Proto:Half-Life 2 (Windows)/September 26th 2003 Build

This page details one or more prototype versions of Half-Life 2 (Windows).

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This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do: The Cut Weapons video needs re-uploading or replacement. JPEGs. So many JPEGs.

In Late September 2003, a German black-hat hacker by the name of Axel "Ago" Gembe managed to break into Valve's internal network and steal the Half-Life 2 source tree. Among the files that were leaked was the source code of the game, which was compiled into a basic build with the code slightly modified (e.g, no shaders) to get it to work, and than released onto the Internet as the "Anon Beta" or "Russian Beta." Many interesting pieces of content that were cut from the final game are still present here, including a large amount of enemies and weapons. It is still floating around out there, and many websites have been created to pry it apart and expose its inner workings.

Subpages

Cut Enemies So many cut enemies, so much space to document them.

Combine Enemies Rough textures, lots of textures from old Civil Protection versions, and more!

Alien Enemies Look at all those old Classic Zombie leftovers!

Cut Weapons Gordon Freeman's Missing Arsenal: A cautionary tale on proper gun storage.

Used Characters Dr. Kleiner's old model, unused textures from earlier development periods, different Citizen faces, and more!

Cut Characters NPCs that didn't survive.

Items Every item got changed between the prototype and final game. There are some removed items too!

Cut Audio Full conversations by temporary actors, sound effects, the full monty.

Cut Textures Considering the state of this game, there is a LOAD of unused textures

Environment Map Textures The environment map textures contain images of several maps not in the prototype nor the final game.

Cut Models Just when you thought it was all over.

Cut Maps Well... there is a LOT to cover.

Early Versions of NPCs

Citizens

• Half-Life 2 PC proto Get your free tvs.jpg

  Earliest Citizen Model

• Half-Life 2 PC proto Borealis worker.jpg

  Borealis Worker

The earliest known model of a Citizen can be seen in a screenshot of the first publicly shown map named Get Your Free TVs! It wears a gas mask, due to the foul air of the polluted Earth. In the prototype, they wear drab green clothes. There are also textures for the unused 'Stenographer's Chasm' workers and the Borealis worker model.

NPCs

While some NPCs remained mostly the same, others went through massive redesigns.

Odell

Odell was intended to be the captain of the Borealis, but was cut along with his ship. His face was reused for Odessa Cubbage.

Cut Vehicles

Jet Ski

The only operable cut vehicle. Obviously, it was phased out in favor of the Airboat.

Air Exchange Truck

• Half-Life 2 PC proto Airex truck fixed.jpg

  Air Exchange Truck

A prop for the Air Exchange, an area that was axed during rewrites of the storyline.

Digger

An engineering machine intended for Ravenholm.

Submarine

• Half-Life 2 PC proto Kraken submarine brush.jpg

  Submarine

Gordon and Odell were to depart from the Borealis on this Submarine. Once the Borealis was nixed, the Sub went with it.

Merkava

• Half-Life 2 PC proto Merkava camo.jpg

  Merkava

An Israeli combat tank that was to be used by the Conscripts, a group of low-ranking human Combine units lead by Captain Vance. Sound effects for it remain in the retail files.

School Bus

• Half-Life 2 PC proto School Bus brush.jpg

  School Bus

Intended to be used as the primary transport vehicle for Combine soldiers. It was replaced by the Dropships.

WC Mappack + Textures

There are hundreds of .VMF files in the WC Mappack, all at different stages of completion, with many duplicates. When run through Hammer, most maps can be compiled but will be missing textures and models. There are so many it's impossible to list them all here. The same situation is with the existing textures in game; there are dozens that never made it to retail.

E3 Demos + Early Storyline

The prototype features compiled maps, used as technology demo at E3. In their original state they are completely broken, but can be fixed using the Valve Hammer Editor. The folder also contains the original maps for the storyline, some complete, others running into dead ends or crashing.