Half-Life (halflife_dc)
Half-Life
About the project
Half-Life es un videojuego de disparos en primera persona de 1998 desarrollado por Valve Corporation y publicado por Sierra Studios para Windows. Fue el producto debut de Valve y el primer juego de la serie Half-Life. El jugador asume el papel de Gordon Freeman, un científico que debe escapar de Black Mesa Research Facility tras ser invadido por extraterrestres después de un desastroso experimento científico. La jugabilidad se basa en combate, exploración y puzles.
5 versions of Half-Life
You're viewing: Half-Life (halflife_dc)
Half-Life (halflife_dc)github.com/maximqaxd/halflife_dcXash3D FWGSgithub.com/FWGS/xash3d-fwgsHalf-Life (half-life1_win32_722)github.com/ScriptedSnark/half-life1_win32_722Half-Life (PS5)github.com/GordonProsperoMan/xash3d-ps5Half-Life (ReHLDS)github.com/rehlds/ReHLDSOfficial project information
HALFLIFE_DC <img src="media/disc.png" width="120" align="right">
Reverse-engineered source code of the Half-Life 1 Dreamcast port — engine build 1659, compiled on 10 May 2001, a month before Sierra cancelled the project.
The build was published by Sega Dreamcast Info and later reverse-engineered by our team.
| <img alt="Dev.Box HKT-01" src="media/devkit.jpg" width="420"> | <img alt="Flycast" src="media/scriptedsnarkdevenv.jpg" width="420"> |
| Rebuilt engine on a Dev.Box HKT-01 | …and the same disc under Flycast |
This repository contains:
- Restored source code of HL SDK
- client.lib
- halflife.lib
- Restored source code of the engine
- halflife_dc.exe
The game links all of its libraries statically, so one binary is the whole thing.
Getting started
Before building the project, you need to install:
- Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0
- Windows CE SDK 2.1 for Sega Dreamcast (Dragon SDK)
Building
Visual C++ 6.0
Open the workspace at projects\halflife_dc.dsw and press Build -> Build halflife_dc.exe.
client, halflife and zlib come along as dependencies.
To get a disc rather than an executable, point GDISRC in postbuild_dc.bat at your copy of
the prototype GDI. The post-build step overlays the fresh HALFLIFE_DC.EXE and 0WINCEOS.BIN
onto a copy of it and writes a bootable image; without GDISRC it is skipped.
Required files for playing
You will need the original data files from Half-Life Dreamcast (May 15, 2001 prototype).
Tools
utils/ carries the SDK utilities the port was built with, supporting the Dreamcast's native
formats (PVR). utils\build_tools.bat builds them into utils\build\.
- studiomdl — studio models, with PVR skins and the compressed Neo model format.
- qlumpy — level wads, with PVR textures.
- makels — cuts a level's textures into the ~128K wad pieces the engine swaps in and out.
See utils/README.md for the details.
Multiplayer
The prototype has multiplayer cut out of it. We put it back.
It sits behind HLDC_MP in src/util/dreamcast_crt.h, which is 0
by default so that a plain build still matches the binary we are diffing against:
#define HLDC_MP 1
Set it to 1 and you get the restored netstack and multiplayer functionality, plus the
front-end that comes with it — extra menu pages, a server browser and an on-screen chat
keyboard.
There is a second switch in the same header, HLDC_FIXES, covering the places where the
released game is simply wrong. It is 0 too, so the engine reproduces the original bugs:
#define HLDC_FIXES 1
Set it to 1 for a corrected engine. Every guarded site names the symptom it produces in the
game, so a single fix can be turned off again while tracking down a difference in behaviour.
Media
More in media/ — including the disc being burned out of Visual C++ 6.00 through
GDWorkshop onto a Katana dev kit unit, which is roughly how this looked in 2001.
People involved in development of the project
Referenced projects
- half-life1_win32_722
- Half-Life SDK 1.0
- HLDS Linux binaries
Special thanks
- Sega Dreamcast Info (for releasing the prototype)
- Sizious (for playtesting)