Proto:Half-Life (Windows)

This page details one or more prototype versions of Half-Life (Windows).

Sub-Pages

September 1997 Prototype A press demo made before the game was retooled into the Half-Life everyone knows.

Half-Life: Day One A pre-release demo made two months before the final was released. It has many minor differences, including evidence of a cut weapon, removed animations, and some larger textures.

Build 722 (Oct 16, 1998) "Net Test 1" build sent to Valve testers to test the network capabilities of the game. Surprisingly, quite a bit earlier and more unfinished than Net Test 2, despite only being compiled three and a half days earlier.

Build 725 (Oct 19, 1998) "Net Test 2" build sent to Valve testers to test the network capabilities of the game. Almost there...

Half-Life: Uplink A demo made after the game was released that nonetheless has a few differences.

Build 718

Evaluation release sent out to reviewers. Used by a mapper to create the map TIGHL01.

Build 735

First Italian retail release of the game, compiled a week before the final release. No noticeable differences from other retail releases.

Build 738

Released by the group "CLASS" three days before the final release. Aside from the engine being compiled 4 days earlier, the game files are identical to the retail release with the exception of mapcycle.txt, which lacks the map subtransit (same as in European retail releases), and btns_main.bmp, which lacks the graphic for the missing "3D info site" button in the video options menu.