Can You Run Half-Life 1 on Minimum Specs?

[@8-BitHacker]

Hey everyone! I'm thinking about making part 2 of this video, in which I'll be lowering the specs of the PC I used to run Half-Life. Anyways, here's a quick Q&A for all that are interested: Q: Specs of the PC? A: CPU: Intel Pentium-MMX 133MHz RAM: 32MB PC66 RAM GPU: ATI 3D Rage II+ DVD 4MB PCI Q: Why was it so "crunchy"? A: It was most likely the combination of the monitor's crappy built-in speakers and the quality of the sound card in the PC. Q: Why Windows 98 SE instead of Windows 95? A: In retrospect, I'm really not sure why I didn't use Win95. In the next episode, I will downgrade to Windows 95 and use worse hardware. Q: Why did you blur out the CD key? A: I honestly thought it would add to the humor of the video. I now know that you can bypass the key, thanks to commentors on this video. I'll post more answers to questions as they come in. Thanks for all the support!

[@arcadiabarguadalajara1464]

That was LITERALLY my PC specs back then in 1999 dude. You still can get lower config with a 1-2MB Trio Savage S3, i updated the graphic card 4 times playing this game, and CPU twice over the years. Everything overclocked, fans added, airducts...

[@ricardorapture]

​@@arcadiabarguadalajara1464 im the one behind that profile, i shoulded start youtubing way before

[@aleksandarlazarov9182]

Ohhh, a part 2 will be interesting! I assume you will need to find ways to increase the game's performance though. I wonder what optimization could be done to Windows 95 or 98 as well.

[@8-BitHacker]

@@aleksandarlazarov9182 I was thinking for part 2 I would try to find the worst pc hl1 can run on

[@aleksandarlazarov9182]

@@8-BitHacker define "run" 😂 Do you mean load into the game, even if it runs at 1fps?

[@B114__]

If someone from that time saw me playing on 500fps in 4k their eyeballs would fall off or sum

[@nalinux]

I remember talking with a friend, expecting one day we could play in 1024x768 at 50 fps :)

[@MrEdioss]

​@@nalinux with upscaling and frame generation it might become a real resolution and fps games would run at.

[@PersonausdemAll]

​@@nalinux😂

[@DL-df3lg]

If only I knew one day I could emulate this game on a fucking hacked Nintendo handheld.

[@jace_albers]

@MrEdioss Games like doom 3 any quake including live the half life games basically any game over 13 years old can achieve this framerate on a good gpu

[@filip_sedlak]

Back then when HL2 came out I finished it on a GeForce 2 MX. It looked like HL1 and was barely playable, I still loved it.

[@grindycore3438]

@@filip_sedlak my first time playing HL2 was on P3 800 MHz, 256 MB ram and GeForce 4 MX 440 64 MB and it ran on minimum settings,was the happiest lad that I could play it lol

[@ibm5155]

@@grindycore3438i player on a P3 1GHZ 384mb of ram and ati radeon 7200 Was somehow smooth

[@golarac6433]

@@grindycore3438 I had the same gfx card and 256mb ram, but I had an AMD Athlon XP 1.6Ghz. HL2 Was plenty playable on it. Though GeForce 4 mx 440 is GeForce 4 in name only, it's a repurposed GeForce2 chip, so it only had dx7. I remember my friend had a newer card with dx9 and the difference is visible from the start. On DX7 most of the special effects in the intro alone don't work. I always thought it was weird that GMAN stops talking for few secons, but with all effects enabled he becomes mostly transparent in those moments.

[@maxevanlp]

@filip_sedlak I run my Half Life 2 on TNT2 card, it runs smoothly around 40 to 50 fps. To be honest, i was shocked. The card was something I got from E-waste back when HL2 came out. But I did pair it with newer LGA 775 dual core at that time. Stuttering was bad but 70% of the time, it was smooth after 1 minute loading.

[@sergeychistov8162]

Yes! I played HL2 on office computer, and as a smol kid, I had no idea that graphips are directly affecting frame rate. So I played a half of the game on medium graphics and 4-12 fps, then dropped it as "unplayable". Couple of years forward, my big brain lowered the graphics to low, and finished the game with comfy 40 fps.

