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Proto:Half-Life (Windows)/Build 722 (Oct 16, 1998)
This is a sub-page of Proto:Half-Life (Windows).
This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.
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A prototype build of Half-Life marked "Beta 9" and "Net Test 1" was shared on 19 October 2024 by Chad Jessup, a month after providing his copy of the "Net Test 2" build. Compared to Net Test 2, this build's installer includes WorldCraft (later Valve Hammer Editor), the game's map editor. Surprisingly, Net Test 1 contains a sizeable amount of cut content, despite being compiled only three days before Net Test 2.
Launching the build results in a "Your version of Half-Life (BETA) has expired." message. This can be circumvented by using a patcher or done manually with a hex editor e.g. by opening hl.exe and changing the byte 22 to 6B at offset 269647.
General Differences
Gluon Gun (Egon)
The Gluon Gun's alternate fire is properly functional in this build instead of just playing an animation. In the final game, the alt-fire function is commented out in the code. The primary attack is a narrow beam and the alternate fire mode cycles between the narrow beam and a wide beam that uses more ammo, has higher-pitched sound effects and "shakes" the gun a bit. The wide beam was used in the final game as the Gluon's primary attack, however.
Hivehand (Hornet Gun)
The Hivehand has a faster fire rate than the final game.
Unused Maps
assault.bsp
A map set in an industrial area surrounded by a canyon. It has a bridge and a bunker with two Human Grunts inside. One of the bridge's ends has two Turrets surrounded by sandbags, which leads to a dead end. The map was slightly modified and featured in early material for Valve's Team Fortress in 1998, then reused in Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms in 1999.
battle.bsp
An early version of the tank hangar from "Forget about Freeman!". The tanks use a primitive design with placeholder textures.
loot1.bsp
A version of the map "Bootcamp" that was intended for the cut "Loot" multiplayer gamemode. This gamemode started with teams of two people shared items and damage, and they had to hunt around the level for a bag of loot, as well as weapons. The players could only carry one weapon. When the loot is found, the players had to bring it back to the flag pole area to win the round. Killed players had to wait for the next round to spawn again. However, the logic for this gamemode seems to not be present in the code. Currently when loaded you start in a cage that briefly opens, allowing you to explore the map. A few Human Grunts are running around in a loop around the map.
gruntdm1.bsp
A version of the map Subtransit with breakable crates, Grunts and Tripmines. This was used for a scrapped Cooperative gamemode and can be seen in some pre-release screenshots. The presence of the cut health cabinets in place of health chargers suggest that the map has not been worked on for a while. This map is also mentioned in an internal Sierra document for Half-Life Alpha version 0.61, further denoting its age.
valve.bsp
The cut Valve intro map, previously shared online by Valve developer Chris Bokitch in November 1999, is in this build.
c4a3a.bsp
An early version of c4a1c exists in this build. What's notable are the inclusions of a large slot that peers into the skybox, as well as crystals that control the height of the elevator in the map. Players were meant to use these to raise the lift to the conveyor belts, while making sure the Vortigaunts nearby don't use them to lower it.
c4a3b.bsp
An early version of c4a1d exists in this build.
c4a3c.bsp
An early version of c4a1e exists in this build.
c2a2_ects.bsp
A version of c2a2 used in the ECTS (European Computer Trade Show) 1998 demo, held at the Olympia London exhibition center. This sequence was also presented at E3 that year, although at that time the map still contained Stukabats, which are absent from this iteration. Notably the Train cart use a much simpler and earlier design. One direction on the rail leads the player to c2a2h, though at the world origin and without items. The other direction attempts to load c2a2j, but crashes the game.
