Half-Life/Development

The entirety of the game's models were updated to take advantage of the Dreamcast hardware.

Back to: Half-Life.

The Dreamcast port of Half-Life was hugely anticipated, and despite being virtually finished, would eventually see its release cancelled at the last minute by publisher Sierra On-Line. By this time, it had already received substantial advertising and public awareness, ensuring Half-Life's legacy as one of the Dreamcast's most infamous unreleased games.

Development process

Leaked build

Inevitably the full version of the Dreamcast game was leaked onto the internet, showing a near-complete product. Though the game is fully playable, the frame rate is inconsistent, and load times are often fairly lengthy. Saving is also an issue - the further the player gets through the current level, the more VMU blocks are demanded for saving. Once a level is completed, the number decreases again. In addition, each chapter is split with a password system to save progress alternatively with a three word system.

Some of the features found in the Dreamcast versions of Half-Life and Blue Shift were never brought forward into later copies of the game, although this mainly just includes some new NPC models, slightly altered level layouts and in-game Dreamcast references. In early 2012 a mod for the PC version was released on Steam to address this.

Promotional screenshots

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  "We've Got Hostiles"

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  "We've Got Hostiles"

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  "Captive Freight" (Half Life: Blue Shift)

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  "Anomalous Materials"

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  Unknown area similar to PC Half-Life prototype

Timeline

Timeline (Dreamcast)
06 07 08 09 10 11 12 2001 01 02 03 04 05 06 2000-05-11: E3 2000 2000-09-03: Dreamcast Première, ECTS 2000 2001-05-11: 1659 prototype 2000-11-01: Missed release date 2000-11-22: Missed release date 2000-11-24: Missed release date 2000-11-29: Missed release date 2001-06-01: Missed release date 2001-06-29: Missed release date