The Original Half-Life

I don't play Counter-Strike or any other mods. I just want to enjoy the original HL, because it was such a great game back in its time.

Why buy something that I don't want? I didn't even want to buy Counter-Strike:Source, but I had no choice. In fact, I had to install it because of a setup error Valve made. If I didn't install it, the installation process would fail.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

Um, technically if you buy Half-Life period, you get Counter Strike. It's free. If you buy the platinum pack, you're paying more for Opposing Force (which, in my opinion was better then Half-Life ... don't know why, I just enjoyed it more)

And unless you're planning on installing it seperatley (which is ... okay, I don't know why ... the steam version is MUCH better, simply because it doesn't require the CD for the music)

The only difference between the bought install and steam install, besides the music, is the menu ... no big deal, really.

Also, the Game of the Year edition IS only Half-Life in the box ... you're thinking of the Platinum Pack, which comes with all the games ... It doesn't really matter though, since they're pretty much the same price $20. But, you're not going to find it NEW ... you're about 4 years too late to do that.

I'm still confused as to why you wouldn't want the steam version over a seperate retail install ...

Oh and if you aren't using steam, the key doesn't matter anymore.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I'll wait until Valve allows me to buy HL1 separately from Steam.

I don't like stuffing CD's before playing games. It's just an extra hassle.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

Stuffing CD's before playing games ... what are you talking about? (Literally, this phrase makes zero sense to me)

You can buy HL1 seperatley from steam ... As everyone has been saying ... Is there something that isn't clicking somewhere?

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I liked Blue Shift, because the title sounds like Bull s**t and it took 6 hours to beat :biggrin:

I liked Blue Shift, because the title sounds like Bull s**t and it took 6 hours to beat :biggrin:

I think Blue Shift is one of the more inventive titles -
nice nod to astrophysics and keeping with the science tone... On the other hand,
"Aftermath" is about as boring and straightforward as you can get. :wink:

Stuffing CD's before playing games ... what are you talking about? (Literally, this phrase makes zero sense to me)

I think the hassle he refers to is the horrendous necessity of putting
the cd in the drive before playing the game or listening to the music
or something. Now that's a busy man.

Yeah that's what I mean. It reminds me of inserting a suppository deep down where the sun doesn't shine.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

... It reminds me of inserting a suppository deep down where the sun doesn't shine.

Note to the eggbound of L.A. : Don't go to Satchmo for a prescription!

What?! The rectal route is a perfectly legit and honorable way to administer medications.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

Not cd shaped, though.

Yeah that's what I mean. It reminds me of inserting a suppository deep down where the sun doesn't shine.

And you DON'T want the steam version?

Not to mention to be able to play the game, you'll need to updates ... without steam, they don't exist anymore, one of which includes the no-cd update.

Honestly, it's just easier with steam. Buy a cd copy if you like, but apply it to your steam account and use it that way. In fact, that's the cheapest option, since a HL1 key will unlock everything except CZ (which is a pos anyway). And The only other down side to having it on steam is no Blue Shift. But, you know what? Blue Shift wasn't that good anyway! No matter what CJ says :razz:

And I have no idea how anyone could stretch that game to six hours ... Did you just hide in a corner for four hours?

People also say that you can't use the HD pack on steam, but that's BS.

Going though used game shops really is the easiest way. There are several chances that if you find a copy of HL, that the key will work on Steam. That copy I mentioned, that was $2.50 opened the entire steam catalog.
Worst case scenario you go buy this copy: http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=643039
The only difference from the original release is the box art.

Oh also, if you plan on buying it new, they do leave store shelves on the 31st.

SteamPowered said:
Under the settlement agreement, VU Games will cease distribution of retail packaged versions of Valve's games, including Half-Life?, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike?, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source, effective August 31, 2005.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Of course I want the Steam version, but I was told that currently I couldn't get HL1 alone from Steam without ordering HL2 with it.

I just found out that my friend who had the HL1 gave his copy away to some other lucky dude. So I'm on my own.

I'll go home tonight and fiddle around with Steam. I might have to wait until Valve figures out a way to independently distribute HL1.

Thanks everyone.

[Edit]: I noticed that Valve has updated their website, so now I can just download the Value Premiere Pack directly from the website (with Steam installed).

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

I noticed that Valve has updated their website, so now I can just download the Value Premiere Pack directly from the website (with Steam installed).

I said that like ninteen posts ago. I thought you were insisting on getting the CD version since you, obviously, didn't see it.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I just started playing Half-Life, and it failed to disappoint me (read
that carefully). It's every bit as impressive as everyone had
been clamoring.

I couldn't help but to notice that there are lots of similarities
between HL1 and HL2. The opening sequence for HL1 (the tram ride)
reminds me of the cacoon ride in the Citadel for HL2. The talking
scientists resemble the citizens at the train station in the opening of
HL2. The crystal experiment and the subsequent teleportation is
very similar to the teleporter accident caused by LeMar in HL2.

