The TF2 Lost Media Deep Dive

Sometimes, the traces of something can get so thin, we consider it truly lost. However, it's up to us to preserve its memory in any way possible. In regards to the amount of media created for TF2, this is no epiphany, with well-known items such as early builds and betas falling far underneath; but what about the things that no one, or very few, knew about at all? Will these obscure, lost topics ever be seen, or even heard about again?
This is exactly what we're here to talk about. This is the deep dive for the most obscure, strangest and oldest pieces of TF2 lost media; some reaching back before TF2 was even released, with others being closely guarded secrets. Buckle up, because we're diving deep.
Music (In Order:)
Boards of Canada - Gemini
Death Note OST - Suiri
upsammy - Flutter
Persona 5 OST - Royal Days (Another Version)
Boards of Canada - Oscar See Through Red Eye
Boards of Canada - Turquoise Hexagon Sun
Arovane - Eleventh!
Arovane - Deauville
Arovane - Seaside
Squarepusher - Iambic 5 Poetry
Squarepusher - Tommib Help Buss
Aphex Twin - Bbydhyonchord
Aphex Twin - Heliosphan
Aphex Twin - Ageispolis
Death Note OST - Saiku
Death Note OST - Near Theme A
Persona 5 OST - Alleycat
Thankyou all so much for your patience regarding my recent uploads, it's been a busy couple of months for me. Rest assured, with my busy times out of the way, I'll begin to close these gaps for good.
Insta: tophonator
Steam: toph / tophonator
Twitter: @tophonator_
🖤💚

[@ShorK]

meet the spy was accidentally "released" 2 days early because of an apple glitch i believe, being able to see unlisted videos (meet the spy was unlisted and people could trick the system to seeing it because of the glitch) and thats how golden machine gun did it

[@biggamer7001]

Theres a reference to it in the blue square things at the beginning of the video

[@VsAngeel]

Hi shork

[@noblehatterviolet]

So, the golden machine gun version is the one without the "LEAKED VIDEO" tab?

[@csr129]

Neet

[@medicAverage]

I watch your videos

[@Pyromaniax]

2:09 slight correction: the tf2 show with AS was a real thing and was in production, but due to Valve failing to meet deadlines and terms it was scrapped and the pilot became Expiration Date. Might also explain the unfinished sfm movies.

[@jpo9878u9o]

I'm fairly sure the screenshots of the three unreleased films are from around 2007 so nah they wouldn't have to do with the scrapped tv show

[@timmythepinky9137]

What actually happened is that Adult swim wanted the episodes to be 10 minutes long for those juicy ad breaks, which VALVE disagreed with, and decided to do 20 minute episodes. This lead to the project falling apart, and a dozen of bad theories stating that Expiration Date is actually the supposed pilot episode of this tf2 TV show

[@Ghostly3011]

Once again, Valve being lazy with TF2.

[@chocofrolik834]

@@Ghostly3011 Not lazy! Valve wanted to put in lots of detail and love and Adult Swim wanted to pump out content quickly.

[@blueclipsa]

@@chocofrolik834 two words: venture bros

[@ContraryASMR]

All the 'Unfinished Animations' seem to have a theme of Medic saving the Team members from their own shenanigans (Spy's carefree smoking, Demo's lack of awareness, and Scout getting into an unwinnable battle), maybe it was yet another Meet the Medic idea, where it's more like meet the Demoman, and Medic is talking about how stressful it is to always have to save the team.

[@foxnachos_]

Someone should reimagine the still frames as fully animated SFMs, that would be so cool

[@Frost_the_polarian_fox]

more like animated episodes for a tf2 serie because valve failed at bringing us a tf2 cartoon serie in source filmmaker

[@CulltureShock]

Absolutely!

[@jockdouglass3824]

I'd love that

[@Nik1_]

We only need to find one...

[@hellhounds04]

🤔

[@KillAll]

24:22 Meet the Spy was "leaked" 2 days before publication because KZbin had a bug that let people with iPhones to watch private videos. In the leaked version, the Administrator says "Intruder alert" at the beginning twice, and in the official version Valve changed one of the texts on the board to "leaked video" to reference this leak (second column, second to last row).

[@avant4035]

The newest leak of TF2's source code and files actually solved the crane mystery! It was a part of an unfinished map where the crane would pick up the cart and move it over to another track. It was ported over and adjusted to be playable by shounic, where he also made a video about it (or at least featuring it, I forgot which).

[@O5MO]

It was Cactus Canyon

[@QuintessentialWalrus]

Do we know if Cactus Canyon was worked on before the game's release, though? It's a Payload map, so it's not something that would've been ready for launch. It was also never in a publicly presentable state due to extremely unfinished art assets. The development of Cactus Canyon is interesting in its own right but I highly doubt it's the solution to our mystery.

[@TheHLGStudios]

Hey all! We’re the ones that produced the unfinished “Escape from Team Fortress” series. AMA!

[@tophonator]

Hey guys! That is so crazy you showed up, do you mind if I shoot you a DM on twitter so we can make this an official thing? My username is @tophonator_ :D

[@TheHLGStudios]

@@tophonator We got multiple emails and messages so, we got curious! And yep!

[@agenttex5973]

Is there anyway That first episode is getting released or has that been lost to time?

[@TheHLGStudios]

@@agenttex5973 We have it, it just needs some final tweaks. We’re considering releasing!

[@tedstapleton5561]

@@TheHLGStudios i hope so. would be rad to see a piec of lost media found after all these years.

[@BobsonQDugnutt]

That "Escape from Team Fortress" animation is kind of mind blowing to me because that female sniper model is a fan-made model. I've seen it around a lot and even used it myself back when I thought I could make it as an SFM poster artist. Having something like that in an official Valve endorsed project made by a proper production studio is insane. I wonder if they had gotten permission from its original creator to use it or if the animators just looked up "Female TF2 Sniper" and just plopped it in there

[@Ramonatho]

Is there a clause that Valve and their approved partners can use anything on the Workshop without permission?

[@Sweet_Reverb]

@@Ramonatho The only thing I can think of is either THAT or that because machinima isn't their usual field of expertise, they didn't give a fuck if they stole from little folks who put their content online as free. The person who made the mod would at least be able to answer if they were contacted or not. I assume someone already has asked them. Also it's cruel to make an animator learn SFM it's fucking cruel to make a studio learn it lol.

