Proto:Half-Life (Windows)/September 1997 Prototype
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This is a sub-page of Proto:Half-Life (Windows).
This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.
The September 1997 prototype of Half-Life, or Half-Life Alpha v0.52 as it is referred to on the title screen and in the Developer Console, is from before the game was completely redesigned and rewritten. Many differences exist at this point, including the plot, locations, and general concept. Originally meant as a press demo, the prototype was leaked to Reddit in January 2013.
The physical disc sold on eBay for $709 USD. Notably, the place of origin on the listing was "Bellevue, WA", indicating that the leak might have been internal.
Sub-Pages
 | General Differences |
 | Entities Squad. Stay. Alert. For. Enemy. Differences. Over. |
 | Levels Sweep. That. Removed. Level. Over. |
 | Textures You can never have too many textures! |
 | Sounds These changed and removed sounds will sound good in my trophy room. |
Documents
The CD the prototype came on has several documents that discuss the game. These provide a look into how the game was supposed to be around August to early September 1997.
The documents have been transcribed onto separate pages, which can be found in the following sub-sections.
Half-Life Readme (in Word 95 format).doc
 | Half-Life Readme A readme for the game that shows how to play it and discusses some technical stuff. |
HLSynopsis.doc
| HLSynopsis This document contains an early plot for the game. |
WalkThru.doc
| WalkThru This document tells the reader how to get through the maps. It also shows how some maps were meant to be, but are not in the prototype because of disabled events. |
Technology Overview.doc
| Technology Overview This discusses the technical advancements in Half-Life. |
Company Backgrounder.doc
| Company Backgrounder Information on Valve and bios on their employees, circa August 1997. |
Plot Differences
As the game received a full rewrite, the plot is very different from the final, including:
- Instead of Black Mesa, the game took place in an abandoned missile silo only referred to as "The Silo".
- Gordon was originally meant to be "a weapons research scientist who has never touched a weapon".
- The Silo was meant to have already developed a Portal, however the Portal was completely contained.
- Gordon's lab had nothing to do with the incursion. Instead, the Portal's power core goes critical, causing it to rend space-time and producing the same effect the resonance cascade does in the finished product.
- The rest of the plot is essentially the same, with the inclusion of acquiring "a device which means the difference between victory and annihilation".
Weapons
The prototype has only three selectable weapons: the Crowbar, the Glock pistol, and the MP5SD submachine gun.
General
In general, all of the weapons are much weaker than they are in the final game. It takes close to 10 pistol or MP5 shots to kill a single Headcrab in the prototype, and stronger enemies are bullet sponges. The exception is the grenade fired by the MP5SD's M203, which is just as powerful as it is in the final game.
The player spawns with every weapon as soon as he enters a map. Each weapon has unlimited ammo, but there aren't any ammo pickups in the game yet. Weapons do not need to be reloaded. In fact, none of the firearms in the prototype have reload animations.
It's possible to drop weapons by pressing right mouse button while selecting them. Dropped models will be showed as shells.
Submachine Gun (MP5SD)
The submachine gun is largely similar to the retail model, but the prototype's MP5SD is the proper length, the textures are not oversharpened, and the M203 is coloured green. The rear sight is also a block rather than the retail's MP5 sight.
This weapon is much more accurate than it is in the final game. Its grenades can be used to rocket jump in the prototype without killing the player, which is very handy for moving around and exploring the maps, especially while using god mode.
The prototype MP5SD is held by bare arms in the prototype. The textures for this arm can still be found in the Half-Life SDK and Half-Life: Source's SDK. While the final game uses HEV arms, both the prototype and final MP5 have the hands in the same positions and shapes. This is because the arms are the same, just for the final model they added a HEV arm model and made the hands use the chrome texture.
The grenade firing animation has Gordon pump it after firing. This was removed in the final game.
The prototype SMG uses stereotypical "pew pew" sounds that suppressed weapons in movies use when fired. The final game replaces them with beefier SFX.
HUD icon.
Pre-release screenshot showing the Sep. 97 SMG.
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Pistol (Glock)
The Pistol is very different from its final design. The model itself is a bit blockier than the final one and the textures used are completely different. The grip is a lighter blue and looks nothing like a grip used by any of the Glock generation models, the slide uses a different design that is a light gray and lacks the markings on it, and the rear has no details on it.
The gun only has a shooting animation. The shooting animation lacks the slide going back, like the final's Pistol does.
In-game, the Pistol fires slightly faster than it does. However, it is noticeably less accurate than it is in the final game, to the point where its spread is closer to the final's SMG than it is to the final's Pistol. This version's Pistol does not have the alt-fire mode the final one's has.
