So pre pitch hl2 had primitive mole monsters, discount combine and secret shadow people... man if only there were models and maps and shit from that time.
Video suggestion by: IgnitedCelica & Sora UPDATED EDIT: Holy smokes! The two people that compiled this information (majority of it) commented on this video!! (Uncanny and Bun). I should have stated this in the video, but a HUGE shoutout to them and their wiki article linked in the description! This was fun to make. Really wish I had more to show from that time, but nothing's available to the public. Apart from a few images and the information compiled by the Valve Cut Content team.
@Radiation Hazard Oh, I read about this era in Valve Cut Content site! I think, this era one of the most interesting levels from development of Half-Life 2. And I love your videos! P.S Sorry for my english.
I just realized something, the pre-pitch ideas for HL2 actually have some equivalents in later versions of the game as well as future games: 1. The Spy Race (pre-pitch HL2) = G-Man's employers (retail HL2) 2. The Hoard (pre-pitch HL2) = The Combine (retail HL2) 3. Insectoids (pre-pitch HL2) = Race X (Opposing Force) 4. Prague-like city with a Citadel (pre-pitch HL2) = City 17 (retail HL2) 5. Gordon's leather suit (pre-pitch HL2) = I.A. Latham's combat suit (HL2 Alpha) 6. Israeli scientific research facility (pre-pitch HL2) = White Forest (Ep2) 6. Chase sequence in a hospital (pre-pitch HL2) = Hospital sequence (Ep1) 7. Gordon teleporting in outer space from planet to planet (pre-pitch HL2) = Gordon teleporting aboard the Borealis through time and to multiple places before arriving at the Combine's dyson sphere (Marc Laidlaw's Epistle 3) 8. The existence of the G-Man's other agents (pre-pitch HL2) = the G-Man hiring Alyx (HL:A)
I didn't even know about the Pre Pitch Era. I swear, there's so much history behind the development of Half-Life games that it is crazy. So what's next, the Hyper Era? I only know about that part of development because of Dark Interval. I think Valve was still using the gold Source engine when developing the game, at least in some areas in the very earlier stages. It would be weird if HL2 was made on GoldSource instead of Source. CURSED. But overall, great video, learned something new today.
I share the same sentiment with Bun, Having provided the research notes to get the Pre-Pitch Era article started I'm quite Happy you have made a video and Cited information too! Hopefully the rest of the era articles we have in progress can serve you well when the time comes
I loved this video! Great stuff. I really hope we somehow find out more about the Pre-Pitch Era someday, I bet that some of the HL2 devs still have some notes from back then when they were brainstorming all these ideas.
Interesting stuff. It’s hard to imagine that HL2 could have been completely different in basically every way and all the directions the story could have gone in. By the way, will you make a video covering the streetwars part of the beta?
Funny thing is I actually started working on that topic last week. But discarded the footage because it wasn't shot well. I'll have a go at it again some time soon.
really well made video ! i helped revise the wiki article for this era a while back and added a few tidbits here and there. glad to see it in video form
teleporting to other planets sounds like a half life mod called redemption. The mod was sold with counter strike retail in 1999 or 2000 i dont remember.
During the early stages, valve was planning for HL:2 to be on the goldscr (please cover the dropship bay map from the wasteland chapter, it dosen't have that much footage of it)
4 หลายเดือนก่อน
this isn't exactly right, people confuse the re-based source engine with being goldsrc when it was always intended to be updated, not having many features different from hl1 doesn't make it the goldsrc engine.
The scrapped plot about Gordon working for GMan as an agent sounds kinda neat. I can definitely see why it was canned and prefer the final version, but i'd like to peek into an alternate universe where that storyline came to be.
"Elena... Mossman didn't even exist as a character [until after Half-Life 2's official pitch in 1999]" Actually, have you looked into Marc Laidlaw's novels from before he'd joined Valve? I've got a lot I could say about the ways I see the ideas he'd bring to Half-Life having been ones that he'd been exploring in his novels for years beforehand, but on the note of Elena Mossman specifically I'd say to check out his novel _The Third Force_ (from 1996) for its character of Elena Haussman.
I know I'm late to comment, but there we always plans for a female scientist to betray Gordon dating back to the 1996 half-life alpha, so the idea was always there and it's not too far fetched to think that they would re-use some of the cut content in the alpha and bring it back into the next game. Really, an example of that would be the kingpin turning into the idea for the weird psyche stuff happening in the E3 2003 trailer, really I think its all connected. Some of the employees like the cut alpha content, and wanted it in the next game essentially.
