List of pre-release Half-Life builds
This is a list of known pre-release Half-Life builds spanning across the Half-Life series, from the original Half-Life through Half-Life 2. These are comprised of alpha, beta, demo, test, leaked, and early retail versions of the games. Not all are publicly available.
Contents
List[edit]
Version or build number | Build date | Release date | Game | Notes | Publicly available |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Version 0.52 (build 315) | September 4, 1997 | N/A | Half-Life | Leaked Half-Life alpha. | Yes |
Version 0.61 | N/A | N/A | Half-Life | Alpha version, described in Sierra's internal notes.[1] | No |
Build 366[a] | N/A | October 25, 1997 | Half-Life | Alpha version. Photo of CD uploaded by former Sierra employee Marc Tardif.[2] | No |
Build 418[a] | N/A | December 16, 1997 | Half-Life | Alpha version. Photo of CD uploaded by Geoff Keighley. | No |
Build 676 | August 31, 1998 | N/A | Half-Life: Day One | OEM demo of Half-Life sent to members of the press which then leaked online.[3] | Yes |
Beta 3 (build 693)[a] | N/A | September 17, 1998 | Half-Life: Day One | Sent out to testers.[4] | No |
Build 693 | September 17, 1998 | September 18, 1998 | Half-Life: Day One | Bundled with 3dfx Voodoo Banshee cards. Possibly the same build as Gold 1, but unconfirmed. | Yes |
Gold 1 (build 695)[a] | N/A | September 19, 1998 | Half-Life: Day One | Meant to be bundled with 3dfx Voodoo Banshee cards. Photo of CD uploaded by former halflife.net site owner Steve "jedisneak" Silva.[5] | No |
Build 703 | September 27, 1998 | N/A | Half-Life: Day One | Bundled with 3dfx Voodoo Banshee cards. | Yes |
Build 718 | October 12, 1998 | N/A | Half-Life | Evaluation build sent out to reviewers.[6] | No |
Beta 9 - Net Test 1 (build 722) | October 16, 1998 | October 16, 1998 | Half-Life | Sent out to beta testers for multiplayer testing. Uploaded by Chad Jessup. | Yes |
Beta 12 - Net Test 2 (build 725) | October 19, 1998 | October 20, 1998 | Half-Life | Sent out to beta testers for multiplayer testing. Uploaded by Chad Jessup. | Yes |
Build 727 | October 21, 1998 | October 28, 1998 | Half-Life: Day One | Bundled with the Thrustmaster Frag Master controller. | Yes |
Build 735 | October 29, 1998 | November 27, 1998 | Half-Life | First Italian retail release, compiled a week before other retail releases. | Yes |
RC4 (build 738) | November 1, 1998 | November 2, 1998 | Half-Life | Release by warez group CLASS, compiled three days before retail. Leaked by a temporary employee at one of the OEMs.[7] | Yes |
Build 1083 | October 12, 1999 | October 20, 1999 | Half-Life: Opposing Force | Press demo of Opposing Force. | Yes |
Build 1448[a] | N/A | October 11, 2000 | Half-Life, Half-Life: Blue Shift | Preview build of the cancelled Half-Life Dreamcast port. Photo of CD uploaded to the Sega Dreamcast Info website.[8] | No |
Build 1601[a] | N/A | March 13, 2001 | Half-Life, Half-Life: Blue Shift | Review build of the cancelled Dreamcast port. Photo of CD uploaded to the Sega Dreamcast Info website.[8] | No |
Build 1638 | April 19, 2001 | April 20, 2001 | Half-Life, Half-Life: Blue Shift | Leaked build of the cancelled Dreamcast port. | Yes |
Build 1659 | May 10, 2001 | May 15, 2001 | Half-Life, Half-Life: Blue Shift | Leaked build of the cancelled Dreamcast port. | Yes |
Build 1672 | May 23, 2001 | N/A | Half-Life, Half-Life: Blue Shift | Leaked build of the cancelled Dreamcast port. Scene release. | Yes |
Build 1757 | August 16, 2001 | N/A | Half-Life, Half-Life: Decay | NTSC-U build of the Half-Life Playstation 2 port leaked by the scene group (_Z_T_X_). | Yes |
Build 1800 | September 28, 2001 | November 30, 2001 | Half-Life, Half-Life: Decay | First European and Australian retail release of the Playstation 2 port. | Yes |
Build 1813 | October 11, 2001 | May 28, 2002 | Half-Life | Demo of the Half-Life Playstation 2 port included on the PlayStation Underground Jampack - Summer 2002 disc. | Yes |
Build 1819 | October 17, 2001 | N/A | Half-Life | Standalone demo disc of the Playstation 2 port. | Yes |
Build -7 | September 23, 2003 | N/A | Half-Life: Source | The "HL1 Ports" leak. | Yes |
Build 2526 | September 24, 2003 | N/A | Half-Life, Half-Life: Opposing Force, Half-Life: Blue Shift | The "WMods" leak. | Yes |
Build -4 | September 26, 2003 | N/A | Half-Life 2 | The Half-Life 2 leak. | Yes |
Build 2153 | September 29, 2004 | November 16, 2004 | Half-Life 2 | Collector's Edition of Half-Life 2, compiled over a month before the standard retail release. | Yes |
Build 2915 | October 31, 2006 | N/A | Source Particle Benchmark | Benchmark of particle simulation of The Orange Box branch of the Source engine. | Yes |
Notable builds[edit]
Half-Life Alpha[edit]
Half-Life: Day One[edit]
Half-Life Net Test 1 and Net Test 2[edit]
Net Test 1 (dated October 16, 1998 and marked as "Beta 9") and Net Test 2 (dated October 20, 1998 and marked as "Beta 12") are builds sent on disc by mail to playtesters[9] very shortly before the final release. Their main purpose was to test the game's multiplayer functionality. The Net Test 2 build was first dumped and made publicly available by a former beta tester on September 20, 2024,[10][11] and this same tester later posted the Net Test 1 build on October 19, 2024.[12]
Half-Life 2 leak[edit]
Source Particle Benchmark[edit]
Gallery[edit]
Notes[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ Never-before-seen Half-Life development documents on ValveTime (August 24, 2016)
- ↑ Marc Tardif on LinkedIn
- ↑ Half-Life Preview on The Adrenaline Vault (September 24, 1998) (archived)
- ↑ Finally got a copy of that Half Life Alpha disk up. See inside for link to files on Reddit (July 30, 2013)
- ↑ Comment on Shacknews (December 19, 2007)
- ↑ Just a Start - tighl01 on [- Tigger-oN's Half-Life -] (November 11, 1998)
- ↑ Interview with Gabe Newell on PC Gamer (November 5, 1998) (archived)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Half-Life, the FPS that didn't have the chance to live on Dreamcast! on Sega Dreamcast Info (September 22, 2024)
- ↑ Tweet: "Yup! This was to test real computer configurations, network/internet connections, etc. The only real way to get as many details and bugs as possible, is to send out beta discs to a large group of people out in the wild." @ubahs1337 on Twitter (September 20, 2024)
- ↑ Tweet: "Oh! Oh! Something I've been talking about for years... Half-Life 1 beta 2 CD." @ubahs1337 on Twitter (September 19, 2024)
- ↑ Tweet: "I was a beta tester and went into the studio for an in person play test." @ubahs1337 on Twitter (September 20, 2024)
- ↑ Tweet: "This is a temporary location. I'll get it up on the internet archive when it's healthy again. They're working super hard on that, by the way, give them some love." @ubahs1337 on Twitter (October 19, 2024)