The hands used by the Pistol are a man in a lab coat, which are different from both the hands used on the prototype SMG and the hands the final's Pistol uses.
HUD icon.
Preview screenshot showing the Sep. 97 Pistol.
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| Prototype Pistol bullet spread | Final Pistol bullet spread |
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Crowbar
The Crowbar's model is completely different from the one used in the final game. It has less polygons, a different texture (which can be found in the Half-Life SDK) and a chrome front end for some reason.
When used, it has a very slow swing rate. Coupled with the very low damage it does per hit, the Crowbar is useless except for breaking certain objects.
Strangely, it doesn't have an arm holding it.
The Crowbar uses the graphic for a knife when selecting weapons in the HUD. Perhaps the Crowbar was a knife at one point.
HUD icon.
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Fists
The HUD has an icon for a fist when cycling through weapons. When the fist icon is selected, the player will not have any weapon. He can still select another weapon, however.
Fire Axe
The folder containing the HUD's graphics contains an icon for a fire axe. There isn't a model for a fire axe in the prototype nor is there a way to select one.
Other Weapon HUD Icons
Graphics for numbers 5 through 9 can be found in the HUD graphic folder. Considering they're numbered the same way the weapon's HUD graphics are, it's likely these are placeholder graphics for other weapons that would be used when other weapons were starting to be implemented.
Shell
The prototype contains an earlier model for the ejected brass the Glock and MP5SD eject. The model in the prototype lacks the final's chrome texture, instead opting for a dull bronze.
Guns in the prototype do not eject brass, but some pre-release images show this model being ejected from guns.
Based on the prototype shell's position in a model viewer, it seems that the model was positioned specifically so that it'd eject from a gun at a certain angle. The final game has code deal with this instead.
Preview screenshot showing this shell.mdl being ejected from a gun.
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Shrapnel
The prototype's shrapnel model is dark, while the unused model found in the final is a light gray.
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Graphics
HUD
The HUD is completely different in this prototype. The prototype HUD has differently-shaped metal bars on the center-left, left-hand corner, and center-right of the screen. Health is indicated with orange blocks on the box in the left-hand corner. The other boxes do not show information, making it impossible to see what they would do.
Weapons are selected with a set of green boxes that appear in the center of the screen. An unused texture found in the prototype's files shows a weapon selection box closer to the final's, but styled like the rest of the prototype's HUD. This does not appear in-game.
The damage indicators are green in the prototype, but a light red in the final game.
The HUD is larger and has some transparency issues in the OpenGL executable. The weapon selection system's graphics nor the damage indicator graphics appear in OpenGL mode either.
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| Software | OpenGL |
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| Unused prototype weapon selection | Final |
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Early HUD
The STATUS folder contains a graphic with an older HUD. It appears to be based on Quake's' HUD, suggesting this is a very early leftover.
Menu
The game's menu is completely different in this prototype. This menu appears to be Quake's menu, but with different graphics. The box that appears when one hits the "Quit" option still used (glitched) graphics from Quake. The cursor is also animated like in Quake, but the graphics appear to be taken from the sidebar, making it look like a glitch.
Note that the "Help/Ordering" option doesn't do anything.
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Quake Menu Comparisons
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Credits Image
The "HUD" folder contains a graphic for a credits list that is not used in the prototype. What's notable is that it mentions both Quiver (an early name for Half-Life) and Prospero, a cancelled game that was in development during the early parts of Half-Life's' production.
40mm Grenade Explosion Effects
In the prototype, 40mm grenade explosions will spew shrapnel (complete with smoke trails) when they explode. The final game gets rid of this effect in favor of an animated explosion sprite.
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Bullet Tracers
In the prototype, nearly every bullet fired by the Pistol and SMG will create a tracer effect. The final game reduces the chance of a tracer on these guns so that it is much rarer.
The prototype's tracers have a green tint, while the final game's tracers have a more yellow tint.
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Alien and Human Gibs
Both alien and humans share the same gibs in the prototype. The final game gives aliens their own gibs.
| Gibbed Human | Gibbed Alien |
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Early Quake Leftovers
Several raw uncompiled BMPs lie in the GFX folders that pertain to several graphics lumps used by Quake. Part of it are unused "dead" faces and variants on the quad damage face in which he licks around his mouth.
The palette was shifted and recalculated.
Status bar faces
Status bar numbers
Inventory bar weapons
Inventory bar keys
Indicator icons for connection, cache and performance issues, and loading
Console font and box elements
Gandalf, Mpath, and id Software logos
Early player customization box
