You Can Play Beta Version of Half-Life Thanks to Developer

Waiting for Half-Life 3 is an ungrateful and futile task, but no one can stop fans from inhaling unhealthy amounts of hopium with every tiny leak they find. But today, forget "tiny" because former game developer Chad Jessup has dropped a huge Half-Life 1-shaped bomb on fans of the series.

While cleaning his storage, he found tons of interesting old stuff, and one of the treasures was a CD with a beta version of the first Half-Life he tested back in the 90s. 

"[I] was someone that came into their studio and looked like an idiot trying to solve their puzzles," he shared. "I can still point to the changes they made to the game because I was an idiot."

The version on the CD, dated October 20, 1998, is "a few weeks before the full release, but folks have found unfinished levels, script and texture changes too." You can see the differences for yourself if you download this build from Archive. Or you can visit archivist Reagan's blog for more details.

Apart from Half-Life, Jessup has worked on expansions for Destiny 2, Shadowrun, Kinect Sports, and "about 35" other games. 

If you wish to see what fascinating relics he has in his storage, follow him on X/Twitter, where he earlier commented on a former 343 Industries developer calling Microsoft's contracting policies "one of the biggest issues that Halo faces." Jessup doesn't think that it's a new problem and says it is actually "better today" than it was 20 years ago. "If there is a quality drop lately, it's not because of this, not that it helps, but it's not a new thing," he believes.

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