August

August 31, 1998

Sites

There's a new Half-life site called TTLB Half-Life.

A new Team Fortress2 page called The TeamFortress 2 Gateway.

And a new maps site called USHMD.

-Dann - 3:26 P.M. EST     Got news? E-mail us




August 29, 1998

Help Wanted

Derailed at Twisted Half-life is looking for a person to help him with news on his page, now that he has an auto-update program written.

Found on Contaminated.net

-Dann - 10:23 A.M. EST     Got news? E-mail us




August 28, 1998

3D Palette

The 3D Palette has set up a page where you can vote on the entries to the contest they held. Winner gets a copy of Half-life.

-Dann - 8:35 A.M. EST     Got news? E-mail us




August 26, 1998

WaveLength's Visit

Spider from WaveLength has posted his visit to Valve here.

-Dann - 1:11 P.M. EST     Got news? E-mail us




August 25, 1998

No Half-life in August

Lisa posted something in the Contaminated forums that we don't want to see right now:

I just posted this on the Contaminated forums.

Guys: I want to give you an update before people get too anxious over the course of the week, waiting for an announcement from Sierra/Valve. It looks like the announcement Sierra was alluding to at their party last week is actually going to happen at ECTS, which is in London over Labor Day weekend. We're going to be talking about our developer support plans and give a status report on Half-Life and Team Fortress 2. (Half-Life won't be shipping in August.)

We know how impatient you all are to play Half-Life and we want to repay your enthusiasm with a fantastic game. We're all in extreme crunch mode and will be until ship....we're as anxious to play the final version as you are. Thanks for continuing to support us through the tough final push toward gold.

Best, Lisa

-Dann - 4:58 P.M. EST     Got news? E-mail us

Kingpin Revealed

Finally the Kinpin that was mentioned in our interview with Ted Backman, has been revealed as a concept art at WON.net. Here' what I can make out fromt he text:

Top-Left:

Has disabling psionic attack
and a psionic defence that
makes it immunne to missle
weapons

Top-Right:

Massive Brain files entire body

Center-Right:

4 eyeballs give 360
degree vision

Lower-Left:

Clinking Sound as it walks on
it's three chitinous legs

There's also a few new screens and an interview with Gabe at WON.net, so check them out.

-Dann - 9:19 A.M. EST     Got news? E-mail us

Atomic's InDeep

Atomic Half-life has posted another movie from the preliminary finding's CD in RAR format. The movie is ~22Meg.

-Dann - 8:46 A.M. EST     Got news? E-mail us




August 24, 1998

New Screens

Twisted Half-life has posted 10 new scans from September's Gamer's Republic magazine. They show some new monsters and effects.

Sites

A new Half-life site has popped up, called HL BattleGrounds. He needs a host so he can post all that good stuff that hosted sites can ..er.. post.

-Dann - 8:42 A.M. EST     Got news? E-mail us




August 23, 1998

New MPG

Sleepnever Central just released a new MPG from PC Accelerator magazine's CD. The new movie shows the tentacle smooth movements and how it kills a scientist and you!!! Get it here(14 meg) while its hot!!! =)
Hey Sleepnever Central awakens from its sleepy slumber, welcome back! =)

Half-life goes Jonesy

Saw this on Contaminated who've seen this from Twisted Half-life that Indiana Jones teleported along with the aliens. =)

-Runabout - 10:50 A.M. EST     Got news? E-mail us

Site Watching

A new spiffy Half-life site opened named: Level Alpha by Chris Wyatt. A branding a cool design and layout, check it out!
Bootcamp a TF2 site hosted by Atomic Half-life.
TF2 Embassy has moved to Half-life Haven.

Up Late

Updating in 4:30 A.M.!!!!! Shizz!! whats happening to me?!?!? Just read the preview on Voodoo Unlimited Power and RTGN's, read it when ur bummed out for waiting for the game to ship.

-Runabout - 4:49 A.M. EST     Got news? E-mail us




August 22, 1998

Half-life Preview

Theres a new preview of Half-life on VUP3D which is perty good, read it here.

sCary also has his preview done from his visit in Seattle and its only waiting verification from Valve, stay posted.