[@SanaeKochiya]

@@Ramonatho yes pretty sure, there are several instances of community-made tf2 content being taken from the workshop with the creator MIA (think turbine, all map stamps just go to valve)

[@chermal7311]

​@@SanaeKochiyaWait, so the map stamps don't go to the map devs? Dang, guess I shouldn't have spent those $42,000 worth of map stamps... All on Banana bay...

[@JushoaStxrz]

@@chermal7311they do go to the devs but if there is no dev for it to go to valve just takes it

[@cortepapel5706]

I have a feeling that the SFM stills are apart of a "Meet the Medic" drawing board of sorts, since they're all heavily focused on Medic, from the cigarette shot to the whole helicopter action sequence.

[@AnesTheIdiot]

maybe they did something similar to meet the sniper

[@HenryVarn]

Yup, that's exactly what I was thinking as well.

[@WroughWheat54]

Seems to me it was another "Expiration Date" style episode with the focus being Medic, particularly his accuracy with projectile weapons. Taking a guess here on the plot. RED plans to steal the BLU intelligence using stealth. Spy is planning on going in alone as all the other classes are not as skilled as him. The team presses he should have someone go with him as back up, but Spy keeps refusing. Then Medic casually proves his aim in "Cigarette gag" which earns him the spot as Spy's back up partner. While sneaking through the base RED Spy notices the path is guarded by BLU Demoman, and mutters to himself how he can convince the Demoman to let him pass without getting blow up. Medic overhears and gets an idea where he playfully hits Spy with a syringe (I'm assuming Spy and Medic are RED because they seem to be the main characters and Valve doesn't usually like the counterparts taking focus). Spy isn't enjoying Medic's antics until he's showered in syringes which Spy also shares Medic's idea - although its stupid. He runs out disguised as BLU Spy in a panic and stumbles down the stairs, finally getting past the bombs in one piece. Demoman remarks for Spy to stop fumbling near his carefully placed bombs and lets him go. - (Missing scenes for getting the intelligence, passing it to Scout, and Spy goes missing or is killed) The rest of RED arrives via helicopter for extraction with Medic clings to the rope ladder to evade the BLU Soldiers. Scout can only run for his life until the helicopter catches up. Medic wanting to avenge Spy, risks his life to capture a Soldier and once again demonstrates his impeccable aim. Scout notes he's running out of "floor" and needs the helicopter to catch up. A bullet slows him but he recovers thanks to Medic's healing. Medic see's Scout could escape if he crosses to the next building, but Scout claims he can't make the jump. Medic insists Scout does the jump and to trust him. Again, he shoots a perfect shot the clear Scout across, which he celebrates. The team notices too late that Medic stayed behind and gets captured by BLU. - (Likely a scene Spy rescues Medic while disguised and buys them time for both to escape on the helicopter)

[@BComet]

So, one lost media I "have" for TF2 is a server I used to play a lot back around 2014/2015 called "Randomizer Arena". Unlike most randomizer servers, it ran it's own Randomizer plugin, which randomized cosmetics on other classes and allowed them to do taunts with uncompatible weapons (like Engie, for example: Being able to taunt with the Sun on a Stick and, by extent, saying Scout's related voice lines). Also, as the name implies, it ran only Arena maps. It went offline at some point and I never heard of it ever again.

[@tophonator]

Very interesting case of a server there, seemed like quite a lot of work to just vanish like that

[@Kirik285]

Redsun re-created it with it's own randomizer plugin which is iirc, open source. It was not meant to be arena only, but it works on both KOTH and ARENA. So thankfully, at least the concept is not lost.

[@alwexandria]

​@@Kirik285 Common Redsun W

[@MortallyBane]

@@alwexandria Redsun over paradise

[@thesteamguy6171]

I had totally forgotten about randomizer arena, you just unlockled a slew of memories dude. I think rapid, theunknownvenom, moysey89 and some other youtubers did make videos on those servers.

[@phoenixmarktwo]

For the Escape from TF2 segment: that shadow is just the Spy's. The paper hat is what caused that silhouette.

[@MadContendery]

FACTS

[@jamaikaivasutas]

if this video flops i will be greatly saddened.

[@yourcordialvermillionchapw2398]

I'll keep an eye on it.

[@pieldmiel9033]

How does a video flop?

[@jamaikaivasutas]

@@pieldmiel9033 from where I see it, a video flops when it doesnt get as many views as it deserves. A flop could also mean that a video doesnt get as much views as previous videos.

[@jamaikaivasutas]

@@pieldmiel9033 fortunately though this video is doing really well, since if we're only looking at numbers,, all of his subscribers watched this video.

[@pieldmiel9033]

@@jamaikaivasutas Well I just watched the entire thing in one sitting and it was great!

[@GMODTF24EVER]

The Golden Machine Gun servers are near and dear to my heart, I remember those old times years ago, I ended up picking up TF2 around the Solider vs Demo update because it was free during the whole thing, I have no idea how I managed to, but I stumbled upon GMG. An incredible server that spanned the majority of the 5000+ hours I've spent in TF2 over my lifetime. I don't think there'll ever be a server with as incredible of a community as that one. I actually have a video of me playing on the GMG servers while I was an Admin which I called Shenanigans in GMG. It was uploaded November 24th, 2012. I always wish I could go back to the old times when I'd come home from school and spend hours playing on those community servers, not playing the real TF2, alongside the TF2 Warioware minigames and Freak Fortress 2. TF2 changed my life and I have GMG to thank for it. If anyone who also frequented Golden Machine Gun and somehow sees this comment, I was [GMG] Gordon Freeman. On steam I'm currently known as simply "Just Freeman".

[@tophonator]

Thanks for sharing this man, happy that I could help you remember good times

[@bcmly]

@noodleboy347

[@HenryVarn]

I have this same nostalgia for the Gravedigger server. I wish I could go back just once to experience it again.

[@foggy_nights]

Reminds me of the old negroserver idle :(

[@Kalamari24]

Wait- I think I added you. Do you renember Kalamari?

