Half-Life: Blue Shift - Sep. 2000 Prototype Comparison
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- Опубликовано: 10 фев 2025
- Part of my Half-Life Fact Files series: • Half-Life Fact Files
More info, developer comments, and build download available here (English language button is above the lefthand sidebar): www.sega-dream...
Today's installment dives deep into the earliest prototype of the Dreamcast port of Half-Life that has surfaced. Dated September 10, 2000, this debug version (Build DC 1417) is roughly eight months before the latest known near-final version (Build DC 1672), dated May 23, 2001. This video highlights the majority of the most significant differences in the included Blue Shift portion which is still incomplete, missing its final chapter and replete with exciting early development content, including the long lost G-Man ending speech!
Music:
Half-Life (Kelly Bailey) - Military Precision
Half-Life (Kelly Bailey) - Vague Voices
Half-Life: Opposing Force (Chris Jensen) - Bust
Half-Life: Opposing Force (Chris Jensen) - Soothing Antagonist
Half-Life: Opposing Force (Chris Jensen) - Name
Half-Life (Kelly Bailey) - Drums and Riffs
Half-Life (Kelly Bailey) - Cavern Ambience
Half-Life (Kelly Bailey) - Hard Technology Rock
Half-Life: Opposing Force (Chris Jensen) - Tunnel
Half-Life (Kelly Bailey) - Adrenaline Horror
Half-Life (Kelly Bailey) - Nuclear Mission Jam
Half-Life: Opposing Force (Chris Jensen) - Planet
Half-Life 2 (Kelly Bailey) - Tracking Device
Happy New Year! Many thanks to Comby Laurent of Sega Dreamcast Info for allowing me the chance to help examine this prototype Half-Life Dreamcast build. For even more comparisons as well as a download of the build itself, visit his site (English language button is above the lefthand sidebar): www.sega-dreamcast-info-games-preservation.com/en/unreleased-half-life-dreamcast-early-prototype-history
I have also created a PC mod version of this content so you can play the Blue Shift prototype as shown here on Steam today! The download for my PC port mod is also available at the above site.
More prototype videos on the Sega Dreamcast Info channel: www.youtube.com/@segadreamcastinfo3971
You're welcome, it's best to work on prototypes with fans of the game in question.
The dude makes no video for one year (besides the Source 25th Birthday) and reappears just to post the ultimate gift, a lost beta of Blue Shift console version. Amazing. Can’t wait to see what you will dig up next year 😅
Blueshift is bs
Literally
Happy New Year, Marpph! Thank you for another awesome look back at HL!
20:07 That's the first time in over 20 years that the "wassup"commercial got a slight chuckle out of me.
19:54 Interesting that G-Man has his iconic white void door here before Half-Life 2
I suspect Gearbox already had some idea what Valve was doing with HL2 around that time of development.
@@newdawnsets7076i remember something about how the only information gearbox had was based on just asking questions to Marc Laidlaw to ask if what they were planning on adding would conflict with what was established in HL1.
A dark room with a white void behind a door is just easy to make in GoldSrc, and is overall just a sick af visual.
From what I've seen blue shift is definitely canon, and valve took some aspects of it or shared some ideas with the team (barney calhoun, the gman white door, probably some other things).
Opposing forces however seems entirely disconnected (alternate endings/paths maybe) and likely isn't considered canon.
@@JustapErson The official stance is that HL:OF is not NOT-canon.
@@KingPBJamessource?
Interesting how all the head designs went from more realistic to less realistic, except for the security guards who went the opposite way.
no
After someone recreating the Beta HD Scientist Heads the original got leaked
20:06 the canon ending we all wanted
it gotta be fake
@@aventurasthor My guess is that it's just a joke made by developers, not intended for final game in any way.
@@MarcinKralka i mean, its literally a placeholder, but i suggested it could've been something the video creator did as a joke too
@@MarcinKralka well no sh sherlock
@@aventurasthor "WHAZZZZUPPPP" was at its peak cultural popularity in 2000. very topical dev joke.
I like how the lobby turrets just:
"One guy misbehaved,dump it"
It's probably because the system was malfunctioning that morning it was unexpected that someone would straight up shoot someone else to stir the turret
That's what they did in the Hazard Course, so why not?
