The origin of the Source engine's iconic neon fuchsia checkerboard texture, as told by Half-Life 2's new commentary mode

It feels weird to say, , but the error texture on Valve's Source engine feels like an old friend to me. Its arresting, black and fuchsia checkerboard is a familiar face that shows up everywhere from Counter-Strike surf servers to bootleg Mario Kart maps in Team Fortress 2. It kind of rhymes with the similarly ugly-cute "FIREBLU" lava texture from Doom, a cheeky reminder of a beloved FPS. Now, in the 20th anniversary developer commentary for Half-Life 2, Valve has explained some of the reasoning behind creating the now-iconic error visual.