[@Artcat932]

46:51 I speak light Chinese, so I’ll translate it to the best of my ability. From left to right, top to bottom, the buttons read: •Automatic Matchmaking •Competition/Competitive •Training •Test Area •Room Mode •Dance/Music •Team League •Activities

[@tophonator]

Thanks for this :D

[@THEnicholasvancosky]

Damn, now I'm curious about what room mode was.

[@zad1212]

I joined GMG randomly one day in 2009 and quickly fell in love with the server. I ended up quickly becoming a regular member and even was one of the admins. I spent the vast majority of my TF2 time hanging out in GMG servers so I'll post some details of what I can remember. Chambers was split into several areas (chambers if you will) The one shown in boss battles was the death match area, and when the boss battle command was used it'd close off the other rooms so everyone would participate in the boss battle. I wanna say the color room was kinda like a disco room meant to be some kind of dance floor but I don't really remember. I wanna say it was something that wasn't nearly as developed compared to the main plaza and death match area. There was also an admin room, and in earlier versions of the map the entrance to it was in the spawn area with a simple death plane preventing non admins from going in there. It had some simple buttons to close off certain chambers and maybe something else but I don't remember. The "no random killing" was put in place so that people who were farming achievements could do so in peace. Lots of parts of the map existed to assist with all the various achievements. You were able to close the doors on the various little rooms with the arches so you and someone else could farm any achievement you wanted. I don't remember if this was something locked behind being a donator or an admin but you could also set your spawn in one of those rooms and reduce your spawn timer to help somebody farm x number of kills achievements. Something I was able to do as an admin was give people some of those super OP weapons (Uber weapons of I remember correctly ) I could lock them in place and let them use the super powerful flamethrower to quickly rack up Pyro damage is one I clearly remember doing for people. The "Robin Walker" mode was also something else I think admins were able to give to players. Most of these were powered by sourcemod if I'm remember correctly. One fun feature of the server that wasn't documented here was the ever changing intro music. You'd join the server and be greeted with roughly 15 seconds worth of a song noodleboy had picked. There was no set schedule but it did update pretty frequently. The only bands I for sure remember being in there were Green Day, Starfucker, Radiohead, and Faded Paper Figures. This feature actually got me into a lot of these bands. One other random command I distinctly remember was the puppet command which made whoever it was used on mirror the admins movements while disallowing their own. The Tunnels map was always more of a secondary map because it was meant as the bot server. Each of the teams had a room with a handful of bots for you to kill, where as Chambers was designed more for hanging out while doing achievements. I spent the vast majority of my time on Chambers but I do remember Tunnels having its own little community. Outside of TF2 there was a pretty dedicated Trouble in Terrorist Town and Minecraft community. Don't remember anything special from those but I think some of the old achievement server maps were used as TTT maps based on a few old announcements. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. GMG was a big part of my high school days and through the server I was able to make great friends who I'm still in contact with. One of them sent me this video. Wrote parts of this at a time while watching the segment so sorry if it comes off a bit rambly.

[@graysongdl]

Holy shit, the "facestab knife" video was lost?? That's so surreal. I remember seeing that video, and I was all prepared to mention that the 5 second clip shown in that other guy's video was the full thing, before you'd revealed that it was found.

[@theploot8230]

Funny that I found a reupload of that video

[@SkyminSlash]

Being around during pre-launch/first few years of TF2's life must've been an interesting experience. I hate that I missed out on it, then again I probably wouldn't have remembered anything at the ripe old age of 10 years old at that point! Hell, I had completely forgotten about the Facestabber Valve had actually created and I know I read that entire blog post when it came out.

[@okaoka2094]

Omg hi Skymin!!!!!

[@VsAngeel]

Skymin hey!!! Hope your doing well

[@poke548]

Same. The Facestabber took me back. I wasn't really following it closely, but as a kid I remember poring over PC Gamers' pre-release coverage of a closed beta showcase to press and being enamored by the art style and environments. I've kind of been wanting to go back and find that article again, in fact.

[@DogDogGodFog]

POV: You were a toddler when TF2 came out (like me)

[@R77ification]

9:11 You can actually see Spy's body getting blown back at the same time the gibs appear, so maybe its a scene where he finds out how the Dead Ringer works. That or it was an invisible RED Spy that took the hit, since the gibs looked like they belonged to a RED Spy.

[@Emm1lyn]

18:54 That helicopter model appears to be the rescue helicopter used in a few Left 4 Dead (2) campaigns, so it's not entirely "unique", but it is still a little interesting how the helicopter would've been textured.

[@foggy_nights]

Seems like a massive difference in time, no? Maybe L4D1, but def not 2.

[@Emm1lyn]

@@foggy_nights Hence why I have the parenthesis on 2. Also, maybe indeed, as these shorts could have possibly been made after the release of Left 4 Dead 1.

[@CaptainDemo779]

Something I'm looking for is a piece of TF2 Fan Media that I remember being called "Project Origin." Not exactly the same as what we're looking at here, but I figure it would be a good place to start. Project Origin was like Emesis Blue (Exploring The Idea behind The Respawn System.) if it was an action flick more inspired by TF2's cartoony action style. If I recall correctly, it was made in Blender as opposed to SFM. I remember the scenes going like this: It starts off with a Blu Sniper and Spy infiltrating a Red facility, with Sniper covering Spy's approach. Spy gets into a fight with a Red Medic, and kills him with Sniper's help. Spy goes into The Red Facility, and uncovers the purpose of it: Using Clones as a psudeo-respawn system for both Red and Blu. An Engineer then kills Spy, and a clone is flushed out to replace him. I don't know what happened to this short, but I can't find any trace of it...does remember what I'm talking about?

[@tophonator]

Made in Blender? Interesting, you never hear about that, and the respawn idea with VERY similar themes to emesis blue? Might have a rabbit hole on your hands here

[@KRcanondaisa]

I REMEMBER THIS OMG!!!! Very heavy Matrix vibes in it too with the clones, and I remember it having a very distinct style because it was made in blender

[@greenbirdfanshow]

Maybe try using the way back machine?

[@CaptainDemo779]

@@greenbirdfanshow Just did...found it, but it says "This Video is Unavailable"

[@IgorNetoAnimation]

Oh my god I REALLY want to watch this.

