Vegas

Overview

Gallery

Guide

Vegas
General
Game(s)	(cut)
Creator(s)	Mike Rosser
Scenario	Bomb Defusal
Other
Location	United States
First appearance	BETA 7.0
Last appearance	Counter-Strike 1.5

Vegas (de_vegas) was an official bomb defusal map added in Beta 7.0 version and it made its last appearance in Counter-Strike 1.5.

Overview

Based on the name of the map, the conflict was taking place in Las Vegas, somewhere in a resort called Hax0r Complex. The map features two bombsites: one near the Sphinx statue next to Counter-Terrorist Spawn, and the second in the office room with the safe. Terrorist Spawn is located on the roof. The Counter-Terrorist spawn and bombsite can be reached either by lower hallways, reception or the window from the main hall, while other bombsite can be reached by the vent from the elevator shaft, one of the two doors or by breaking the glass panel between the Bombsite and the Security room.

There are no markings on the map itself to show Bombsite A and Bombsite B. However, the maps overview file in Counter-Strike Online reveals that the sphinx site is B, and the other one is A.

Official Description

Counter-Terrorists: Infiltrate the Hax0r Complex and secure the bomb targets. Eliminate all resistance.

Terrorists: Blow open the safe; failing that, destroy the Sphinx to gain news coverage and notoriety for our cause.

Development

For the evolution of the map, see Vegas/Gallery#Evolution.

The map was designed by Mike "Cadaver" Rosser. He initially sketched the basic layout of the map while traveling home by train from University and did a basic layout in Worldcraft before deciding on the actual setting. Inspiration was taken from the maps Dust and Prodigy, but Rosser wanted to provide more options for players than just having two major chokepoints per map. After the basic layout of the map was done, he decided to base the setting on the Luxor hotel but made a play on the word of the original name and thus called it Hax0r. Rosser had a few reference pictures of Las Vegas in use, which came to particular help in creating the Sphinx statue. Custom textures for the map were provided by Christopher "George_Pooshoes" Davie. The build time of the map was a couple of months. It was initially released together with beta 7.0. Its initial release was error-ridden, as the map would crash any Linux servers that were trying to run it.

After its initial release, Rosser thought the Counter-Terrorists had too big of an advantage in the bar room and he added another path for the Terrorists to take in order to reach this area. In addition, the problem with the map crashing Linux servers was fixed. This updated version was released in beta 7.1.

The map was updated again for version 1.0. The new bar route was removed, but an alternate route was added for the Terrorists to take instead. In addition, a new route was added that could be taken from the Terrorist spawn entrance to reach the tower by their spawn zone.

Version 1.1 saw yet another update to the map. This update was notorious as the Windows patch file didn't include the updated version of the map which caused problems playing the map online due to CRC mismatch errors.

Rosser also finished one final update that he wanted to be included in version 1.3 of the game. This update removed the vents from the map and added another route from the bar room into the slot machine room. Due to communication problems between Rosser and Jess Cliffe, this updated version of the map was never put into circulation and version 1.3 included the old version of the map. The updated version was as such never released and Rosser has since lost the final source files for the map.

The numerous problems that were not directly related to the map design itself (Linux server crashes, CRC mismatches) might have lead to the fact that servers avoided playing the map, which in turn might have contributed to its eventual removal.

The map was not included in the retail version of Counter-Strike, however it was initially meant to be included. Rosser had already signed the contract to sell the rights to the map to Valve Software when problems regarding the creator of some textures used in the map arose. Replacement textures for these were made by "jOeSmOe", but the damage had already been done and as such, the map was absent from the retail package.

In the 2003 leak of Half-Life 2, various source files belonging to an early iteration of Counter-Strike: Source were included. Among the files included are direct ports of several Counter-Strike maps including Vegas. Judging by the metadata of the map, it was ported in September 2002. The file also appears in the 2023 leak of the licensee Perforce for Source Base 2013 engine.

Trivia

• The G-Man can been seen in this map close to the bombsite at the Counter-Terrorist spawn zone in a small bedroom. He is transparent, is not a solid entity, and flickers like the holograms in the Hazard Course of Half-Life. He will only appear after certain triggers are activated and he will disappear after 2 seconds. There are 3 triggers required for seeing the "G-Man ghost", with the player having to do the following:
  1. Touch the vending machine closest to the broken elevator,
  2. Walk through the nearby security hallway,
  3. And break the boarded window across from the room the ghost appears in.
• If the bomb is dropped in the elevator shaft, the bomb will unable to be retrieved as the bomb is dropped below the elevator.
• The tower in the Terrorist spawn area can be accessed through a maintenance door in a hallway close to the spawn zone. There is even a door in the middle of the tower that leads back to the Terrorist spawn but cannot be entered from the outside. However, the tower is nearly useless for sniping purposes as it is very rare for combat to occur at the roof of the complex.
  • If bots have entered the tower, they will struggle to get down the ladder.
• Vegas appears as an official bomb defuse map in Counter-Strike Online. Some layout changes have been made, including making the tower inaccessible and some slot machines have been moved around.
• If the safe is damaged by the C4, the safe will open and money can be seen inside the safe. The money are props and cannot be picked up.
  • It is possible to open the safe without using the C4. However, this requires the usage of some glitches and bugs, and the safe will close afterward. Moreover, the Terrorists will still need to use the bomb in order to win (or eliminate all CTs).
• Hax0r is a leetspeak vocabulary for "Hacker", with an "o" replaced with "0".
• One of the slot machines has the name "Golden Shower," which is also a slang term for a sexual act.
• A reference to The Beatles can be found on the map, as one of the slot machines has the name "Rubber Slots" mimicking the title of the band's album "Rubber Soul".
• The removal of Vegas in Counter-Strike 1.6 caused some issues since many custom maps from version 1.5 used the vegas.wad file.
• There is a "Golden Shower" slot machine in the main hall, next to the poker table. Shooting the top part of it will reveal the creator's nickname, Cadaver.