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, test, and demo versions of the games. Not all are publicly available.

List

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.	No
Build 366	N/A	October 25, 1997	Half-Life	Half-Life alpha. Photo of CD uploaded to Twitter by Marc Tardif.	No
Build 418	N/A	December 16, 1997	Half-Life	Half-Life alpha. Photo of CD uploaded to Instagram by Geoff Keighley.	No
Build 676	August 26, 1998	August 31, 1998	Half-Life: Day One	OEM demo of Half-Life sent to reviewers.	Yes
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.	Yes
Build 718	October 12, 1998	N/A	Half-Life	Evaluation build of Half-Life sent out to reviewers.	No
Beta 9 - Net Test 1 (build 722)	N/A	October 16, 1998	Half-Life	Sent out to beta testers.	No
Beta 12 - Net Test 2 (build 725)	October 19, 1998	October 20, 1998	Half-Life	Sent out to beta testers.	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 3 days before retail.	Yes
Build 1083	October 12, 1999	October 20, 1999	Half-Life: Opposing Force	Press demo of Opposing Force.	Yes
Build 1448	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.	No
Build 1601	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.	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

Half-Life Net Test 2

Dated October 20, 1998 and also marked as "Beta 12", Net Test 2 was a build sent on disc by mail to playtesters 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.

Gallery

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  Photo of September 8, 1997 alpha disc.

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  Photo of October 25, 1997 alpha disc.

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  Photo of December 16, 1997 alpha disc.

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  Photo of October 20, 1998 Net Test 2 disc.

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  Photo of Beta 3, Beta 9, Beta 12, and RC4 discs.