New Portal 2 Beta DISCOVERED - The Core Hub Era

Portal 2’s development period is one of the most mysterious out of every Valve game, as while communities have fostered around the beta content of the Half-Life games or Portal 1, there is yet to ever be a proper community focused on Portal 2’s beta post F-Stop’s cancellation, combined factors such as the lack of any major leak, and a general disinterest from the scene that exists, make it so that everything beyond F-Stop is hazy at best, but that all has changed in the turn of the year of 2022.
The Core Hub Era is one of the newest major discoveries in the Portal 2 beta scene, helping to contextualise a lot of information known prior that can now be consolidated into a singular era of development - it's time to finally expose what Valve was doing with Portal 2 in the year of 2009.
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Join My Discord! - / discord
Follow My Twitter! - / ossyflawol
Support My Patreon! - / ossyflawol
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VIDEO CHAPTERS;
0:00 - Disclaimer
0:15 - Intro
1:03 - Development Timeline
2:03 - Storyline
4:29 - Characters
8:06 - Visuals
9:35 - Gameplay
11:40 - The End Of An Era
13:15 - Outro
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CREDITS
Portal Beta Series Rearch Discord - / discord
ValveArchive - valvearchive.com/archive/Port...
The Final Hours of Portal 2 - Many pieces of information
Kiwi Talkz Josh Weier Interview - • #126 - Josh Weier Inte...
15.ai - GLaDOS Lines
Wolfcl0ck - Morgan Freeman Core Textures
RoyaleNoir - Slowfield Restoration ( • Portal 2 "slowfield" s... )
The Cutting Room Floor - P2 Unused Line Documentation tcrf.net/Portal_2_(Windows,_M...)
Oregon Coast Aquarium Commercial - • Oregon Coast Aquarium ...
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Hey everyone, the name's Ossy Flawol!

[@OssyFlawol]

[ Join my Discord! - discord.gg/BkppBd7 ] (EDIT: Subtitles are now up!) I hope you all enjoyed learning about the Core Hub Era of Portal 2's development! What did you think? What do you believe the ending was meant to be? How exaclty do you think Quint looked? Join my discord and discuss!

[@lolyes4947]

invite invalid so sad

[@reformedorthodoxmunmanquara]

God, imagine if Wheatley was actually named Pendleton

[@theholygamer969]

Make that his last name.

[@electrobean]

Pendleton crab

[@GunnarTobus]

@@mazzl8390 How distinguished

[@kassiaactuallydraws9361]

@@GunnarTobus * Classical music starts*

[@shadowsnstars]

@@kassiaactuallydraws9361 Machiavellian Bach

[@toonumbernine1328]

0:43 that pic just unlocked a memory I forgot I had. Seen it all the way back in 2012 thinking it was a mod. But this actually explains the context behind those beta animations. I really like the idea actually, it woudl've probably ended in GLaDOS regaining her memory and her being the final boss

[@brunototal]

Finally! I crave the post F-Stop Portal 2 Beta content with a burning passion, because for years it just looked like people were ignoring it on purpose way too fascinated with F-Stop just existing (Since it wasn't really known what it was exactly about back then). It's nice to see someone try to understand and interprete how that era of development looked. I even learned a thing or two from this. Great vid.

[@spidernh]

you said back then they didn't know what f-stop was, is it now known? if so what is it and can I have a source?

[@brunototal]

@@spidernh Basically, now we know that the main mechanic it was supposed to have was a camera that you could use to take pictures of objects and store them as such to then be able to place them back in the world while also being able to change their size. There isn't too good of a video or article about it yet but here, have some gameplay from a W.I.P remake of how F-Stop worked - kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYrafpJrirWkgK8

[@spidernh]

@@brunototal thanks, that seems interesting at first I don't feel like it would be super fun but I don't know, that's probably because I just heard about it

[@Shrekinspace]

@@spidernh i know a game called superliminal came out that has the same mechanic as it’s main feature and takes place in a portal-inspired environment. i haven’t played it myself yet but everything i’ve seen and heard looks good

[@junebug2325]

i want this version of portal 2, it feels like if instead of being really clever, the developers just kept crack pipes on stand-by. i adore it.

