Overview
This guide will tell you all about the Half-Life Series and the history of it.
From the Boring World of Office to the Wonderful World of Video Games (1992-1996)
Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington were very good friends during their legacy at Microsoft. Gabe and Mike were a pretty big deal at Microsoft, since they were working on Microsoft’s biggest projects such as Office and Windows. Gabe and Mike were what you would call a “Microsoft Millionaire.” Two notable versions that Gabe had worked on are Windows 2.0 and Windows 3.11. Even though that later in the ’90s, Microsoft would start a game studio called ‘Microsoft Game Studios,’ Gabe and Mike just felt like it was getting boring. The video game industry really entertained them, and they were both earning a fortune, so why not do it themselves?
Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington founded Valve in 1996 and began working on their first project: Half-Life. However, they needed something to do it on. A good engine to develop for, with easy-to-access source code and development kits. One of the best games they had seen was Quake, so they had to get the Quake Engine (now called id Tech since so many developers wanted to use it — id Tech is still used in the Call of Duty games today). Luckily, two main factors helped Valve get the licence to the engine — I.) Gabe Newell had worked on Doom 95 (the port of DOOM to Windows 95) and that game helped Windows 95 become the go-to gaming platform for PC owners who were looking to get into video games, and II.) one of Mike Harrington’s friends had worked at id Software. Whilst hiring employees, Valve were finally granted the licence to the Quake Engine and Valve began making modifications. In 1997, the engine would be called: The Half-Life Engine.
Sierra (1996)
In 1996, Valve were able to get a one game publishing deal with…
This meant that as soon as Half-Life was ready, Sierra was willing to release it. This means that Valve were able to delay it if there were any problems. However, if the game was not ready by late 1999, Valve had a lot of money to pay for Sierra.
The Publishing Deal (1997)
Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and later Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game publisher based in Bellevue, Washington. At the time of 1996 or 97 they were looking for a first-person shooter action game and when Valve heard of this, they contacted Sierra Online and Sierra said, “Yes. Send us the disc.” And so Valve did, and Sierra were impressed. Valve signed a contract with Sierra to release the game soon.
Valve planned to release project “Half-Life” in late 1997.
“This isn’t good enough” (1997)
It’s mid-1997, and Valve is finished with Half-Life. Millions of playtests were put to it. But they just felt something wasn’t right. Everyone thought it’s just not good. So what does Valve do? They scrap the entire game altogether. All files, gone.
(until 2012, but I’ll get to that later.)
Valve spent another year working on Half-Life, and they rebuilt GoldSrc based on Quake’s game engine from the square up. Not only was this troublesome for Valve who had spent a year on the project, but also for Sierra, who feared the game would never be released.
E3 (1998)
Valve shows off Half-Life at E3 1998. They say “this is going to change video games forever”. They had also announced that if you buy new graphics cards, you will receive either Half-Life: Day One[half-life.wikia.com] (demo of Half-Life that has the first 5 chapters), or Half-Life: Initial Encounter. (contains Half-Life: Day One and full version of Team Fortress Classic[teamfortress.wikia.com]) Also, you could get Half-Life: Uplink[half-life.wikia.com]; from the Valve website.
Released! (1998)
Half-Life is officially released on November 8th, 1998 and is rated ‘Game of the Year’ by over 50 publications!
One drawback that some people noticed was that as they advanced in the game, the levels become less detailed, more lazy. This is most probably because the entire game was reworked in a year.
Opposing Force (1998-1999)
Gearbox software takes a look at Half-Life and are impressed. They looked at one of the enemies of the game, which is the soldier. Gearbox contacts Valve, and talk about making an expansion pack to Half-Life where you can play as one of the soldiers, while it is the same story of Half-Life, but from a different point of view. Valve sends over the Half-Life Engine[en.wikipedia.org] code to Gearbox, and development begins.
Half-Life: Opposing Force is released on the 19th of November, 1999.
Counter-Strike (1999-2000)
In early 1999, Minh Le & Jess Cliffe want to create a game based on terrorism, and counter-terrorism. However they decide to create a mod for the recently released Half-Life. This was so great that they didn’t even have to create their own maps. The community would submit them, and around 4 betas are released through out 1999.