[@zenniththefolf4888]

"Did you hear the sound file?" Yes and everyone else in the neighborhood did too.

[@Suctess]

@@zenniththefolf4888 That soundcheck during Installation was pretty hilarious, I already forgot that.

[@VGamingJunkieVT]

Minimum requirements back then: This is what'll take for the game to start up. Modern Minimum Requirements: This is if you want 1080p 60fps.

[@Zack_Wester]

not really more like this is what is required to run the game on minimum setting at 720p at between 30 and 60 FPS. whit lots of dips down into 20FPS. (that is if the game is not 1-2 years old and patched where by its hopfully 720p min settings(one or two on low) 35-70 FPS whit dips at 25FPS.

[@VGamingJunkieVT]

@@Zack_Wester Eh, seems like too many games nowadays have minimum requirements that seem obsessively high.

[@Zack_Wester]

@@VGamingJunkieVT I think its more that today you can´t play the game at 30 FPS. like try and play a gametoday at 10-15FPS it will crash or you will be locked somewhere and not be able to continue. back then HL1 at 7 FPS no problem might not be as fun but you could do that. bet space marine 2 at 7 FPS will just get you soft locked at the first boss because you can´t do enouth DPS on it.

[@thx134]

I remember playing doom 3 on the family computer. I thing I played it at 720p on the lowest settings(bump mapping took a lot of resources) and I got maybe 18-40 fps

[@blarghblargh]

​​@@VGamingJunkieVT if you don't bump the minimum requirement, then customers will blame your company when the game runs like garbage on their zombie hunk of e-waste that somehow hasn't found its way to the bin yet. Work games tech support, and you'll see all sorts of angry people blaming you for their mistakes, especially if you try to read reviews or forum posts to check if there's tech support to be done. There's a reason "minimum" specs are no longer actually the bare minimum to keep the game from crashing.

[@CturiX.IREALLY]

I will never, EVER, forget the sound test "alarm.wav" at the age of five. I'm surprised but disk versions still work (mostly) on modern systems which blows my mind

[@Clicky_V]

i just imagine a 13-14 year old waiting until his parents went to bed to play this cool new game he heard about for the first time and while installing he just hears an alarm go off at the volume of a jet engine knowing he’s screwed and his computer just goes „did you hear the sound?”

[@greensharktwod]

exactly my thought lmao

[@flflflflflfl]

dude I swear this exact thing happened to me. I had the headphones plugged into the microphone input ...

[@Lo-Sir]

I think it's scarier from the parent's perspective You're just about to go to sleep, but then, right as you begin to doze off - an alarm starts blaring loudly

[@lucgonzo]

Hence the chapter title "unforseen consequences" XD

[@denisvertinsky7628]

As a kid, I finished this game on my Pentium II 233, without videocard, in software mode, with 320x240 resolution. It was fun anyway

[@I_agree]

Always thought the software renderer was a neat thing

[@LasherTimora]

I also had a Pentium II 233mhz! I did have a videocard, but it was barely a thing, it had 2 MB of memory and didn't support hardware acceleration.

[@Naif92XX]

Now Do DOOM on Minimum Specs.

[@k00lkid-g4b]

so basically u want him to play it on actual potato

[@Domebuddy]

IBM or compatible 386 or better, 4mb RAM, VGA graphics card; Hard disk drive. A 486 or better computer with a sound blaster pro or 100% compatible sound card is reccomended.

[@kellymountain]

@@Naif92XX play it on an XT

[@du0lol]

Bro, Doom SUCKS on minimum specs. It's literally unplayable. I remember playing it on a 386 and you either ran it on the smallest window size possible, in which case you could barely even see the game, or you had it running like a slideshow.

[@albinklein7680]

I clearly remember Doom coming out. Had a 486 DX with 50MHz and 4MB of RAM and a Diamond Stealth graphics card back then. It was terrible.

[@M1XART]

Here are true original 1998 release of Half -Life minimum specs for Windows 95: *Pentium 133Mhz. *24MB RAM. *16Bit Colour. *2 x CD -ROM Speed. *400MB Of Free Hardrive Space. (No 3DFX required).