Honestly, i didn't even know about this pre-pitch era, theres soooo many interesting things to say about the first years of half life 2. luckily they scrapped those first ideas though, its hard to imagine a half life 2 THAT different from what we have today. Anyway, amazing video, probably your best one so far in my opinion. :p And, one lil thing, you have any idea on when the video about the half life 2 cut characters will come out? I really want to hear what you have to say about them. 👀
Thank you! :) Dude I've been waiting to do that Cut Characters video for a while now. I got something special in mind for it so it'll take a bit of time to make ;D
To be honest, I hope a leak comes out of a 2000 build. Like, right after they moved to Source, so we can finally see HL2's Alpha out of those press images. Like Free TVs, T-Bot, or the original Borealis.
They never did it in gold source. it was always in source. its weird to explain but basically source was an experimental version of gold source being made around the time of half life 1. around 1999-2000 it was basically gold source with larger map scales, earlier version of hl2's physics (seeing from the files they were experimenting with different physics engines around late 2000) and it had facial expressions which was a larger part of hl2's development back in 1999. Its really unlikely we see a leak of a 2000 build however it would be really amazing. We'd have stuff we didnt get in the leak like the early combine soldier models, earlier maps we dont have (the wc mappack starts at november 2000 while we have references in the leak code to maps from december 1999 to august 1999) but yeah.
I have a feeling they wanted to create a linear open world game before abandoning the concept for being out of scope. Those shanty towns in the canals is a sign that gordon would go around and help people in the outskirts, but this would be boring.
I had Yellow Box. I'm still hoping to come across one of the key's I had one day. I was one of the first 10,000 steam accounts with that account and those keys. I let my friend use it, but he foolishly let someone else use it and they stole the account, changing the email and password. Unless I find the key I can never get that account back. So there's that one rare badge on Steam that I should have but I don't...
I still love letting my friend use my account because that enabled him to get really good at counter-strike.. he, in my opinion, was one of the best in the world. He dropped out of high school being an avid gamer. He went by KilLa7070, then PyroTek07, then Xex... when call of duty modern warfare came out he was the number 1 player in the world for the first 3 months. He only dropped off because he stopped playing it. He had won some money from CS tournaments. He was definitely an introvert and sharing my version of counterstrike with him made him really good at something. Later on I got him out of his shell by inviting him to work with me and my dad installing internet and IT work. It got him out of the house and making money on his own. Unfortunately, he got a motorcycle at 26 years old and died 3 months later. I have his ashes and I want to press them into a diamond and put it at the core of a computer. Maybe making a bot to play games all day long. That was 4 years ago. Still think about him and miss him daily.. thinking how great it would be to still LAN with him. He met my first daughter but not my second.
I missed this one some how. I like that it sounded almost like they wanted to make something similar to that weird online mmo they had planned that dealt with travelling to different instances and worlds.
If this was it’s own thing completely divorced from Half Life I think it would be perfectly fine. It definitely sounds like a crazy and fun experience. It’s really too bad that you don’t see insane games like that anymore. Good video. Not many people talk about this.
Where does the info about planetary adventure come from? It must be a deliberate fake. I messaged Laidlaw about it (I thought it was the last time they were on the right track) and he said it never happened: they knew they couldn't create many aliens with many animations so they never tried.
The VCC wiki (where I took the info from) has cited "The Final Hours of Half Life 2" as the reference. It was an idea they thought about doing, but never developed anything for it.
![I Got 1000 Kills Using ONLY The Batsaber [TF2]](/img/n.gif)
awesome stuff! i helped write a majority of the wiki's pre-pitch article, glad to see it put to good use!
Omg! Thank you! I really appreciate you documenting all that information from the Pre Pitch Era :)
So pre pitch hl2 had primitive mole monsters, discount combine and secret shadow people... man if only there were models and maps and shit from that time.
it was something straight out of the scp universe
I imagine it looking like playing Garry's Mod without ever having touched HL2.
The shadow government
Valve: Why not let's watch 1984 and use it as blue print?
