List of pre-release Half-Life builds
From Combine OverWiki, the original Half-Life wiki and Portal wiki
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, test, and demo 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 | Half-Life alpha, described in Sierra's internal notes.[1] | No |
| Build 366[a] | N/A | October 25, 1997 | Half-Life | Half-Life alpha. Photo of CD uploaded by former Sierra employee Marc Tardif.[2] | No |
| Build 418[a] | N/A | December 16, 1997 | Half-Life | Half-Life alpha. 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 |
| Build 695[a] | N/A | September 19, 1998 | Half-Life: Day One | "Gold 1" disc of the OEM demo of Half-Life meant to be bundled with 3dfx Voodoo Banshee cards. Photo of CD uploaded by former halflife.net site owner Steve "jedisneak" Silva.[4] | No |
| Build 703 | September 18, 1998 | September 27, 1998 | Half-Life: Day One | OEM demo of Half-Life bundled with 3dfx Voodoo Banshee cards. Also sent out as "Beta 3" to testers.[5] | Yes |
| Build 718 | October 12, 1998 | N/A | Half-Life | Evaluation build of Half-Life sent out to reviewers.[6] | No |
| Beta 9 - Net Test 1 (build 722)[a] | N/A | October 16, 1998 | Half-Life | Sent out to beta testers for multiplayer testing. | No |
| Beta 12 - Net Test 2 (build 725) | October 19, 1998 | October 20, 1998 | Half-Life | Sent out to beta testers for multiplayer testing. | Yes |
| Build 727 | October 21, 1998 | October 28, 1998 | Half-Life: Day One | OEM demo of Half-Life bundled with the Thrustmaster Frag Master controller. | Yes |
| Build 735 | October 29, 1998 | November 27, 1998 | Half-Life | First Italian retail release. | 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 Half-Life 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 Half-Life Dreamcast port. | Yes |
| Build 1659 | May 10, 2001 | May 15, 2001 | Half-Life, Half-Life: Blue Shift | Leaked build of the cancelled Half-Life Dreamcast port. | Yes |
| Build 1672 | May 23, 2001 | N/A | Half-Life, Half-Life: Blue Shift | Leaked build of the cancelled Half-Life 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 Half-Life 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 Half-Life Playstation 2 port. | Yes |
| Build -7 | September 23, 2003 | N/A | Half-Life: Source, Counter-Strike: Source | The "HL1 Ports" leak. | Yes |
| Build -4 | September 26, 2003 | N/A | Half-Life 2 | The Half-Life 2 leak. | 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 2[edit]
Dated October 20, 1998 and also marked as "Beta 12", Net Test 2 was a build sent on disc by mail to playtesters[9] very shortly before the final release. Its main purpose was to test the game's multiplayer functionality. This build was dumped and made publicly available by a former beta tester on September 20, 2024.[10][11]
Half-Life 2 leak[edit]
Source Particle Benchmark[edit]
Gallery[edit]
Photo of September 8, 1997 alpha disc.
Photo of October 25, 1997 alpha disc.
Photo of December 16, 1997 alpha disc.
Photo of September 19, 1998 "Gold 1" Banshee OEM disc.
Photo of October 20, 1998 Net Test 2 disc.
Photo of Beta 3, Beta 9, Beta 12, and RC4 discs.
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)
- ↑ Comment on Shacknews (December 19, 2007)
- ↑ Finally got a copy of that Half Life Alpha disk up. See inside for link to files on Reddit (July 30, 2013)
- ↑ 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)
