Half-Life on the PlayStation 2 is an incredible port. Here is why.

Some clarification: The minimum PC specs to run HL were taken from Steam which is different from what is on the original box. I've trimmed out the part where I talk about the PC specs. Sorry for any confusion! Steam : store.steampowered.com/app/70/HalfLife/ Minimum Specs on the original Box : * Pentium 133 MHz * 24 MB RAM * Windows 95/98/NT4 * SVGA video card * Windows-compatible sound card * 2x CD-ROM drive * 400 MB hard-disk space.

You forgot to mention "Alien Mode" which let's you play the campaign as a vortigaunt until you get to Xen and then the game ends with a unique ending, the gameplay changes since you can't use weapons, you have a melee attack and you can fire beams from your heads, you need to "eat" your enemies to heal, health stations will hurt you. There's 2 ways to unlock alien mode. Either get the best rank with both characters in decay on every level or use a cheat code.

The recently discovered mini campaign found via the PlayStation magazine demo disc which can be accessed with a cheat code then the game ejects allowing you to swap discs with the demo disc. It’s all existing game assets rearranged but still super impressive stuff and undiscovered for years! The PS2 port will always have a soft spot in my heart.

Worth noting that while Decay is PS2 exclusive, the community have ported it to PC in various forms as mods for Half-Life and Sven Co-op

Gearbox worked on the Dreamcast version too, but not on the port of the engine but rather the additional content (Blue-Shift) But with the PS2 they seem to have done most of the work themself and it shows. It runs and looks so much better.

It seriously is. This port introduced me to Half-Life and it’s now my favorite game series!!

This was literally my very first PS2 game. Coming from PS1 and N64 games, having never played the PC original, it really felt like a massive generational leap. The closest comparison point at the time I had was the N64's Perfect Dark, that clearly had taken some notes from HL1 as well, but in terms of character animations, emergent gameplay, the nonstop flow of the game levels and the overall atmosphere + performance were from a totally different level. That intro screen music alone rekindles the early Y2K gaming vibes.

Just wanted to say the minimum requirements were a P1 with 133 MHz, a friend of mine even played it on a P1 120MHz as a slide show in software mode in lowest possible res. The troubles we went through to play this masterpiece are kind of funny. Recently got hold of HL1 on the PS2 and really enjoyed it, too. Love your impossible/incredible ports vids, always a highlight of my days, thank you!

I was really impressed how much details they've changed in this port. It's like finalized version of the game.

My best pal and I were just out of high school and desperately wanted to work at Gearbox (or ID lol), they had a spot open for a level editor with Quake/HL experience and we figured that was us! Plus, they were just up the road! We went nuts making connecting demo levels in "Worldcraft" and applied for the job. We didn't hired, we were complete noobs, but they did give us a tour and my buddy got tapped to playtest/qa a top secret PS2 bonus version for a few weeks before it went out for release. I remember how blown away he was by the fact it was co-op HL! It was completely insane even at the time, there's no-way a console version could be made when we needed pc upgrades to play and edit our own maps, it was too advanced... right?! What a great throwback!

Half life on the ps2 was my first introduction to half life and inspired my love for first person shooters. Imo it’s the best fps on the ps2 hands down. It’s also one of the few ps2 games that came on a cd rom instead of dvd which makes it even more impressive

System requirements for OG HL are incorrect. Done it back in days on 166mhz pentium with no GPU. The experience was not the best, but game was totally playable.

Always an instant click with MVG. He is only one of a few out of hundreds that I will do that for.

Even though it was never released, you can find the rom for the Dreamcast version and still play it and it was the first time I ever played Blue Shift was on that version

The fact you mentioned the music is the best part made me subscribe and like so hard! This menu loop is my phone ringtone and is sooooo good!! It has the element of horror, mixed with mystery and energy that just blows me away!!! Thank you for mentioning the loop music ive been in love with it for YEARS and no other video seems to cover it!! 100% amazing!

Its crazy what 3 years used to do to tech. The PC version by 2001/2002 (PS2 version released at the end of 01) was a helluva lot easier to run iirc, even at 60fps. I think thats about the time i first played it, give or take. The PS2 version is definitely an accomplishment tho.

I still remember when steam was released and we all went into EB Games and copied down the CD keys and registered them to our steam accounts back in the day. Interestingly enough you used to be able to get Windows keys this way because computer stores would just have the windows keys on the computer cases.

Wait.. 500 MHz? i remember playing HL on a Pentium 200 MMX. I might be wrong.

A local store to me is actually selling the Dreamcast Prima guide for Half-Life. Which is kind of extra funny to me, since that game didn't actually come out.

I love your deep dives into old ports, it really does make me appreciate some of my older games more knowing the effort some of these software dev's achieved. It's also made me spend money on more games so I can try those I missed out on myself. Great stuff sir!