2:22 I think I can see why they cut the turrets. I love that they gun you down and then immediately go for *all the other guards.*
Turrets: Mission accomplished. All armed hostiles removed from area. Have a very. safe. day.
There can be no hostiles when everyone is dead
1:06 Fascinating to see an HD Barney that sorta tries to retain the Don Knotts face from the original.
The "Don Knotts face"....
That's a great way to put it.
@@DaveOJ I mean his design is very openly based on Knotts' character from The Andy Griffith show (Also where the Barney from the model name comes from)
HD Benrey
"And if you see Dr. Breen..."
The version that had the Don Knotts face was the alpha version, not the retail version which is what they used for the texture here.
20:06 Truly the Gman speaks in riddles.
4:04 when stars align and the game starts mixing its own soundtrack
csgo reload man
SAME I was bopping to this like wtf??? This is in the soundtrack????
@@toastedbreadmanjr.1656 yeah, it's an Opposing Force track.
the alarm and the snares really made up for a good blend
"Wazuuuup?"
-Gman
20:06 I legit thought that was a "BLYAAAT" sound, but it's the Budweiser "Wassup" Ad released in 2000. LMAO
12:43 hell yeah i'm glad they made it the iconic blue coolant instead of boring radioactive sludge
blue shift
Glad to see more flavors of gatorade be represented in the half life lore.
it seems to be a placeholder, judging by how the coolant barrels are still labelled "COOLANT".
Mountain Dew 😅
baja blast
In the early ba_teleport map, there's a whole entire area that's behind a wall that you can noclip to. Possible remnant of an even earlier "Power Struggle" concept.
There's also a few more world geometry changes that were left undocumented:
In ba_canal2, the hallway next to the freight elevator that connects from ba_canal3 has significantly more detail; having a guardrail and pipes. This was actually only ever visible on PC if you nocliped out of bounds in ba_canal3 to skip over the trigger_changelevel. I originally discovered this when I ported Blue Shift maps to Half-Life: Source almost 14 years ago and was curious to what it all meant or if it was a mistake; now I see that it was a leftover attempt to optimize ba_canal2 for the Dreamcast. I did include the area in my original Source Engine port simply because I thought it looked cool having no idea that it was actually how they originally intended it to look, despite their performance constraints.
There's also 9 ba_yard maps on PC (and the latest historical Dreamcast leak) and yet they managed to fit everything within 5 maps in this Dreamcast version. The map ba_xen6 was also among those that didn't used to exist early in development; this alone could explain the existence of two separate ba_teleport maps, which again is a surprising step backwards.
This alludes to clear evidence that Gearbox made a majority of the maps and assets for the PC before Captivation Digital Laboratories pushed them to the Dreamcast. I find it extremely odd that it really seems that the development process was quite linear with the downgrading of all of the assets for the Dreamcast in order to prioritize performance.
This exchange of custody with the assets is quite remarkable and hardly ever witnessed. It truly appears that the Dreamcast version of all the maps, models, and textures were used as the final product as seen on PC; even though the assets were originally designed on PC with the accompanying hardware in mind.
What this really means is that all of the assets ended up being downgraded and ported to Dreamcast just to be hastily taken and used for the later PC version that wasn't even supposed to exist in the first place just like Half-Life: Decay. To corroborate this claim: the official announcement trailer for the PC version of Blue Shift and the High Definition model pack were released the same day that Sega publicly announced that the production of Dreamcast would cease.
So in theory: if Half-Life: Blue Shift was originally destined for PC, we really would've had even HIGHER resolution models, fewer level changes per chapter, and probably an overall longer story. What we ended up getting was a quick and dirty recovery of an almost failed and lost expansion; especially since a majority of the content was readily compatible with PC Half-Life. We might have actually had a flashlight weapon if it weren't for the fundamental source code differences between Dreamcast and PC.
16:45 They cut my boy, the Gargantua. Gearbox will pay.
Billions must buy me a beer.
There's only one way to rectify this: Create a resonance cascade in Gearbox's offices so a Gargantua gets to tour the building.