3D Palette Contest Extended

3D Palette's Half-life contest been extended till midnight of the 25th, heres the blurb:
The 3d Palette Half-Life Artwork Contest deadline has been extended until Aug-25 at midnight. The reason for this is to let a few people enter who just realized we had the contest and wanted to enter. This will also give the other people time to tweak their artworks for a couple more days.

-Runabout - 8:49 A.M. EST




August 21, 1998

Ward-robe moves

The Half-Life Wardrobe has moved to it's permanent host over at Atomic Half-life. And just to clear things up, our hosted skins and models site, The Twisted Zoo was started in early April, and 3D: The Bodyshop also started planning to support Half-life and other game's skins and models, back in late May. So calling themselves the first (and only for that matter) is a little misleading.

-Dann - 10:00 A.M. EST




August 20, 1998

New Movie!

Valveworld scored a new Half-life movie from Valve, called "Train", get it here.
I haven't d/l'ed it, so its must be new =).

New Skin & Map Sites

Halflife.net has two new hosted sites: (both are done by DPG)
The Bad Lands a map resource site.
WARdrobe a Half-life skins site.

-Runabout - 12:01 P.M. EST

Previews

Just got an e-mail from Cold Fusion:

We have completed work on RTGN's first preview; Half-Life. We have a lot of information on Half-Life, including Graphics, Weapons, Technology, AI, Animation, Sound. All in all, it's a good read, you can check it out at http://www.rtgn.com by clicking on the previews button at the bottom of the sidebar.

-Dann - 8:40 A.M. EST




August 19, 1998

Voting

The Half-life Haven has ended their submissions for the wallpaper contest and are letting you vote on them.

Article

There's a new article about moster creativity entitled the Recycling Bin. A good read.

Sites

A new art site called, half-art has opened on Contaminated.net.

There is free webspace for clans/squads/armies/homies/and whatnot. Here's the letter I ripped of Contaminated.net:

I'm giving clans free webspace at www.smartpatrol.net/clanhere if they want it. They can just contact me at spudboy@smartpatrol.net and I'll hook them up with an FTP account. I can also give them POP3 email address and/or email aliases if they would like. clan.smartpatrol.net domains are also available for a small fee. Thanks

Big Half-life Thingy

Twisted half-life has put up the Big Half-life Thingy, Warning: Spoilers, but a great read though.
Found on The Half-life Times

-Dann - 8:42 A.M. EST




August 17, 1998

Poll

There's a new poll at The Black Mesa Half-Life Center which asks "When do you think Half-Life will be released?".

-Dann - 12:24 P.M. EST




August 16, 1998

More Previews

Just got an e-mail from Big Al over at 3d Unlimited:

Teufel of 3D-Unlimited has posted a Half-Life preview, with Screen-Shots, Pictures, Info, Ect. Check it out at: http://www.3d-unlimited.com/previews/halflife/

-Dann - 9:26 P.M. EST

Big Half-life Thingy

Twisted half-life has put up the Big Half-life Thingy, Warning: Spoilers, but a great read though.
Found on The Half-life Times

-Dann - 3:25 P.M. EST




August 15, 1998

Decal X-treme

That VoodooExtreme place, that I keep hearing about, has released a screenshot of their decal. It's a pretty nice one. Check it here

-Dann - 10:43 P.M. EST




August 13, 1998

Cendant sale

With Cendant shedding off some of the software companies. (including Sierra and Blizzard) A lot of fans needed an answer on how it will affect Half-life, here's an e-mail blurb:

I'm getting bombarded with emails about this from concerned fans. Can you let people know that we appreciate their interest and concern, and that it isn't going to affect Half-Life's ship date anymore than it's going to affect Diablo 2 or Fisher-Price Little People Discovery Farm.

OK. Maybe it will affect Fisher-Price Little People Discovery Farm because the Little People decide to pull the trigger on their Golden Parachutes when whatever IPO/sale occurs, but everything else is business as normal. So please stop sending me email about this and go back to sending me mail asking me when exactly this summer the game will ship.