[@zigro433]

The story about Golden Machine Gun is such a beautiful story about a small tf2 community yet I imagine its one played out many times throughout the lifespan of tf2, it's hard to imagine the amount of tight knit communities that have formed and ended, becoming forgotten to time besides those who were there to remember it.

[@tophonator]

Yeah, it's a sad truth that theres probably so many more out there just like it, we got lucky with all this proof of its existence

[@noodleboy347]

​@@tophonator If there's anything else you wanted to know about GMG, I'm the guy that made it

[@snowcreeper09]

@@noodleboy347 no bro your trolling right? Please don’t do this too me

[@damienlc8895]

yep, ever heard of 2fort2furious?

[@foggy_nights]

@@noodleboy347 hi noodle!! just hope youre doing well

[@3DylanStar]

For clarification on 24:26: Before its official release in the "Sniper vs Spy" update, Meet The Spy was uploaded to KZbin as private as it was likely a scheduled upload to be uploaded on the day " The Sniper Update" turned into "The Spy Update." But at the same time, apparently, the iPhone version of KZbin had a bug where private videos could be viewed. This earned Valve the corporate achievement "Welcome to the Internets" and they earned it by "failing to know what 'private' means on KZbin." But intriguing video you made here. I've had the same idea to cover some lost pieces of community-made content that I was able to recover but you featured some obscure stuff that I haven't even seen or heard before. Nice job covering them.

[@Navoral]

If any of those sfm shorts were actually made. It'll make Medic unintentionally more badass than he ever was in the comic series.

[@bananashoplifter3440]

the Final Combat characters being so buried in cosmetics that you can't tell who/what they are, sure feels foretelling for current tf2

[@TeamHege]

I am pretty sure that the helicopter for the "Heli Rescue" set is from Left 4 Deads campaign "No Mercy". The models are very similar, so I doubt the asset was strictly made for this short.

[@sweepingmotion]

I instantly recognized it as the l4d helicopter too. It must be that

[@suckassmork2972]

ngl Final Combat looked like a dark mirror to modern day TF2's future. Abandoned by devs, defunct servers, Bizzare cosmetics that mess up the art style, classic micro transactions..... It's like a sign of things to come. I genuinely hope that I'm wrong here.

[@TsukentoX]

Those three shorts are more than likely what Valve was tossing around when planning Meet the Medic. Valve mentioned having gone through various scenarios, including ones that focused on the Medigun. They all have the Medic in them and as a focus to them.

[@DrummerBoys]

It was probably a version of Meet the Medic to make him look like a super over-the-top badass - perfectly shooting the cigarette, scaring a spy just with needles, stealing a rocket launcher while on a helicopter. The joke would be that the video portrays him as super powerful, when in-game he's the weakest on his own (and since Meet the Medic came out later than most Meet the Team videos, TF2 players would know Medic well enough to get the joke). The helicopter scene even has the same horde of blue soldiers seen in the final video.

[@trixie7759]

This or the animation team just had a favorite

[@ItsNep]

Final Combat was something I remember people meme-ing on all the time around 2012, to the point that the freak fortress 2 server I frequented had the rocket as a boss.

[@kingboss9512]

Wait was it ripped straight out of the game? Was it custom? Or just. Reskin soldier?

[@ItsNep]

@@kingboss9512 I think it was just a customized soldier with a different jacket, but it's been way too long to remember clearly.

[@thecoolmf5297]

a year ago on lazypurple's silly server, people were talking about fun community servers and someone brought up golden machine gun, the guy mentioned that one of the reasons the server shut down was because in late 2014 (roughly 2 years prior to the server's actual shutdown) the owner had a terminally-ill family member and life had become too much for him since then, i don't know if there's any truth to that so make of it what you will

[@SampleSourceress]

I get the feeling that the leaked stills may have been from an early version of meet the medic since the medic seems to be the focus in all 3. We know they had an early version of it about the creation of the medi gun. These scenes may have been paired with a narraration from the medic with stuff like the demo scene being about how ineffective he is in a fight since it took him several needles and even that didn't kill the spy. Then the helicopter scene may have been the final scene akin to the ubercharge scene in the final version

[@chippotato5647]

I distinctly remember a machinima series made in TF2, from back in the day. Like, pre-SFM levels of "back in the day". I forget what exactly it was called, but I distinctly recall a few scenes from it. - The villain(?) was a static picture of an astronaut that had a stack of pancakes photoshopped in place of her head, displayed on a screen in a room that resembled the out of bounds area of 2fort's intelligence room. She acted like a fairly surface-level parody of GLaDOS, even quoting the "Well you found me" line at one point. - At one point there's a gag of one of the characters hits a button that causes a screen or a wall in some kind of meeting room to be moved up and reveal a secret wall displaying an anime girl, specifically Konata Izumi from Lucky Star. Definitely took place on a custom map of some kind. - At one point the main group (I believe there was a Scout, a Demoman, and a Heavy at least, although there might've been one of each class) was holding out in a big house on what was DEFINITELY a custom map. Overall, the feel was very "G-Man Squad"-like, from what I remember. There was the vaguest semblance of a plot and most of it was just goofy shenanigans, at least from what I can recall. There was definitely more than one episode, but I have no idea what the show was called, nor the channel that hosted it. If anyone knows anything that could point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate the help.

[@hinfeeiw4ouru]

Interesting... Is this the only thing you can remember from the video(s)?

[@ellugerdelacruz2555]

Yo! That sound so interesting!! What else can you remember??

[@demonnox5829]

Havent watched through the whole vid yet, but heres my piece of TF2 lost media. The fanartist Joot Moth, they would make these fantastic comics on Tumblr that were really emotionally charged. Their most well known (And still around) comic was about The Medic talking about Heavies death due to what's implied to be cancer, and how Archimedes helped him through it before Archimedes too dies from old age. Their Tumblr account got nuked for a reason I've yet to even see anyone mention and Joot Moth hasn't reuploaded any of their old art, so the only thing left is that medic comic saved on Pinterest and a few other pieces of art by them.

