Univers Regular Ultra Condensed, not Nimbus Sans (URW's clone of Helvetica), since most of the leg of the R is vertical. Neoflame 05:29, May 23, 2011 (UTC)

Timeline Changes/Retcons

The underground Aperture levels appear to introduce a very different timeline that contradicts previous timelines in several ways. In particular, the display case in the 1950s lobby shows awards and certificates that indicate Aperture was founded in the 40s (not the 50s), and began taking steps towards science (rather than just shower curtains) in the late 40s. The newspaper featured in the case also indicates that they were open about being a science-related company.

Likewise, signage and other indicators reveal that the gels were in development as early as the 50s (a sign in one of the 1950s chambers, very clearly designed in a '50s graphic design style, mentions that one of the gels was tested as a dietary supplement but had already been repurposed). There are also indications that Cave Johnson may've lived as far as 1981, rather than dying in the mid '70s.

I think the Johnson thing should be corrected because he died of moon dust which harm the lungs, and not from mercury poisoning. The mercury story has its origin on ApertureScience.com but this can now no longer be accessed (and is therefore non-canon) because it has become contradictuous to the story featured in Portal 2. RAGe 11:29, May 30, 2011 (UTC)

Are there any plans to edit this entry's timeline to reflect all this new information?

This is all correct, the pre-release timeline has been largely rewritten since its publication. Also Cave's mercury poisoning is changed to something relating the white gel and "moon rocks." What I think needs to be discussed before revising the article is whether other information which is neither contradictory to the games nor explicitly supported by them should be removed (like the Take-a-Wish and Heimlich Counter-maneuver things). Frogacuda 18:02, April 24, 2011 (UTC)

Since the game contradicts much of the information from the NOTES file on aperturescience.com, I think the NOTES file must be dismissed as non-canon, and all information on this wiki that came from it needs to be removed. -- Erik (talk) 14:45, April 27, 2011 (UTC)

I partially agree, but the old timeline should be preserved on the page for ApertureScience.com for historical purposes.MattyG7

In an unrelated possible continuity problem, the game seems to imply that mandatory employee testing was initiated in the 80s (clearly an older version of Aperture before Cave's death death. The exact date is ambiguous, but the old mainframes and bulky CRT monitors clearly indicate it is older than the part of the facility from Portal 1 anyway). Meanwhile, Lab Rat indicates this initiative was instituted by GLaDOS after her activation (which is definitively after Cave's death since it would have been Cave and not Caroline in that case). I feel like the continuity has been made very messy by Portal 2. Any ideas? 18:24, April 27, 2011 (UTC)

Although this is just speculation on my part, I took it to mean that after Cave's death (or sometime just before, while he was ill) the mandatory employee testing was done away with. New employees were hired, to replace all the ones they lost in testing, and none of the modern staff were aware of what working at Aperture was like back in the Cave days. And then GLaDOS initiated mandatory employee testing again.

I have a related theory that the rig GLaDOS is put into (that corrupted Wheatley when he was put into it) actually contains a brainmap of Cave, in the same way GLaDOS was put together from a brainmap of Caroline. So, when in the rig, GLaDOS is like a combination of Caroline and bitter, angry, lemon-hating Cave...and that would explain why GLaDOS reinitiated mandatory employee testing -- if Cave thought it was a good idea, so would GLaDOS. And who needs to burn houses down with lemons when you have deadly neurotoxin?

Just a thought, but maybe the conflicting histories of Aperture (some of them, anyway) are actually meant to indicate that Aperture has lied in-universe about its own history. That is, rather than be a retcon on Valve's part, the stuff from the NOTES file might be fabrications invented by Aperture to try to rewrite the company's history and bury parts of its past. From the looks of it, they've tried quite hard to forget the older parts of their complex. -- Vios 06:42, April 28, 2011 (UTC)

I wondered this at first as well, but there are items in that false timeline that wouldn't make sense for a company add into a fake timeline constructed to hide the truth (namely, The Heimlich Counter-Maneuver and The Take-A-Wish Foundation). Also, the newspaper announcing the purchase of the salt mine indicates that they were fairly public about practicing science, not just shower curtains.