[@robbirobson7330]

this is what i had exactly back then.

[@fadjeb8254]

It was great for quake but that was the bare maximum

[@M1XART]

@@fadjeb8254 I think i only had 16MB RAM, did not try Half -Life on these specs, but like you say, Quake runned really well on P133.

[@Txm_Dxr_Bxss]

HL should support the Voodoo card, that should be the gamechanger for this setup.

[@benjisun-w8i]

Half-Life changed the way we think about storytelling in games. It’s a must-play for any gamer who appreciates a good narrative.

[@АнтонМриглод]

Are you sure about that? There are games that done storytelling much better.

[@FuzzyQue.]

@@АнтонМриглод There are movies with better storytelling than the incredibles, its still a good movie.

[@phild.4545]

Not much for the story but for the tech. GoldSrc was a pretty big leap back then, Half Life redefined the FPS genre like Doom and Quake did before. A true milestone

[@pizzaman-fx3xx]

@@АнтонМриглод Such as?

[@АнтонМриглод]

@@pizzaman-fx3xx Bioshock: Infinite, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, "I have no mouth and I must scream" (point and click adventure one), Assassin's Creed 4,there many more other games that has story done simply better, but it'd take too much time to mention them.

[@andrewgraham2546]

It has been 20 something years since I ran that installer, but when the alarm sound went off I instantly knew.

[@stefanoalves8862]

5:00 never seen Half-Life looking this much like Metal Gear Solid 1 before

[@maximrukinov3101]

Well, by 1998 standards it's quiet playable ) Though even I was blessed to have a slightly better PC back then

[@SlingerMarshall]

I remember being blown away when games that had ragdoll physics

[@mfcx3438]

yeah, ragdolls always were a little treat while gaming

[@TryHardCentral]

@@SlingerMarshall i was blown away when you were able to wallbang in cod4

[@milymilo]

thats pretty cool. i feel like its my first time seeing the real WON menu, xash3d really simulates it perfectly

[@mryurix]

@@milymilo Valve thankfully bought it back recently to the steam version as well.

[@milymilo]

@@mryurix The half life 25th anniverssary main menu definitely looks like the WON menu, and a lot better than the original steam half life, But I still like how half life 1 WON has those silly other menus that xash3d copies exactly.

[@Zacharoni_DX]

Cool fact: you can still use fully use steam on windows 7. It just lets you. It even checks for updates when I open it

[@trabant601e]

Doesn't work for me, when it finishes installing itself it tries to check for updates but claims it can't find a network

[@ayskudo6771]

@@trabant601e Seems like it doesn't work on freshly installed OS where Steam was installed for the first time. A month ago I saw one Japanese youtuber's videos who refused to leave Windows 7 where she showed that Steam on her PC still works just fine.

[@TheBypasser]

I so wish they'd finally add a no-DRM option for the games that can be downloaded from DRM-free platforms anyway. Pretty silly to be forced to buy games twice once the DRM-free release shows up just to get rid of that silly ad-launcher and service hell...

[@axelprino]

Yup, still using W7 in one of my PC's because I'm too lazy to switch it to W10 and Steam is running just fine. Any game that depends on some other launcher besides Steam like the ones by EA or Ubi can be a bit tricky to run tho.

[@FerinitheBloodHusky]

@@ayskudo6771 i wonder if theres a way to trick it

[@connardman]

An original Half-Life CD? No need for a valid CD key, type "123456789" multiple time and you're good too go. I used to play deathmatch with others students in the "network" room at high school. All without 3D acceleration and running on Windows NT 4.0 with a 233mhz CPU. Good times 😊

[@8-BitHacker]

I did not know this. Thanks for the heads up!

[@EmberBlitz]

@@connardman That or 333-33333-33333.

[@Joseph_Soares]

all letter A is better hehehe

[@VagueStarshape]

I feel like it would better inform the audience to break down the exact specs of the PC being used. That said, still always cool to see games run in a period-appropriate way.

[@8-BitHacker]

yeah, I probably should've done that. In part 2, things will be a bit more hardware focused. Thanks for the input!