[@trianglemoebius]

That's how most more "open" games are in early stages. Devs just throw stuff at the metaphorical wall and see what sticks. Most of it is stupid, so you narrow it down. Eventually you (hopefully) get something that's not stupid.

[@originalpadoru]

while we all are confused to see what the game would’ve been like without gels etc and continued to be like the plans, i am seriously happy with the game we have now, honestly the best game created

[@Toxin___InterHalfer]

seeing all the development stages i'm glad they stopped where the retail was

[@wishbonefan]

How is this 98 years ago KZbin didn't exist back then

[@freshrot420]

@@Toxin___InterHalfer I love it, but I think they missed the magic of the first one. Instead of being a puzzle game with comedy, it became a comedy game with puzzles.

[@MegaChickenfish]

It's interesting how "recovering cores to put back on GLADOS's body" wormed its way back into the story in the form of the final boss battle. The concept of the "central hub" as well wound up being used in the multiplayer area.

[@mickmick1085]

I didn't know the fan series, Portal: The Underground was canon- I wonder what type of things or storylines were scrapped during this development. This is a well researched and great video!

[@Bruh-zx2mc]

Someone who remembers The Underground? This brings back some memories.

[@mickmick1085]

@@Bruh-zx2mc yeah they started making new episodes a few months ago

[@Bruh-zx2mc]

@@mickmick1085 That's great, looking forward to catching up.

[@mickmick1085]

@@Bruh-zx2mc also they did remake the episodes I think the only difference besides animation quality- Is that the change the voice of Anthony (the interview core)

[@wta1518]

@@mickmick1085 Anthony is the turret, the interview Core is the interview core.

[@Neonhorn]

I've always had interest in the betas and development of valve games in particular. While I do like fstop and want to actually play it, I've been disappointed there wasn't more information about the beta and development of actual Portal 2. I remember watching the Portal 2 trailers over and over again putting together all the little details I could. I'm really glad more stuff has arisen and I really hope to see more of it.

[@neuronoc.7343]

Kinda reminds me of a dream I had as a kid, where I was basically in a HUGE space full of GLaDOS chambers and navy blue fog, with a few extra Portal 1 styled GLaDOSes just hanging around on beams and what not in the open. The only portal 2 GLaDOS was in the uppermost chamber, which was internally stylized as a symphony room for some reason.

[@LittleBlockyCube]

agreed

[@wolfcl0ck]

Very nicely done! Bravo! You have me itchin to do my cores video now more than ever!

[@Protoplosion]

Ever since I discovered the beta footage for portal 2 and learning about F-Stop I've been in love with learning more about the Portal 2 betas. So glad to see more and more people have a great deal of interest in this! This is probably the best video by far documenting the portal 2 betas, VERY INTERESTING STUFF!!!!!!!

[@quincius8638]

Sorry but what is f stop

[@Protoplosion]

@@quincius8638 F-Stop was an old project with the gameplay involving around a camera and taking pictures. Valve loved this idea and thought this would be perfect for the next portal 2 and was originally going to be a prequel. After playtesters noticed there weren't any portals and no portal gun, it got Valve questioning everything. The project was then scrapped and out came what you see in this video.

[@null_607_]

if you guys want to play an remake of this : kzbin.info/www/bejne/eYamf2SQdriqbc0

[@loctite417]

11:07 "Guys I think my test chamber is still in beta"

[@Daniel-be6cj]

How could they kill an idea as brilliant as a Morgan Freeman core? That's too good!

[@null_607_]

well my version of core hub has the morgan freeman core : kzbin.info/www/bejne/eYamf2SQdriqbc0

[@SomnusVivarum]

"Something will happen; Something Wonderful." is straight out of Arthur C. Clarke's "2010: The Year We Make Contact," the direct sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. That line was not incidental. I assume they could not use it due to IP given, and probably because there's no Jupiter collapsing into a Star.

