Half-Life: Day One

This article is non-canon. Its subject matter does not take place in the "real" Half-Life universe.

Half-Life: Day One
Release date	November 1, 1998
Genre	First-person shooter
Mode	Single-player
Distribution	Valve Corporation
Specifications
System requirements	500 Mhz processor, 96 MB RAM,16 MB video card
Platform	Windows
Input	Keyboard and mouse
Engine	GoldSrc
Production information
Developer	Valve Corporation
Series information
Half-Life
Previous game	N/A
Next game	Half-Life

Half-Life: Day One is the initial pre-release demo of Half-Life. It was designed exclusively for OEM partnerships and was often bundled with graphics cards. It was never available to the general public. Half-Life’s proper demo (available free to the general public), is Half-Life: Uplink, which was released several months after the full game.

Plot

Day One begins at the same point as the full game, but ends after the player completes the chapter "We've Got Hostiles", at the end of the first day of the game's plot. The levels accessed in this demo are overall identical to those that appear in the full game.

Differences

The demo does have some minor differences from the retail version of Half-Life.

• The console and cheats cannot be directly activated, however there are tricks on how to enable it, which can be found in the "Trivia" section of this page.
• Direct3D is not supported (only supports Software mode and OpenGL)
• The content stored in the .pak files have priority over the files placed in the actual folders.
• Up to 25 grenades can be carried instead of 10. Additionally, they don't explode in the player's hands if they are cooked for too long, and it is possible to throw them farther than the retail version.
• The Glock 17 pistol can have an additional round in the chamber after reloading a non-empty magazine, increasing the capacity to 18 rounds.
• The MP5 already has 50 loaded rounds when picked up.
• The Valve theme (officially known as Hazardous Environments) plays when picking up the MP5 for the first time.
• The shotgun does not get 4 extra shells in reserve when picking it up.
• The shotgun's pump sound is always heard at the right time.
• Picking up ammunition for the pistol or the shotgun grants the player 30 extra rounds instead of 17 and 12.
• The Long Jump Module shown in the hazard course looks like a beta HEV battery with a red color instead of a jetpack.
• The HEV battery has a different appearance.
• Neither the pistol nor the MP5 reload automatically after emptying a magazine.
• There is no secondary attack for the pistol; it can only fire in semi-automatic mode.
• HUD sprites found in the Day One files feature an early RPG icon, an unused battery-style HEV suit indicator as seen in E3 1998 videos, fewer sprites for 320 screen width and 320x sprites that do not feature the bar near the man showing suit power.
• The HECU Laser Tripmine uses the E3 1998 model. Though seen in "We've Got Hostiles" the player never gets to use it as a weapon (since the Tripmine is obtained at the end of "Blast Pit", which is not in "Day One").
• Zoom can be toggled by pressing F11.
• When the player reaches the surface in the chapter "We've Got Hostiles", it is daytime instead of sundown.
• The access to the storage chamber in the beginning of "Office Complex" (when the shotgun is first found) is not blocked by boxes. The storage chamber itself, is also a part of c1a2
• There are more vents in the area where the MP5 is found in the chapter "We've Got Hostiles".
• The area seen during the Resonance Cascade in which Vortigaunts surround Gordon is brighter, its walls can be seen with a flashlight and the player's movement is not blocked.
• "screenshot" command saves screenshots in broken 8-bit PCX files, while the retail version saves them in TGA format. "snapshot" command works the same way as in the final version (F8 by default)
• Upward looking is limited like in Quake (because of this, if Gordon is caught in the Barnacle's tongue, he cannot kill it until the barnacle inflicts damage).
• Blood is flowing (as it is in Half-Life Alpha 0.52) while in retail it is splashing.
• Autoaim is enabled by default and cannot be disabled.
• In "We've got Hostiles", the G-man has a different reaction when being shot by the player. If he is fired upon enough times, he will grab his briefcase to his chest level and run, apparently scared from the bullets, to the area containing the elevator.
• The HECU troops only feature the beret and the gasmask soldiers, and they do not use the shotgun as their primary weapon.
• The death of the Bullsquid features the creature flipping upward, similar to the Headcrab, but in some cases it dies like in retail.
• At the ventilation shaft where the game ends, even if the player tries to reach the bottom vent quickly, it is blocked by a fence thus cutting off access.
• Some animations in Barney's .mdl file (which can be seen in Half-Life's model viewer) were cut in the retail version of game.
• When the player throws a grenade, it plays a Satchel sound effect.
• Every character has beta animations that are not included in the retail version.
• If the player accesses the room with the MP5 ammo, the scientist in the freezer room will be alive instead of being dead.

Characters

• Gordon Freeman
• The G-Man
• Black Mesa Security Force
• Black Mesa Science Team

Enemies

• Xen
  • Barnacle
  • Bullsquid
  • Headcrab
  • Houndeye
  • Vortigaunt
  • Zombie

• Hazardous Environment Combat Unit
  • HECU Troopers

Weapons

• Glock 17: The most common handgun.
• Crowbar: The most iconic weapon of the series. Can be used to break crates and weapon boxes, as well to kill enemies.
• Mk 2 Grenade: The most common used hand grenade. Can be thrown at enemies for an explosive radius of damage.
• HECU SPAS-12: The most common shotgun used by the HECU. It has high power and causes high damage.
• Laser Tripmine (Not usable): A laser tripmine device that explodes upon movement.
• MP5: The most common automatic firearm used by the HECU.

Trivia

• It is not possible to activate the console, however it is possible both to enter console commands and to see console output.
  • To enter console commands, "gfx\shell\kb_act.lst" file should be extracted from "valve\pak0.pak", a new line in "command" "any name" should be added to kb_act.lst, kb_act.lst should be added to "gfx\shell" of pak0.pak, and a key should be bound to a new command in the main menu.
  • To see console output, the game should be launched with -condebug command line argument. The output will be written into "valve\qconsole.log".
• Day One DLLs were built on August 31, 1998, and the executable file was built on September 1. Its build number is 676. It is OEM Release Candidate 4, however, the text in top-right corner of the console (cannot be seen in game but can be seen inside engine DLLs) says "Half-Life 1.0 Alpha build 676", possibly a leftover from early alpha builds. Executable file version is 4.0.0.1, possibly referring to its Release Candidate number, but version range 4.x was later taken by dedicated server version of Half-Life.
• If the player attempts to access the area where "Blast Pit" was supposed to load the game will crash because the could not find a Blast Pit map.

Gallery

Mr. Valve's model.

The Long Jump Module.

The Battery.

The E3 1998 HECU Laser Tripmine, shown in E3 Grunts video.

The early HUD selection icon for the late 1997 RPG found in the Day One files.

External links

• Download link

References

The Half-Life Wiki has more images related to Half-Life: Day One.