[@RyansAlwaysEaton]

1998. I'll never forget it...

[@aleksandarlazarov9182]

Daaaamn, I was unaware just how low spec of a PC can play Half-Life 1! Especially in software mode, which does the graphics entirely on the CPU. I thought my old compaq, on which I played HL and its expansions, was bad with its 500MHz Pentium and 200MB of RAM. It did have performance issues with see-through textures, would be interesting to see how your machine handles that. And also was incapable of selecting any of the other rendering options except software, probably because the integrated GPU in it is trash.

[@rodrigoacosta9708]

I remember trying to play half life 1 on my AMD k6 2 500mhz... the experience was close to the one we see in this video.... even with 3d acceleration... didn´t convince me, I waited a year or two then played it on a faster pc

[@aleksandarlazarov9182]

@@rodrigoacosta9708 yours had 3D acceleration? You were very lucky! What were the specs on the faster PC?

[@rodrigoacosta9708]

@@aleksandarlazarov9182 yeah had 3d acceleration but was not good really. If I remember correctly it was a geforce 2, but it was Pci not Agp, because of my motherboard and its limitations. Believe it or not, I remember enjoying more the games on that pc in software mode than the ones I could play with direct 3d, but I am exagerating probably, it was a good machine 😁. Half Life was finally played on a pentium 4 with integrated S3 graphics, nothing fancy, but enough for 60 fps on 640x480, in the year 2004 ☝️

[@aleksandarlazarov9182]

@@rodrigoacosta9708 I know the feeling, my compaq also has only PCI slots too, which is why it has only iGPU. As for software rendering, if I remember correctly, the textures are unfiltered making them look blocky rather than smoothed. In most old 3D games the blocky ones look much better, much sharper and crispier. I've also never heard of the company S3 before, I guess I am too young to know them! 😂

[@Olivier-y2i]

GPU must have been the problem. I played it on a Pentium 1 200mmx with 48mb ram and a Voodoo2 12mb and it ran perfect. The Voodoo was lightyears ahead of software rendering performance.

[@O_mores]

In 1998 I played Half Life with only 16MB of RAM... loading took ages. Then I upgraded to 64MB - best upgrade ever.

[@aquamidideluxe5079]

At that resolution and without texture filtering, it looks like a really nice PS1 game. Without the wobble, of course.

[@senisevmek1993]

Unfortunately this game was too big for the PS1.

[@kovy6447]

​@@senisevmek1993maybe a shortened homebrew version?

[@senisevmek1993]

@@kovy6447 A heavily restricted version is required. In order for the PlayStation to run Half Life, the second generation had to come out because Half Life is a very complex game designed for the computer.

[@Animated__Freak]

The software renderer is what I imagine an N64 version would look like

[@nelistaja]

More like PS1 (minus the vertice wobble), N64 already had Texture Filtering.

[@gingertartancow4019]

That's how I remember playing HL using software rendering on my Pentium 133. The day I got a Voodoo card changed my life.

[@mrmerlin6287]

What a glorious PC. I have a few from the 90s in a storage unit myself. I'm becoming that weird old 30s hobbyist that used to freak me out as a child.

[@ConkerTS]

At the time, Half-Life's requiring nearly 400 MB of hard drive space was a little disconcerting, I remember. It was well worth it, though. One thing, though - if you were running Half-Life on it's minimum required specs, then wouldn't you use Windows 95 instead of 98?

[@beardalaxy]

Which is funny when you think about how Final Fantasy 7 came out just a year prior and took up 4 entire CDs xD

[@federicocatelli8785]

​@@beardalaxy CD tracks and videos takes lots of space 😅

[@federicocatelli8785]

Pretty sure most people did not upgrade OS before Windows 98 Second edition (Summer 99)

[@Banzeken]

The Elder Scrolls Chapter II: Daggerfall (1996) had a fairly massive install size for its time if you chose the full/“huge” install option, coming in at around 450 MBs.