[@ShorK]

awesome video!!! but in the machinima part the shadow behind the spy is uhh the spy haha

[@tophonator]

Hadn't even considered that 😭but thankyou so much bro!! I sent you a DM on twitter btw discussing something :D

[@VsAngeel]

@@tophonator Collab? :)

[@EivenOwo]

Amazing video! It feels nostalgic like looking back at history of TF2😊

[@ouroya]

Depending on the users' settings, the maps from GMG may still be stored in tf2's maps/ folder! if you played, please search your files for anything you may have :)

[@yummysoul2998]

Ur right

[@-_._._-]

I've got a package of all the GMG assets. Uncompiled server plugins, uncompiled maps, PSD files for many art assets used for stuff like custom items, steam group profile pics, etc. Noodleboy347 passed the package on to AlliedModders user Psychonic who passed it on to me.

[@monstersponge9096]

@@-_._._- Do you plan to put this out for the public to download

[@themisfitbrigade]

There are so many SFM and GMOD videos that people made years ago that are gone. I remember an entire GMOD animation series involving primarily TF2 characters but it included characters from Half Life (GMAN being an extremely recurring villain that would try killing multiple characters, including Marcus from Gears Of War.) and another long video where Demoman is desperately trying to survive the unending attack from the Horseless Headless Horseman and his team tries helping Demo but all die.

[@b.r.207]

Here's my contribution to the Final Combat lore: I went on the website a couple times because, as a team fortress enjoyer, I wanted to find out more about the cheap copycat. Here are some things i found that you did not mention in the video: - There was a video discussing a pro-league of sorts for the game where they interviewed a e-sport athlete about what they liked about the game. Keep in mind this is around 2015 so it really could have been bullshit or it could have been based on local tournaments and other things. Point is that it makes sense that the game devs would want to promote it as its good PR. The e-athlete in question just stated things he liked about the game and tourney. In the game footage it showed a night time version of one of the existing maps, which could mean that they did have the same maps but at different times of day, but I could be wrong. - There was Final Combat and Final Combat [Insert Subtitle here], which you actually show the page regarding that second one at 50:36. I don't know if it was a sequal, premium version or some sort of subsection. It could be that pro-league thing I was mentioning in the point before but I don't know. Thing is they had footage of the game in that flash-player that looked distinct from base FC. Unfortunately most media that has reached overseas is stuck between 2012-2014, and I really wish I took pictures or downloaded things, but alas I was 14 and didn't foreshadow the need to time-capsule anything.

[@jessicabombcat2180]

I distinctly recall some promotional trailers implied they hadn't finished adding all the classes they had hoped to as they teased some more via silhouettes which were clearly going to be Spy, Scout, and Demoman knock offs. Kinda sad that didn't happen as I would've love to fully see what the knock offs looked like.

[@ellugerdelacruz2555]

From what I pieced together from the TF2 4chan, the Final Combat Lore supposedly had something to do with the 2012 Doomsday Prophecy involving an Alien Invasion and a Secret Superweapon that could defeat them somehow. From what I can assume, the Final Combat Organization (what it was supposedly named according to some Class Skin Alts, keeping in mind that the original Chinese name of the game was "Grand Charge". Why "stormtroopers" then? Mistranslation? I.D.K.) was formed probably out of the naive belief that fighting off the Aliens would cause all wars among humans to cease. (At least that's the narrative I see upon reading all the translated versions of the Tiny Lore, what little is revealed through the Chraracter Bios of the Alt Skins, and one post about a Gamemode Event prior to the game's cancellation.) What exactly caused the rift which formed the Two Teams is still unclear...

[@mino2123]

this is one of those videos where I was scared to check the run-time because I didn't want it to end and then pogged when I saw it was an hour long

[@Dolphin002]

Since server maps are saved to your PC even after leaving the server, it's almost certain that people still have GMG maps on their PCs. I'm surprised nobody has released them.

[@wolfcl0ck]

I would like to contribute my own TF2 Lost Media information: If you all were fans of gmod machinimas, fads, and tf2 freaks from days long passed, you may remember the animator "minifett." He was the creator of the tf2 freak "Intelligent Heavy" (the heavy with the pot on his head) as well as the video fad "This is what I see when I close my eyes." Well, he told me that apparently his original channel was deleted off of youtube while he was serving in the military, and as a result, many of his old videos are lost to time, with only a handful being back up as reuploads on his new channel.

[@tophonator]

While I was drawing up this video, one of the original entries was KelThuzadMadness, the guy behind the christian brutal sniper. His channel got termed because of a crypto hack, so it was thought all of his videos were lost, turns out they had been downloaded though. Thing is, lost media in the TF2 freak and gmod community is actually WAY bigger than I had anticipated, so I wouldn't be surprised if the original videos and channels of many classic freaks were lost alongside the intelligent heavy.

[@wolfcl0ck]

@@tophonator all the dead links on the tf2 freaks wiki are such a sad sight to behold.

[@Siger522]

You can find all of his videos by searching for creator:"minifett" on the Internet Archive.

[@klaykid117]

Those TF2 SFMs really feel like something straight out of KZbin not officially valve created 😅😅

[@ikcikor3670]

I bet the cigarette one was happening on an oil tanker, would explain why there is that chain that looks like they're on a ship, seemingly no background walls and that metal railing and obviously why Medic wanted to stop the cigarette from falling

[@voltanya0482]

Want to clean up some facts about GMG. I was a server admin with them for years along with friends whom I am still in contact with. Tavish777 I believe was still my username at the time. Chambers and Tunnels were maps hosted on their own independent servers. Chambers was by far the more popular of the two. There was also a map unmentioned in the video, the map from the Trade server, known as Butterfield. It was actually ahead of its time being one of the first dedicated trade servers on TF2. I was made aware of this video by another former admin of the server and unfortunately at time of writing we have no copys of the maps. In short, among the lost files for chambers and tunnels, Butterfield is also lost. Great video reminded me of a lot of friends.

[@tophonator]

I knew I would maybe see a couple of people who used to frequent GMG but I never expected multiple admins, glad I could bring it all to light for you guys, including those memories

[@AkujiTheSniper]

@@tophonator The guy who let Tavish know about the video was me, lol. A lot of old GMG admins still talk to each other on the regular.

[@0x2480]

is 'trade_butterfield_v8_jews' an actual map or was it planted in the archive i found

[@AkujiTheSniper]

@@0x2480 I only have up to v7 saved so I don't know if that was a real official GMG map (I remember April Fool's maps being a rare thing) or some parody from a tf2 trader.