Seen that on Blue's

Q&A

LineDetail sent Halflife.net some Q's on the game which Valve answered:

Question#1: I bought a ATi All in wonder pro 8 mb AGP graphics card for my computer, will I still need a voodoo card to see all the excellent special computer graphic effects in the game. Other then that how do you think it will run the game?

Gabe says: We support everything on all of the cards, as well as software (except the water warping effect). and about your card: it should run pretty well. :)

Question #2: I noticed some good players in 1st person shooters use joysticks, should I spend the money and get one for Half-Life or would you suggest something else?

Gabe Says: We all use mouse+keyboard, especially the super hardcore guys. The mouse has a much higher resolution input than a joystick.

-Runabout - 8:08 A.M. EST




August 12, 1998

Sites

Zhyla of Half-life Haven has started a page entitled Zhyla's Half-Life Kitchen.

Another totally new Half-life site called The Half-Life Depot has opened. Go check both out. Found on Atomic half-life

Contests

3dpallette is having an art contest, which the details can be found here.

Found on Atomic half-life

-Dann - 7:28 P.M. EST

Atomic Moves

Good ol' Atomic Half-life has moved to Gameplex. They have a new design and menu done my your truely. And the logo kicks some serious butt.

-Dann - 6:12 P.M. EST

sCary

Looks like sCary is heading over to Seattle to play some Half-life. Hopefully he'll have somethin soon.

-Dann - 2:41 P.M. EST

TeamFortress2 Info

VoodooExtreme has a little info on the release of TF2 as opposed to the Half-life release:

According to Harry "mf" Teasley of Valve, Team Fortress 2 will come out as a separate add-on pack a month or two after Half-Life ships.

-Dann - 7:23 A.M. EST




August 11, 1998

Langsuyar's .plan

Ritual's Matthias Worch updated his .plan on the debate on SiN vs Half-life:

The SiN vs HL debate at 3D Gaming (http://www.3dgaming.net/debates/sin_vs_half-life/ has to be one of the most ridiculous things I have seen for quite a while... Hello? Would you please wait until ppl have actually played HL? Hello, would you please wait until we have released the full version of our game? But ok, if ppl wanna see another "battle of features", go ahead and waste your time...;)

Halflife.Org Contest

There is a new contest up on Halflife.org and Valve which you can win these prizes:

Grand Prize: An autographed copy of Half-Life
First Prize: A Half-Life T-Shirt.
Second Prize: A Half-Life baseball cap.

Don't miss out on a FREE Half-life goodies and the GAME, THE GAME!!!

SiN vs Half-life

On 3D Gaming is a debate going on the subject of "SiN vs Half-life".

There are a lot of these kind of debates going on at Contaminated's forums, but for me it aint rational in making the two games clash. *Sheesh* SiN and Half-life are really different games!! Right down to the gameplay, graphics, environment and more. Its the best that we wait for the full release of these games and then take a poke with it. I'm sure that both SiN and Half-life will rule.(Just my .02 on it =) )

-Runabout - 8:08 A.M. EST

Derailed

Derailed of Twisted Half-life has gone to Seattle and is visiting Valve right now. Meanwhile his temporary page is back at http://planet.ten.net/~depot/twisted/ for today only.

-Dann - 7:06 P.M. EST

Gamer's Portal

I'd like to thank Gamer's Portal for listing our site. Their site has a great listing of all sorts of other gaming sites.

-Dann - 2:45 P.M. EST

Atomic Polls

Just got an e-mail from Dethrone of Atomic Half-Life:

This is Dethrone of Atomic Half-Life. Sven and I have posted 2 polls up on our page. The first question asks, "What contest do you think should be held?", and the second asking, "What will you spend most of your time playing in Half-Life?" Click on the 'Polls' button at the top of the page to vote for the two topics. If you can also post this on your page, i'd greatly appreciate it, thanks.

-Dann - 7:16 A.M. EST




August 10, 1998

Blackmesa

Just got two e-mails from Grunt of The Black Mesa Half-Life Center. Here's one:

I took and copied the PC Games "State of the Game" Half-Life section onto my site. I'd apreciate it if you'd only link to my site and not copy what I've done, because I worked on it for about half an hour. Thanks a lot!