BOOM! Half Life 2 is a certified hood classic
1981*
its when wolfenstien relea-
Video suggestion by: IgnitedCelica & Sora
UPDATED EDIT: Holy smokes! The two people that compiled this information (majority of it) commented on this video!! (Uncanny and Bun). I should have stated this in the video, but a HUGE shoutout to them and their wiki article linked in the description!
This was fun to make. Really wish I had more to show from that time, but nothing's available to the public. Apart from a few images and the information compiled by the Valve Cut Content team.
@Radiation Hazard Oh, I read about this era in Valve Cut Content site! I think, this era one of the most interesting levels from development of Half-Life 2. And I love your videos!
P.S Sorry for my english.
@@avantgardish_n_stuff Yeah. That's the only site where this information is located (as far as I could see). Thank you :)
I just realized something, the pre-pitch ideas for HL2 actually have some equivalents in later versions of the game as well as future games:
1. The Spy Race (pre-pitch HL2) = G-Man's employers (retail HL2)
2. The Hoard (pre-pitch HL2) = The Combine (retail HL2)
3. Insectoids (pre-pitch HL2) = Race X (Opposing Force)
4. Prague-like city with a Citadel (pre-pitch HL2) = City 17 (retail HL2)
5. Gordon's leather suit (pre-pitch HL2) = I.A. Latham's combat suit (HL2 Alpha)
6. Israeli scientific research facility (pre-pitch HL2) = White Forest (Ep2)
6. Chase sequence in a hospital (pre-pitch HL2) = Hospital sequence (Ep1)
7. Gordon teleporting in outer space from planet to planet (pre-pitch HL2) = Gordon teleporting aboard the Borealis through time and to multiple places before arriving at the Combine's dyson sphere (Marc Laidlaw's Epistle 3)
8. The existence of the G-Man's other agents (pre-pitch HL2) = the G-Man hiring Alyx (HL:A)
I didn't even know about the Pre Pitch Era. I swear, there's so much history behind the development of Half-Life games that it is crazy. So what's next, the Hyper Era? I only know about that part of development because of Dark Interval. I think Valve was still using the gold Source engine when developing the game, at least in some areas in the very earlier stages. It would be weird if HL2 was made on GoldSource instead of Source. CURSED. But overall, great video, learned something new today.
Thank you! :) Yeah Hyper Era is interesting, and I'll see how I can do a video on that. Fortunately, it has some tangible things like maps and such.
Well Source IS an evolved version of GoldSource
@@die_lokki287 No duh.
Also, I forgot about this video...
I share the same sentiment with Bun, Having provided the research notes to get the Pre-Pitch Era article started I'm quite Happy you have made a video and Cited information too! Hopefully the rest of the era articles we have in progress can serve you well when the time comes
Thank you :) It's rare information you've compiled on the wiki and I really appreciate the effort it must have taken to gather that data.
I imagine how pre-pitch would've looked like.
wait, a spy race? you know, gman could actually be that.
Reminds me of the difference between the Thin Men in XCOM Enemy Unknown and the vipers or whatever in XCOM 2
Insectoid race riding giant caterpillars ? Actually, it sounds like Half Life.
Sounds like something out of HL1 definitely.
Shocktroopers in africa traveling trought antlion carriers modified to race x's needs
Sounds interesting
I loved this video!
Great stuff.
I really hope we somehow find out more about the Pre-Pitch Era someday, I bet that some of the HL2 devs still have some notes from back then when they were brainstorming all these ideas.
Interesting stuff. It’s hard to imagine that HL2 could have been completely different in basically every way and all the directions the story could have gone in.
By the way, will you make a video covering the streetwars part of the beta?
Funny thing is I actually started working on that topic last week. But discarded the footage because it wasn't shot well. I'll have a go at it again some time soon.
as one of the people who work on stuff for the wiki its surreal seeing it cited for a video about this topic lol. great vid btw!
Oh wow! Thank you! And thank you for the work on the documentation! It's amazing how you've compiled all that information :)
@@RadiationHazardYT It was Uncanny and Bun who did the work on that article but i'm sure they'll come buy as well.
really well made video ! i helped revise the wiki article for this era a while back and added a few tidbits here and there. glad to see it in video form
Hmm. Informative. In depth. Contains knowledge even the likes of people like myself were unaware of. The council approves of your efforts.
Thank you! :)
teleporting to other planets sounds like a half life mod called redemption. The mod was sold with counter strike retail in 1999 or 2000 i dont remember.