[@MrGermandeutsch]

I can tell you've put a lot of effort and passion into this video, which I highly appreciate. Tho I must admit that due to your tendency of talking quickly, it makes it relatively difficult to understand you properly. But that's pretty much the only thing I've noticed that felt off. Otherwise, great work.

[@OssyFlawol]

It's a speech impediment I suffer, I always aleviate it by placing subtitles on my videos.

[@TwiliPaladin]

Unrelated, but I'm surprised I managed to find you here.

[@OssyFlawol]

@@soberacidtrip that *is* the impediment, i have no easy sense of control over how fast/slow i go and i can’t even tell when thats actively occuring unless im explicitly told in conversation to slow down. what an ignorant reply.

[@soberacidtrip]

@@OssyFlawol my apologies, i'd never heard of such a thing

[@OssyFlawol]

@@soberacidtrip thank you, its extremely hard to deal with being so engrained into my brain (especially as an adult now) that i would probably require quite a lot of a voice training equivalent to try “correct” my speech to be naturally slower, i hope that makes sense

[@justawhitecat]

EDIT: if any of you are interested, i made a map recently in the style of portal 2 beta kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpe5q5qar7qEY5o i actually attempted to recreate the core-hub era, but i only recreated the paranoid sphere's room. but i also lost the files for it at some point. i'd have to go back to a restore point on my computer to retrieve it.

[@mstech-gamingandmore1827]

Umm restore points only restore system files

[@mstech-gamingandmore1827]

Unless you mean you lost it because the pc wouldn't turn on anymore

[@justawhitecat]

@@mstech-gamingandmore1827 no i didn't lose my computer and system restore points do bring other things back, and all my portal maps were on the desktop in a folder

[@ozrencupac]

@@mstech-gamingandmore1827 The pc would turn on even without Windows files as they arent necessary for the boot process The pc wouls boot up to the bios(or uefi if newer) and from then you could inatall the os(operating system) windows is just one of the many that exist

[@XENON2028]

@@ozrencupac what if the bios chip was broken though

[@Tower_Swagman]

In an alternate timeline, we know portal 2 as "Core Hub" and it would likely be finished and have some epic things, of course, maybe a lot messier, but would be epic if it was finished

[@trianglemoebius]

I'm not sure it would be that much messier. Remember what we're looking at is a lot of stuff that was around early in dev. A lot of games start out incredibly stupid, as the first stages are often "throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks", then they narrow it down later. I'm sure Valve would have come up with some awesome stuff for Core Hub.

[@null_607_]

check my version of core hub out [the demo version is broken] : kzbin.info/www/bejne/eYamf2SQdriqbc0

[@SharlaBlades]

Ah man. This was such an interesting part of development to learn about. Thank you for this.

[@DaRealBruner]

Do we know when the concept art featuring those wrecked cars in the Enrichment Center was created? It appears those cars are based on the ones from Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, and CS:GO. If this piece of concept art was created somewhere around 2008, it might be possible that these cars were originally intended to be seen in Portal 2. I don't think I've actually seen any of those HD cars from Left 4 Dead in any pre-release media of Left 4 Dead, aside from the low quality, CS:Source esque cars from the Terror-Strike era of development, and cars from Half-Life 2. This might be a big stretch, but hey, you never know.

[@w.b.s.]

Kinda interesting how many scrapped ideas got sorta mashed together in the final game. F-Stop's look at an old Aperture, Core Hub's destroyed test chambers, lasers, the basis of the core's personalities, etc.

[@FrenchFryCheese04]

Bunny!

[@StaticOverTheRadio]

Gosh and to think a few years ago I used to believe that we had run out of “new” (new as in new to us, the community) Portal content to go through! I have never been happier to be wrong, this is so interesting and I am so thankful for the work you and others have done to put all these bits of information together! Also thank you for the subtitles they are very helpful :D

[@purplesam2609]

Glados with arms is arguably the most unsettling thing in the franchise

[@_TheDoctor]

GLaDOS with arms is cursed but I love it.

