Half-Life
Valve Corporation
Half-Life, Valve's debut 1998 title, blends action and adventure with award-winning technology to create a frighteningly realistic world where players must think to survive. Named Game of the Year by over 50 publications, it also includes an exciting multiplayer mode that allows you to play against friends and enemies around the world.
Half-Life is also the debut of the GoldSrc engine, and was followed by a Source engine sequel in 2004, Half-Life 2. It is also ported to the Source engine, and remastered under the name Half-Life: Source.
A PlayStation 2 port of the game was released in 2001, developed by Gearbox Software, which features many changes which were not present in the PC version of the game.
On November 17, 2023, the game received a major update for its 25th anniversary[1], simulating the retail/WON menu UI,[3] implementing proper widescreen support with Hor+ FOV and better UI scaling for high-DPI and 4K (or higher) displays, partially fixing support for overbright lighting, and much more. The game was also available for free to keep until November 20. Additionally, Uplink and content from Half-Life: Further Data was added to the game. The downside with this update however, is that several non-standalone GoldSrc mods (except custom content and textures) and games (like Counter-Strike, Team Fortress Classic and more) were initially broken with this update; Valve provides a beta build (steam_legacy) to revert to the version prior to the update, to fix the mod incompatibility.
Content
- Half-Life maps (valve)
- Half-Life HD pack (valve_hd)
- GoldSrc shared (valve)
- GoldSrc code
Chapters
Half-Life has total of 20 chapters, 19 of which are playable. A demo version of Half-Life called Day One can be played up to "We've Got Hostiles!", and ends when the player reaches near the vent area while climbing the ladder down.
There are 14 (15 with Hazard Course) chapters set in Black Mesa and 4 (5 with Endgame) chapters set in Xen.
| Toggle chapters Half-Life ChaptersToggle chapters |
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 Hazard Course t0a0 |
 Black Mesa Inbound c0a0 |
 Anomalous Materials c1a0 |
 Unforeseen Consequences c1a0c |
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 Office Complex c1a2 |
 "We've Got Hostiles!" c1a3 |
 Blast Pit c1a4 |
 Power Up c2a1 |
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 On a Rail c2a2 |
 Apprehension c2a3 |
 Residue Processing c2a4 |
 Questionable Ethics c2a4d |
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 Surface Tension c2a5 |
 "Forget About Freeman!" c3a1 |
 Lambda Core c3a2 |
 Xen c4a1 |
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 Gonarch's Lair c4a2 |
 Interloper c4a1a |
 Nihilanth c4a3 |
 Endgame c5a1 |
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Combine OverWiki pages on the above chapter pages.Official multiplayer maps
| Name | Internal name | Officially added | In HLDMS? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boot Camp |
boot_camp | 1998-11-19 (launch) |
Yes | |
| Bounce |
bounce | 1998-11-19 (launch) |
Yes | |
| Contamination |
contamination | 2023-11-17 (25th Anniversary Update) |
No | |
| Crossfire |
crossfire | 1999-01-13 (version 1.0.0.8) |
Yes | |
| Datacore |
datacore | 1998-11-19 (launch) |
Yes | |
| Disposal |
disposal | 2023-11-17 (25th Anniversary Update) |
No | |
| DoubleCross |
doublecross | 2023-11-17 (25th Anniversary Update) |
No | Originally included in Half-Life: Further Data. |
| Frenzy |
frenzy | 1999-01-13 (version 1.0.0.8) |
Yes | |
| Gasworks |
gasworks | 1999[confirm] | No | Originally released as an IGN-exclusive map. |
| Lambda Bunker |
lambda_bunker | 1998-11-19 (launch) |
Yes | |
| Pool Party |
pool_party | 2023-11-17 (25th Anniversary Update) |
No | |
| Rapidcore |
rapidcore | 2001[confirm] | Yes | The February 2001  Planet Half-Life Mapping Contest winner, by Michael "Wolf" Schulz
|
| Rocket Frenzy |
rocket_frenzy | 2023-11-17 (25th Anniversary Update) |
No | |
| Rust Mill |
rustmill | 2023-11-17 (25th Anniversary Update) |
No | Originally included in Half-Life: Further Data. |
| Snark Pit |
snark_pit | 1998-11-19 (launch) |
Yes | Remake of Dario Casali's DCDM3 for  Quake
|
| Stalkyard |
stalkyard | 1998-11-19 (launch) |
Yes | |
| Subtransit |
subtransit | 1998-11-19 (launch) |
Yes | |
| Undertow |
undertow | 1998-11-19 (launch) |
Yes | |
| Xen DM |
xen_dm | 2023-11-17 (25th Anniversary Update) |
No | Originally included in Half-Life: Further Data. |
Additionally, Team9 (team9) and The Hill (thehill) were included in Half-Life: Further Data, but were not included in any updates or patches for the game.
Credits
Bugs and Limitations
Visit GitHub page in order to prevent duplicate or outdated bug reports at the wiki.
For engine specific bugs, see Bugs and Limitations at GoldSrc page.
System Requirements
Windows (Retail/WON version):
- Windows 95 / 98 / NT 4.0
- 166 MHz CPU
- 32 MB RAM
- 500 MB disk space
- Optional: OpenGL, Glide (3Dfx) or Direct3D 6.0+ compatible video card
Windows (Steam version):
- Windows 7 or later
- 800 MHz CPU
- 512 MB RAM
- 4 GB disk space
- 32 MB VRAM video card
Note:The Steam version is no longer compatible with XP and Vista since the 25th anniversary update.User using these OS can downgrade to previous version of the game by using the steam_legacy beta branch instead, but note that Steam itself no longer supports Windows versions older than Windows 10.
OS X:
- OS X 10.6.3
- Intel Core 2 Duo processor
- 1 GB RAM
- 4 GB disk space
- Nvidia GeForce 8xxx series or ATI Radeon X1600 video card or Intel HD Graphics 3000
Linux:
- Ubuntu 12.04, SteamOS 1.0
- 2.8 GHz Dual Core processor
- 1 GB RAM
- 4 GB disk space
- Nvidia Geforce 8600/9600 GT or ATI (AMD) Radeon HD 2600/3600 video card
- OpenGL 2.1 or above
- For Nvidia: 310 driver version
- For ATI (AMD): 12.11 driver version
- OpenAL-compatible audio
See also
- Half-Life ports:
- PlayStation 2 version
- Cancelled Dreamcast version
- Half-Life: Source - remaster, ported to the Source engine.
- Black Mesa - Fan-made remake of Half-Life, running on Source engine.
- Half-Life 2 - Sequel to Half-Life
- Half-Life.fgd
- Half-Life SDK
- Mods on VDC
References
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External links
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