I hope Black Mesa Blue Shift remake team picks up on this
@jcdenton6427BMBS Team is considering adding Gargantua there, The problem they faced thought, Is that some people may think that They’re going to fight Gargantua at some point in the future, And get disappointed when it won’t happen. (I think that was the reason why Gearbox cut Gargantua too.) But overall, The Team agrees that seeing Gargantua in Power Struggle would be cool.
I'm glad they cut it. Barney's role in the Black Mesa incident should be small. He doesn't need to see all the crazy things that Gordon and Adrian did.
It's interesting how between this and your other videos you can see *why* they made some of the changes. Like the "changed crowbar position" was very clearly because in that other location it was *entirely possible to miss it* , so some playtesters did, and then even _kept_ missing it when they put it right in front of you, so then they added the invisible crowbar pickup you talked about in another video.
While I'm sure that's true the other placement is extra bad because you're liable to just stumble onto it while fighting the hound-eyes, which will cause you to put your pistol away at a bad time.
@@sheridanrathbunYou don't have any weapon at this point in the game, it is the very start.
@@CrAzYpotpie Pretty sure you have your issued service pistol still
@@sgt.eclair I apologize, for some reason I didn't remember getting the pistol first. I remember the range, but I thought the weapon was taken back and that you didn't get another one until after the crowbar.
11:20 Think I prefer the prototype version of this encounter, its a little funnier having the Scientist run off with the Guard trying to catch up.
I get the feeling they cut it because it made the vort seem too weak.
@@KingPBJames But... they are weak.
@@KingPBJames
Or to make the complex seem more intimidating place to survivors
16:39 I always thought a Gargantua appearance should've been there! I feel so validated
It makes a lot of sense that the final chapter wasn't in by the prototype. The "final battle" of blue shift is one of the most rushed things I've ever seen where you fight a single houndeye and 3 hecu. I guess they whipped that together last minute.
No it makes a lot of sense narratively, and is a better ending than decay. Barney would DIE in a boss fight, and his only goal was to escape.
What we saw wasn’t even that different, so idk what you mean. It’s much more thought out than what they did in op4 that’s for sure.
20:00 Impressive work, mr BLYAAAAAAA
Every time a new file fact video uploads I end up binging the entire library again
HOLY SHIT IT'S HERE
Nah for real though. This is fucking major. I cannot emphasize how grateful I am to both Marphy and Comby.
I don't know much about Sega Dreamcast Info so I can't speak much about them, but Marphy is one of the most important people for the Half-Life community. People like you keep this community going. You've been doing this shit for over a decade and a half at this point now, and I don't know if you've had a genuine thanks given, so consider this my thanks to you. The work you do sharing information and entertaining Half-Life fans is amazing.
2:19 love that the turrets just kill absolutely everyone lol
20:08 "BUUUIIIILAAAAARGH" Words to live by
The buttons with "xen" and "outro" labeling them, it looks funny on how direct the debugging was.
11:55 bro said "let me be clear"
Blue Shift fans eating good this year
If there are any
my christmas dinner
Along with the Black Mesa remake of it
All 5 of them yeag
I am the Blue Shift fan.
2:20
Black Mesa: Employment terminated for improper handling of a firearm.
Barney: is dead on the floor after getting shot to pieces by the facility's automated defense system.
And also his workmate got caught in the crossfire 😅
@@Cysco8575 They look the same, so it just got a little confused.
Just remove the word "employment" and it's still accurate.
Pumped for the release of this.
2:20 Gotta love those termination turrets.
Return of the King! ❤
Green coolant would have caused a complete and total failure of the Half-Life series and we would never have gotten Half-Life 2.
I bet that one has a chance to find a PC gaming magazine journalist who has a copy of Half-Life Build 718, which was a build sent to PC magazine reviewers back in the day, who are willing to release it.
Have a happy new year, Marphy. Thank you for making these videos. c:
11:55 Adrian once Valve finally acknowledges his existence.
why? blue shift and opposing force aren't canon
@@golubochSource: Trust me
@@sonicdash9652 they're not made by valve and not acknowledged in canon 🙃
@@golubochBarney Calhoun is from "non-canon" Blue Shift, yet he appears in Half-Life 2; he is even listed with full name in the credits 🙃
Soldier3856 opfor is definitely not canon, blue shift might or might not be. as for barney, that's how his model was called in hl1 anyway
17:02 The fact they cut the Assassins completely from Blue Shift is proof they cared about the events being canon and wanted them to fit alongside the original Half Life and Opposing Force storylines.
Assassins being there makes no sense since they started inflitrating Black Mesa in small groups somewhere around the very end of Apprehension chapter in the original game because HECU was taking too long containing the situation and full forces were deployed around Lambda Core. So them appearing this early on in the deep underground coolant chamber makes no sense and HECU didn't even start their retreat by this time.
So in my eyes i now consider both expansions being 100% canon no matter what anyone says
Little nitpick. The assassins were there way before the retreat of the military. They appear before Gordon is wacked. So way before "Forgotten about Freeman" or even "Surface Tension".
The original expansions are true canon to me, HL2 in itself is hyper fan fiction and a bad sequel though still a good game. Honestly I would love a new and better HL2
@@-Zakhiel- Like i said, before launching a full scale deployment small groups were seen at Black Mesa. Gordon saw them
@@normanred9212 Why do you think it's a bad sequel?
@@normanred9212hey man no hate i respect ur opinion but why do you think hl2 is bad? like specifically im really curious
You guys have no idea how long I have wanted to see that damn flashlight working.
1:29 Gordon Freeman: "SUCKEEEER
If I had to guess why the garg was cut at 16:40 , either they wanted to have you see it first then fight it later but couldn't fit him in, or seeing the "new" alien appear but never interacting with it at all made the scene not have much of a purpose, still cool to see him appear though
I get the feeling that the finished HD Barney head was actually being worked on during the prototype, since it's consistent with the "realistic" appearance of the prototype scientist heads, but those got scrapped whereas realistic Barney survived.
The turrets going on a spree and murduring the other barney too lmao
"They all look the same" racist turrets confirmed?
I wouldn't be surprised if they actually got cut for that reason, like maybe there was a time crunch and it was like "eh screw it, let's just remove them from the level rather than spend a bit more time making sure they don't target everyone."
We are ending this year with blue shift beta, YEAH BABY!
1:05 REAL HD BARNEY
LD Style*
Giving Calhoun a crowbar rather than his own signature weapon made little sense
GMAN? IN MY HALF LIFE BLUE SHIFT?
It's more likely than you think. Call or visit today.
Love him or hate him, G-Man spitting straight facts
Blueeaaah!
the prototype hd scientists heads are less uncanny than the final ones due to their added realism, i love them so much
why is dr. rosenburg yassified
@@JacksBestGaming😭
20:01 Gman if he was lowkey chill
Damn, everyday we learn something new im this series.
Marphy, keep digging! Thank you for this!
LD face barney on HD model cant hurt you, he is not real.
LD face barney on HD model: 1:03
20:07
"BLUHUUEEAGHHUAAHHH🔥🗣🔥🗣🔥🗣🔥🗣🔥🗣"
-Gman
I wonder why they did that.
Newbies don't know that he's screaming "Wassup".
@@Issac.kleiner_Official placeholder sound effect
@@KeshaFilm good old scary movie reference
@@4storyboss Not really, this exact line was taken from Budweiser commercial.
recordatorio de un nuevo vídeo ... Gracias MphBlackimus 😀
1:04 I actually really like the early Barney model here. Looks like a mixture of the Original and the HD models
agreed
Thanks for the tour, Marphy!
My favorite channel to watch!!
11:55 that HECU soldier just disappeared into another timeline
0:29
Near-Final: *Dr. Kleiner, very good.*
Prototype: *Daniel Wormald*
0:42
Near-Final: *Gustavo Fring*
Prototype: *Jordan Peele*
0:48
Near-final: *Saul Goodman*
Prototype: *Sheldon Cooper*
50 year old Sheldon cooper
Why did they cut the flashlight weapon man? looks pretty much finished with proper animations as well. Easily could've been Barney's signature weapon
Probably didn’t want to force the player to hold a melee weapon to see in the dark
It would have been annoying.
Doom 3 is probably a good answer why it isn't a good idea.