And the other:

There's a new poll at The Black Mesa Half-Life Center which asks "Will you cheat in Half-Life?".

-Dann - 7:28 A.M. EST




August 9, 1998

Sites

There is a new TeamFortress page up, called TF Academy, which will deal with strategies for TeamFortress including individual characters.
Found on Contaminated.net.

New site up at warzone, called The Bunker, mainly a Teamfortress2 page.

Revamps

Alien HQ has a new look, so go check it out.
Found on Halflife.net.

Contests

Two contests for you to try for. One is at Half-life Haven. For this, you must create a win95 wallpaper, size 800X600.

The other is from Contaminated.net. You must be the 100,000 visitor. Go to each site to find out the prizes.

-Dann - 2:52 P.M. EST




August 7, 1998

Editorials

Couple of editorials popped up recently. One entitled: Feeling Left Out? about why Valve is keeping things under wraps. And another entitled: The Spice of Half-Life, talking about the numebr of HL site out there.

Did I post this yet

I'm kinda slow sometimes. Here's a new MPEG from Contaminated, because there at PQ and they get all that stuff. There's also some RealVideo versions and Vivo stuff. The video is of player/character interaction.

And in other news, they got a trip to Valve and exclusive info on decals so they were first at it and posted a few shots of the decals in action (1 | 2 | 3) , as well as a tutorial to make them.

-Dann - 6:59 P.M. EST




August 6, 1998

Weapons

A new weapons site open at halflife.org. Here' the e-mail i received:

It is a good site with lots of HL weapon Info and some new news. I will also be adding more info every day or two and after the game comes out It will be a real good place for all the user created weapons (that people can use for mods and such). Reviews too, Check out the "Other" section for Info about the site and such.

Visit them here.

-Dann - 7:12 A.M. EST




August 5, 1998

Ryan in your Filth

Our hosted clan, Roll in your Filth, has officially merged with the really cool DM mod, Operation Overlord (formerly Saving Private Ryan).

Open Reply

An open relpy to ZaMoose's open letter. It is a very good read. And I have to admit I agree with what both say to an extent. Go read the original letter and the reply.

-Dann - 7:42 P.M. EST

Nova Marines move

Tintivilo of the Nova Marine's sent me an e-mail about the marines moving:

Clan Nova Marines has moved from Halflife.org to http://www.digivill.net/~tint/nova/ the original home to the Nova Marines. My current e-mail address will be intivilous@home.net. This is just so people don`t go looking and not find us :). We are still alive and kicking. Thanks

Tintivilo[NOVA]
intivilous@home.net

-Dann - 4:01 P.M. EST

SiN and Half-life

There is a mention of Half-life at GamePen's Insider Column: "What's Happening in Gaming!", actually its an editorial for Ritual's SiN Demo and the current state of FPS, which is juxtaposed with Valve's Half-life. Heres the stuff:

As I played Sin, I remember thinking, "wow, I’m so glad there are two competing FPS games" and this is really the first time we as gamers have had such a luxury. Sure, Duke Nukem 3D and Doom were competitors while Quake and Unreal are technically competitors, but nothing like the race going on between Sin and Half-Life. Here we have two games; both trying to model realistic environments, integrate story, and innovate gameplay, and both struggling to ship before the other. With Ritual and Valve striving to deliver the best possible competitive product (and if they say they’re not worried about or competing with the other, they’re lying), the ante continually is raised on games of this type which is good. Good for us all, for out of this, we’re seeing some stellar games making it no longer, "which one will I buy?" but "which one will I buy first?"
Me Personally? its gonna be Half-life!

-Runabout - 2:18 P.M. EST

VE's Half-life Preview

Voodoo Extreme has its Half-life preview up. Cool who visited Valve's offices a couple of weeks ago has seen the latest build of the game, here's a sampling:

"To sum up this brief preview, I gotta say that Half-Life will 0wn the FPS market for some time, this game has Game of the Year stamped all over its ass, if you don't get this game I'll personally break you down :) "
Included are new screenshots of VE's preview of the game and Valve's offices here.