[@DJMouthwash]

I remember hearing the core hub premise way back in the day as an early plot for the game, and so little about it since that I was wondering if I hadn't imagined it or something. Very cool.

[@AvalineSky]

I like how they brought the hub back for the multiplayer

[@shapeswitch_mood7221]

The mention of an AI that "hunt Glad0s like a shark" reminds me of the AI in Portal Stories: Mel, that we have to take down at the end.

[@milessoup9246]

Ok I actually adore this era, it feels like it’s own seperate game. Maybe at some point I can find some people to help make this into a fangame.

[@FrenchFryCheese04]

P2009

[@MegaChickenfish]

"The Aperture Science Self-Esteem Field" is genius though.

[@ImmortalAbsol]

I really really want a story mod based on this and Betty, Frank and Grady. A view on the inner workings of Aperture and the duties of the personality constructs. Atlas, P-Body, Party Escort Bot and the military androids. Plus some tie-ins with Half-Life.

[@Miss_Argent]

Rebuilding an amnesiac GLaDOS. Huh, that provides a fair deal of context to the "Cereal!" gag from the early test footage. I'd been wondering about for a while. Thinking on it, repurposing the hub premise for co-op was pretty clever too.

[@GeorgeCowsert]

I feel like they could've at least reused Carcass GladOS to explain how she got a redesign and to foreshadow the potato joke. I've always thought that the rounded portion of GladOS' potato form was the actual disc she's stored on, so it would've been nice to first see it taken out of her ruined old body and installed into her more dynamic new body.

[@XxGreenFoxyxX]

I bet someone could recreate the core hub as a portal 1 mod

[@TheKz262]

The potential this version of portal had was pretty good.I always wanted to interact more with the cores in less rushing moments but I do see why they had to abandon that idea. None the less if Valve ever learns to count to three I would love to see this idea explored officially

[@kotatsudotme]

Loved this video! You teached me things that I didn't even know as a long time portal fan. I'd love to see a sequel to this about the Multi Core Era if you have the information!!!!

[@wdpko2926]

Damn imagine how cool a portal 2 prehub era mod would be

[@ender9900]

i would love to see someone make a mod for this story of portal. it would be so cool

[@thedoctor1466]

Whats cool is that when looking at the trading cards on steam. There is one titled "GLaDOS" and it just shows the GLaDOS caraccas. I would've loved to see this in Portal 2. Just the design of the chamber and make it fit so well into the ending of the first game. I'm sure out there somewhere there is a mod that actually recreates this.

[@bgtherobit]

The aquarium sphere reminded me of Harry101UK's Meet The Cores videos, specifically the character Ray, who was a core obsessed with sharks and now that I know this information it's either a wild coincidence or Ray was based on the Aquarium Core. The eye color was the same as what was used in this video as well, although I think Ray's body was also a teal color with some patterns on it rather than the white all the canon cores have. I'm also pretty new to Portal so this was my first introduction to Pendleton, and now I understand why all the beta core animations had a purple eye. That wasn't a Wheatley Crab at all, that was a Pendleton Crab!!!

[@ESCalation]

Good video! Shared this, more people gotta see it.

[@Pierogo]

I knew about a solid 90% of the mentioned topics, but never seen them in a structured and coherent form, so it's super nice you put this together. That said, you need to speak slower hah, I could barely understand what you were saying sometimes (thankfully the subtitles saved me). Overall, I'm very glad this video showed up on my feed!

[@Theover4000]

Wow, I didn’t know much of this, I assumed the cores were just from an earlier Portal 2 like the one I know, I had no idea there were different phases!

[@silverwatermermaid1563]

I like the idea of different cores taking over in glados' absence, it would have been great to see them scramble to maintain control when she comes back online if it was used in the final version of the plot. Some of them could try to bargain for control (could tie in nicely with the multiplayer plot where one of them gives her info on where the humans are in exchange for power), maybe one could control the broken panels to make an area that she cant control (I feel like that would be perfect for space core, lots of erratic panels twitching, stars and planets made out of whatever he could find and strung up from the celling) stuff like that. If I had any idea on how to make mods I would love to make this, maybe some day ill try to figure out how to, it would be a massive task though and likely expensive to get voice actors similar enough to do it justice.

