For the first time ever, an alpha build of the original Half-Life has appeared online. Dubbed Half-Life 0, it shows Half-Life in some of its earliest days of Half-Life, almost unrecognizable to what was eventually shipped.
See, Half-Life 0 as it has come to be called, was almost entirely scrapped in favor of the Half-Life that eventually came out. It was deemed too generic and significant changes happened from the end of this particular alpha build to the final release of Half-Life almost a year later. So why is it showing up now?
A user on Reddit came into possession of a disc containing the build. He and a few others on the site worked together to pull the data into a bin and cue file and have put it up for public consumption. You too can download the game and provided you make a few changes, you should be able to play it on your machine.
Don't want to just have the downloads? Fair enough. The physical disc is also being auctioned off on eBay right now.
The download contains instructions on how to get things running, some screens and other media, and this synopsis of the game as it was in this particular stage of development.
Still don't believe it? Maybe a video will sway you.
Yes, Half-Life v0.52 is very much alive and well in the year 2013.
(via Lambda Generation)
See, Half-Life 0 as it has come to be called, was almost entirely scrapped in favor of the Half-Life that eventually came out. It was deemed too generic and significant changes happened from the end of this particular alpha build to the final release of Half-Life almost a year later. So why is it showing up now?
A user on Reddit came into possession of a disc containing the build. He and a few others on the site worked together to pull the data into a bin and cue file and have put it up for public consumption. You too can download the game and provided you make a few changes, you should be able to play it on your machine.
- Head on over to Google Drive and download both files
- Carefully follow the instructions contained on the files after you either extract them or mount them with any disc imaging program
- Play
Don't want to just have the downloads? Fair enough. The physical disc is also being auctioned off on eBay right now.
The download contains instructions on how to get things running, some screens and other media, and this synopsis of the game as it was in this particular stage of development.
The Portal Device is a dimension-spanning gate of unpredictable power, constructed in a decommissioned missile silo. So far no one has ventured through the Portal, but there has been a steady flow of odd creatures coming to our world. You are a weapons research scientist who has never touched a weapon—until now.
An accident in the Threshold’s power core fractures the local fabric of spacetime, and hordes of creatures begin spewing into our world through the fissures. Monsters are everywhere, and your co-workers are dropping like flies. You head for the surface but the usual routes are unpassable—damaged by the disaster and infested with monsters. The silo security guards are in a state of primal terror and looking for someone to blame. The obvious scapegoats are the scientists. Namely, you.
In your flight to the surface, you acquire a device which means the difference between victory and annihilation—but you don’t realize whose victory, until too late. As the Portal experiment’s first human subject, you are cast into the alien world to confront the ultimate horror…to cut off the invasion at its source. In Half-Life, you won’t just go head-to-head with an alien boss—you will fight it from the inside out.
An accident in the Threshold’s power core fractures the local fabric of spacetime, and hordes of creatures begin spewing into our world through the fissures. Monsters are everywhere, and your co-workers are dropping like flies. You head for the surface but the usual routes are unpassable—damaged by the disaster and infested with monsters. The silo security guards are in a state of primal terror and looking for someone to blame. The obvious scapegoats are the scientists. Namely, you.
In your flight to the surface, you acquire a device which means the difference between victory and annihilation—but you don’t realize whose victory, until too late. As the Portal experiment’s first human subject, you are cast into the alien world to confront the ultimate horror…to cut off the invasion at its source. In Half-Life, you won’t just go head-to-head with an alien boss—you will fight it from the inside out.
Still don't believe it? Maybe a video will sway you.
Yes, Half-Life v0.52 is very much alive and well in the year 2013.
(via Lambda Generation)
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