Valve takes a look at Counter-Strike, and are impressed. Valve eventually sign a contract with the developers, and Half-Life: Counter-Strike was released as a full retail game in 2000.
Consoles (2000-2001)
Gearbox contacts Valve about porting Half-Life to 2 consoles. Sony PlayStation 2, and Sega Dreamcast. They thought that PCs are much more expensive than consoles, and more people had consoles, so the console port could be a success. Valve accepted the deal, and Gearbox begins developing.
Due to the Sega Dreamcast dying badly, Gearbox cancels the release of Half-Life on Dreamcast. Half-Life is released on PlayStation 2, in November 2001.
Blue Shift (2001)
Originally posted by Gearbox in the Blue Shift Trailer:You played the hero. You played the villain. Now you’re stuck in the middle.
Gearbox software informs Valve yet again about an expansion pack to Half-Life. Gearbox took a look at the secuirity guards and thought, “we played the hero. and the villain. What aboutthe ally?” Valve accepts this deal, and Gearbox releases Half-Life: Blue Shift on June 12, 2001.
Gearbox also releases the High Definition Pack, originally from the PS2 port, to PC.
E3 2003
Valve began development on Half-Life 2 straight after the release of Half-Life in 1998. Half-Life 2 and its engine Source, were showed off at E3 2003. Valve announced that Half-Life 2 will be released on September 30, 2003.
The hype was very much real for not only players with Half-Life 2, but also for developers with the new powerful Source engine.
For some people, the hype was simply too much, especially for German boy Axel Gembe.
HACKED. (2003)
Valve announced that Half-Life 2 will be playable on September 30, 2003. But they can’t make that date. Instead, they will suffer one of the biggest hacks in gaming history. The hacker who hacked Valve is Axel Gembe also known as “Ago” and he’s from Germany. How he hacked into Valve was he used a modified version of RemoteAnywhere to infect Valve’s servers, and AXFRs, Asynchronous Full Zone Transfers, tools used to synchronize servers. They were also used by hackers to take a peek at website data, to do it, he probed for a weak spot in Valve’s network, it was secure from the outside, but their name servers allowed anonymous AFXRs, which gave Gembe a lot of information, By transferring this data, Gembe found all of the names of all the sub-domains of the company’s Web directory, In the port-scan logs, he found an interesting server which was in Valve’s network range from another corporation named Tangis that specialized in wearable computing devices, Valve forgot to firewall that server from the internal network, the Valve PDC had a username “build” with a blank as hell password, he cracked ’em easily, and he could make history as the one who leaked Half-Life 2. So everyone had enough Source code to play Half-Life 2: Unfinished.
Valve was scared. All over the internet, they saw leaked artwork, concepts, Valve Hammer files, in-game pictures, and source code.
Gabe Newell even stated that he saw fake images of characters from the game having sex.
Gabe set up a thread in the Valve forum called ‘I need assistance from the community,’ to ask people where the original hacker who leaked HL2 is. A day later, he gets dozens of emails from people stating where they found the files.
They didn’t manage to find the hacker, Axel Gembe, but he emailed Gabe to tell him that he was the hacker. He saw how big the deal was.
Originally posted by Gembe, explaining to Euro Gamer why he sent the Email:Because I was sorry for what happened,
Valve managed to get in contact with the hacker. They tricked him into thinking they wanted to hire him, for his network skills.
On 7th May 2004, he woke up to find his bed surrounded by German police officers. Automatic weapons were being pointed at his head. He was scared ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. He knew why they were there, but he asked anyway.
“You are charged with hacking into Valve Corporation’s network, stealing the video game ‘Half-Life 2,’ leaking it onto the internet and causing damages of over $250 million.” He was told to “get up. Do not touch the keyboard,” with automatic weapons pointing at him and the computer.
An interesting article is on EuroGamer and is called “The boy who stole Half-Life 2,” and it was written in 2011. It is an interview with Axel Gembe.
