Black Mesa Security Guard (Evolution)

The Black Mesa Security Guard, also known as Barney (not to be confused with Barney Calhoun) are friendly entities found throughout almost the entirety of Half-Life. They are the quintessential partner to the player throughout the game, and are one of the only friendly forces you face. The Security Guard went through several different looks throughout Half-Life's development, changing both posture and faces before ending up with the man we all know and love.

Version 1: Chuck Jones Concept Art

The potential earliest appearance of the Security Guard is within Chuck Jones's concept art for the Panthereye. His design is quite odd, as he is shown donning a pair of thick lens glasses and a much more elderly appearance, something that no modeled version of the character ever had. This makes it very easy to overlook and assume he is a scientist. however the overturned security guard helmet near the hind legs of the creature is all the proof needed. He also appears to be reaching for an M4, a weapon also wielded by early iterations of the Human Grunt. Due to this last factor it is possible this is an early version of the HECU Grunt commonly referred to as the "green soldier". If further data comes along this section will be removed.

Version 2: Pre 0.52 Alpha

The Earliest in game image of the security guard appeared in a PC Gamer article from July 1997; predating the 0.52 build by two months. This design shares many design traits with the 0.52 version of the model, including a white helmet with the letters "MP" on the front (presumably standing for Military Police), a bug-eyed, frightened expression, and a hunched posture. Many traits consistent with later models, such as a black vest and blue pants and trousers, were established with this version. Judging from the few images available of this model, it had many rigging issues and was clearly unfinished at this point of development.

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  A clearly staged image showing an early Gordon (Ivan the Space Biker) and an MP.

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  Taking on a Panthereye

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  Ditto, on its source page

Version 3: 0.52 Alpha

Don Knott's character of Barney Fife has been cited by Marc Laidlaw as the inspiration and namesake for the Security Guard.

The version commonly referred to as The first one, MP, or famously Freeze, is shown in most if not all of early 1997 media of Half-Life, including the 0.52 press build. The model is named barney.mdl, and is the first known time the name Barney is used in relation to the character. The origins of this name can be traced back to the character of Barney Fife (played by Don Knotts) from The Andy Griffith Show, which this model has a similar appearance of. His face texture and animations differ slightly from the previous version - his face is much less sunken in, and while still having a hunched appearance, his animations and rigging appear to be different as well.

Original intentions

Originally, Half-Life had no companion entities within it - Barney originally was a low tier enemy withing Half-Life. However, this all changed when Valve developer Steve Bond wanted to test out enemy squad behavior. Using Gordon as a leader he linked him to several MPs who were forced to follow the player and not immediately attack. He unexpectedly created the first companion character in Half-Life. This revelation caused a massive shift in thought within Valve leading to the first restart in Half-Life's development, and by the 0.52 alpha, Barney was an ally that could follow the player around and attack when provoked.

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  One of your former military cronies has you in his sights.

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  An MP inside the blast pit silo

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  A magazine scan of the silo from the 0.52 build

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  The MP being dragged to hell

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Version 4: Wide Eyes

This version arrived in roughly between the 0.52 alpha (september 8, 1997) and the preliminary findings advertisement disk (October 16, 1997). On the preliminary findings disk is an interview with Ken Birdwell which features a video of a group of security guards sporting the same features as this version attacking an alien grunt. His most noticeable feature outside of his face is his helmet which changed from Being white with a blue stripe, to being full blue. The body textures on this model would be used for the next two renditions of the character. (If you don't beleive me, take a look a the pants.) Interestingly the model was reskinned into the cut Construction Worker entity.

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  An image featuring the full blue helmet.

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Version 5: Entityguide Ted

The earliest version of the Ted family of Security Guards, named and modeled after developer Ted Backman. He made his only appearance in the Half-Life Entity Guide that was released on October 29th 1998, one month before the release of Half-Life. While the "Ted" model had been replaced at the time of the guide's release, the guide uses a variety of early models as example images of the many things you can use in your maps. There are two images seen for the security guard, the one highlighted here is the only known image of this version of the Ted model. The only difference being that the eyes on the model are beady and black, no white to be seen. The textures are also incredibly compressed.

