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Get Your Free TVs!

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Get Your Free TVs! was the very first Half-Life 2 test level to be created in 2001 when the team had only a rough script of the game, some concept art and was experimenting the new technology.[1] It consisted in a test sequence designed to highlight all the new technology created for the game and test the NPCs and physics, not to be included in the final product. Based on a very early Source engine,[2] this sequence was the real start of the game development.

Contents

[edit] Description

The concept was to simulate a street war between rioting citizens and the Metrocops sent to contain them. Such a sequence would test the engine's ability to create a vast, believable world and lifelike characters. There would be APCs and tanks rolling down the streets. Citizens would throw Molotov cocktails at the vehicles, which would then explode. Other characters would start looting stores and yell, "Get your free TVs!". There was even a hand-to-hand fighting system so the Metrocops and Citizens could get into fistfights, feature never implemented or seen in the final game.

[edit] Trivia

  • The Citizens had the original "gas mask" design shown in Raising the Bar and in the map "e3_strider".[3]
  • The small map can be found in the WC mappack under the name "citytest"[4], with several versions ranging from "03" to "09".

[edit] "city_test" gallery

These screenshots were taken from a fixed version of "city_test03.vmf". Broken links to textures, models, skybox and sprites have been fixed.[4]

[edit] Notes and references

  1. "The Final Hours of Half-Life 2", Page 7: Zombie Basketball, on GameSpot
  2. It might be incorrectly confused with GoldSrc, given the Half-Life-like HUD seen on the screenshot.
  3. Image:E3 strider.jpg
  4. 4.0 4.1 WC mappack

[edit] External links

Real world subjects
Half-Life game series Half-Life: Day One (demo) · Half-Life · Half-Life: Opposing Force · Half-Life: Blue Shift · Half-Life: Decay · Half-Life: Source
Half-Life 2 · Half-Life 2: Episode One · Half-Life 2: Episode Two · Half-Life 2: Episode Three
Portal game series Portal: First Slice (demo) · Portal · Portal: Still Alive (Xbox 360) · Portal 2
Cut games Prospero · Half-Life: Uplink (demo) · Get Your Free TVs! (technology demo) · Half-Life 2 Beta (leaked content) · Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (technology demo)
Other related games Codename: Gordon · Deathmatch Classic · Half-Life 2: Deathmatch · Half-Life 2: Survivor (arcade) · Mods · Narbacular Drop
Game soundtracks Half-Life soundtrack · Half-Life: Opposing Force soundtrack · Half-Life: Blue Shift soundtrack · Half-Life 2 soundtrack · Half-Life 2: Episode One soundtrack · Portal soundtrack · Half-Life 2: Episode Two soundtrack
Game engines GoldSrc · Source
Other softwares Source SDK · Steam · Valve Hammer Editor
Game developer companies Gearbox Software · Valve Corporation
Production staff (composers) Stephen Bahl · Kelly Bailey · Jonathan Coulton · Chris Jensen
Production staff (conceptual artists) Viktor Antonov · Ted Backman · Stephen Bahl · Kelly Bailey · Jeremy Bennett · Dhabih Eng · Moby Francke · Chuck Jones · Eric Kirchmer · Tri Nguyen
Production staff (writers) Stephen Bahl · Chet Faliszek · Marc Laidlaw · Randy Pitchford · Erik Wolpaw
Production staff (other) Mike Harrington · Doug Lombardi · Gabe Newell · Randy Pitchford
Voice actors John Aylward · Adam Baldwin · Robert Culp · Merle Dandridge · Michelle Forbes · Jim French · Louis Gossett Jr. · Robert Guillaume · Mary Kae Irvin · Kathy Levin · John Patrick Lowrie · Ellen McLain · Lani Minella · Mike Patton · Harry S. Robins · Michael Shapiro · Jon St. John · Tony Todd
Character models Ted Backman · Kelly Bailey · Alésia Glidewell · Eric Kirchmer · Jamil Mullen
Other ApertureScience.com · Commentary notes · Development of Half-Life 2 · Half-Life High Definition Pack · Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar · Mr. Valve · The Orange Box · The Orange Box Achievements · "Still Alive"