- 7:44 P.M. EST
- 7:44 P.M. EST
- 6:48 A.M. EST
VALVE AND SIERRA STUDIOS
Revolutionary multiplayer functionality for the mainstream gamer
E3, Atlanta, GA. - Valve L.L.C. and Sierra Studios today unveiled
a collection of innovative multiplayer features for Half-Life, the
highly anticipated 3D first-person action game and debut release
from Valve. The new features, intended to broaden the appeal of
multiplayer action gaming to a wider gaming audience, are being
showcased for the first time at the 1998 Electronic Entertainment
Expo, held in Atlanta, GA May 27 through May 30.
"With the multiplayer functionality in Half-Life, we are going to
make action gaming on the Internet a lot more fun and a lot less
frustrating to the mainstream gamer," said Scott Lynch, Senior Vice
President of Sierra Studios.
The multiplayer features of Half-Life that will be shown are:
One Button Play
Gamers will be able to be up and running in a multiplayer game with
the press of a single button. There will be no configuration hassles,
no IP addresses, and no need for additional utilities or patches.
The Half-Life launcher will automatically connect to the Internet,
locate the master server, select an appropriate low-ping game, download
any resources necessary to play, and launch the game.
Find Your Friends
With Half-Life's integrated communications and searching facilities,
gamers will be able to find their friends no matter where they are on
the Internet, get together, talk to each other, and then jump into a
game together. It's also easy to set up a private game that only you
and your friends can play.
Be Yourself
Anonymity is a thing of the past with Half-Life. As part of customizing
the appearance of their onscreen character, players can scan a picture of
themselves onto their computer and have that appear as their character's
face in the game (and on their opponents screen). Members of clans can
spray paint their clan logo or other bitmap on the opposing teams territory
to let them know who's really in charge. A master server keeps track of
your accomplishments and standings versus all of the other Half-Life players.
Lag-friendly game design
For many players new to the Internet the amount of time it takes for
information to travel back and forth across the Internet, known as lag,
can make the fast pace of action gaming very frustrating. By the time
the server has registered a fire command, the target has already moved.
Half-Life addresses this by designing for lag. One example of this that
will be shown at E3 is one of the weapons, the Snark, a fire-and-forget
organic grenade that is completely independent of the player's ping time.
Cooperative and Competitive scenarios
Many mainstream gamers are interested in both the competitive and
cooperative aspects of the multiplayer experience. Half-Life will contain
both head-to-head and cooperative scenarios.
Auto Download and Configuration
Even experienced gamers can be frustrated by the complexities of downloading
new maps, placing add-ons into the right directories, and knowing which of
these should be used with which servers. Half-Life makes all of these
operations automatic and completely transparent to the player. If a player
connects to a server, and the server administrator is running a Half-Life
game that requires new sounds, new models, new maps, or additional DLL's, all
of these will be automatically downloaded and configured for the user.
24 by 7 Server Support
Players will no longer have to worry if their favorite Half-Life game or
map is
available. With free support from WON.Net, they will be guaranteed that
all of
the popular levels will be available at all time, with nothing more than a
WON.Net registration. A master server will also keep track of all available
servers running on the Internet, which games they are running, all standings
and scores, and what servers offer players the lowest ping times,
Additional Features
In addition to the above, Half-Life features 32-player Internet and LAN
multiplayer support. Servers are available via WON.net, Gamespy or user
hosted servers. Half-Life's skeletal animation system lets players see
which weapons opponents are using. Half-Life's dynamic environments add to
the realism and chaotic fun: burn marks, bullet holes and blood marks appear
on surfaces. Multiplayer levels include player-controlled trains and conveyer
belts, which offer creative means of offense and defense.
Voted "Best Game at ECTS" by All Games Network and winner of "Best Action
Game" and "Best Take on First-Person Action" in Gamepen's "Best of 1997 E3
Awards", Half-Life combines the most advanced, proprietary technology with
genre-breaking gameplay elements to create the next revolution in computer
gaming.
Half-Life, on PC CD-ROM, is scheduled to ship in Summer 1998 and will be
available at most software retailers, as well as through Sierra Direct at
(800) 757-7707.
Founded in 1996, Valve develops games software. Based in Kirkland, Washington,
the company consists of more than 20 leading artists, game designers and
programmers. More information about Valve is available through the company's
web site at www.valvesoftware.com.
Sierra Studios, a member of the Sierra family and a brand division of parent
company Cendant Software, is dedicated to bringing to market computer game
entertainment software that reflects a commitment to established game brands,
quality gameplay and represents a move to bring new and innovative experiences
to gamers. Encompassing the creation, progress and advancement of the computer
gaming industry, Sierra Studios embodies the new era of entertainment software
excellence. Sierra is part of Cendant Software, one of the largest PC consumer
software groups in the world, and a leader in entertainment and educational
software. Cendant Software consolidates the sales, manufacturing, finance,
accounting and management of Cendant Corporation's software divisions,
including Sierra, Knowledge Adventure, Davidson & Associates, Inc. and
Blizzard Entertainment. Cendant Corporation is the result of the December 1997
merger between CUC International and HFS Incorporated, creating a business and
consumer services company focused on real estate, travel and membership.
###
For more information, please contact:
Lisa Mennet
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, May 27, 1998
DEBUT HALF-LIFE'S MULTIPLAYER FEATURES
AT 1998 ELECTRONIC ENTERTAINMENT EXPO
Eric Twelker
Sierra Studios
425-649-9800 x5862
eric.twelker@sierra.com
Valve Software
425-889-9642 x107
Lisa@valvesoftware.com
And the other
VALVE L.L.C. ACQUIRES TF SOFTWARE PTY. LTD.;
E3, Atlanta, GA. - Valve L.L.C., developer of the eagerly anticipated
Half-Life, announced today the acquisition of TF Software Pty. Ltd.,
Australian developer of Team Fortress, one of the most popular
multiplayer games on the Internet.
Team Fortress (TF) is a first person action game with strong team
oriented play and strategic elements. Each member of a team takes on a
specific class, such as scout, sniper, or engineer, in competition with
other teams. The player's class determines his or her appearance, tools
or weapons, and skills. Close coordination with other team members is
the key to success in the game; it is also the source of the game's
long-standing popularity. The original Team Fortress, developed as an
extension to id Software's Quake, was released in August 1996. Today,
approximately 40% of current Quake servers are dedicated to Team
Fortress.
The original Team Fortress was developed as an extension to id
Software's Quake. Approximately 40% of the current Quake servers are
dedicated to Team Fortress.
"When we began development of Team Fortress 2 our goal was to build the
best team-based action game yet," said Team Fortress's Managing
Director, Ian Caughley. "Most multiplayer action games are just
collections of individuals killing each other, but with TF 2, the
emphasis is as much on team play and strategy as it is on shooting."
"We looked at all of the different game platforms we could host TF 2
on," added Robin Walker, lead designer of TF 2. "Half-Life's advanced
technology, as well as its flexibility for extensions, with features
like client-side DLL support and add-on controllable HUD's (Heads Up
Display), meant we could do things with Team Fortress 2 that wouldn't be
possible on any other system."
"This is the best thing that could have happened for Team Fortress and
the fans of the game who have been waiting for TF 2," said John Cook,
lead developer of Team Fortress. "The resources we now have at our
disposal ensure the game will have functionality and breadth of support
that it wouldn't have had if we had continued on our own."
Sierra Studios and Valve also announced that Team Fortress 2 will be
shipping as a Half-Life expansion pack later this year. "Half-Life is
clearly perceived in both the user and press communities as the best
single-player action game for 1998. Team Fortress is one of the most
popular games being played on the Internet. Building TF 2 on top of
Half-Life's will result in a multiplayer experience of much greater
depth and broader appeal than anything currently available," said Scott
Lynch, Senior Vice President of Sierra Studios.
Details on the TF 2 expansion pack will be forthcoming.
###
For more information, please contact:
Lisa Mennet
Ian Caughley
---------------------------------
Team Fortress Background
The first version of Team Fortress, an add-on for Quake, was released on
August 24, 1996. It was originally written because the authors wanted a
first-person perspective, team strategy game for LAN competitions. Version
1.0 only included the Scout, Sniper, Soldier, Demolitions Man and Medic
classes and did not support any map entities.
Shortly thereafter version 1.1 of Team Fortress was released, which
incorporated the beginnings of TF map support, some playability improvements
and the Heavy Weapons Guy. These features were followed by the incorporation
of team objectives into the game design and the 2Fort map, perhaps the most
copied map design on the Internet..