Version 5.5: Zombiefight Ted

differences from the previous version include, different inner leg texture streaks from texture projection, the eye texture now has a sclera(the white of the eye), the underarm texture now has a dark boarder, the tie is not blurred, the vest is darker, the gun texture is darker and sharper and finally the upper leg geometry may be rougher

Version 6: Final Ted

Infamously dubbed "Ted Barney", this version of the security officer model was based off former Valve employee Ted Backman. Not only is this shown by the model sporting Ted's infamous facial hair, a goatee and patch, but also by some textures using the prefix “TED”. This one still has many features from the wide-eyed ted, including similar body textures and general model shape, except for the head.

Many theories exist however, suggesting this security office model was a inside joke for Valve employees, but this is contradicted by how much Ted would continue to appear as a character model in Valve games. Differences from the previous version include, a more detailed vest, darker jeans taller shoes and a more polished face texture.

Something of worth noting is the existence of a beardless version of Ted. It is only featured on the poster in Black Mesa, with the only major difference being that the model is missing facial hair.

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Version 6.5: Slick face

This version was found in the 2024 HL1 MaxFile Leak, it is a high detailed sculpt that appears to be a mixture of the Ted Family and the retail style. The head is a copy of the Slick face. This is around the time when they had built a new Scientist model, and probably wanted to improve the Security guard model as well. This version would then be further refined, creating Weird face.

Version 7: Weird Face

Another overlooked version of the security guard. This guard only appears in 2 screenshots. This is the first appearance of the final body and helmet of the guard. The most noticeable difference being the face texture, the shoe uv is also different while the pants appear to be closer to the geometry of the first multiplayer sub-model but with the second/retail uv as the sharp corner on the leg strap is not only smoother but the lower part of the bullet vest is not skewed as sub model 1 is. The face texture is completely new and appears nowhere in the game. Contrary to popular belief it is not the Slick or G-man face texture. However this was around the time valve was referencing Slick's face for several npc's. (G-Man has slicks eyebrow's and eye's leftover somewhere out of the model. And Luther has almost exact facial proportions.) So it's very possible that Slick was used to at least create a base for the guard's texture.

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Version 8: The Final

And now we reach the guard featured in the retail release of Half-Life.

This guard’s animations appear to be redone, displaying a more confident and realistic posture compared to the hunch that all previous versions had. Additionally, the face texture would reach its final form as an older, placid looking man with no facial hair. The rest of the textures have changed greatly, as well; The top of the vest was moved down to display the tie (now black instead of red), the card was updated for the new head, a Black Mesa logo was added on the front of the vest (with the lambda on the back removed) and the overall palette of the character had been somewhat dulled compared to previous models. The “MP” band on the left arm and the purple band on the helmet had been removed entirely.

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  The early Blue Shift console background from the Dreamcast port.

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  The early Blue Shift loading screen from the Dreamcast port.

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Half-Life Multiplayer Model

The Black Mesa logo on all the textures are octagonal rather than circular.

Unlike the singleplayer model, the preview shows a model with no shirt colored patch on the torso where the arm connects to the body, the arms also have a smooth texture rather than wrinkles, the face is different from retail also showing an asymmetric brightness with thinner lips.

The head of the LQ mesh is exactly like the retail singleplayer model, with one difference being streaks on the neck texture. The top strap of the bullet vest is flat much like the Ted and HQ versions rather than protruding with geometry with the lower part on the legs skewed by the UV map, the strap on the right leg is shown to be straighter than retail. This model's shoes have a different UV map to the singleplayer and HQ meshes.

The head of the HQ mesh has a UV map that skews his eyebrows into an arch, much like the model preview, but unlike the singleplayer model. Additionally, the vest has it's shoulder strap geometry like singleplayer and a very similar boot UV.

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  Submodel 1

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  Submodel 2