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.

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	Alpha version, described in Sierra's internal notes.	No
Build 366	N/A	October 25, 1997	Half-Life	Alpha version. Photo of CD uploaded by former Sierra employee Marc Tardif.	No
Build 418	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.	Yes
Beta 3 (build 693)	N/A	September 17, 1998	Half-Life: Day One	Sent out to testers.	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)	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.	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.	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 beta tester 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 beta tester 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.	Yes
Build 1083	October 12, 1999	October 20, 1999	Half-Life: Opposing Force	Press demo of Opposing Force.	Yes
Build 1417	September 10, 2000	September 11, 2000	Half-Life, Half-Life: Blue Shift	Debug build of the cancelled Half-Life Dreamcast port. Photo of CD uploaded to the Sega Dreamcast Info website.	Impending
Build 1448	N/A	October 11, 2000	Half-Life, Half-Life: Blue Shift	Preview build of the cancelled 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 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 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 2034	May 20, 2002	N/A	Half-Life 2	Used to present the E3 2002 demo reel. Also refers to itself as "BUILD 2030" in the version string.	No
Build 2391	May 12, 2003	N/A	Half-Life 2	Used to present the E3 2003 demo reel.	No
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

Half-Life Net Test 1 and Net Test 2

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 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 former beta tester Chad Jessup on September 20, 2024, and he would later post the Net Test 1 build on October 19, 2024.

Half-Life: Opposing Force Press Demo

This section is in the middle of an expansion or major revamping.

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 September 19, 1998 "Gold 1" Banshee OEM disc.

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  Photo of October 16, 1998 Net Test 1 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.

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  Screenshot of console in Half-Life 2 build 2034.