You know it's a real serious type video when he doesn't ask you to subscribe or else-
I love when a new radiation hazard video comes out!
The sacktick probably was the combines infection directed at the shu'ulathoi
You know I never actually wondered about the pre-pitch area. Thanks for the video
During the early stages, valve was planning for HL:2 to be on the goldscr (please cover the dropship bay map from the wasteland chapter, it dosen't have that much footage of it)
this isn't exactly right, people confuse the re-based source engine with being goldsrc when it was always intended to be updated, not having many features different from hl1 doesn't make it the goldsrc engine.
The scrapped plot about Gordon working for GMan as an agent sounds kinda neat. I can definitely see why it was canned and prefer the final version, but i'd like to peek into an alternate universe where that storyline came to be.
I really enjoy all your HL2 beta content, please continue doing videos like this
maybe even look into the half life 1 beta?
Thank you! Yes I have planned to do a video about the HL1 Alpha :)
"Elena... Mossman didn't even exist as a character [until after Half-Life 2's official pitch in 1999]"
Actually, have you looked into Marc Laidlaw's novels from before he'd joined Valve? I've got a lot I could say about the ways I see the ideas he'd bring to Half-Life having been ones that he'd been exploring in his novels for years beforehand, but on the note of Elena Mossman specifically I'd say to check out his novel _The Third Force_ (from 1996) for its character of Elena Haussman.
I haven't looked into his novels, but I'll try and take a look sometime soon.
I know I'm late to comment, but there we always plans for a female scientist to betray Gordon dating back to the 1996 half-life alpha, so the idea was always there and it's not too far fetched to think that they would re-use some of the cut content in the alpha and bring it back into the next game. Really, an example of that would be the kingpin turning into the idea for the weird psyche stuff happening in the E3 2003 trailer, really I think its all connected. Some of the employees like the cut alpha content, and wanted it in the next game essentially.
Honestly, i didn't even know about this pre-pitch era, theres soooo many interesting things to say about the first years of half life 2. luckily they scrapped those first ideas though, its hard to imagine a half life 2 THAT different from what we have today. Anyway, amazing video, probably your best one so far in my opinion. :p
And, one lil thing, you have any idea on when the video about the half life 2 cut characters will come out? I really want to hear what you have to say about them. 👀
Thank you! :) Dude I've been waiting to do that Cut Characters video for a while now. I got something special in mind for it so it'll take a bit of time to make ;D
@@RadiationHazardYT alright mate take your time, cant wait to watch it :D
To be honest, I hope a leak comes out of a 2000 build. Like, right after they moved to Source, so we can finally see HL2's Alpha out of those press images.
Like Free TVs, T-Bot, or the original Borealis.
They never did it in gold source. it was always in source. its weird to explain but basically source was an experimental version of gold source being made around the time of half life 1. around 1999-2000 it was basically gold source with larger map scales, earlier version of hl2's physics (seeing from the files they were experimenting with different physics engines around late 2000) and it had facial expressions which was a larger part of hl2's development back in 1999. Its really unlikely we see a leak of a 2000 build however it would be really amazing. We'd have stuff we didnt get in the leak like the early combine soldier models, earlier maps we dont have (the wc mappack starts at november 2000 while we have references in the leak code to maps from december 1999 to august 1999) but yeah.
Your wish was partially granted now, with the HL2 documentary
yeeeeeeeeeeeeeees thank you! i loved the video!
at 6:50 i'm pretty sure halena was established at this point in time as a plot point "female scientist betrays the protagonist"
Ah yes, city 17. The main tourist attraction is that huge citadel.
It's crazy how early stuff like combine and the rebels came in development
5:17 I would do anything to play a Half-Life game set in Prague
Interesting indeed..
I just discovered this channel and guy... You make an amazing job and you make my skin chills!!
Keep it up
Thank you my dude :)
3:56
You just explained the HDTF plot and yes , this is not half life.
I have a feeling they wanted to create a linear open world game before abandoning the concept for being out of scope.
Those shanty towns in the canals is a sign that gordon would go around and help people in the outskirts, but this would be boring.
I love the use of the space gmod maps lol
0:09 black mesa map
How about a half life source leak documentary?
I did play the HLS leak but not very much. I'll look into it and see what I can come up with :)
I don’t know why but I like the beta content better than retail
Some of the later stuff is pretty cool and makes more sense than the retail product. Other stuff is kind of understandable on why it was cut.
because it feels premium, it feels special. Any feature is cool when it’s cut.