[@federicocatelli8785]

@@ConkerTS To be fair average computers sold in 98 had hdds in 4-6 tb size

[@MrMonke517]

its crazy even seeing half-life run under 120 fps 😭

[@alexe1146]

when it just came out I played and finished it at around 15 fps average, was too young to figure out graphics settings, but still had absolute breathtaking experience

[@winterlovere]

I've felt physical pain watching this

[@wilhelmbittrich88]

Runs better here than when I first ever played it on my Nana's computer. It was so unbelievably laggy, but as an excited kid, I was just happy to run the game, full stop.

[@uniquehandle1]

You're literally playing my middle school days back in 1999. It's time to install the voodoo 3d acceleration card

[@TristanSmith]

Had an emachines 366mhz machine with 32 megs of ram. A buddy gave me an old video card to get opengl support. It wasn't pleasant, but it was playable back in the day. Also probably why I'm not phased by a little bit of lag in games.

[@TheBypasser]

366(!) with just 32 MBs? Scary lol, I'd expect somewhat 128 at the very least...

[@TristanSmith]

@@TheBypasser I upgraded it to 128. And a sweet 20 gig hard drive 😂

[@TheBypasser]

@@TristanSmith 366+Voodoo (even not a V2) was a mad rig tbh!

[@oil_moon]

oh my god I forgot about the blaring alarm audio test thing in the installation. nostalgiaaaa

[@SerbianDingo]

Love the druagua 1 reference. I can feel his BLAZING presence in your videos. Its up to you to carry the torch now

[@8-BitHacker]

Thank you, druaga1 was a big inspiration for these types of videos on my channel. I miss him

[@SerbianDingo]

@@8-BitHacker Me too man, me too

[@RayRayIsCoolio]

what's kind of cool is there's still a bunch of active multiplayer mods for these older games. sure, nowhere near as active as they used to be it's just cool that some of these games/mods have lasted as long as they have. if you built a cheap desktop you could play all that

[@lepopcornnaisseur546]

Blomie had the audacity to play on an LCD monitor, i can't 😭

[@8-BitHacker]

My CRT from my TF2 on Minimum Reqs video died, so I had to make do with what I had. I might be able to film part 2 on my trinitron for part 2 of this series, though.

[@06howea1]

It has such a nice charm at such a low resolution

[@ethan30878]

Software rendering entirely uses your CPU to handle the graphical rendering. It's weird Direct3D or OpenGL doesn't work... what was the video card in this thing?

[@nalinux]

Probably an S3 Trio, like in many computers :)

[@christiangomez2496]

@@nalinux I heard they also had integrated S3 video hardware on LOADS of '90s and '00s boards.

[@nalinux]

@@christiangomez2496 Many Ati were integrated too. I think I have seen more Ati than another brand. Usually a Mach64 or equivalent, or its ancestor. But not exactly the same Mach 64 the Rage Play had, which had real 3D.

[@christiangomez2496]

@@nalinux Oh, I forgot about the whole 'Rage' brand of GPUs. They got shoved in ***EVERYTHING*** in the '90s.

[@8-BitHacker]

The video card in this unit was a ATI 3D Rage II+ DVD 4MB PCI GPU. I don't know if it supports OpenGL or not.

[@phild.4545]

The cd auto run menu, the installer, the sierra and valve intro, the sfx… oh man a pure nostalgia trip. Those were the days

[@Pylonger]

Installing and playing half life 1 in 1998 must of been a magical experience

[@karim2k]

Back in time we didn't care about graphic details as long as it did work, low details was the standard

[@extremeanalogmusic6296]

when HL2 came out I had a HORRIBLE Radeon card.... the little onboard 50mm fan was the loudest fucking thing in the universe. great memories.

[@андрей_свиридов]

1:02 Steam RUNS on Win7/8 with 0 issues.

[@LinguisticMirage]

For another 2 years and dies

[@андрей_свиридов]

@@LinguisticMirage for another 5 years if we're talking about Win8

[@Main_Protagonist]

@@LinguisticMirage it is not necessary to install newer windoes, just install linux when support dies. windows 11 is atrocious

[@LinguisticMirage]

@@Main_Protagonist it is but why dont you move to linux now lmao

[@Main_Protagonist]

@@LinguisticMirage I actually did a year ago, its alright!

