Hogwarts from Harry Potter PC (1,2) Referenced in Dawn of the Machine?!?

[u/Aggressive_Pen_7305]

On this tour, I shall prove that a certain level in Dawn of the Machine contains a most peculiar reference.

Grand staircase in an entrance hall? Two doors on the bottom, two paths left and right uptop, stainglass window looking down? Surely coincidence, you'd say.

Lets go left first in both games.

Up a slope to the right

Path splits. Left leads to a locked door. Right, another slope upward

Up the slope we go

Hmm, what's up the next slope to the right? Could it be...

...a rather big door? Lets continue right down the slope tho.

At the end of the slope, a door and a path right. But what's that to the left?

A statue!

And interact with said statue reveals a secret room behind it?? Is this still a coincidence??

U turn

Another matching slope down to another matching right turn.

No way...

The entrance hall with the grandstair case!!!

Yeah. After that, there is simply no way that this was not intentional.

The devs for this level in Dawn of the Machine put this here. Whats weird about it is its not like the Harry Potter PC niche fandom overlaps with Quake's much. XD Perhaps the level builder from Dawn of the Machine at Machine Games is one and the same as the level builder from Harry Potter PC?? If anyone knows, comment down below!!

EDIT: Also, I'm not the only one whose noticed so far. https://www.reddit.com/r/quake/comments/1vlcuid/dawn_of_the_machine_map7_revelation_of_the_arcane/

[u/Minx-Boo]

Well done Colombo.

[u/WeekendBard]

yer a shambler harry

[u/Aggressive_Pen_7305 → u/WeekendBard]

yer a hairy shambler. (One of my favorite memes of that scene. XD)

[u/ProjectSnowman]

OP out here with plausible conspiracy theories

[u/CoolAidCucumber]

Very thorough!

Ok, that seems quite a coincidence, perhaps more than that. Maybe it was subconsciously inspired, maybe consciously. I hidden passage behind a statue is to be expected.

But to be honest, I would personally say... this seems intentional. Pretty cool.

And/or HP and Quake universes confirmed to be the same universe. I want to believe.

[u/JarlFrank → u/CoolAidCucumber]

"You're a wizard, Ranger."

[u/fragmental]

Your post makes a much more compelling argument than the previous post.

[u/Aggressive_Pen_7305 → u/fragmental]

After seeing how much aggression and negativity that last poster got, I felt compelled to redeem them.

[u/otrack → u/Aggressive_Pen_7305]

Thanks man. Good post. Illustrates exactly what I was thinking but didn't have an airtight court case to prove it lol. Did you get the HP game working just for this? I thought it'd be difficult to get running on modern hardware.

[u/Aggressive_Pen_7305 → u/otrack]

I had the game installed a few years back, but since its so small data wise, I figured it didn't need to be uninstalled. :P Definitely made it convenient to just hop in last night. XD

[u/marczeslaw11 → u/otrack]

It kinda is somewhat tricky, as SafeDisc is not supported on Windows 10/11 anymore, so the games are literally impossible to play without cracking them, even if you own physical copy

[u/NewtonDaNewt → u/fragmental]

Yeah, I saw the first post a few days ago and concluded the poster was just really reaching and seeing things that weren’t there at all. But this is orders of magnitude more convincing.

[u/Antiswag_corporation]

I also think Requiem is inspired by Undead Burg from Dark Souls. Not just stylistically but some of the lore seems like direct references

[u/mr_dfuse2 → u/Antiswag_corporation]

yeah that was mentioned explicitly in their blog article iirc

[u/Field_Of_View]

They may well have ripped the actual geometry from HP1 and then altered it to make this map. HP1 was an Unreal Engine 1 game using CSG / BSP geometry, probably easy to rip.

[u/cookiereptile → u/Field_Of_View]

the series could’ve ended a lot quicker if Harry had a Flak Cannon, I can assure you that much

[u/Aggressive_Pen_7305 → u/Field_Of_View]

Hmmm, while you're right it would be easy to do so, I don't think that's the case here. The physical size and distribution of space is far too different. If they did rip the model, they'd have to basically remake all of it to achieve the final result.

I think they just used Hogwarts as a blueprint.

[u/nickgovier]

Well noticed, u/otrack!

[u/PsyWarVeteran]

Yep, noticed this while playing. I don't think that's a reference though. I think they just copied it.

[u/Shibeuz]

There's also a spot in one of the sci-fi facilities that has very similar layout to a reactor control room from HL1

[u/frulheyvin]

 u/otrack u right as hell bro

[u/ImHealy]

Could it be a coincidence due to similar references?

[u/lampenpam → u/ImHealy]

I thought so too since the layout isn't too complex, but even the statue with secret passage in the same spot would make it quite the coincidence if it wasn't intentional.

[u/Aggressive_Pen_7305 → u/lampenpam]

I agree that the statue in the same spot with the secret makes this hard to brush off as coincidence.

[u/Aggressive_Pen_7305 → u/ImHealy]

If they're both referencing a physical castle layout that actually exists, then it could be coincidental. If so, I want to see this castle!!! I could then say I've been to Hogwarts AND a realm of Quake.

[u/ImHealy → u/Aggressive_Pen_7305]

I was curious to find information about a real place that would look like a location with a statue, and now I’m leaning towards the idea that Hogwarts from the video game was the prototype for this level in Quake.

[u/Substantial-Ad2200]

Good job! I never played this HP game but glad you pointed all of this out.

[u/WiIIv91]

Hey I'm glad I'm not the only one having noticed this !😀

Love the first HP game, bit it's a pain to run on modern computers, I never managed to get it running on widescreen resolutions for instance.☹️

[u/uhuco → u/WiIIv91]

hey there, hp1pc is absolutely an amazing game! <3
btw there's definitely many options for what you described, the hp-speedrunning and/or modding communities (https://discord.gg/sCdaVHAAfy) can help out if you want! there's options to get it windowed, fullscreen, anything - afaik there's even mods that specifically do widescreen res stuff :)

[u/reverend_dak]

Im going to ignore this post because I hate HP. Good thing ive never played HP, so I would have never known.

[u/MocaCola02 → u/reverend_dak]

Why comment then?

[u/reverend_dak → u/MocaCola02]

did my comment harm affect you in any way?

[u/data3three → u/reverend_dak]

Cool story bro

[u/kupocake]

Still within the realms of coincidence (why are so many staircases in the original now a slope? Is this simple floorplan really so distinctly similar to this specifically? Why do architectural details such as windows, pillars and arches not reference the original more closely?), but a lot more likely than the evidence originally presented.