Valve yet again scrapped the game (not all of it) and started over.
Credit to Gordon Freeman The Annoyance for the backstory and more info on the hack.
Released! (2004)
Half-Life 2 is released on September of 2004. It is one of the best sequels ever. Half-Life 2 will be the final ever game by Valve to be released by Sierra, as Valve now has enough money to publish themselves, and with the help of Steam, they can do it digitally over the internet. People were skeptical of the idea of Steam at the time, because of the hack that happened the year before, and they may have to buy their games again.
Episode One (2005)
After the release of Half-Life 2, Valve begins working on another Source engine game, which is a expansion pack to Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One. It is released in 2005. The expansion pack conintues the story from the cliffhanger ending of Half-Life 2.
Episode Two (2006)
Half-Life 2: Episode One yet again ended with a cliffhanger, and people await more to the story. Valve listened to their fans, and released Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Just like Episode One, Episode Two started from the ending of Episode One, and ended with a cliffhanger.
Orange Box (2006-2007)
In 2006, Valve begins working on 2 new games. Portal, And Team Fortress 2. They eventually put the 2 new games in a bundle called The Orange Box, which was 5 games in the price of 1. It featured Portal, Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, and Half-Life 2: Episode Two. It was released on PC and the Xbox 360 in 2007. It was planned to release on PS3, but Valve found it too difficult to code for. So Valve contacted EA and they happily ported it to the PS3 for them, and the PS3 version of The Orange Box was released in 2008. Because of this, Gabe said “the PS3 is a total disaster,” though he would take that statement back in 2011.
Portal 2 (2009-2011)
In late 2009 or early 2010, Valve begins working on Portal 2. It is released in 2011, on PC and Xbox 360. EA yet again ported it to the PS3.
Sony Computer Entertainment (later named Sony Interactive Entertainment) 
You can watch Gabe Newell’s surprise here:
People also thought this was weird, because of what Gabe had said about the PS3 when it came out in 2007.
0.52 [part 2] (2013)
In 2013, someone found a disc of the old Half-Life alpha from 1997 for sale for $800 on eBay. Eventually, some crazy person bought it and did well for the rest of the internet and uploaded it online. Everyone was able to see the word documents, driver installers, demos, images, press kits on the disc, and also the game itself.
And my story with Half-Life? (1999-2016)
I encountered Half-Life in 1999 when the game of the year edition was released. I bought it, played it, completed it, and re-sold it. I didn’t really have that much of a love for the game, though I could say that I completed it.
I re-encountered the HL universe in 2015 when I saw Portal: Still Alive on the Xbox Live Marketplace. I bought it, completed it, and this time, I loved it! I was hooked. Then, I tried out a demo of The Orange Box, which came with the first ten minutes of Half-Life 2: Episode Two. I was hooked. I knew Steam existed, so I went on a shopping spree for all the Valve games except for CS:GO and the Left 4 Dead series. I was hooked with HL again, and I am very grateful for finding it.
Half-Life Comes to an End (2011-2019)
Half-Life’s series of games hasn’t been updated since 2011, and Valve have been over Half-Life 2: Episode 3 and Half-Life 3 for over a decade, however they have been very very secretive about it. I do hope you enjoyed this guide, and learnt a lesson.
Farewell, Half-Life…
Marc Laidlaw Goes Behind Valve’s Back (2017)
Marc Laidlaw[en.wikipedia.org] actually LEAKED the story of HL2: Episode 3 on HIS OWN BLOG.
You can read the original ‘Epistle 3’ post on his blog. www.marclaidlaw.com/epistle-3
Why is it called ‘Epistle 3’?
Laidlaw changed around loads of the names, probably because of legal reasons. Some people on GitHub[www.github.com] (a coding website) updated the post, changing the changed names to their originals. You can read it here.[github.com]
A L Y X (2019)
On 21st November 2019, Valve quietly posted the trailer for their upcoming Half-Life prequel, Half-Life: Alyx, to their YouTube. It is coming out in March 2020. If you own Valve Index, you will get HL:A for free.