Dreamcast Half-Life

Went to give this a shot the other day, and I was again frustrated to the point of turning off the DC by the frequent and long load times within the game. I seem to recall hearing that there were several versions of the game released, with one being a more final version than others that had fewer and shorter loads. Is this true? Also, is there any sort of official version numbering that can be found in the games themselves - possibly in the console interface when using a keyboard?

Assuming there are several versions, does anyone know of any differences among them, as pertaining to gameplay, graphics, sound, controls, etc.

 

Either you have a very short tolerant level or you have a very crappy build of Dreamcast Half Life :-D . The one I have isn't exactly fast to load but the game is complete since I finished it and the Blue Shift section. Half Life may take a while to load but it's no where near as bad as Shadowman and that was a released game.

Yakumo

 

Yeah, the load times are annoying, but DC HL is a quality conversion. Not had a crack at Blue Shift yet though....

Would be interesting to compile a list of all the different releases and compare any differences. Just need to find a decent way to distinguish between versions...

 

talking about HL versions, the one i downloaded don't let me save. they say my memory card i full, but it's only at 1/2 full.

is there really other versions on the web?

as for the loading time, its not that bad imo.

 

hmmm that sounds annoyingly different from my version :smt067

 

You need a memory card dedicated to it. Your save can go from 21 blocks to 134 blocks. Yikes! I have heard to save right after the loading time.

 

I got flamed awhile back on DCH for writing a ripping review of HL for DC...let's just say I didn't like the loading times or the frame rate. :smt043

 

Yeah, I must have a different one than you have Yakumo, as there are rather frequent load times of about 10 seconds, and they seem to happen twice to three times as frequently as the PC version...

 

From the MUDS release NFO:

Name: Halflife (C) Sierra / Valve
Date: 15.02.2003
System: Sega Dreamcast
Language: English
Videomode: NTSC-US
Files: 33 * 20 MB
Supplier: The Legendary Babushka of MUPS!

Well there was previous release of this which didnt
work. You could not even burn it.. however here is
a working release with vga box support and support for
PAL and USA and JAP dcs.. works fine with all dcs!

Rip Notes: Everything is still there, Audio downsampled.
Another perfect MUDS almost quality rip.

Note: This was tested on a Japanese Dreamcast and works fine.
This was tested on a PAL Dreamcast and works fine too!
Use Disc Juggler 3.0 or later to burn this..



What does this mean? I dunno. What's an NFO? Beats me!

:smt083

 

XANADU release NFO:

Xanadu Presents

Title: Half Life *GOLD*
Platform: Dreamcast
Date: 01/10/2003
Format: Nero NRG (req. v5.5.10.0)

Summary:
You know what Half Life is. No need for a summary.

This is the FINAL GOLD version of Half-Life for the
greatest game console on the planet (still), the
Dreamcast!

History/Notes:
No, this was never released. Gearbox wrote it off
as a loss instead of releasing this killer game.

We aren't saying where we got this. But we KNOW it
is the real deal and have played it long enough to
feel confident releasing this.

Anyway, enjoy the game that probably could have saved
the Dreamcast.

 

I've seen HL for the DC for sale in the black market for a dollar.

If it can help you log the versions and what not, I can buy copies from different "vendors" and report any characteristics and/or differences.

 

I think you'll find those to be the only two releases.. haven't found any info on any others as yet.

Basically, the original leak, and then the "gold" version several months later.

 

as far as I know there was only one version released. however when HL first was offered on the web there wasn't a dummyfile on the disc. later on someone added an dummyfile to the image for faster loading times.

 

I don't think NFOs from pirate groups are going to be much help - they are notoriously full of bullshit, anyways. Besides, I think I have the "Gold" version from Xanadu.
If there are really seperate versions of the game, there should be a version number accessable - as with most FPS games - through a command in the console (usually reached by pressing the tilde ( ~ ) key on the keyboard). But, it could be that the differences are only with the original release lacking a dummy file. Although I thought there was a bit of hubbub on the release that there was a version that was unbeatable due to a bug or something over halfway into the game.

Now to try and track down the dummied version... :angry

 

You can dummy it yourself...

 

Here's a crazy thing. Dreamcast Half Life features the keyboard console but not my version :smt009 I have followed all the instructions on how to get it up but it just isn't there. Could this be because I'm using a Japanese keyboard? I don't think so since no other game ever have given my any problems and the PC on works fine with my PC's Japanese keyboard.

Yakumo