History Trivia / HalfLife1

* {{Vaporware}}: A {{UsefulNotes/Mac|OS}} (that is classic Mac OS, not Mac OS X) version was planned, developed, and close to releasing in 1999 when Valve suddenly pulled the plug. A Mac version wouldn't see release until an OS X port was released in 2013, but it most likely uses none of the code from the original port attempt.

* CreatorBacklash: Valve seems to have this attitude towards ''Half-Life: Source''. After the 25th Anniversary update for the original release, the company officially declared it the "Definitive edition", then limited the visibility of ''Source'' (hid it from the Steam store, but still allowed it to be bought if one is directly linked to the URL). They then went onto imply that the main reason it wasn't pulled from Steam completely was because the "[[VideoGame/GarrysMod Source Engine community]]" still used the assets from it.

* ThrowItIn: According to the 25th anniversary documentary, the G-Man came about this way. One of the set dressing pieces created for "Anomalous Materials" was a scientist talking to a businessman with a briefcase. Someone pointed out that this businessman looked creepy, and it was suggested that they make him the overarching big bad of the story.

* DuelingWorks: The game was released in 1998, a year with powerful releases such as ''VideoGame/{{SiN}}'' (which came out two weeks earlier), ''VideoGame/{{Blood}} II: The Chosen'' (which came out the day after), ''VideoGame/StarsiegeTribes'' and ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'', among other titles solely in the FPS field. Although Valve feared the former would crush them, [[CurbStompBattle neither of those titles really stood a chance]], and became the overall Game of the Year.
* HostilityOnTheSet: Dario Casali's developer commentary details some flare-ups during the game's production, when the company was new, didn't know each other, and had little experience shipping a game. Apparently, it was fairly common to complain and insult each other over company-wide emails. In one instance, an "unnamed CEO"[[note]] accompanied by a picture of Gabe Newell[[/note]] played "Residue Processing" and complained to the entire company that the level designers didn't know how to build levels wide enough to accommodate enemy pathfinding, even though Casali had been instructed that "Residue Processing" wasn't supposed to have any enemies in it. After getting into a heated exchange over email, Casali said the best advice he'd ever been taught was to wait 24 hours before sending a grievance email.

** An idea for Xen was that Gordon would end up causing a Vortigaunt revolt, winning them over as allies. While the revolt didn't make the cut for this game, the base idea would later be used in ''Half-Life 2''.
** Dr. Gina Cross was, at one point, intended to be Gordon's spouse and a playable character, with the player choosing between her or Gordon at the start of the game. The character you didn't choose would be an [=NPC=] you would encounter and interact with throughout the game, but Valve considered the idea unfeasible at the time and Gina was recycled into the holographic instructor for the Hazard Course, then later became a playable character in ''[[VideoGame/HalfLifeDecay Decay]]''.
** Valve planned a number of multiplayer gamemodes beyond Deathmatch, but were forced to cut them due to time constraints. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T23wINs35lU This video]] shows remnants of a cut cooperative mode left in the "Subtransit" multiplayer map. A cooperative mode would finally be realized with ''Half-Life: Decay''.

* WorkingTitle: ''Quiver'', which is a double ShoutOut to ''Literature/TheMist''[[note]]The game's tone and plot owes much to it, by [[http://www.gamespot.com/features/halflife_final/part3.html Valve's own admission]][[/note]] and ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}''.[[note]]''Half-Life'' was built on a modified ''Quake'' engine[[/note]]

* CreatorBacklash: Valve seems to have this attitude towards ''Half-Life: Source''. After the 25th Anniversary update for the original release, the company officially declared it the "Definitive edition", then limited the visibility of ''Source'' (hid it from the Steam store, but still allowed it to be bought if one is directly linked to the URL). They then went onto imply that the main reason it wasn't pulled from Steam completely was because the "[[VideoGame/GarrysMod Source engine community]]" still used the assets from it.