But it's truly a cinematic experience. I'll have plenty of
opportunity to enjoy it (for the first time). The only complaint
I have about the Steam version is that each map is downloaded on the
fly, so there are long pauses between map transition while the map is
downloaded from the internet. But I could live with that.

What a wonderful world.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

Someone was telling me that the people who made hl2Substance are gonna make a source remake of the first half-life.

Are you sure you're not confusing the downloading with just loading? They look the same. (Easy way to check, the half-life.gcf file should be abour 400Mb)

Side Note: Surprisingly enough, most people haven't finished HL1 ... they stopped at Xen, don't know why they didn't just suck it up and book through it.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Xen was damn tough. It took me about the same time to do those few maps, as it did to do the rest of the game.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

Side Note: Surprisingly enough, most people haven't finished HL1 ... they stopped at Xen...

That's what I've done. I can't fathom how to get from one floating rock
to another - I have a long-jump pack but I haven't a clue how to use it

• I've tried everything I can think of, I'm obviously missing something.

There were bits in the game before that when I became frustrated and
thought I might not be able to go any further (eg. assassins) but the
problems were enjoyable and it was fun trying - it just seems that the
towards the end the puzzles were of the type where you could work out
fairly easily what had to be done but had to spend a long time
practicing complicated (for me) keyboard combinations and tricky mouse
manoeuvres (eg. the teleport bit). Sometimes, in the 1.2 seconds you
have available to press f6, I've managed, somehow, to leap backwards
from the rotating thing and fire a single round from my machine gun
into the air before pressing f7.

Nevertheless, I'd like to finish it, so any help in the long-jump department would be appreciated.

Hold crouch, and tap jump. How on earth did you even get through the hazard course?

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

I honestly had the easiest time in Xen compared to the rest of the game. The only thing I HATED in HL was the Xen Grunts (Or whatever they're called). I HATE THOSE! Everything else was pretty easy. The assassins were just something that took awhile to learn their "procedures".
Nihala, or whatever its name was, wasn't hard, it just took time to figure out how to get up there.

But, I think the enemies in OP4 are harder, not the boss, but the boss is cool. Blue Shift doesn't have a boss ... the most difficult enemy you run into are marines.

I don't know I beat all the mods in about a week of playing each day. OP4 only took a couple days ... BS took 2 hours.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Are you sure you're not confusing the downloading with just loading?

Some of my observations made me conclude that the game content file is stored online instead of locally:

1. After I purchased the game from Steam, it only took five minutes to
download Half-Life before I started playing. Now, I have a DSL
router and my desktop is connected wirelessly to the main router.
I can't imagine more than 500 MB of material can be transmitted in less
than six minutes.

2. When I searched for the gcf in the Half-Life foldier, I couldn't find it.

3. When my wireless connection occasionally go down, the game crashes,
giving up an error message that says something like "xxx.mdl not
found". Once I get the connection back up, the game
resumes. I suspect that when the connection goes bad, the game
could no longer load up the new resource files from the online gcf,
thereby causing a crash.

Anyways, it doesn't bother me that much that the content is stored
online. Now I just need to work less so I get to play the game
more.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

GCFs arent stored in the game dir anyway, theyre in the SteamApps folder.

I would assume theres a placeholder GCF in there that is the right size, but doesnt actually contain all the content. I imagine once youve played the game through, all the content is downloaded into the GCF, but I'm not sure about that.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

In any case, it is suppose to be locally stored. You can do a verification of the GCF file and anything that is missing steam will replace once restarted (steam that is, not Windows)

steam://validate/70

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Speaking of Half-Life 1 & mods,
"They Hunger" 1, 2, &
3 is easily the best free mod for HL1....if not the best SP mod,
period for HL1. That was so much fun...so creative....totally new
enemies (hicks with shovels & half dead bulls that could chase you
down. So many different zombies...there were probably 3x's as many
different enemies in They hunger as there were in Half-Life. New
weapons, too.

Totally fun and creative...and beautifully crafted scary/spooky atmosphere.

"Whyyyyyy do I hungerrrrrrrrrrrr?"

I am enjoying HL1 now, but I am stuck at a point. I suspect it
might be a bug in the game, but I've wiped clean of all the marines in
the Black Mesa underground complex, but as I take the freight elevator
up to the surface, I just get caught in it and the elevator squeezes me
to death, little by little.

I tried reloading the game several times, but I died every time. Is that a bug? How can I get around it?

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

Yeah it is a bug and it is simple to get around. Basically what
happens as the level transition loads you get spawned into the elevator
as its moving up.

So just jump continuously before the loading happens and hopefully
it'll load with you in the air... and you won't get clipped into the
elevator.

Satchmo : I have experienced such a thing with hl2, it was in within 10 minutes, ready to play, though i didnt have it installed. pretty queer if you ask me.

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RUST Gamedesign
pepper design

The strength of the turbulence is directly proportional to the temperature of your coffee.

Why is it taking Valve more than six years to fix this bug? It's a pretty blatant error, and a frustrating one at that.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge