Half-Life DC revisited

[ManekiNeko]

All right. I just snatched this one from BitTorrent yesterday and played around with it earlier this morning. So far, I haven't been especially impressed with the game. It's choppy, the control is frighteningly complex, and the load times are so numerous it's enough to make your hair turn white AND fall out, all at the same time. Does it get better the more you play it? Someone please tell me that it does, because I'm not going to waste any more time slogging through this weak FPS if it doesn't.
Anyway, my questions were as follows... what were Sierra's motivations for cancelling the game, and how does it compare to the PS2 version?

JR

[GameGuru]

I never knew it was leaked! It doesn't sound like you have a final version though because Valve wouldn't do that to their beloved Half Life. I remember just right before it was supposed to be released and all excited I get the news on IGN that it was scrapped! I was like WTH, it is a finished game. I guess they thought with the Dreamcast not being produced anymore it would cost less just to scrap it then market it. Ugh!

[VACRMH]

ManekiNeko, is your copy the "Gold Version"?

Mine came with a text file saying it was the completed copy or something along those lines.

I didn't play too much, but it played quite well for me.

Load times were indeed longer, but I was quite comphy with the controlls after a little while.

[digitalpress]

Uhh...

you're pretty much right Jess!

It's very much like the PS2 version. Choppier than the PC version and way-too-frequent load times. But at least it was FREE :)

I didn't find the controls over-complicated though, they seemed pretty standard for complex FPS titles... not much different than Quake, Unreal Tourney, Outrigger, etc.

[ManekiNeko]

ManekiNeko, is your copy the "Gold Version"?

Mine came with a text file saying it was the completed copy or something along those lines.

No such text file came with my copy of the game. It's possible that I have an earlier version, because when I tried to save (after the oh-so-boring thirty minute intro, where you take a rail car into the bowels of a radioactive waste dump) the game crashed on me. It also seems unusually choppy... the tutorial (Hazard Course) didn't seem so bad but I could literally count the frames in the game itself.

JR

[kai123]

The one I have plays fine. No frame rate problems for me. Saves fine and everything. It is like playing an original.

[Half Japanese]

I'd agree that the PC is the best of the bunch, but I actually enjoyed the hell out of the ps2 version (so much so that I bought it again after an initial trade-in). The DC version was weak in my opinion based on the fact that the loading times were so atrocious (see also: Soldier of Fortune for DC). The controls didn't throw me off too bad, as I used to play UT for DC for several hours a day a couple years ago. I will say, however, that once you find out how intuitive a dual-analog control setup is for a FPS on a console, it's hard to go back to using the button layout to do walking and the single analog to look around. I think they did a fair job given controller restraints, but a bit more reading off of the disc or something to reduce load times would have been much appreiated. At the end of the day, however, you have to realize that what is out there was never meant to be released to the general public, and unlike many cancelled games, it's at least in a pretty playable state.

[Ze_ro]

I thought the Dreamcast port was quite well done actually... the framerate isn't as good as the PC version (especially later on when you have a bunch of headcrabs on the screen), but I think it's acceptable.

Yeah, the control kind of sucks... without a manual, it'll take a while to figure out stuff like changing weapons (Took me a while at least). But hey, that's the Dreamcast controller for you... doesn't work well for FPS's in my opinion. Get a mouse and a keyboard, and the game will be much nicer.

The load times are annoying too, but as far as I can tell, they're just as frequent as they are on the PC version (as they occur at the same places)... but the break in gameplay is quite long. I wonder how much better it would have been on an actual GD-Rom.

Lack of multiplayer kind of sucks too... I knew they were bailing on the internet play (which I was never interested in anyways), but when Quake III and Unreal Tournament have it, it's a bit of a glaring omission.

Anyways, I'm happy with it... can't really complain about something I pirated for free :roll:

--Zero

[VACRMH]

Just thought someone would be interested in the text file that came with my copy...


Summary:
You know what Half Life is. No need for a summary.

This is the FINAL GOLD version of Half-Life for the
greatest game console on the planet (still), the
Dreamcast!

History/Notes:
No, this was never released. Gearbox wrote it off
as a loss instead of releasing this killer game.

We aren't saying where we got this. But we KNOW it
is the real deal and have played it long enough to
feel confident releasing this.

Anyway, enjoy the game that probably could have saved
the Dreamcast.

[Ze_ro]

I'm still hoping for a Propellor Arena release one of these days... I was looking forward to that one too.

--Zero

[kainemaxwell]

The load times and the fact that more of the game takes up massive space on a VMU increases as you continue the game sucks too. Yes I do agree the controls are a painand the graphics are pretty, but doesn't help the downfalls. I do enjoy it, but not as much as I thought I would, nice title to tell people you got..then show them how it is and they wonder why you got it.

[digitalpress]

I'm still hoping for a Propellor Arena release one of these days... I was looking forward to that one too.

--Zero

Same here, brother. I got to play this at CGE and it's a LOT of fun, too. Something I'd get much more use out of than Half-Life.

[kainemaxwell]

I'm still hoping for a Propellor Arena release one of these days... I was looking forward to that one too.

--Zero

Same here, brother. I got to play this at CGE and it's a LOT of fun, too. Something I'd get much more use out of than Half-Life.
Make that 3...and I'm sure I'd get more play out of PBA Bowling 2001 also...

[Half Japanese]

Ugh. PBA Bowling wasn't released for a reason. My friend and I played the copy I got from a fellow forum member a few weeks ago and couldn't get over how piss-poor the whole thing was. From the music to the 3-frames-of-animation movements, it was a turd and it's easy to see why it wasn't released. Half Life for DC is LEAGUES beyond PBA Bowling.

[digitalpress]

Ugh. PBA Bowling wasn't released for a reason. My friend and I played the copy I got from a fellow forum member a few weeks ago and couldn't get over how piss-poor the whole thing was. From the music to the 3-frames-of-animation movements, it was a turd and it's easy to see why it wasn't released. Half Life for DC is LEAGUES beyond PBA Bowling.

Now I'm wondering if you've got the full version of PBA 2001. I rather like it! Only the dreadful load times hurt it, it needs a little more work but the disc I have is fun to play!

[kainemaxwell]

Ugh. PBA Bowling wasn't released for a reason. My friend and I played the copy I got from a fellow forum member a few weeks ago and couldn't get over how piss-poor the whole thing was. From the music to the 3-frames-of-animation movements, it was a turd and it's easy to see why it wasn't released. Half Life for DC is LEAGUES beyond PBA Bowling.

Now I'm wondering if you've got the full version of PBA 2001. I rather like it! Only the dreadful load times hurt it, it needs a little more work but the disc I have is fun to play!
Now I want to play this!

[ManekiNeko]

While we're on the subject of unreleased Dreamcast games, I was tooling around BitTorrent and found a file that claims to be an English translation of Shenmue II. I don't know how that would be possible, unless the game was released in Europe as well as Japan.

JR

[kainemaxwell]

Jess, you're not finding these at suprnova.org, are you?

[Ze_ro]

I found a file that claims to be an English translation of Shenmue II. I don't know how that would be possible, unless the game was released in Europe as well as Japan.

The game was indeed released in Europe, but it used subtitles with Japanese speech still (I'm guessing they're referring to the subtitles when they say "translated"). As far as I know, The Dreamcast version never got a vocal translation... but there's always the possibility of prototypes and betas I suppose.

--Zero

[ManekiNeko]

Jess, you're not finding these at suprnova.org, are you?

That is correct, my good sir.

JR

[Furrikain]

OK, this is my very first post on this forum; i figured this info might be of use to someone out there so here goes:

The gold version of Halflife for DC was indeed leaked; having a fairly good knowledge of the DC scene i can give you this info:

It was released 01/10/03 by a group called Xanadu under this title: HalfLife_DCGOLD-Xanadu

Here is the info that came with the original rars:




Xanadu Presents

Title: Half Life *GOLD*
Platform: Dreamcast
Date: 01/10/2003
Format: Nero NRG (req. v5.5.10.0)

Summary:
You know what Half Life is. No need for a summary.

This is the FINAL GOLD version of Half-Life for the
greatest game console on the planet (still), the
Dreamcast!

History/Notes:
No, this was never released. Gearbox wrote it off
as a loss instead of releasing this killer game.

We aren't saying where we got this. But we KNOW it
is the real deal and have played it long enough to
feel confident releasing this.

Anyway, enjoy the game that probably could have saved
the Dreamcast.



I know of only one other leaked release of the game and have no idea if it's also gold, it was supplied 15/02/2003 and goes by the name of Halflife_READNFO_US_DC-MUDS and has the following info supplied with the rars:




Halflife (C) Sierra / Valve
Date: 15.02.2003
System: Sega Dreamcast
Language: English
Videomode: NTSC-US
Files: 33 * 20 MB
Supplier: The Legendary Babushka of MUPS!

Yo! Check this.. this is the unreleased game halflife.
Anyway.. you all know the story about this game so who
gives a fuck about it..
Well there was previous release of this which didnt
work. You could not even burn it.. however here is
a working release with vga box support and support for
PAL and USA and JAP dcs.. works fine with all dcs!

Rip Notes: Everything is still there, Audio downsampled.
Another perfect MUDS almost quality rip.

Note: This was tested on a Japanese Dreamcast and works fine.
This was tested on a PAL Dreamcast and works fine too!
Use Disc Juggler 3.0 or later to burn this..
And enjoy this fucking cool release...

Note: Props to the one who leaked this game, not bad man!

- bABS!





Both rarpacks are around 295mb and are the only scene releases i know of for the DC, furthermore in the not-so-legal circuit both release groups are almost completely unknown; i'd like to find out how this game got leaked myself.

The real find here would be a GD-ROM with the full game i suppose :) (for those who didn't know already: the dc uses a gd rom drive that reads 1GB discs, in order to turn a ripped game into a burnable 700mb image some stuff usually gets cut, most of the times the CD audio tracks are the first to go or are downsampled/turned to mono, so the original had probably better quality sound.) Same goes for loadtimes, there are tools available that will push the data of the image to the outer rim of the CD-R to shorten load times; i'm not sure if they are in this case caused by the coding itself or the structure of the imagefile.

Well, that's about all i can tell you -_-

I hope this is of interest to anyone; and sorry for the longass post btw :roll:

On a sidenote: before i get labeled as a first class warez monkey on my first post: i just have an interest in how DC games are coded/modified by the release groups; i'm a game collector myself and nothing beats the crisp boxart of an original for me, certainly not at the el cheapo prices MIB DC games are going for :-P

EDIT:

on another sidenote:

there is indeed a leaked PBA Bowling beta available, which is rumoured to be pretty stable: PBA_Bowling_2001-Belokk




Belokk Presents

Title: PBA Bowling 2001
Platform: Dreamcast
Date: 06/10/2003
Format: DiscJuggler v.4

Summary:
well i did it again.... here is an unreleased game for the famous dreamcast. this game is
still in beta considering it was a gd-r, but it is fully playable. i have played this for
about week now, and i am confident its very stable. i hope you have fun bowling !!! :)


History/Notes: cross your fingers i might be getting my hands on Propeller Arena and other
gd-r betas.

p.s. i got another gd-r i am working on from sega europe

enjoy :)

-belokk



Since there seems to be some craving for Propeller Arena as well, i'll try to find out whatever happened to that one; i think i know where this belokk fellow hangs out on IRC ^_^

[Ze_ro]

I wonder if the same guys who released Border Down and the upcoming Psyvariar 2 would be able to do a commercial release of Half-Life one of these days... I guess they'd have to get a lot of permission from all the parties involved though.

--Zero

[Furrikain]

That sounds like something that's never gonna happen 8-) I don' t think the demand for the original Half-Life is big enough nowadays, especially on a console that's dead to most of the world :o

[ReaXan]

Half Life is one of my favorite computer games of all time,I played the PS2 version of Half Life and it just didnt do the series justice,Half Life is made for the computer!!!!,I would love to take a look at the dreamcast version of HL someday,I use to be big into the dreamcast emulation scene a few years ago,had nintendo,super nintendo and a ton of burned games for my dreamcast.wish I hadnt sold it now like an idiot!!!!!

[kainemaxwell]

Intresting, so what version of PBA bowling is the one that most of you here have?

*Still wants PBA Bowling now

[Furrikain]

I have the original rars for the belokk release, still haven't got around to burning it though; not really my kind of game and i have sooo much more DC titles to try first :)