* CreatorBacklash: Valve seems to have this attitude towards ''Half-Life: Source''. After the 25th Anniversary update for the original release, the company officially declared it the "Definitive edition", then limited the visibility of ''Source'' (hid it from the Steam store, but still allowed it to be bought if one is directly linked to the URL). They then went onto imply that the main reason it wasn't delisted completely was because the "[[VideoGame/GarrysMod Source engine community]]" still used the assets from it.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Early betas of the game used an unmodified ''VideoGame/QuakeI'' engine. When it became apparent that the engine wasn't going to be able to deliver what the development team wanted, they considered porting the game to the ''VideoGame/QuakeII'' engine, but after figuring out that it would delay development by too long, they instead started modifying and customizing the ''Quake'' engine to suit their needs, eventually ditching about 90% of the original code. The end result was the [=GoldSrc=] engine.
** A number of characters went through redesigns. Gordon's original design originally had a wild, unkempt beard and thicker face going along with a much larger HEV suit that that led to him being dubbed "[[http://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Ivan_the_Space_Biker Ivan the Space Biker]]". This was refined into a trim goatee and a more form-fitting suit for the final design. Scientists and Security Guards had much more exaggerated faces before being toned down into something more believable.
** It was originally planned that the Scientists and Security Guards would be hostile toward Gordon, believing him to be responsible for causing the incident. AI tests that had the guards following the player and fighting other enemies greatly appealed to playtesters, and Valve realized they were much more interesting as friendly [=NPC=]s.
** Many enemies were cut from the game, and the ones that made it in often had features cut from the final game.
*** Among the unused enemies were a [[GatlingGood minigun-wielding]] [[http://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Human_Sergeant Human Sergeant]] and a penis-shaped Xen enemy [[FluffyTheTerrible dubbed]] [[http://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Mr._Friendly "Mr. Friendly"]], who would be able to knock off Freeman's glasses and cause his vision to go blurred, which was considered an impressive effect for back then, but cut for being annoying. Also, a proposed idea what that it would kill Freeman by '''raping him'''.
*** Another Xen enemy called the Kingpin would have used Psionic abilities to attack and to defend itself against explosives. One setpiece would have had a Kingpin captured and caged by the military, where the player could free it to attack the soldiers. A flying enemy called the Stukabat lasted late into development, enough that it was seen in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMTO5xO1jf4#t=23s footage from E3 1998]]. While both enemies were cut, the assets and code left in the SDK led to both enemies being used in several mods, including ''VideoGame/SvenCoop''.
*** The Panthereye, a feline-like counterpart to the Houndeye, was cut both due to being redundant and due to engine issues regarding quadrupedal [=NPC=]s. Like the Kingpin and Stukabat, its code and assets were in an advanced enough state that several mods were able to restore it.
*** Vortigaunts originally could resurrect dead Vortigaunts using their beam attack. They also had a “bravery” function where they would lose their will to fight if they witnessed too many of their kind be killed.
*** Female Assassins have unused animations for melee attacks and were seen armed with Crossbows in promotional material. They still have a quiver attached to their belt in the final game.
** The HEV's features would have been dependent on having battery power available, with features like the HUD, Long Jump module and voice shutting down if the HEV ran out of battery. This was likely deemed annoying as the battery power doubled as the HEV's armor.
** Enemy attacks and environment hazards could inflict status effects that would have to be treated with special items. There also existed an Adrenaline canister that would have provided a one-use revival upon death. The models for these items still exist within the final game, albeit unused.
** Cut voice lines exist for the HEV suit announcing the acquisition of new weapons. Interestingly, these sound files indicate that the .357 Magnum was originally a [[HandCannon .44 Magnum]].[[note]]This is also in line with beta textures for the weapon's ammo pickups, which identified it as .44 Magnum.[[/note]] Another cut voice line refers to the Tau Cannon as a "hypervelocity projectile weapon", suggesting it was originally planned to be akin to a [[MagneticWeapons railgun]] instead of an energy weapon.[[note]]This is further backed up by the Tau Cannon's name in the game code, "weapon_gauss"[[/note]]
** The pistol's secondary fire was meant to attach a sound suppressor. It was likely cut for its limited utility. Unused textures show the pistol with a Glock 18's fire selector switch on the slide, explaining the secondary fire it ended up with of simply [[MoreDakka firing faster]]. Likewise, the Gluon gun had a secondary fire for switching between wide and narrow beams, with narrow beam mode doing less damage but using less ammunition. While the functionality was cut, pressing secondary fire will still play the animation intended for switching modes.
** A slew of VOX announcements throughout the facility were cut, as seen in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSehhpW6stE this video]]. Many of these cuts were likely due to the announcements becoming repetitive.
** A port for the UsefulNotes/{{Dreamcast}} was in development by Gearbox and actually finished (trailers advertising the port came out a few months before launch), but Sierra On-Line, who was publishing the series at the time, was not pleased with the Dreamcast's sales numbers and pulled the plug just weeks before it was supposed to come out; the game's players guide even made it to shelves before the cancellation. The Dreamcast port was eventually leaked online years later and found to be fully functional, if awkward due to the limitations of the Dreamcast's controller, and fans later released the Dreamcast port as a mod for the PC version of the game. Not even this version of the game was immune to cut content. An unused [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFlEj8JvvqU in-engine intro cinematic]] was found within the files, along with an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhkhN66DRhI unused deathmatch map]].
** [[https://combineoverwiki.net/images/c/c5/Weird_sci2.jpg Originally]], the vending machines were going to involve ProductPlacement, but due to the ability to destroy the machines, the Coca-Cola Company backed out. This is why there seems to be duplicate vending machine textures in halflife.wad, why Hammer vending machine prefabs include the names of real-world soda brands, and why one of the pieces of trash that comes out of destroyed garbage cans suspiciously resembles a can of Sprite.