-Runabout - 10:47 P.M. EST




August 4, 1998

Correspondence Section Opens at Contaminated

Contaminated's Correspondence Section is up! Giving the Half-life community the link to the developers themselves. This gives the community (we) the chance to ask Valve some questions and answer some from them.

Submit your Q's at: correspondence@contaminated.net
Q's from Valve here.

-Runabout - 12:54 P.M. EST




August 3, 1998

Story

Me and PDC_Blitzkreig (er Blitzkreig and I) have spent a while writing up a nice large story to fill up your time. It's from the views of both the Fastwalker and Panthereye. Go to Twisted to read it.

Links

I went through and redid all the fan links adding new ones and killing old ones and then organizing them by date. And I didn't rate them cause that's not cool. If your site is not on it and it should be, e-mail me.

-Dann - 9:28 P.M. EST

Editorials

Planetquake has an editorial up on how developers/games in the pipeline are having a hardtime pushing it to the release date. Titled: "When it's done", it's a good read check it out.

GameSlice has one up too, tentatively titled: "How Soon Is Too Soon?"

-Runabout - 5:50 P.M. EST

dx6 released!

This is not Half-life related: Direct X 6 is out! (not from the warez thingy!) Download it here. -Runabout - 5:39 P.M. EST

Stories

Twisted has two new stories, one titled Death of a scientist, and Paranoia Begs Me Not To Round That Corner.

Help wanted

Atomic Half-life is looking for a new logo. Here' what they have to say:
Ok, I didn't think I had to go through the trouble to say this, but Sven and I are in bad need of a GOOD logo for Atomic Half-Life (Here of course :) ). We need a logo that will fit into something we are working on (secret), and has to be around the size of our current logo (see top). The size is about 375x275 pixels, width being 375, and length 275 pixels. We are looking for something creative (Please nothing like the logo we have) and we need to have a good pic of a headcrab flying forward in there or something similiar like that. I've *tried* to do it but hated my creations and got really annoyed/frustrated. If you have some time on your hands and are interested in helping, we'd gladly appreciate it, and if we get enough submissions, we will keep you posted on which one we think will be good for our little project.

-Dann - 2:56 P.M. EST

Japanese Ads

I saw this on Contaminated, which got it from Halflife.net (heh),that Midori was passing around a Japanese ad version of Half-life.

(Updated by Dann)
The translation to the ad has been given to Halflife.net:
Big text top left:

Attack and kill
Then stay alive

Under half-life (on the box)

Strange aliens draw near and various hurdles stand in your way.
Real detail, stunning graphics complete with full colored lighting allows
you to truly appreciate the unknown world.
Unravel puzzles and kill cunningly intelligent adversaries.
Your adversaries don't just attack they enjoy the hunt.

Polls

There are new polls up, go vote some:

On Contaminated: "What type of weapon do you prefer in a game: Projectile (bullets, nails, lasers) or Explosives (rockets, grenades, mines)?"

And Black Mesa Half-life Center's: "How will you listen to the music in Half-Life?"

-Runabout - 11:16 A.M. EST




August 2, 1998

Planet Half-life

A new site/planet opened entitled PlanetHalflife, and it's not run/owned by PlanetQuake, so it's sure to be a really cool place. Found on Half-life times/

-Dann - 9:56 P.M. EST




August 1, 1998

Half-life MPG's from E3 are released!

Valve has released the movie from E3 presenting Half-life's gameplay, combat, and the use of proximity mines. Download it here (13.4 meg).

"Behind Valve's Closed Doors"

Half-life.org's "Behind Valve's Closed Doors" article was updated and a good read as well, added to the list is Brett Johnson.

Seen from Blue's

-Runabout - 5:58 A.M. EST

HalfAmp fixed

Here's a small 12K fix for the HalfAmp skin. I forgot play buttons in Window shade mode. Stupid me. The full download also has the new fix. Full | Patch

-Dann - 9:31 A.M. EST





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