[@CoryBenston2219]

VERY AMAZING Video, i love the concert art so much details in them, if someone did a fan-game what ending could it be? Glados tricking you or release you.

[@LinkiePup]

This is the shiz Tyler McVicker wont cover

[@MrGermandeutsch]

Thank you Ossy, very cool! 👍

[@TheSuperWariotf]

Some of those scraped cores are in the Meet the Cores videos.

[@FrenchFryCheese04]

Wait really?

[@PanMannYT]

Would be super crazy if we were able to download the Read-Only maps and test them out, same for other assets

[@OssyFlawol]

...Them only having their names is why they're known as read-only files, lmao

[@hakerananasek]

Reading my way into the test chambers atm

[@FrenchFryCheese04]

@@OssyFlawol Bummer

[@wisgarus]

Ngl those Glados chamber concept art pieces give me heavy AI generated vibes with how somewhat abstract and minimal they get in places and how they're all slightly different iterations of the same thing. Makes me quite interested to see if or when we start seeing video games, movies, shows etc. use AI for making concept art or helping with it.

[@morgplays2286]

Absolutely fantastic video dude! Seems like it was really well researched and it was hella entertaining :)

[@beepothebest]

Super well made video! Always looking for more portal content :) I had seen a few of the early GLaDOS animations a while ago but had no clue what the story was at the time, how did you find all this info :0?

[@mrmalos4194]

listen, you are a genius! no one ever wanted to talk about this era mostly i think because it was meshed with f-stop but now finally it can sit peacefully in the middle, thank you

[@CombustableLemon]

Imagine a world where F-Stop came out instead of Portal 2…

[@FrenchFryCheese04]

It would be shit

[@TheNairOG]

What was the bacground music used throughout the video? Love the eery feel of it. Great video! Very interesting as well!

[@tuppot]

This is incredible! Thanks for sharing the research.

[@JChristiansenLuckythebrony2222]

The storyline concepts behind the Core Hub era would make for a cool mod I think.

[@ibuprofen-noodles]

omg memory unlocked.. i remember the pneumatic vents and being most excited about that feature before portal 2 haha

[@Arson_Hole]

Fascinating! I never suspected such things could be.

[@cadentubeohara3970]

This version of portal 2 kinda reminds me weirdly of a dream works megamind game I think it was called “megamind ultimate showdown” where you have to play through multiple tracks of levels to get items to repair/build a machine quite similar to this version of portal 2 in concept

[@OllarProductions]

Someone should mod this early version back in even with its flaws

[@FrenchFryCheese04]

I agree dude

[@bentibbly437]

This seems actually kind of interesting, if this game had finished portal 2s design, and polish, this could be like a spinoff of portal, or maybe like portal 3 perhaps.

[@markbv591]

I wish GLaDOS had arms in the final game… It makes her so much more expressive.

[@indigodotradio]

Very well made video, very informative :)

[@gordonfreeman8109]

God I wish someone would make a mod based on this.

[@FrenchFryCheese04]

They are

[@nerdporkspass1m1st78]

Oh my god, Ossy? I remember you from old GD stuff, it’s funny I became really interested in Portal 2 stuff recently.

[@fellowearthling1632]

Those clips of early GLaDOS with arms combined with the atmospheric music does not make this a good late-night video.

[@busterbunny005]

11:04 guys, my test chamber is still in beta

[@Theicyoctoling]

Now I want to play this beta ver of portal 2 :(

[@FrenchFryCheese04]

Join the beta discord and everyone is making a core hub mod :)

[@ccf_1004]

I'd love to see someone create a portal 2 mod inspired by the core hub era of development

[@JakeWolven]

Good shit! There's no end to how much I can learn about this game it seems.

