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Gabe Newell started his career at Microsoft. He worked as a producer on the Windows 1,
2 and 2.1 operating systems. In December of 1993 Id software releases Doom.
Doom is a mega-hit, and in late 1995 it is thought that more people have played doom
than own the Windows 95 operating system. Bill Gates recognizing the potential of video
games, decides to endorse windows 95 as a gaming platform. Gabe Newell heads a team
to port Doom to Windows 95.
Micheal Abrash a colleague of Newell's decides to leave Microsoft and work for Id Software
on there next big game: 'Quake'. Abrash inspires Gabe Newell and another Microsoft employee:
Mike Harrington to form there own games company: 'Valve'.
In the summer of 1996 Mike Harrington and Gabe Newell visit John Carmack at the id software
offices and discuss ideas for a game they want to work on. After some discussion Carmack
gives them the source code to Quake so they can realise there game.
Inspired by Quake, Gabe Newell wanted to create a fast paced first person shooter called 'Quiver'
there was also another project that was to be finished after 'Quiver' called 'Prospero'.
'Quiver' would feature aliens and a military base, and later on in it's development the
game would be a renamed to: 'Half Life'.
Many of the employees that where taken on at Valve had worked as modders for Doom, Duke
Nukem 3d and Quake.
Valve's release date for 'Half Life' was set for November 1997, but as the team got closer
to that date they realized there where serious problems with the game. It had an array of
technical issues, the levels where only loosely connected and the biggest problem of all the;
game just wasn't fun to play.
Rather than releasing the game in an in-perfect state, valve decided to completely rework
it.
During the development of 'Half Life' valve would rewrite the majority of the quake source
code to make there own GoldSource engine.
Valve's Music and sound designer 'Kelly Bailey' would also lend his likeness to 'Half Life's
silent protagonist 'Gordon freeman'. Valve wanted Gordon Freeman to be able to interact
with NPC's throughout the game. Scientists and the security guard Barney would reveal
aspects of the story as the player went through the levels. This added a lot of depth to the
game and was truly groundbreaking at the time.
A near complete version of the first 5th of the game titled 'Half Life Day One' leaked
onto the internet before the full game is released. Gamers and critics alike are awestruck
with 'Half life Day One' and among those who played it where 'John Romero' who at the time
was working on Daikatana, and Tim Sweeney who had worked on the Unreal Engine.
When 'Half Life' finally released in November of 1998 it is was a mega-hit. Gaining over
50 game of the year awards, and eventually selling over 9 million copies. 'Half Life'
was even cited as the best game of all time.
But that isn't the end of 'Half Life's' history. There are still the hundreds of mods that
have been made for the game. Since it would be impossible to talk about them all, I will
just talk about the most successful; 'Counter Strike'.
Whilst Minh Le and Jesse Cliff where still in school they where modding games. Minh Le's
first mod was made for 'Quake' the mod was called 'Navy Seals'. Later both Jesse Cliff
and Minh Le would work on a mod for quake 2 called 'Action Quake 2'.
When Valve released the Source Development Kit for 'Half Life' both Cliffe and Le began
working on a new mod called 'Counter Strike'.
It took them about 4 months to create the first beta for the game. They took on the
help of several map designers and continued to work on 'Counter releasing new betas, each
having numerous improvements over the last. Valve recognizing the success of 'Counter
Strike' decided to buy the rights to the mod and release it commercially. It would go on
to become the most popular multiplayer game in North America and to this day the original
counter Strike is still played by many thousands of gamers.
The game itself was simple, there where two teams opposing teams one terrorist, one counter-terrorist
and the goal was to either eliminate the other team or to complete an objective whilst denying
the other team a chance to do the same.
The many mods made for 'Half Life' boosted sales of the game and gave people even more
reason to buy it. Even today people are still developing great mods for the game, with a
prime example being the recent 'Cry of Fear' a survival horror total conversion mod.
'Half Life' itself was a revolutionary first person shooter, it added more immersion and
depth than to the genre than any game before it, and it is unquestionably one of the most
influential games in video game history.