@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine no
@@amaruqlonewolf3350 no
I'm so happy tha you still finding HL content
13:50 smartest HECU ever
They really wanted to do the Doom 3 flashlight thing almost 3 years before Doom 3 itself, huh
imagine if the cut G-man speech made it into the final game the implications to the lore would be astounding
We would finally know what beer the G-Man drinks
I imagine a lot of these were cut so the game could fit on a Dreamcast CD
It isn't for size reasons at all, it is for performance.
G-man made a great point.
The Guard duty is real
Omg
guard booty
teh gurd dooty
This feels like a crime beyond human comprehension 1:05
Very nice video!
Man the Gargantua fight looked nice, totally underutilized enemy!
eww furry
HES BACK OH MY FUCKING GOD
The virgin Deliverance vs the chad OUTRO
1:54
BEER
Me too Otis Beer Voice Line Cut During Development, me too
its really amazing to get see what could be and that female assassins and gargantua that weren't in blue shift maps were meant to be in even if only in the semi final chapter
bspguy or newbspguy allow to modify bsp files without recompile but it only can add new entities or edit or remove them (including brush entities too) so this can already be done as a mod
but it cannot change the map layout unless you decompile the bsp file and than good luck to fix the map geometry to recreate the unable to fix errors shown in map editor of broken or missing brushes so the decompiled map can be compiled so only change the map geometry would be really big hassle for someone to do to change the game final maps to be as the prototype maps
Holy crap, this looks good! I do think that the time making this, They changed the name to Blue Shift since it's going to be called "Guard Duty". I'm pretty sure they changed the name so that it matches with the other Half-Life games since they are based off Radiation names like Opposing Force, Decay and Half-Life.
High Definition GODS eating a nice healthy salad this year
THEY FOUND BETA BLUE SHIFT OH MY GOS
Those early HD models look stylistically more realistic than the cartoonish ones in final release, but I understand that someone I guess wanted to make it more faithful to the original models.
And we have the M4 here replacing the MP5-
the early hd models (the character models) look actually good, especially dr coomer
no
I think Blue-Shift would have been received much better if it didn't have so many things cut. I suspect it happened for performance reasons. And when it became a PC addon, they didn't readd things.
To see a Gargantua in Blue-Shift...Amazing.
It would have been received much better if it was released before Opposing Force. Blue-Shift was a step back in every possible way except models, which technically are "better".
Cut the lenghty talks with scientists, add some new cool weapons, add, or atleast reuse Opposing Force enemies, add different mechanics (like cut flashlight "weapon" instead of regular HEV light) and add few chapters, while also cutting the Xen parts and here you go.
@@themaniomarian The thing is, Blue-Shift was always a bonus chapter. It wasn't meant to have new enemies or code, it would just be new Half-Life gameplay. It was never intended to be an expansion like Opposing Force was. If the Dreamcast port had not been canned, it is possible that Blue-Shift would have ended up like Decay...Never released on PC.
@@Tamamo-no-Bae It was never intended, maybe, but it came out like it did, as expansion that was worse than original Half-Life in almost every way.
It is only fair to judge it how it came put and not how it maybe possibly was supposed to came out, but it didn't.
@@themaniomarianAtleast it doesn’t have Race X, literal net positive over how annoying Opposing Force is with its shoehorned “new faction”
@@cj-3810how is a new set of unique enemies a bad thing?
16:39 I KNEW that area was designed to have a Garg setpiece!! The area's architecture is designed exactly for one rather than some off-screen alien grunts!
3:43 why is the music syncing with the alarm such a bop
Wow, just WOW. Im happy because thar beta Barney is the one that some Gamebanana user recreated very well from seeing a very old and blurred promo art of a magazine of back in those years. In another hand, im sad because there is STILL no clue about the very very original beta HD grunts which look MUCH better than the final ones, in my opinion, specially the commander. While the final one looks thin, old, depressive, and alcoholic, the beta one looks like a strong badass Chad. But nobody ever has found those models
Luther here looking more like Gustavo Fring than ever
Black gus fring
@unoriginalperson72 as opposed to in breaking bad where he’s also black?
Prototype HD Barney holds up pretty well.