[@L0op]

I am *so* glad that they didn't give GLaDOS arms

[@D4rkNFS]

glados does still have arms even in final portal 2

[@FrenchFryCheese04]

​@@D4rkNFSwell not really

[@therealfrapsed]

finally! glad to see this out!

[@Mintor94]

I'd enjoy this concept more than the one we got in the final game. Are there any mods that aim to recreate the Hub Era Portal 2 experience?

[@canducktor]

yep

[@AlexanderB-vy5ys]

4:53 Was that the sound effect for the HL1 SMG's reload?

[@OrinjiNeko]

Very cool video! Nicely done Though as interesting as all this is, still very happy we got the game that we currently know and love

[@minecrafttheobjectno541]

2:11 i'm sure it was actually shown at GDC 2012

[@OssyFlawol]

i got the year wrong but it was animex still: kzbin.info/www/bejne/haqamp1mi7iIqpY

[@thatoneunusedpieceofbarkwi3262]

this is rlly fascinating stuff as i myself never heard of this era or such. Honestly im starting to question if i can even call myself a portal fanboy and never hearing some this shite lmao, but srsly good job on u and the others who put in their effort researching well into portal related content that is either lost or forgotten :D

[@GingerWellyton]

@3:38 is that line a 2010 Odyssey Two reference??

[@ratlobber]

so freaking epic

[@danhorus]

Great content! I would just constructrively suggest that you invest in a better mic and try to speak a bit more clearly, because it was a bit hard for me to understand everything without subtitles. Cheers! Update: saw in a different comment that this is due to a speech impediment. Sorry about that. Hopefully a better mic will help so you don't have to constantly remind yourself to speak differently

[@Toprak135]

This is so cool! We need someone to make a Portal 2 mod that tries to revive this beta.

[@oisinman5]

honestly would be interested in some kind of beta recreation project for the core hub era it wouldnt be better than the portal 2 we got, not at all, but it'd be an interesting oddity to look at, and poke with a stick

[@therealbeanbot]

Somebody should make a mod recreating this concept, this seems really cool.

[@humanbuddy-ju6jm]

This corehubs need be an portal 2 fan game

[@misterbrick4276]

Now I’d play this as Portal 3

[@Justus-ev2md]

it seems to me that the general structure of this beta was reused for the coop mode

[@markvangorkum8091]

It's like portal 2 singleplayer and coop in one.

[@Alex_hisfriendfromschool]

8:17 looks like the core that wants to be a turret got there wish 😂

[@cyanidethefox2160]

I love the ideas of the core hub era of portal 2. We need a mod that reworks the ideas to work in a mod

[@luckyperga]

Can't wait!

[@marticarajd330]

LESS GO E3 era!

[@smothmoongazer]

the p in pneumatic is silent

[@eternal221]

Aw man! This sounds kinda cool. I'd like to play a version of the game with this story. Plus the old animations are cool

[@theholygamer969]

What if the player's character WAS someone new? Imagine if another hidden test subject was awakened after GLaDOS's fall. This would give the advantage of the new character NOT KNOWING what GLaDOS did, so they'd agree to fix GLaDOS, something that would deliberately make the audience feel uneasy, as only they know what might happen when GLaDOS is fully restored.

[@AlyxtheShark]

If only valve could release the prototypes even if they're super unfinished

[@jokersvault4155]

This strangly seems... more interesting than the story we got- I mean with some reworks they could fix the story issues

[@TheDiamondSlayer1]

idk, its a cool idea i guess but the final version is way better, this just seems like a massive fetch quest

[@grantb7901]

Btw is that you on the p2ce github bug tracker?

[@OffTheRailsUK]

Watching this, now I am glad we have been given the modern Portal 2 storyline

[@maxmyzer9172]

so think we might see some of this in portal 2 episode 2?

[@All4Tanuki]

Good video, but you really don't need to push yourself to talk so quickly - I get that it's probably a nervous thing, but don't be afraid to slow down and take time to enunciate more clearly :3

[@OssyFlawol]

its a speech impediment moment (tm), i know i do it subconsciously and cant control it so i always put subtitles to help people understand what i say better