SUparJErk's guide to completing that damned secret on ahl_5am

This is an incomplete guide on how to do the secret in the AHL / Action Half-Life level "5am" or "ahl_5am". Keep in mind that I don't know how to do EVERYTHING in the secret, but I have gotten pretty far. This is not an official guide. I very well could have made a mistake. There is probably more to the secret than what I explained here. In fact, I know there is. If this guide helps you out, and you figure out something more than what I have written here, I'd love to hear from you.

Here goes.

Get to the room on the first floor of the hotel with the large TV in it (called "hotel common room") Shoot the door (not the target!) through the window behind the TV. A hidden, invisible door will open in the wall. Press up against the wall just to the right of the window, and you'll eventually find it. Go through. Follow the path until you get to the room with a bright green spot on the floor projecting a holographic "HC". Stand on the spot and jump straight up. You should fall through the green spot and should now be in "the clock".

Now, we have 12 "hours" to complete. They are completed in consecutive order, with a few exceptions. Right now, you only have access to 1:00. Let's get started. Head off in the direction of the big, highlighted "I".

1:00) Low gravity! Probably the first thing you'll notice. This room is large with black and bright green walls. It's easy to get lost and lose your orientation. It helps if you shoot the walls to leave decals. Anywho, near the ceiling in the center of the room, there is a box (it's invisible until you touch it) that you have to jump on in order to complete the level. You must crouch-jump in order to get on top of it. I, personally, could never do it myself. I always have to cheat and low the gravity even further to get on top of it. It takes a few tries. Having a second person with to jump off of helps as well. Just get on top of the blue box. You'll reappear in the clock with 2:00 open.

2:00) Blue hotel room! Can be disorienting as well. Make your way to the exit of the room and jump on the truck as it drives by. Hop off on to the white box as you pass it. Look straight up. Shoot the colored thing on the ceiling. You'll fall and land in the clock again with 3:00 open.

3:00) Epilepsy room! A maze of invisible walls. You have to walk into the flashy box in the center. Have fun. I hate this hour, and it would be too difficult to explain the path to get to the box. Just go left first.

4:00) The goal in this is to get all the way down to the bottom. There are multiple layers of floors, and one hole in each floor. You just gotta find them all. It helps a little to know this: If you stand on the perimeter of the room and look towards the center, there are little gray marks above the hole in each floor. Once you get to the bottom level, walk into the red/blue box. You'll reappear at the clock.

5:00) GASP! 5:00 doesn't open yet! It skipped to 6:00!

6:00) REd and blue room! There is a hole in one of the walls. When you appear in the room, make a 180 degree turn. The hole is in the wall you should now be facing, on the right part of the wall. You will have to jump and duck to fit through it. When you find it, very slowly crawl outside the box. Don't go too far out, you'll fall and die. You must climb up a ledge on the side of the box. Now, across the way from the ledge you just climbed is a semi-visible staircase. Climb it to the wall. Take a leap of faith, and jump off the stairs to the left, hugging the wall. You'll transport back to the clock with 7:00 open.

7:00) Oh, jolly. This one was a pain in the ass to figure out. There is a switch in each of the hours 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. You must press them all before you can complete 7:00. The locations are as follows:

    1:00) Crouch in the corner with two green walls, and walk into the wall. Press the switch.
    2:00) Ride the truck past the white block, over and past the impossible 3 pegged figure, all the way to the wall. Jump into the wall. Press the switch.
    3:00) When you get to the box, don't walk into it immediately. Carefully walk all the way around it. You'll fall in a small hole. Duck and look down. Press the button.
    4:00) This requires two people or lowered gravity. The switch is floating above the false black ceiling. Have one person stand on the other in the center. Press the button.
    6:00) The button is sticking out of the wall. Go up the stairs, turn around, and look to your left. You'll see it. You can just barely stunt over to it. Fly onto it, look down, press the switch. 

Now... this part REQUIRES two people to do. One person must go into 7:00 to make the pear fall. The other person stays in 6:00, hits that dark switch on top of the translucent box you jumped out of, and then runs up the stairs right after they hear the pear hit the ground. If everything was done correctly, when the person runs up the stairs, they will be teleported on top of the pear. Upon riding the pear all the way to the top of its ascent, that person will be transported to the clock with 8:00 open.

8:00) Walk over all the blue switches, then jump from one of the columns into the transparent cube that appears in the center of the room. Beware of the tanks.

9:00) GASP! It skips 9, too!

10:00) You need night vision goggles or a flashlight for this one. Otherwise, you can't see much. This hour consists of a big maze with a block seemingly randomly moving about the maze, squishing anything in its way. Avoid the block. Periodically in this hour, anyone in the maze is transported into a blue room, and then back to the clock. In order to complete this one, you have to be in a certain spot when you get transported out. As soon as you enter the dark tunnels from the clock, turn left 90 degrees, and move forward, hugging the left wall. Make sure to stay to the left. When you reach a dead end, crouch and look to the right. You should be able to see that there's a little crevice you can partially crawl into. The top of the crevice is lined with those blue and red squares you've been seeing everywhere else in the 5am secret. You'll be transported to a blue room again, but when you are transported back to the clock, 11:00 is open.

11:00) You need two people for this one, too. Notice there is a locked door on the left, then two doors straight ahead. One person goes in each of the rooms ahead. Both people need to push their buttons inside their rooms at the same time. The door that was locked (on the left from where you spawn) should now be open. Enter, and walk into the spiraly portal thing you see. Transport back to clock with 12:00 open.

NOTE: Cool thing about this hour -- go into the door on the left, but don't enter the portal thing. Turn right, jump and crouch, and go into the wall. Come back out. Your gravity has changed! It stays like this until you die.

12:00) Hondo (creator of the level) is a sick fuck. Open the suitcase to see why. To pass this level, two people are REQUIRED. One person must stay in here with suitcase girl, the other must go into the hotel's utility closet and hit the light switch behind the water boiler. The person in 12:00 will be transported to 5:00!

5:00) Neither I nor anyone I know knows how to complete this hour fully. All I know is this:

    Don't touch the water.
    There is a blue button on the column on the far corner of the hour. Press it. It will unlock 5 from the clock so you don't have to through 12:00 to get here again.
    Once you get on top of the big cluster of blocks, using the low gravity acquired in 11:00, you can jump into any of the 3 light blue box thingies over the ramp. The one on the left teleports you back to the clock. The one in the middle teleports you to "the forbidden street", behind the barricade outside the hotel. The 3rd teleports you into the sky, above the entrance to the hotel. 

That's as far as I know. I have no idea what to do with any of this. If you figure something out, email me. Hell, if you tell me something I don't know, I'll add your name to this guide. You'll be immortalized!

-SUparJErk (homerjs_63@yahoo.com)