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Third-Party Mods
See main article List of Half-Life mods
From its release in 1998, Half-Life saw fervent support from independent game
developers, due in no small part to support and encouragement from Valve
Software. Worldcraft, the level-design tool used during the game's development,
was included with the game software. Printed materials accompanying the game
indicated Worldcraft's eventual release as a retail product, but these plans
never materialised. Valve also released a software development kit, enabling
developers to modify the game and create mods. Both tools were significantly
updated with the release of the version 1.1.0.0 patch. Many supporting tools
(including texture editors, model editors, and rival level editors like the
multiple engine editor QuArK) were either created or updated to work with
Half-Life.
Half-Life's code has been released and is being used as a base for many
multiplayer mods such as the immensely popular Counter-Strike. Other popular
multiplayer mods include Team Fortress Classic (TFC), Day of Defeat, Deathmatch
Classic (DMC), Action Half-Life, Firearms, Science and Industry, The
Specialists, and Natural Selection. TFC and DMC were developed in-house at Valve
Software. Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, and others that began life as the work
of independent developers (self-termed "modders"), later on received aid from
Valve. There was even a free team-based multiplayer mod called Underworld
Bloodline created to promote the Sony Pictures movie Underworld.
Numerous single player mods have also been created, like USS Darkstar (1999, a
futuristic action-adventure onboard a zoological research spaceship), The Xeno
Project 1 and 2 (1999-2005, a two-part mod starting in Xen and again including
spaceships), Edge of Darkness (2000, which features some unused Half-Life
models), Half-Life: Absolute Redemption (2000, which brings back Gordon Freeman
for four additional episodes and another encounter with the G-Man), They Hunger
(2000-2001, a survival horror total conversion trilogy involving zombies), and
Poke646 (2001, a follow-up to the original Half-Life story with improved
graphics).
Some Half-Life modifications eventually landed on retail shelves. Counter-Strike
was the most successful, unexpectedly becoming the biggest selling online game
to date and having been released in five different editions: as a standalone
product (2000), as part of the Platinum Collection (2000), as an Xbox version
(2003) as the single player spin-off, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (2004), and
the newest addition, Counter-Strike: Source, which runs on Half-Life 2's Source
engine. Team Fortress Classic, Day of Defeat and Gunman Chronicles (2000, a
futuristic Western movie-style total conversion with emphasis on its single
player mode) were also released as stand-alone products.
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