[@-_._._-]

I've got a package of all the GMG assets. Uncompiled server plugins, uncompiled maps, PSD files for many art assets used for stuff like custom items, steam group profile pics, etc. Noodleboy347 passed the package on to AlliedModders user Psychonic who passed it on to me.

[@spameron7575]

54:32 Wow look, that guy's mum must be so proud of him

[@H0ol]

Absolutely brilliant work, had no idea that there existed lost media for such a game! With the excellent amount of effort poured into these videos, you will certainly make it big to the KZbin scene!

[@H0ol]

@@caljukes If it was a Heavy with the same profile picture as mine and saying stuff in voicechat 24/7, then that's me alright

[@Mate_Antal_Zoltan]

based profile picture 🤝

[@ellugerdelacruz2555]

WANNA ESCAPE FROM TF2?? kzbin.info/www/bejne/a3qwmGOFaZl_htksi=WDss4liE-5fGb5bg

[@MovementPlaya]

I absolutely love the music choice, who knew AFX and Death Note OST mixed so well.

[@tophonator]

Thanks man, I made sure to include a lot of songs from my favourite artists and soundtracks, really happy with how they blended

[@tf2bananatf2]

Amazing video. This is 100k+ subs content. Good stuff!

[@tophonator]

Appreciate you bro :)

[@kritzmaker]

i actually really want to see someone "re-animate" the old valve shorts

[@frunken3968]

Man, I used to be an admin back in Golden Machine Gun, and seeing it here really wasn't something I was expecting today. It really stood out and above other servers at the time with its creativity and community, to the point where it was a true home away from home, I knew chambers like the back of my hand and tunnels was more of a "cool kids zone". From what I remember, the true cause of the servers collapse was something even more tragic; a new version of chambers had an issue causing it to crash the server constantly, which eventually put people off from hanging out there. Such a simple issue was ultimately what lead to the gradual collapse of the servers. Some of the lost assets from GMG can be found in it's spiritual successor, Dispenzor's Fun Server, though at the time of writing that too is on the verge of closing down. GMG really was a different place, and TF2 or any other community game will never have anything quite like it.

[@-_._._-]

I've got a package of all the GMG assets. Uncompiled server plugins, uncompiled maps, PSD files for many art assets used for stuff like custom items, steam group profile pics, etc. Noodleboy347 passed the package on to AlliedModders user Psychonic who passed it on to me.

[@connorbeith3232]

Why is DFS shutting down? Is it for similar reasons as GMG, or did it simply not catch on as much as GMG?

[@VaporHolloway]

6:57 in the slowed down footage, you can see simon (the scout) saying "c'mon, gary," pretty distinctly

[@nartuz5016]

I can't believe I've played TF2 for 7 years and haven't heard of most of theese. Amazing video, I hope your channel grows

[@penguingalorigin6341]

Regarding Electric Playground, hbomberguy has a video essay about Tommy Tallarico, one of the EP hosts, and how he got the Roblox death sound replaced. There were some snippets of EP footage, maybe you could ask him about archived episodes?

[@ssssssssssssssssss50]

Hust yesterday was watching your community maps icerberg from 7 months ago and was wondering when the next videos will be up. Keep up the interesting tf2 videos! Like Sharky commented before me, it feels nostalgic seeing the incredibly rich history if tf2, even stuff I didn’t know about. Hope you will keep it up for as long as possible

[@therealthirst8099]

While Final Combat is lost forever, a little piece of it lives on in TF2. We now got a Soldier cosmetic that was basically Rocket's fire helmet.

[@tophonator]

I love that cosmetic set, like rocket is so shamelessly copied but his outfit is kinda drippy

[@lukaszkreller2642]

this video came on because i had autoplay on, and holy shit this is one of those times autoplay did something good just looking now at the view count after i finished the video im surprised its so low your production quality is amazing! you've earned a new sub and viewer my friend and im excited for any other videos you make in the future and hopefully you get even more subs then ya got now!

[@tophonator]

Appreciate you big time my friend :D

[@idahocoolest]

You are by far the most underated youtuber I frequent I love the commentary and style of this video

[@tophonator]

Means a lot man !!

[@ellugerdelacruz2555]

​@tophonator Have you ever heard of a SFM that predated Emesis Blue titled "Project Origin"???

[@TheA1ternative]

20:00 Considering that they're all medic-centric and "Meet the Medic" came out the year after these leaks, it's safe to assume that these were possible ideas for the final meet the medic rather than just silly shorts. After all they look similar to the test footage released officially on the tf2 yt channel.

[@stardestroyer81]

15:46 I so badly want to see how these two particular frames would have looked animated. Full on cartoon reaction

[@C4eam]

Hey I remember that Reddit post you made asking for info awhile back, glad to see you actually made the video

[@skyfirefilms]

Good news! HLG Studios released the Escape from TF2 Pilot and are accepting any people who want to work on it.

[@2naaa_]

Holy moly seeing GMG again brings back so many memories. I used to play on their servers and a few other similar community servers and it was magical.

[@tophonator]

Makes me want to have played on it back then😭

[@Deadliermlg]

I hope Noodleboy is doing okay, wherever he is.

[@noodleboy347]

Thanks for playing ♥

[@Deadliermlg]

@@noodleboy347 On behalf of the players that had played on your server, thank you for making it exist in the first place.

[@ThatTojo]

