When Stanley approached a pair of two open doors, he took the door on his left. Except, instead of walking through the door, Stanley kicked up his legs and bunny-hopped through the office, building up ludicrous speed and whizzing past meta-textual videogame commentary as he blew down door after door with a rocket launcher.
This wasn’t right at all, Stanley thought.
i’m porting the 2011 Stanley Parable mod into the Quake engine pic.twitter.com/kF2pMt0KEhApril 28, 2022
That image was summoned into reality yesterday by developer and archivist Jaycie, who posted screenshots of the original 2011 The Stanley Parable (not the 2013 remake, nor this week’s Ultra Deluxe re-remake), ported into the Quake engine—staring down sterile office floors with bloody shovels and rotary grenade launchers.
While Jaycie has only posted a handful of screenshots, they’re a fascinating anachronism considering The Stanley Parable’s place in technology. Both the original mod and its retail remake were developed in Half-Life 2’s Source Engine, which was built off Half-Life 1’s GoldSrc, which was itself a modified version of the original Quake engine.
In a meaningful sense, Jaycie has sent Stanley back in time, to a world long before introspective walking simulators. It’s unclear whether the developer intends to fully commit to demaking The Stanley Parable, but commenters like Tyler McVicker have joked about replacing the narrator with map text.
I do hope Jaycie goes all the way with this demake, mind. It’s about time the narrator faced this new, heavily-armed Stanley.