4:50 Is that spore?)
Nah. Just some random alien artwork I found on Google.
The..... Institute...?
*fallout 4 flashbacks*
I had Yellow Box. I'm still hoping to come across one of the key's I had one day. I was one of the first 10,000 steam accounts with that account and those keys. I let my friend use it, but he foolishly let someone else use it and they stole the account, changing the email and password. Unless I find the key I can never get that account back. So there's that one rare badge on Steam that I should have but I don't...
I still love letting my friend use my account because that enabled him to get really good at counter-strike.. he, in my opinion, was one of the best in the world. He dropped out of high school being an avid gamer. He went by KilLa7070, then PyroTek07, then Xex... when call of duty modern warfare came out he was the number 1 player in the world for the first 3 months. He only dropped off because he stopped playing it. He had won some money from CS tournaments. He was definitely an introvert and sharing my version of counterstrike with him made him really good at something. Later on I got him out of his shell by inviting him to work with me and my dad installing internet and IT work. It got him out of the house and making money on his own. Unfortunately, he got a motorcycle at 26 years old and died 3 months later. I have his ashes and I want to press them into a diamond and put it at the core of a computer. Maybe making a bot to play games all day long. That was 4 years ago. Still think about him and miss him daily.. thinking how great it would be to still LAN with him. He met my first daughter but not my second.
Sad to hear about his passing. Sounds like he was one awesome player.
The true citizen subscribes to Radiation Hazard.
Hopefully Valve opens up about the pre-pitch era soon as they did with the release of the SIGGRAPH 2000 footage.
This channel has... 284 Subscribers?
I Hope that you get popular soon
Thank you :)
well well well
I missed this one some how. I like that it sounded almost like they wanted to make something similar to that weird online mmo they had planned that dealt with travelling to different instances and worlds.
so this is why half life 3 is not released yet... they think of insectoids travelling by giant worms...
Yes.
My friend made the wasteland map featured in this video at 3:42 and 5:32
See it here: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1081194346
why are you showing black mesa instead of half life
Interesting, this is the first time I'm hearing about this era of development.
if they revisited their old ideas it could be its own new IP
Could you cover the Millitia in Beta ?
Great vids as always!
Yeah man. I'll cover them in the Cut Characters video I'm working on :) Thank you!
If this was it’s own thing completely divorced from Half Life I think it would be perfectly fine. It definitely sounds like a crazy and fun experience. It’s really too bad that you don’t see insane games like that anymore. Good video. Not many people talk about this.
Love your videos, but also what is the name of map in 2:34?
Thank you. That map is called gm_ACSRG.
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=121320497
I'm pretty sure the map's go back to 2000 2:41
The map "c1a3a_port" and some other map's are from 2000
Oh ok. Thanks :)
What's the name of the soundtrack in the background?
Border worlds from the black mesa OST
What maps were used in background??
Wish to see a project that reconstructs the Pre-Pitch Era, if any of the variants are acceptable.
yeah but basically we don’t know any maps from the pre pitch area
Great content ! What music are you using in your videos? Subscribed!
and they would ride hollowed out caterpillars as transport... What the fuck - Radiation Hazard 2020
2:57 music?
hey man i was wondering where did you get all this maps?
i know black mesa and the depot but where were those wasteland maps
2:34 Can somebody tell me what's the name of that map?
Sorry for the late reply. It is gm_ACSRG.
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=121320497
@@RadiationHazardYT Thanks, and its fine.
What are the maps you used ? They look really nice.
kinda sad we never got to see a whole race of gman People
I will subscribe to you because you have smiling Gordon freeman as pfp.
Haha thank you!
Where does the info about planetary adventure come from? It must be a deliberate fake. I messaged Laidlaw about it (I thought it was the last time they were on the right track) and he said it never happened: they knew they couldn't create many aliens with many animations so they never tried.
The VCC wiki (where I took the info from) has cited "The Final Hours of Half Life 2" as the reference. It was an idea they thought about doing, but never developed anything for it.
@@RadiationHazardYT True.
I really like hl2 beta
Nice
i kinda wish the teleporting from planet to planet had been done instead since at least we'd have no need for hl3
nice
Hey guys, *I'm porting it to PSP*
had to make it 3 dislikes
What's the song played during the video?