Net Test 1
Net Test 1 is the first of two known development builds of Half-Life that were sent to playtesters to test the game's multiplayer features. It was leaked on October 19, 2024 by Chad Jessup.[1] The build of the game is labelled B9 (Beta 9) and comes from fairly late into development, however it still contains plenty of nice things. The build was released after Nettest 2, but it was compiled four days earlier on October 16th, 1998.
Content
Maps
This build contains maps that were likely made to test cooperative multiplayer, a feature that was ultimately scrapped from the final build of Half-Life.
| Filename | Notes |
|---|---|
| assault.bsp | Presumed cooperative map. This map was previously seen in a series of screenshots for Valve's Team Fortress, and appeared in screenshots for Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms. |
| battle.bsp | Short scenario of a three-way battle between Alien grunts, the military and the player. Later featured in Surface Tension. |
| c2a2_ects.bsp | |
| c4a1.bsp | This map opens with a cutscene that moves the camera to simulate the player gazing at Xen's floating islands. |
| c4a3a.bsp | An early Xen map. |
| c4a3b.bsp | Another early Xen map. |
| c4a3c.bsp | Another early Xen map. |
| gruntdm1.bsp | Presumed cooperative map. Would later evolve into the Deathmatch map Subtransit. |
| loot1.bsp | Multiplayer item collecting map. Would later evolve into the Deathmatch map Boot Camp. |
Models
This build contains models that were intended for Half-Life's German release, namely the Human Sargent and the Zombie, the latter of which also giving us a glimpse at the Scientist's model. Additionally, the p_model for the MP5 is identical to that from Day one, and the Crossbow and RPG p_models use their earlier designs. The latter two are also in the Net Test 2 files.
Skyboxes
This build contains all the skyboxes for Half-Life in the Targa (.tga) file format without banding or compression. However, they are all limited to a 256x256 resolution.