Map Differences
c1a4.bsp through c1a4k.bsp
The maps c1a4 through c1a4k (every map of the "Blast Pit" chapter) have additional logic for level transition. In all of the levels, an unused keyvalue of worldspawn (worldspawn is an entity that is used for setting up map parameters) indicates that "Blast Pit" was originally named "Screams and Whispers", confirming the chapter titles present in Day One.
c2a1.bsp
Mostly the same as the final version, though the wounded Barney in the track control room is closer to the lever.
c2a3b.bsp
In the piston room, the crates on the ground under the broken ladder and the balcony to the right of the middle piston haven't been added yet.
c2a4c.bsp
In this version, you can find the unused "SquidFall" sequence with a Barney/Security Guard and a Bullsquid in staircase area.
c4a1.bsp
In this version of Half-Life, the first level of Xen was supposed to start with a "cutscene", attempting to show you the level, though the cutscene logic seems a bit unfinished as it ends about three seconds after loading the map. The first lambda team corpse you see in the level is missing a medkit and a battery, along with a blood decal. The "cage" where the butterflies are trapped towards the end of the level looks more polished than in retail.
c4a2.bsp and c4a2a.bsp
Both of these maps have slightly different layouts and c4a2 has a long-jump module on start.
c4a1c.bsp
In this version of c4a1c, you can find these crystal-like elevator buttons that don't do anything. They were supposed to control the elevators on this map.
Unused Music
Net Test 1 includes two music tracks that were cut from the final game. Both of these tracks are 18-second long stingers. It is not known where these two tracks would have fit in the game.
Unused Models
germanmodels\heavy.mdl
A version of the cut Human Assault enemy, intended for the censored German release of the game. He shares a similar appearance to the early Robot Grunts, seen in pre-release screenshots.
germanmodels\zombie.mdl
A version of the Zombie meant for the censored German release of the game. In the final German release scientists and zombies use the same model as in other releases, eliminating the need for a different model. The model also uses an earlier rig and earlier animations compared to the final game.
bigfriendly.mdl
The model for the cut enemy known as "Mr. Friendly". This version is significantly larger than the normal unused one as the name implies.
maw.mdl
A model for the Tentacle's maw. It has only one animation: orbit. This model is still referenced in the final game for an unused entity called monster_tentaclemaw.
testloader.mdl
A version of the loader robot's model meant for testing purposes.
white.bmp
A .bmp file mistakenly placed in the models folder. It is exactly what the filename says: nothing but flat white.
Model Differences
agrunt.mdl
| Texture | Prototype | Final |
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The Alien Grunt's textures are less compressed, resulting in higher quality textures due to the increased color range.
islave.mdl
| Texture | Prototype | Final |
|---|---|---|
| Toes1.bmp |  |
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Vortigaunt toes are a solid grey rectangle in the prototype, seemingly by mistake as the Day One models doesn't share this oddity.
p_crossbow.mdl
| Prototype | Final |
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| Texture | Prototype | Final |
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The Crossbow's model as held by a player features less saturated, more natural looking wooden grips and a slightly less detailed scope.
p_egon.mdl
| Prototype | Final |
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The Gluon Gun's model as held by a player uses an older, much less refined design. The textures are the same as the early viewmodel, merely downscaled. However it uses a very basic mesh, with no backpack and poor UV mapping. The view model (w_egon2) for this version of the Gluon Gun is present in the Half-Life SDK with less detailed textures.
p_rpg.mdl
| Prototype | Final |
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The RPG as held by a player has its design as seen in the Day One demo and in some pre-release screenshots.
player.mdl
| Prototype | Final |
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Gordon's model is similar to his Day One demo counterpart, including all the different animations. The gender bodygroup has been replaced with a helmet bodygroup, and the weapons bodygroup has been removed entirely.
v_crossbow.mdl
| Prototype | Final |
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The Crossbow's viewmodel center has a unique texture, internally named recslide.bmp.
v_hgun.mdl
| Prototype | Final |
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The Hivehand/Hornet Gun's viewmodel uses higher-resolution textures than the final model and slightly different lighting.