Interesting enough, the mod, Guard Duty will have a flashlight functioning similarly to the Doom 3 Flashlight. Are you telling me they knew about this build, ALL ALONG?
The flashlight has been known about before the games release.
Blue shift really got done dirt with how much cut content actually made the game fun
I wholeheartedly agree
If blue shift included the lobby turrets it could’ve been a bigger success than the original half life
@@CKVanilla if blue shift had flashlight weapon it wouldve been game of the decade for sure
Just wait until someone mods this stuff back in
yes
20:08 good to know one of the devs watched scary movie (who thought of releasing a horror parody in fucking july?)
Scary Movie was parodying the Budweiser "WHASSSUUPPPPP" commercial, which is where the G-Man's dialogue is ripped from.
0:49 oh my god he looks like dr magnusson
i always thought magnusson resembled his original model the least out of any of the characters based on hl1. i wouldnt be surprised if he was based on this model specifically, because that straight up just looks like a lower definition version of him
@@illybee3 this models from 0:51 reminds me of one of the ghostbusters
It wouldn't surprise me if valve based magnusson on that early HD face
Gearbox already had an idea of what half-life 2 would be like.
@@Marine_2010 Magnusson wasn't introduced until Episode Two in 2007.
The torch as a weapon would have been so cool wtf. Could have been handled like in Doom 3, Blueshift seriously got sanitized.
Eh, I'm kind of glad that they didn't do that, but if they did it would be cool seeing Barney using the Harries technique
@@damienfinnegan8272 That's what the Guard Duty remake is doing!
woah its the funny rpg guy haello. anyways i played doom 3 today, very funny coincidence
Man, DOOM 3 flashlight in Half-Life would be really fucking annoying.
I wouldn't mind if it was strictly a crowbar replacement (i.e. you still had the normal chestpocket flashlight), though.
@@LonelySpaceDetective The OG Doom 3 flashlight wouldn't have been so bad if you could dual wield it with the pistol, and possibly the SMG and plasma gun, assuming those guns had a strap to sling over your shoulder and/or a stock to stabilize them, but you'd need to put the flashlight away for a sec to reload. And maybe you could get a flashlight attachment for certain guns mid to late game.
This would also give you a remote reason to use the pistol after you've acquired other infinitely more powerful weapons. Being able to see and shoot in dark areas at the same time.
At least the flashlight can explode zombies. Doom Dude isn't human, Doom Dude strong.
Doom Dude, not to be confused with Doomguy. Completely different people.
I don't like BFG edition, it kind of runs like garbage compared to the original.
dudeee the beta hd models looked so good especially barney
Blue Shift was one of my first PC games ever. Excited to learn more about it!
1:30
Freeman: I'm not the only one who's late, sucker!
But still they kept Freeman standard face rather than replacing a HD version.
I’m guessing Gearbox wanted to have Barney be another victim of the G-Man, but Valve said no at the last minute.
(I guess his….interesting voice was just a placeholder.)
Is it just me or the prototype models look more PS2 era Japanese? They would fit perfectly in a Metal Gear Solid game.
They should never have given Barney a crowbar. That flashlight was way better! 🔦
BARNEY USED TO BE MORE ACCURATE TO THE LD MODEL????'
Oh they should have left that static rocket launcher in, at least it wouldnt be so boring.
The removal of the flashlight is disappointing, Barney had no real differences from Gordan (compared to Shepherd) beyond the armor mechanic adjustment. The flashlight also could've been set up with an altfire for the torch, and primary fire functioning as the melee attack (thus replacing the crowbar)
i love this sht man im almost 40 and still geek out at half life lore
The prototype HD model for Slick kind of looks like a younger Dr. Magnusson, and the cut g-man ending is similar to when he appears at the beginning of Episode One (minus his monologue). Weird yet impressive that Gearbox came up with these things about 7 years before Valve did.
They already had an idea of what half-life 2 would be like.
@@Marine_2010 Magnusson and the intro to Episode 1 were both thought up after Half-Life 2 had released. Use your brain.
20:06
so is there already a mod on the hl2 workshop to replace g-man's opening monologue with this
2:23 I like how turrets killed everyone in the hall despite the fact Calhoun was the only one acting aggresively there 💀
No witnesses