[@Clazzette]

Well, aside from the readme file, you could also see the specifications in the old archived HL site. The site's got a lot of stuff to show too.

[@JoeVington]

Fair play to ya Ryan you’ve done very well on this vid viewership wise pal 🤙🏾🔥

[@dustinhasselbach6378]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I remember trying to get half life to play on my hand me down pc. Lol quake 3 arena too. What great times.

[@gavinrolls1054]

i think if valve properly implemented D3D support, it would've ran much better on lower end systems at the time.

[@TheBypasser]

D3D still needs some hardware support. Of course (and even nowadays) you can run D3D via software mode (called WARP in the newer versions), yet the performance is sub-par (hence it is called a reference rasterizer - the thing is not supposed to run fast, but will draw everything like your hardware should, so if any glitch disappears under WARP, you can simply blame the bad drivers, not your own code). On the other hand, if Valve didn't try to facelift a very old engine (it is Quake 1, do forget not), and would just rely on a modern solution (either Q2 or Unreal), things would come way better. Say, UE1 has a great scalability, although even maxed-out (yet in 320x200) it can give some neat framerates even on a 133 MHz PC. With HLs really tiny and barely any detailed maps I'd easily expect 20+ FPS maxed out on UE1.

[@karehaqt]

As it's the Quake 1 engine OpenGL was the way to run it.

[@TheBypasser]

@@karehaqt No, as the OGL support in Quake1 was a very quick thing made "just because everyone does this": no full-bright colors, no water warping - the only good thing was the Glide support you get along with one thanks the dedicated library, and higher framerates compared to the SW mode (which I prefer over Quakes OGL anytime). DX, however, was pretty limited those days (what was it, 5 or probably 6?), so no idea what would be a better choice...

[@ramborambokitchenkitchen6357]

Valve really considered a slideshow at 240p resolution to be suitable for playing half life on lol. Just found your channel and subscribing because this video was great.

[@Heyheyhey0475]

Look at that subtle colouring. The tasteful thickness. Oh my god, it even has a watermark

[@JetLagRecords]

8-Bit Hacker, cool video I loved it

[@extremeanalogmusic6296]

cant believe how cool this game looks after so many years

[@syyynksta]

hi! thanks for this amazing video! what's the sound at 3:04? sounds so familiar

[@8-BitHacker]

You're welcome, and thanks for the kind words! That sound is the Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Shutdown Sound.

[@tripixtm490]

this is a very good video actually u gained my subscribe

[@losrevolucionarios8858]

I was able to have a playable frame rate using my 6x86 PC that has a VGA monitor at 320x240 at Full screen. Fun times back during the 90s. I miss those days. Thanks for bringing me back during my childhood.

[@PotatoFi]

Yep, this is how I played it. My laptop in the early 2000’s was a Pentium 233 MMX. I probably had 32 mb of RAM, and certainly no 3D accelerated graphics. I ran it at 400x300 (half of my laptop panel’s resolution). It probably ran at 20 FPS. I was amazed by it from start to finish. What an incredible game for the time. Not captivated me like that until I played Halo in late 2003.

[@NotJdz]

Hey dude I don’t know if you remember me but I used to watch a lot of your Mario 64 streams just wanted to say congrats on almost 100k views Banger Videos

[@amuletofgaming]

My first experience with Half Life was on my 166mhz computer. It was pretty slow, but I made it all the way through the game. My hard drive would only hold 1 game at a time so I'd go back and forth from Half Life to SimCity 2000.

[@lukasgroot]

Cool! Our family just got a new pc that early that year, I believe it was a Pentium 200Mhz with a 3dfx Voodoo Rush card, this game ran pretty well.

[@dupa333jelenia]

I remember running the demo (Half-Life Uplink) on a P75 system with 16MB of RAM... At least I tried. I remember I was able to finish it. I don't think I actually had a graphics accelerator back then. It was 320x240 for sure. I also remember when OP4 came out and I tried to install it on a 800MB hard drive. Thankfully I had a beefier Celeron or AMD CPU back then + a Riva TNT. I had to hack the base game and remove all unnecessary files - like base maps etc - just to install it. Then I had to alt-tab to remove autosaves on the fly, so it didn't run out of space. That game and community pulled me in for a good 10-15 years.