On the 22nd of December 1996 Version 2.0 was released for Quake World. It was
the first released Quake World add-on. At this point, interest in Team
Fortress exploded, with over 40% of the Quake community running servers
dedicated to Team Fortress within several months.
TF Software incorporated on April 4, 1997 to commercially develop updates
and future releases of Team Fortress. TF Software combines the efforts of
approximately 20 developers, artists, musicians, modelers, and map makers
in Australia, Canada, the US, Germany, and Japan.
Director Bios
Robin Walker, Founder and Lead Designer
Robin attended RMIT University prior to joining NEC where he wrote power
station communications software. At RMIT he met John Cook and Ian Caughley
and began development of the original Team Fortress. Robin has won three
Australian national deathmatch competitions. He is responsible for the design
and game DLL in Team Fortress 2.
John Cook, Founder and Lead Programmer
John attended RMIT studying Computer Science prior to co-founding TF Software.
He has had a number of network administration and installation jobs to pay the
bills while developing Team Fortress. Software he developed is being used on
Toshiba shoproom floors. John is the lead programmer for Team Fortress 2.
Ian Caughley, Founder and Managing Director
Ian attended RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia where he received degrees
in Aerospace engineering and Computer Science. In addition to running the
business side of TF Software, he has designed many of the visual elements in
Team Fortress 2. His most ignominious achievement was declaring the
Australian
GA-8 aircraft aeroelastically sound two months before the prototype plowed
into
the turf.
TF Software Pty. Ltd.
WOW, it'll be out when it's out, so for now, stop wasting time in chat rooms, and scraping for news and go out
and get some fresh air, and maybe meet some people you know in person.
When jumping, will the character merely levitate with legs swinging
like other games or will the character actually swing his legs/arms,
etc?
When running, will the character have realistic motion(like
GoldenEye) unlike other 3D shooters(like Quake)?
Is that a small ponytail I see on the back of Gordon's head?
Found on the Breeding Grounds.
2.Will there be a powerup that will let you use dual weapons?
3. Regarding the Shotgun, Will it come in single and double barrels ?
and How will the gun load ? (pump, lever) What about the choice of
either using a slug, or having the ammo spread?
4. Will Half-Life come bundled with Multi-Playr goodies such as "Capture
the Flag" and maybe a team fortress type play ?
Found on the Breeding Grounds who found it on
the haven
© 1997 Mail me
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, May 28, 1998
SIERRA STUDIOS TO PUBLISH TEAM FORTRESS 2 AS
HALF-LIFE EXPANSION PACK
Eric Twelker
Sierra Studios
425-649-9800 x5862
eric.twelker@sierra.com
Valve Software
425-889-9642 x107
Lisa@valvesoftware.com
TF Software
425-889-9642 x122
Ian@teamfortress.com
PO Box 54, Kew East 3102, Victoria
Melbourne, Australia
ACN 078 102 459
teamf@teamfortress.com
- 5:15 P.M. EST
TeamFortress2
Just found outfrom Sven Viking of Atomic Half-life this
URL saying that Team Fortess software was bought by
Valve exclusivly for Half-life. I'll quote some stuff to make me look professional:
The acquisition of this mod by Valve means that Team Fortress 2, designed for the Quake 2 engine, will be exclusive to Valve's Half-Life.
The mod will be released as the first Half-Life expansion pack at retail stores this fall. It will only work with Half-Life and is the first multi-player only add-on pack for a game in this genre (that we're aware of).
Half-Life itself is still scheduled for this summer, while the expansion is due in the fall. Expect it to be priced at typical add-on pack prices (around $30). No Team Fortress 2 is planned for Quake II, we're told.
- 6:57 A.M. EST
Redwood
The main man, Redwood, got his Half-life preview
up and it's phat . He can really write.
There are also a few new screenshots up too, so go read it.
Found on the Breeding Grounds
- 5:09 P.M. EST
Half-of-it
Our old half-life webmaster, OverLord, is back and with his old page,
Half-of-it.
Osprey
Atomic Half-life has some info on the real life
Osprey aircraft which should be carried over into Half-life.
- 6:53 A.M. EST
MPEG
Contaminated.net got an MPEG of some scripted
action and the lovely sewers in Half-life. I mirrored the file
here on my school account for faster downloading.
Probably faster if you on the East Side.
- 9:46 P.M. EST
Release date
Here's news about the release date staright from Valve found by
the breeding grounds that was found on some other site."The current release date for Half-Life is Summer." - 8:19 P.M. EST
AlienHQ
EDfanatic and Redghost redesigned their page all from the aliens side of view.
Point of interest is the story which is a unique view.
Found on the breeding Grounds who found it on
eXponenetial
Roll in you own term
The DM group, Roll in you own Filth, has shown some creativity, they are collectivly known as an army,
and are made up of smaller groups lead by each of the founding members known as squads. Nice thinking guys.
Interview
Mike Harrington, the Co-founder of Valve, was interviewed by Jaspur over on
Contaminated.net
- 4:58 P.M. EST
Unknown
I missed this throughout the confusion, but I got a request for a site mention for the
Unknown um.. group.
They haven't decided on a name yet nor decided on clan, squad or other term (since they
are supporters of the choose-what-sounds-best-for-your-group idea), so they need
your help to decide all this, and you will receive full credit for your input. They hope
to have a strong membership by the time Half-life comes out so they can get right to
challenging other in DM. Please visit for more detailed information on joining.
- 6:50 A.M. EST
Squads again and again
I hate to be still wasting time on this, but the Breeding Ground
is also recognizing the fact that you don't have to stick with squads. So if you don't want squad in your name,
contact us or them, and possibly Atomic Half-life for a site
mention.
DM ring
The owner of the Half-life web ring, had started another ring for the DM groups' sites. Check it
here.
Found on the Breeding Grounds
- 8:33 P.M. EST
Squads again
Quicksilver added a post to Contaminated saying that he
did not declare that the official name for Half-life "clans" would be squads, but um, yes he did.
Anyway I don't care, if everyone else want to call them squads, that's cool. If you want to be an
army like Roll in you Filth, a clan if your still a
Quake fan at heart, a homey if you cool, or the soon to be accepted squad term then go with that
and we'll always post your site here with whatever you choose.
- 7:10 A.M. EST
Clans, squads, armies, homeys, dorks.
Just to clear up confusion, about the name for "clans" in Half-life. There hasn't been an official decision on
what to call them. Some have called themselves clans such as
the Unknown clan,
S.T.A.R.R., and
United States Special Forces.
Others, have thought up the world squad, although I don't know of anyone using this.
Another chose Army, like Roll in you Filth which was the first
group to begin a DM allegiance.
And still others became pirates as did the The Dogg Pound.
Anyway, what I mean is a groups a group whatever the name is, and you can choose whatever you feel like, so
don't let anyone self-proclaim that they are setting a standard. Half-life will be a different type of game
so why just settle with a new name, why not a new way of thinking? Just my 2 cents
The Better Half got Better
Seems I missed this, but the better half got a redesign
and looks really sweet. We welcome Isaac Hayes, and Biggs to their site.
- 9:16 P.M. EST
Contaminated.net
Jaspur, Nuke from Gamehut, and the d-kay people started up a Half-life domain over at Contaminated.net. Check it.
- 8:13 P.M. EST
Speedy Page
Sick of waiting hours for a page to load? Well a new no frills Half-life page came out called
Selzier's Half-Life. It claims
to be the fastest and it's true.
- 9:53 P.M. EST
Coupla new clans
Sven Viking from Atomic Half-life found this on the Team
Fortress Home Page:TF Software is currently working hard on our first commercial venture: Team Fortress II for engines unnamed.
We have not yet finalized an agreement with our distributer so we are not able to release much information yet.
- 9:33 A.M. EST
Coupla new clans
Two new clans; 1)The Unknown Clan
and
2) Blitz from the Haven
and Pulse from Biological Warfare
are starting one and will think of a name later on when they get more people.
Found on eXponential
Fortress of Teams II
There' rumors that Team Fortress 2 might be a Half-life mod, BUT this is only a rumor so
don't believe it.
Found on eXponential
Gordon look alike
Found this on eXponential about Gordon's look:...The current opinion is that Gordon is a cross between Chuck and Malcom X.
The first version was a dead ringer for Chuck, but the Sierra folks thought it
looked too much like Duke Nukem (Chuck's alter ego) so he darkened the hair
and gave him a more serious expression.
Interview
There's an interview over at VX with Ted Backman, the creature creator. But for some reason they
kept asking about weapons, so most he the answers are, "I can't say" or "No Comment".
Our old Ted B. interview is here.
- 1:23 P.M. EST
Stealing Spree
Okay, for anyone who has a half-life site or is going to start one, you may use any image on this site.
Some you probably won't want but whatever, just say you got them here, but I think that's pretty standard.
Try looking in the images/ directory for quick browsing.
- 5:49 P.M. EST
1st HL Clan
Yes, the first Half-life clan has emerged, named "Roll In Your Filth".
Contact Goalie for info on joining.
Their page is here.
Maps
Oh, and that monkey, Dravistyy, has overhauled his
map page, over at halflife.net(no dash).
He's also starting a syphilis TC, so if you want to help with the pox textures, contact him.
- 6:47 P.M. EST
Daily Death v1.25
If you have Shockwave Flash 3 installed on you computer, you might notice the new logo and menu.
If you don't haven't installed, the page should look as it has. You can get the file
here. It's only around 200K so it's not a drag.
BTW 1.0 - Old Geocities pre-me
1.1 - The silly Background and stuff I made
1.2 - Redid tables in news and made the site darker and changes the menu
- 8:54 P.M. EST
Rift Raf
Rift has started a page about why
he should get the beta. Pretty funny stuff.
- 5:34 P.M. EST
Creature info
If you're new to Half-life or just looking for more info you might have missed, head over to
Atomic Half-life. They have all the current
info, insites, and keep adding almost daily. Added today, are the bat thingies, and bullsquid.
- 10:50 P.M. EST
CGW scans
Dave from VX scanned the article from CGW, which has some pretty
good info and screens (new weapons).
Found on the Breeding Grounds who found it on
VX.
Localized damage
Ripped from the the Breeding Grounds who ripped it
from eXponential who got it from Ken Birdwell:We're having hit specific damage, but not all the monsters will
have all the hit specific reactions. The humanoid monsters you
fight with most will have the most variety, head, arms, legs, etc..
Very small monsters have one or two, and some of the very large
monsters it just didn't make sense to react to small areas since
they can only really be damaged with area weapons (grenades) so
they have a few generic left/right side flinches
Chucky's back
EDfanatics HL Sanctuary got an interview with
Chuck Jones about animation in Half-life:Since you're the artist, I'll ask you these: Here are a few questions
on the character animation in Half-Life.
-----Ok....shoot.
-----We have jumping animations for him now that have arm
motions. We have to be careful because you must think in
Deathmatch terms.....what if Player shoots while in air? His
weapon cannot swing around. We'll address this, this
character system gives us unmatched freedom.
-----With this system, we can have a large amount of frames. I
have been satisfied with the quality of animation we've
been putting out.
-----You guessed it, man, your'a eagle eye! :)CGDC
The ORG caught Half-life in action on a huge machine (Pentium II 400 with 2 Righteous 3D II's)
and wrote about it here.
Found on jaspur's.
Half-life beside you
(That was a pun on an Alice in Chains song in case you didn't get it)
Chuck Jones sent VX half-life a picture of
Jerry Cantrell's tattoo. Go there to see it.
Found on jaspur's.
- 6:34 P.M. EST
Gamers Zone poll
Another poll to tell which game is coolest. This time at Gamers Zone.
Go vote for Half-life.
Found from Valve.
Gabe's Fireside Chats
Gabe comforts our pain with some more info on the use key, shotgun, guns akimbo(er lack of),
and multiplayer(no comment):
1. With the Use key that you stated earlier will you be able to pick up
items (maybe a shard of glass, chair, etc.) and use them as a weapon or
maybe throw them at a monster ?
-----Yes.
-----No.
-----It is a Franchi-Spas 12 semi-automatic assault shotgun. It loads from
the bottom. We don't have an option to fire a slug.
-----we aren't saying anything at this time.
- 5:04 P.M. EST
PC Gamer add
Blitz's homey, Cool from the Blood2 Pit, scanned the new PC Gamer ad for Half-life. Go to his
site to view it.
- 9:57 P.M. EST
Mr. Friendly and the Big Momma
Atomic Half-life in addition to the Fast Walker info,
there is info on the Big Momma and Mr. Friendly.
- 7:34 P.M. EST
The other realms of Half-Life