Holy shit this vid flew under my radar, I would have thought that no one would have remembered GMG minus a couple people. I actually remember compiling a bunch of members to sing "GMG Sings the Whole World" at 30:24 (the audio was actually made way back in 2011 before that video, but noodle asked if he could use the audio). I still have the original video here on an old account (KZbin doesn't like links so here's part of it, you know the rest): watch?v=Ed74SJ8c88A So a bit of a backstory about me: I was a former admin on GoldenMachineGun many years ago around 2011. I recall many things that other old guard members talked about in this comment section. Tunnels was actually it's own subcommunity of people who enjoyed Tunnels' quieter and less populated atmosphere compared to Chambers. In fact, a lot of the old guard that were known there are people that I still keep in contact with to this day! A lot of us still like to game, but we generally have moved on from TF2 minus coming back to it here and there to check out the updates. I have an archive of a lot of the maps from one of the friends of the server that I still talk to to this day. Chambers was generally where people went to mess around and have fun while occasionally getting actual achievements. The map itself had a "district" area with chambers that people could go in and lock themselves into. You could hit a button inside and above the door so that way, you would not get interrupted by someone while farming for achievements. Admins used several commands to help people get achievements like being able set a spawn where you would instantly respawn for kill achievements, teleporting people to you for convenience, a smite command to lightning strike someone and instantly kill them if you were looking at them, noclip, etc. Chambers had several iterations and versions, but it always had some form of hangout district area and a "Deathmatch Area" that was showcased with the boss battles in this vid. You would be able to DM people in there freely without being affected by the forgiveness system. The servers implemented a unique "forgiveness" sourcemod system where in the main district area of Chambers for example, someone that kills you (randomly deathmatches/rdms you) gave you a menu option to either forgive that person or give them a 1/4 strike alongside smiting the person that killed you. If you reached 4/4 strikes against you, the server would kick you. I know some people liked to occasionally grief people by standing in front of people trying to get achievements (hence why we needed rooms in Chambers to be private and free of interference). Early on, some of the maps also had a weird copyright thing where you would not be able to host or load the map on your own server if you didn't know how to use sourcemod to delete a very specific map object. The maps from that "lost" archive have since removed that feature after GMG ended since noodle wanted to have the maps be playable. The reasoning for this copyright feature was because noodle back then was very protective of the maps since they were unique to his server. In terms of the community, there was a vast swathe of people who came to this server. If anyone recalls ARMaster, he used to frequent the server during its very early years and even the real Robin Walker (creator of TF2 of course) came on to the server to check it out. He of course liked to go to the Deathmatch Area and run amok with his Valve Rocket Launcher. Otherwise, the community consisted of your average gamers, furries (nothing has changed if you look at the current state of TF2), achievement hunters, animelords, griefers, and any ne'er do well stereotype you can think of for your typical community server. Despite that, it was still a great place to hang out at and I have fond memories of running events as an admin on that server such as pyro dodgeball in the "Coloring Book" area which was a long hallway perfect to set up pyro dodgeball in. We'd have dispensers on each side of the hall and I would give myself crits as a Soldier and be somewhat of a ref/server of the ball. That was probably my favorite thing to organize, especially when some of the other OG admins were hanging out on the server at the same time. There were good admins and bad admins and on the forums, users could actually call for admin revocation if the admin was acting out of line (you know who you are Serb ;)). Ultimately, it survived for so long because of the strength of the community even if some of the OGs eventually stopped going to the server. Seeing this video was like me reminiscing about my high school life (considering this was during the time when I was still in high school), and I watched it with a lot of the previously mentioned OG admins from this server. It was a blast looking back on this era of TF2 and catching up with the friends and cool people that I spent time with. Ultimately, although some people of GMG have separated and gone on their own journeys (I think one of the community members even ended up interning at Yacht Club Games and helping on Shovel Knight), the heart of the community lives on through the friends that I still talk to and hopefully the same can be said for the others that I didn't know too well, but still managed to keep in contact with their own friend group that they made from their time on the server. That's my whole spiel about my experience with GMG, thanks for making this vid and reminding me of the good times. 👌

[@R0vii_]

Awesome video! I love lost media videos i find that kind of info really intriguing, so one about one of my favorite games. perfection. Great work!

[@QueeQuey]

Not sure if it's any consolation or really adds anything, but I vividly remember the facestab knife video and was shouting internally when you were talking about it. But yeah, the video was only a few seconds long! Just figured I'd add another first-person account that it had been found.

[@XxguaxinimxX.]

This video was really fun to watch! I really prefer this kind of Lost Media where there's actually a lot of information that you can learn, rather than just some scary creepypasta thigs... Nice job!

[@JayconianArts]

8:40 For the Sniper who slaps Spy, it could still be Alice- this scene could possibly be before she gets kidnapped. This is all speculation of course, but If i was a writer, the first episode would be introducing the characters, and Alice gets abducted at the end of the episode.Having her be onscreen would let the writers flesh out the dynamic between the three, and make the audience also invested in her kidnapping. If she just becomes a damsel in distress instantly, we the audience wouldn't care too much about her. Her rescue would then become the driving force for Scout and Spy for the rest of the series. It would also serve as a decent cliffhanger for the first episode too- if they ended up going down the crowdfunding path, that would be a decent hook to make people want to see the rest of the episodes. This is moreso wild guessing then anything, but I imagine Alice might've served as a mentor figure for the other two- Scout's overconfident and Spy's a coward. Her slapping the Spy may have been to calm him down after he freaks out. Usually, you have a more grounded , expierenced character lay out the ground rules and give guidence to the inexperienced protagonists, only to be subdued or captured to force them to set out on their own. Most famous example I could give is Obi-wan from star wars. Granted my analysis is ignoring the fact that in all likelyhood, a video-game based web series written in 2014 that calls people "normies" will not have the lead female character be the one who's good at videogames.

[@tophonator]

You're probably on the money with this, I would have loved to go really in-depth with an analysis this detailed but it would be WAY too long

[@youngemu3949]

I remember electric playground 🥺 I use to watch them on G4TV. I don’t know about this TF2 episode since I only knew them as a TV show as a kid and I think they were different from their web show. Tommy is infamous. People my not know him but should know what he has done. He is the reason Roblox removed the “oof” sfx. TY hbomberguy for making that long ass video on him. Also nice cameo from Larry Bundy Jr lol

[@derpyartist]

The demo scene couldve been a backstory on how the medic has a blu spys head. Fits very well how the blu spy falls into demos explosives assuming he gets gibbed. 17:00

[@tophonator]

Never thought about that, that's actually so cool

[@ThatSmilingTophat]

Fantastic video! The editing is great and your voice is good, I enjoyed it. You deserve more attention! The Golden Machine Gun server also made me a bit nostalgic, even though I only joined TF2 back in 2019. It’s awesome to see all the creativity but sad to see it’s end like that. 😢

[@tophonator]

Cheers my friend, its quite amazing how old tf2 media can make you feel nostalgic like you were actually there

[@ThatSmilingTophat]

@@tophonator Yeah, it’s incredible.

[@Fffgdghf]

I refuse to let golden machine gun memories die out

[@helpsus]

Great video very well researched and well edited, really entertaining and fantastic music choices from a criminally underrated channel.