[@aaz1992]

actually ran smoother than I expected

[@enhancedchickensandwich9474]

You can still give your family a similar experience to what you felt when you first booted this up on your PC by not exposing them to any games published before 1998 and then suddenly having them play this game without any prior context.

[@gabobukovina2471]

Damn so fast and good lookin. That pc is just the best

[@petervlcko4858]

If you played this game or others from that era and it was not lagging. You do not know what is love…

[@ali-xe7qu]

no wonder people back then didn't use pcs for gaming this looks painful

[@Klonter77]

Error on Windows 10: Who cares Error on Windows 95/98: Holy shi...

[@Flopster101]

I don't think I've ever seen the Direct3D mode in this game work properly, even in the newer versions (before they removed it completely). When I did see it working at all, it was significantly slower than the Software renderer.

[@gavinrolls1054]

@@Flopster101 valve very jankily implemented D3D support basically

[@DarkKnight32768]

The context is important. Most 3D accelerators from first generations did not have OpenGL drivers. OpenGL was a thing from the world of professional fifty thousand dollar workstations, and the only part of specification those cheap cards implemented was rasterising a polygon with a single texture. On the other hand, Microsoft insisted on Direct3D as single model of operation of all 3D accelerators. It was a multi-step rendering process, initially all software, but with a option for hardware to step in, and replace one or more steps. As a result, accelerators did the rasterisation (final drawing), but the rest of the polygon setup, sorting, etc. was done by Direct3D code on CPU. So for those cards, the difference is not “software vs. hardware”, it's “software vs. software plus maybe some hardware steps”, and that's why using single purpose rendering code optimised for the specific game beats using general purpose code that has to support incompatible cards, and also transfer data from host to accelerator. Initial versions of Direct3D happened to be shots into the darkness, same as initial 3D accelerators were. It started to make sense when the progress consolidated around two winning companies, and new versions simply matched functions of their hardware. However, that caused the “universal” standard to have “nVidia functionality” and “ATi functionality”, “nVidia shader model” and “ATi shader model”, and so on, for half of the decade. So Direct3D option in Half-Life was made to let users test those accelerators (and play on more recent ones). “Test”, not “use”, because most of them did not worth their money, and investing the same amount into faster CPU would give better fps, and actual playable game. A dozen or so console variables also exist to bypass their bugs, or prepare the data in a way that results in less performance degradation. However, when someone uses Direct3D with full-featured fast accelerator from later generations (most likely, also with a way faster CPU), it's a configuration that was hardly imagined by anyone making the game, so there are bugs. And OpenGL works because it's old, conservative, and backward-compatible (too conservative, as history has shown).

[@shahan484]

Remember playing Half Life 1 back in 2000s because i found it in the files of another game i managed to pirate. It was a Pentium 4 PC with 1gb ram and no graphics lol.

[@Suctess]

You really need a 3D accelerator to do that game justice. A Voodoo 1 works miracles on a Pentium 133.

[@0E1M1]

New favorite weird youtube channel

[@lars_0795]

Lol the ducking long jumps in the tutorial got ya

[@unamelable256]

Wow! I can play Half-Life in my Microwave!

[@MaiaTriste]

Never buy a pc on a store that sells fridges. I say from my own experience.

[@kyoobqa]

It feels great seeing it running on real hardware. I did a whole playthrough on 86Box with this config, but this looks even more painful somehow.

[@pumpkinspice5848]

i have been wondering this for years THX

[@LethalAtma]

takes me back. what a good fucking game

[@PandaKnives.]

This is indeed a Certified Hood Classic

[@8-BitHacker]

Thanks PandaKnives :)

[@itisliamhfjone22]

this editing is superb

[@8-BitHacker]

Thank you!

[@jesul_]

I remember playing HL1 on the family computer. it was a 2001 pre-built from Compaq (still have it) It was only capable of playing HL1 and other GoldSrc games on Software render, but it was fun enough for me. even though i didn't knew anything about upgrading PC hardware, i loved being able to just play with what i had.