Sound Differences
Human Grunts
The voice files hg_civvies and hg_sucks have no radio filter and it is more obvious that Harry S. Robins voiced these two lines.
| Prototype | Final |
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| Prototype | Final |
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Unused Sprites
flash1.tga/flash2.pcx
These two files are contained in the sprites folder and seem to be the source file for an unused explosion sprite. Both files are extremely similar and did not make it into retail (a.k.a into the .spr format). It should be noted that because their file exension is .tga and .pcx, these two files were just the source file for the unused sprite and are not usable by the engine. These files are also present in the 0.52 alpha.
| flash1.tga | flash2.pcx |
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hud.qc/logo.qc/sprites.qc
These files were used to "compile" image files into the .spr format. Interestingly, hud.qc and sprites.qc indicate that the sprites are compiled for "Quiver" (a very early name for Half-Life), hinting that these files were used since the beginning of Half-Life's development.
UI Differences
Multiplayer Customization Menu
Within the Multiplayer customisation menu, several options exist here, and only here. Firstly, only two playermodels are listed; "Gordon Freeman" and "Gina Freeman". Gina was originally intended to be Gordon Freeman's wife before development constraints nipped that idea in the bud. Her model was modified and used as the Hazard Course instructor later. She was then renamed Gina Cross in the expansions. Secondly, the playermodels were intended to have toggleable attire, as evidenced by the popup with "Casual Wear" and "Hazard Suit". Lastly, the option to toggle a player's face existed. In Day One the player model has a gender toggle, it is possible all of these options were intended for the cut Co-op mode. It is unknown what faces were to be toggled but it is speculated to have been faces uploaded from the user's computer. All three of these options were removed by Net Test 2 and are non-functional in this build, implying they were already being phased out at this point.
Advanced Options
There is no advanced options menu in this build.
Executables
HLMaster.exe
HLMaster.exe is an executable file bundled with Net Test 1's WorldCraft installation, presumably meant to operate the game's multiplayer master server. This executable was built on 13 May 1998, six months before the game's release.
Its user interface shows the number of active multiplayer servers, the number of "transactions" and how much time is left until the next cycle. A checkbox to show server traffic is also present, however it does not do anything.
Pressing the "Shutdown" button closes the program.
NetGame.exe
For whatever reason included with the Worldcraft build in this prototype is an early version of the game's menu, compiled on 23 April 1998.
None of the options seem to actually do anything and attempting to start a new game results in an error as the game tries to open engine.exe from "d:\quiver".
Main Menu
The main menu is a little similar to the final one, however a few options are missing and "Load Game" is instead present in the new game menu.
| NetGame.exe | Pre-Steam menu |
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Configuration
Ditto, however there's a "Game Options" menu that isn't present in any other version.
| NetGame.exe | Pre-Steam menu |
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Game Options
A few of these options would later be moved to "Advanced Options" in Controls.
Video Options
Early version of "Video modes" and "Video Options". Originally these were going to be in one menu and lacked an option to change the renderer.
| NetGame.exe | Pre-Steam menu |
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| NetGame.exe | Pre-Steam menu |
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Audio
This menu lacks a slider for HEV suit volume and checkboxes for EAX, A3D and CD music.
| NetGame.exe | Pre-Steam menu |
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Controls
The controls menu is very different, presumably the "Load" and "Save" buttons would've let you save your bindings to a specified file however much like anything else they don't seem to do anything.
| NetGame.exe | Pre-Steam menu |
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| NetGame.exe | Pre-Steam menu |
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| NetGame.exe | Pre-Steam menu |
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Multiplayer
When you click on Multiplayer, a popup to log in appears. However you can just click "LOGIN" and it'll let you through anyway.
| NetGame.exe | Pre-Steam menu |
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Single Player
The new game menu is more reminiscent of Quake, with Load and Save Game being here instead of on a seperate menu. It also doesn't ask you which difficulty to choose before starting the game.
| NetGame.exe | Pre-Steam menu |
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| NetGame.exe | Pre-Steam menu |
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