Official Valve Half-Life 2 Case Mod

Timmeh writes "bit-tech.net has the worklog from a Half-Life 2 inspired case mod, as comissioned by Gabe Newell. The PC mod was done by the same guy that did the original Blackmesa case mod."

Awesome

[Spazztastic]

Good find man. I had an idea like this a while back.

Rust effect

[krymsin01]

Just the information about how to create the rust effect is worth reading this article. I've been thinking about that off and on for a while, something I'd like to do to my laptop. (yeah... it's a shitty laptop anyway)

Case mods

[tod_miller]

Are cool, I can imagine 'need for case mods: underground' where you unlock case fans, different colour light strips, catching colour drive bay doors and blanks.

You start at the beginning and pick a pink iMac and the commentator say 'oh, weak dude!'

I think EA have plans to release this next summer.

You can upgrade to over clock, bigger CPU and case fans, different colling compounds and liquid cooling systems (no2 baby!)

You then drag you cases out into the desert and then try and cool them as fast as possible. 0 to -60 in x seconds.

Then you use your l33t case modding skills to hijack trucks carrying tvs and dvds and sell them, and then have to go pink slips for a car that can load windows XP in 10 seconds, a fabled car called a 10 second car... it usually fires case screws out the back when you push it too hard...

Any other correlations between the geeky art of case modding and the chick laden sport of illegal street racing?

Re:Case mods

[Quill_28]

>Any other correlations between the geeky art of case modding and the chick laden sport of illegal street racing?

Actually I would corelate case modding and overclocking to the early days of street rods.

Folks were trying to make them look great and/or modified to be fast.

Re:Case mods

[tod_miller]

Isn't the likes of 2Fast2Furious2Much2Bad2BitActing just the same thing, but with more modern cars?

I mean, most carfans thumb through books of go faster stripes, tears, lighting, speakers, and screen logos, which is like case modding, while others put nos into thier mums 1.1 VW polo and an exhaust shaped like a trumpet to amplify their mums automatic shopping trip runner.

Sad really! Live the dream!

better pics

[fireduck]

unfortunately the blurb links to a homepage, which links to another page, which links to a forum posting, which finally links to a pictorial. go here [bit-tech.net] for the final design, and begin the pictorial here [bit-tech.net].

that's some serious effort and artistic skill involved in this. the only problem with extreme case modding is that your project is obsolete by the time you finish it. (that and i wouldn't ever want to use the keyboard/mouse, those must feel awful)

Re:better pics

[Lord_Dweomer]

I'd just worry about ever having to travel with it. God knows how much of that stuff would snap off or rub off.

Re:better pics

[Bit-tech.net]

This machine was designed for use in Valve Software's demo suite - I don't think it will be travelling anywhere...

Incredible work

[ChronoSphere]

That indeed is a fine piece of work. The amount of fabrication that went into it is impressive. I'm waiting to see how he finished the side panel with all of the columns on them.

All that work.....

[Sean Johnson]

All that work just to make it look dirty! If this is the way awesome case-mods are going to be from now on, I can become a l33t modder merely by going down to the local wreckage yard and finding me some rusted out bucket to throw my hardware into. If I throw some actual dirt in it too, maybe I can get X-TRA modding points with the local message board. Woot! Woot!

In case of /.'ing

[funny-jack]

Note: You have to copy/paste these links, otherwise it'll block you for being referred from outside.
Original Black Mesa Case [blogger.com]
Original Black Mesa Case [blogger.com]
Half Life 2 Case [blogger.com]

Ugh

[Sentry21]

Not to troll or anything, but am I the only one that finds this case mod incredibly ugly? I would be embarrased to have this in my room. I didn't read any of the technical details about it, so it may be fantastically well-done in that respect, but I could not bear to look at it long enough to do so.

Case mods should be elegant and/or imaginative, not atrocious.

Re:Ugh

[Zeriel]

For home use, sure, but this was built for Valve's traveling demo thingamabob, and given that I'm sure it'll fit right in.

An even better Halflife2 Mod

[Bishop923]

Zapwizard's [zapwizard.com] Ammo Case Mod [zapwizard.com] The hardware inside is a little older since it was designed to play Half-life 2 last year(AthlonXP 3200 and a Radeon 9600SE), but it doesn't take a way from the sheer niftyness of the case.

Meh

[_Sexy_Pants_]

Loved the old mod, but this one seemed like it tried to outdo it by simply adding more busywork. The metal "combine" things make the case look lobsided and, well, kind of ugly. There's an art to ugly, and adding more things is not the way to do it.

Don't like it

[oskard]

Well, I mean its great. It looks awesome, but nothing about it really screams HL2 to me...
The first one really reminded me of the BlackMesa facility, this one looks like.. a steam ship. I think that might be because he based the design on screen shots, rather than the game play. I couldn't have done better, and I have no ideas of my own, but I was still expecting more for the OFFICIAL HL2 computer.

Its an excellent case mod though, I really do love the design itself.

Re:Don't like it

[oskard]

Well after defeating the game in less than a day, I feel like this thread deserves a bit more attention. The metal sides, the grate-like fins, they were made in light of the game's design. Only after playing the game should we judge this case. My mistake last post was that I didn't realize - The reason why the first case reminded me of HL1 so much was because I had already played the game!