[@manualblinking7456]

Considering the game can run without a graphics card, it's pretty awesome.

[@ridiculouslysoftdog4844]

What does that "Retro Inside" sticker mean seen at 1:54?

[@atotiten]

@@ridiculouslysoftdog4844 it's just a custom sticker for old PCs for flair

[@samisalonen2117]

I had Pentium 133MHz, 32MB RAM and Voodoo 4MB, maybe 1200MB of harddisk space. Voodoo helped at lot but, later parts of the game were nightmarish. Somehow I managed to complete the whole game. And global offensive and blue shift. It was strange to see when I got riva tnt 16MB pci, the game actually ran worse than with voodoo 4MB. Maybe my cpu bottlenecked my riva tnt. It felt like I set riva tnt free from it's cage when I updated to Athlon 700MHz and used the same graphics card with it.

[@luugax7674]

This video could be also called "can you cut paper with scissors"

[@athenavonkrab]

Really nice video! Looked very proffessional :3

[@8-BitHacker]

Thanks!

[@zupperm]

I ran this in 1999 with a Pentium 120 and 16MB of memory. I remember I measured the loading times between levels to be 3 minutes. The machine eventually had a Voodoo 2 card but I think I ran it without. Also it took most of my 1GB hard drive space.

[@tylertheguy3160]

It looks like if they somehow managed to port Half Life to the PS1.

[@chrisodillman3355]

Theese were the days i miss the most.

[@jonathanfenton5496]

9:13 You're like the third person I've seen replaying this game that's forgotten to hit the button. lol🤣

[@uuffzz]

Like it was yesterday...i listened to Aventura - Obsession in the background while it installed and got hooked asap. Its my very first fps on PC (First one was Medal of Honor on the PS1) and i played it in an Internet cafè in Poland when i was 8, brother told me "This game is garbage with the 20 min train ride, play something different" just when Barney entered the code to unlock the door we had to leave the Café and idk why but i just loved that expirience. Bought HL2 when it came out, installed crappy green Steam and waited 4 hrs to download the game (together with CS:S) and it wouldnt even start bc of my crappy PC. Hl2 was a huge dissapointment, never interested in Alyx and i think HL3 will be pretty bad. If you read that, get a life.

[@mondodimotori]

If a 2024 game ran like that on listed minimum hardware, there would be a meltdown on social media. PC gaming really was an hard thing back then. I'm running half life on an athlon 1400 and ati 9200 PCI, and the game still goes below 60 fps in several instances, even using the faster opengl renderer.

[@interlace84]

Am about to start watching-- got a vid of it running on a 83mhz Pentium Overdrive on my end :)

[@Timsturbs]

aaah and even a ball mouse its all perfect thank you

[@oldschooldude8370]

I adore content like this. I still run an i5 4th gen, 16 gb, audigy 2zs, 9800gtx+ on Win7 with no remorse. Anything worth playing, I'm able.

[@Qbaczi-cn2ys]

imagine how hot that beast would get if you tried ray tracing on it

[@KooLaidStudios]

This reminds me of my childhood when I was 5

[@TheGreenMeadow]

I remember building computers from hand-me-downs and dumpster PCs to try and play half life. It always looked like this until I got a card that supported open GL. 320x200 was my go-to resolution for years until I got a got as a dishwasher and was able to upgrade my PC for 640x480. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

[@liskeke]

that's how I literally played it back in 1999

[@Macccaroni]

this is good to know. i have slightly above the minimum specs (200mhz pentium lol) and it runs just about as well as this.

[@snarkbaited]

Speedrunners ain't got nothing on that hazard course run

[@Intellivision78]

I played thru this game on my dear old Pentium 133 Mhz, 48 mb of ram and a.. Woodoo 2 card!!! It was quite enjoyable. Till you landed on the last boss. Was never eable to beat the game. The last boss lagged so terrebly hard on my poor old computer. Haha. Still has it. Great for Gta 1 and Blood.. ;) Greetings from Sweden!

[@-IE_it_yourself]

this exactly how i remember it looking