In Eric Wolpaw's recent lecture at NYU's Game Center, he mentioned one of the other writers was never a big fan of this timeline, and I get the feeling the timeline may have purposely been completely contradicted in order to have it completely thrown out and start fresh. I agree that this entry, the way it currently exists, should be preserved somewhere...but the main entry really needs to be almost completely rewritten at this point, because very little of it is accurate anymore.

Timeline Again

I've followed the linked reference for reference 10 and I couldn't actually find where it says Portal 2 plays hundreds of years after Portal 1. Actually, I've got no indication that this would be true. The program in the beginning of Portal 2 - which should inform you of the duration of your cryogenic sleep - is obviously broken and might as well just hang on a nine. Nine years, nine months - even though nine months seems unrealistic, considering the vegetation, even for game standards, nine years on the other hand don't.

Handheld Portal Device Timeline Problem

Shaft 9 and its test chambers were sealed off in 1961 due to Gamma Ray Spallation Effects, but there are pictures of a backpack-mounded portal gun that was required to perform the tests there; this means Aperture Science had portal technology in the 1950's and 60's, prior to Cave's death. This also implies that Ap. Sci. was most likely far more technologically advanced than Black Mesa and Black Mesa was mooching off Ap. Sci.'s technological developments - this is supported by 2 in-game facts: There are 2 scientist posing in a picture of the Borealis who are also posing in the picture of the Black Mesa scientific staff, and Johnson complained about how Black Mesa continually stole Ap. Sci.'s technologies... so there's a definitive case for industrial espionage where Black Mesa's double agents were stealing Ap. Sci.'s developments. Alexcranson 16:08, April 24, 2011 (UTC) Parts of the statements above not include the esponage parts indicate that the portal device was created shortly after the birth of the company. Thus creating a plot inconsistency if you call cave johnson death by mercury and 3 tier as the birth of the portal device. The likely explaination also the currupted one though would be that in cave's mind he was back at the begining of appreture. However a likely cause of his death would be the moon rocks. Though due to fear of getting of track with the timeline holes. In short the portal gun existed long before cave johnsons 3 tier plan. This gun may have been bulky when compared to the one most players operate most technology ussualy starts that way examples include computers and cellphones note they aren't the only ones but are really good examples.--192.234.16.205 18:55, May 11, 2011 (UTC)

I (partially) disagree. The 1961 vitrification orders do not refer to the condemnation of the shaft but to the vitrification of those sealed chambers in the shaft walls. This is the only logical explanation why vast parts of the shaft were built after '61. RAGe 11:35, May 30, 2011 (UTC)

Mottos

In the giant underground cave in Chapter 6 - The Fall, there's a sign that says "Welcome to the FUTURE of TOMORROW! Aperture Science Innovators". Maybe a motto that could be added to the motto section? And how do you reference stuff like that, with in-game screenshots? --Tobiasvl 17:20, April 24, 2011 (UTC)

About Black Mesa

We have a section on Aperture's bitter rivalry with Black Mesa. Can we have Portal 2's talk of Black Mesa stealing technology from Aperture to that section. It's first mentioned during the first of Cave Johnson's messages from the second "era" of testing (when they started testing hobos), and there is further information elsewhere (I remember some quote about "putting cameras in cameras. He'll never suspect")

The cameras thing was an off-hand random joke in Lab Rat. You'll notice a scientist says it right before you find out Rattman is taking crazy pills.

Oh, and if I were Klow, I'd probably tell you to sign your comments... but I'm not. Smelltheashes 21:03, June 3, 2011 (UTC)

UnderGround trophy case And Gallery poster expansion

Is there anyway to get that stuff bigger and more readable because I would love to read it. Also there are tons of posters laying around apreture science they should also be aquired for use in the gallery. Most are actually quite interesting. I am not sure if they had flat screens back then/90s I know they had a jumbo tron. However one could simply infer that they made their own. Does it seem remotely plauseable that in the cave johnson ones it mentions potatoes and that there seen throughout the entire game. Thus given reason to why they had a potatoe battery as tribute to cave johnson rise to fame. Most of apreture sciences backstory and history is told through looking around. --10.7.11.58 14:53, May 4, 2011 (UTC)

Better Innovators Logo?

Why is the vertical Aperture Science Innovators logo missing the "Salt - Asbestos - Curtain" part? That seems pretty critical, and I haven't seen a logo in-game without it. --Conro101 15:13, May 4, 2011 (UTC)