[@pischpilot]

There is actually a crane model in the map Vanguard, it could be that the maker of Vanguard used a model from Valve that was originally made for granary. (Granary and Vanguard are pretty similar-looking maps)

[@madladdion8955]

That's some underrated content, keep up the good work! 👍

[@iamsixsyllables9679]

wow, it's been a while that I've heard about Golden Machine Gun. I wasn't there when it was the most active, but I remember seeing a deep dive about this server. Their final video is somewhat magical and amazing, especially watching their final video. All of the people on that server are long gone, and the owner has disappeared. It's legacy is still there, and the nostalgia is real. Also, the taste in music here is absolutely marvelous, gotta love the selection.

[@seanb5356]

I love the production of this video goo work! It's always refreshing to learn something new about this game I've been playing since 2009.

[@M30W3R]

Please, remember to always back up all video evidence, no matter if on local devices or online sharing sites like The Internet Archive. You don't know how much something mattered to people until it's gone forever.

[@cellophanezebra4663]

Final combat looks like that Counter Strike Nexon Zombies game i used to play 8 years ago Also your telling me that map i played 7 years ago i randomly joined is now forever gone? that's pretty deep

[@DrFyder]

Awesome Video man!!! And thanks for finding this lost media content. It realy gives more life to tf2.

[@JustCallMeHeavy]

I love the niche genre of obscure TF2 community content PLEASE DO MORE OF IT.

[@FrancisL4D]

Another Lost tf2 server was a alt version of achievement idle maps. It was a Small map where Red team had a Small Spawn room where you could go down a staricase on the left and it had a hole in the floor wich lead to a corridor where blu team slided to a wall. Blu team could force themselves up the staircase and enter Red Spawn. I remember playing this map with my brother in 2013-2014 but in 2015 the server just disapered and I still can't find it.

[@gaminggladiator06]

Golden machine gun was a sad thing to lose. Here’s to hoping that someone makes their own golden machine gun, not to mimic, but to create a community of their own with the same passion and fun as the one before it.

[@-_._._-]

I've got a package of all the GMG assets. Uncompiled server plugins, uncompiled maps, PSD files for many art assets used for stuff like custom items, steam group profile pics, etc. Noodleboy347 passed the package on to AlliedModders user Psychonic who passed it on to me. I've been considering rebooting GMG since 2018.

[@GregTheBaumann]

One thing i noticed from the valve scrapped short films is that they all include the medic as some sort action hero, from pinning a cigarette to the wall by quickdrawing his syringe gun to rescuing scout in a bombastic fashion. Personally i dont think it fits the character very much.

[@AdiBSPL]

24:21 there was a bug on iphone that let you watch unpublished videos so I guess that's how they uploaded it before valve. First version of meet the spy has "intruder alert" line said twice at the begining

[@FrancisL4D]

Anyone remembers MVM_Manndarin? It was a map that was on mvm servers in 2013-2015. I still haven't found a server with that map ever since.

[@sapphicdevil]

im actually pretty invested about the "escape team fortress" thing, a little insane, even. I might aswell start searching up about it to see if i find anything more !! it actually looks pretty interesting and promising

[@TheHLGStudios]

We made it! Ask any questions you have.

[@user-vw9qx2fy3h]

Scout and spy, which one is Gary and which one is Simon

[@vastheeternal4972]

Is there any archived footage that can be released? Story boards or models also?

[@TheHLGStudios]

@@user-vw9qx2fy3h I have to be honest, I don’t remember off the top of my head. I’ll get back to you.

[@TheHLGStudios]

@@vastheeternal4972 There is a full 1st episode. It needs some music, etc. but we’re considering releasing it.

[@jared6343]

there was a map in final combat that was a 1:1 port of a Battlefield Heroes map which was quite an obscure copy

[@Hugme778]

From what I remember theu even copied harvest almost 1:1 but the map was removed by the time I tried it out.

[@_BDN]

"Chinese Übercharge" is something I thought I would never hear, thank you for blessing my ears.

[@StarBoyBooya526]

I was not ready for Tommy Tallarico to make an appearance at 54:30

[@Cinderpelt2036]

final combat realease in phillipines too and what i experience on that game is bad - nurse/medic have no passive self healing instead you need to buy a bag item(4th weapon slot) for nurse with real money or farm a silver bullet and gold bullet -sniper is very op a full upgrade of primary can wipe out the whole team can headshot you fast even the sniper charge meter is not full -striker is a another op class fast can headshot you in long distance throw flash grenade and ambush the whole team while nurse pop a uber at him

[@TheWanderer1000000]

When you think about it... The Red Scout and the Red Medic being in "Heli Rescue" is no coincidence. The Red Scout was in the beginning and the end of "Meet the Medic." I think "Heli Rescue" was a prototype version of "Meet the Medic" and after it was scrapped, they kept the Red Scout in "Meet the Medic" is an inside joke.

[@eljestLiv]

54:31 His mother is very proud

[@spargelran8713]

Oh man I lubbit. As always you make phenomenal vids. Keep up the great work man! 😁

[@sk8ingopossum]

Amazing video! I don’t know how this has less than 10k views man.

[@Justin7885]

very interesting stuff here. hope this video gathers more traction soon

[@Nik1_]

Nice work! I really enjoyed watching it, that i even watch it to the end. I also might try to recreate the "golden machine gun" server map, i have a little knowledge in hammer editor.

[@Nik1_]

I will publish progress on my channel, so you know where to go 😀.

[@zidonyt]

I LOVE that you used BOC and Squarepusher in the background haha, didn't know it was coming from the video 😂 Great vid and awesome music taste!

[@mugrilhos]

The heli scene would've been so badass of it ever got fully animated.

[@sgas]

Thank you so much for this genuinely awesome video, I love these a lot And thanks for crediting the music

[@tophonator]

No problem man, go enjoy those awesome songs

[@jockdouglass3824]

56:11 CACTUS CANYON it has a crane look it up it was leaked recently!

[@pajamapantsjack5874]

“Initiating a Chinese ubercharge” is not a sentence I ever thought I’d hear.

[@CaptainZaimon]

Sounds like something a tourist would get offered in a particularly shady alley.