* DuelingWorks: More or less in direct competition with ''VideoGame/{{SiN}}'', which came out two weeks earlier, and ''VideoGame/{{Blood}} II: The Chosen'', which came out the day after. Although Valve feared the former would crush them, [[CurbStompBattle neither of them really stood a chance]].

* TheAbridgedSeries: ''Machinima/FreemansMind,'' which follows the adventures (and internal monologue) of ComedicSociopath Gordon Freeman.

** [[http://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Female_Scientist Female scientists]] were planned, with a story bit involving one betraying Gordon and sending soldiers after him. They were cut due to memory limitations of the limited hardware in 1998, though the base idea would later be realized in ''Half-Life 2'' with Dr. Mossman - who, in a DevelopmentGag, presents herself as a rival to Gordon who [[UnknownRival he never knew existed]].

*** Vortigaunts originally could resurrect dead Vortigaunts using their beam attack. They also had a “bravery” function where they would lose their will to fight if they witnessed too many of their kind be killed. An idea for Xen was that Gordon would end up causing a Vortigaunt revolt, winning them over as allies. While the revolt didn't make the cut for this game, the base idea would later be used in ''Half-Life 2''.

** Dr. Gina Cross was, at one point, intended to be Gordon's spouse and a playable character, with the player choosing between her or Gordon at the start of the game. The character you didn't choose would be an [=NPC=] you would encounter and interact with throughout the game, but Valve considered the idea unfeasible at the time and Gina was recycled into the holographic instructor for the Hazard Course, then later became a playable character in ''[[VideoGame/HalfLifeDecay Decay]]''.

** Valve planned a number of multiplayer gamemodes beyond Deathmatch, but were forced to cut them due to time constraints. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T23wINs35lU This video]] shows remnants of a cut cooperative mode left in the "Subtransit" multiplayer map. A cooperative mode would finally be realized with ''Half-Life: Decay''.

* DuelingWorks: More or less in direct competition with ''VideoGame/{{SiN}}'', which came out two weeks earlier, and ''VideoGame/{{Blood}} II: The Chosen'', which came out the day after. [[CurbStompBattle Neither of them really stood a chance]].