Theoretically speaking, Half-Life 64

[Anonymous No.9442002]

How "impossible" of a port are we talking here?

[Anonymous No.9442007]

>>9442002
I would say so impossible

[Anonymous No.9442010]

>>9442002
If you make it look like shit and play at 15 fps you could get a drastically shortened game i think

[Anonymous No.9442012]

>>9442002
Xen on an N64 controller sounds like hell

[Anonymous No.9442014]

It wouldn't be the same game. First of all, the BSP format has to go, as it takes up far too much space. Also, sounds would have to be heavily compressed, and in order to decode that fast enough, you would need to limit the amount of sounds being played simultaneously, yielding a very stilted set of scripted sequences.
There's tons of shit going on behind the scenes that would drag down the CPU. The AI would probably have to be simplified.

[Anonymous No.9442017]

I'm sure Rare could have got a good HL1 port going.

[Anonymous No.9442018]

>>9442012
this anon still hasn't played the superior way
>>9442002
I dunno but if Turok worked, I don't see why a truncated HL couldn't

[Anonymous No.9442078]

>>9442002
Turok 3 exists, which is basically half life for n64

portal 1 was also recently ported (no joke)

[Anonymous No.9442090]

It would need a LOT of cutting and trimming and probably need to remove the scientists and the Barry's and some of the weapons but it could be done, that being said I don't think it would have been worth doing and doing it Quake 2 N64 style(new campaign with same enemies/weapons) would have been smarter.

[Anonymous No.9442098]

Now that I think about it, Blue Shift seems like it could be ported without too much content trimming, aside from some obvious technical limitations.

[Anonymous No.9442105]

>>9442002
Nothings impossible. Some lads are insane enough to make Doom on a ZX Speecy but while not as extreme as the prior example it would still need some major trimming. For example you couldn't do the Redbook CD audio on an N64, at best you could pray for a tracker based soundtrack similar to Unreal but even that might occupy too much space on an N64 cart. The soundtrack could also have had a Soundfont and MIDI solution but I'd imagine that N64 Half-Life would just simply not have a soundtrack. Textures and Levels would also need some major trimming. Those big open levels of Surface Tension and Xen would need to be changed drastically. Other levels would need to be split into multiple parts, Most likely the early levels like Office Complex. Finally the AI wouldn't be as sharp but that might be the easiest thing to preserve. Just don't have too many enemies on screen.

[Anonymous No.9442114]

>>9442002
You'd have to compress the game to a quarter of its original size if you're using a 64 mb cartridge, as regular HL1 is about 250 mb or so in size. The biggest challenge would be porting the levels and music over, as those take up the vast majority of size. The main issue is the map file format Valve used for levels is pretty chunky and not easy to compress. You would likely have to cut out entire sections of the game, which is already a terrible fucking idea. And that's not even getting into the actual lifting the N64 would have to do to handle juggling all that data either.

Turok worked because it was designed with the N64's limitations in mind. HL1 was developed with the PC's limitations in mind at the time, which is a vast ocean between the two. Just look at the HL2 port to Xbox or even the PS2 port of HL1, they still had serious issues.

[Anonymous No.9442115]

>>9442014
stop fucking posting this ugly image as your avatar. this isn't vogons

[Anonymous No.9442132]

Give it a few years, and someone will probably try to make it, being as Portal is on N64 now.

[Anonymous No.9442189]

>>9442115
>vogons
Did you seriously trace it all the way back there? Talk about obsessed.

[Anonymous No.9442209]

>>9442132
>Portal is on N64 now.
Link?

[Anonymous No.9442219]

>>9442209
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChY6jM8hDMY

[Anonymous No.9442238]

>>9442078
>no joke
A look alike isn't a port

[Anonymous No.9442239]

>>9442002
I can't answer this question as I'm not intimately familiar with the code running in the background of Half-life

[Anonymous No.9442248]

>>9442238
What are you defining a port as?

[Anonymous No.9442256]

>>9442189
>trace it
I didn't trace shit. i can just detect forum user behavior.

[Anonymous No.9442258]

>>9442248
What are you? A port is PORTING the source to different hardware

[Anonymous No.9442298]

>>9442258
I imagine a lot of old ports would have entailed just remaking the game from scratch though. Is the Tengen version of Pac-Man a port?

[Anonymous No.9442317]

it wouldve required a complete reimagine of the game in the technical limitations of N64. it would be a totally different game kinda like how quake 2 was. Even if Nintendo offered Valve a millions dollars deal they wouldve said no as long everything remained without sacrifices. Dreamcast and PS2 were the only ports that got passed without huge sacrifices

[Anonymous No.9442369]

>>9442002
>>9442014
>>9442098
they'd have to trim a lot of it but i'd be cool to see it happen one day

[Anonymous No.9442372]

>>9442258
Considering that you can change anything while doing a port, it's a pretty pointless distinction because of how broad and vague that is.
It can be as small as changing the renderer and I/O, to as large as a new engine, new graphics, new audio, changed/cut mechanics, etc.

You don't need to be derived from the Source Engine to still be considered an N64 port of Portal if the game concepts and themes are intentionally trying to mimic the other implementation (except in regards to hardware limitations where compromises have to be made).

[Anonymous No.9442373]

>>9442002
Possible.
https://youtu.be/hnsnIE4V2sY

[Anonymous No.9442416]

>>9442372
Putting sugar in one bread recipe and not another doesn't make one not bread.

[Anonymous No.9442420]

>>9442416
Nobody even mentioned bread.

[Anonymous No.9442425]

>>9442420

[Anonymous No.9442426]

>>9442372
>if the game concepts and themes are intentionally trying to mimic the other implementation
Thats called a clone

[Anonymous No.9442429]

>>9442425
I don't know what level of irony you're on. You basically restated the point about games but for baking instead. Why?

[Anonymous No.9442532]

>>9442114
Redoing the map format would be a good idea in any regard. Quake's BSP format wasn't a great idea in 1996 and it took the combined power of id's finest to make it performant, and it was a truly astonishingly awful idea for 1998's Half Life based on the maps they actually built. If you're willing to borrow modern techniques then you could do far better on the N64 than Half Life could do on a non-accelerated pentium of the day. Arguably you could go back before Quake and use a more naive approach like dumb portal culling and still come out ahead. Quake was designed around its BSP system, Half Life was pooped out without any real understanding of the engine they borrowed.
Portal N64 works by using more modern techniques for things that hadn't been invented for realtime graphics yet. Not all progress is thanks to nvidia, the boffins who write SIGRAPH papers deserve some credit too.

[Anonymous No.9442563]

>>9442426
A clone is a copy that mimics another game without trying to pass itself off as that game. There are many pacman clones, chomper man is not a port, it's a clone.
The distinction between a non-source derived port and a clone is intent and legality. For instance Quake Saturn is not a clone, even though it stretches the concept of port to its breaking point in that it doesn't use the Quake engine, it doesn't use BSP maps, it doesn't use much of anything of the original. However the original data WAS used to create the assets so that it looked like and plays like Quake to the best of their abilities. A clone is more like when a game apes another, like a Monkey Kong or a Great Giana Sisters.
The real sticky ones come in the 8-bit Data East "ports" of arcade games for C64/Spectrum/Amstrad. They are clearly meant to be ports except they had no access to source or assets and so everything is practically a clean room reimplementation. Are these ports? Technically, but I feel they need another term since they aren't clones and are often only superficially similar to the game they are supposed to be.

[Anonymous No.9442575]

>>9442002
HL1 is too advanced for 5th gen, but too primitive for 6th gen. Which is why the PS2 port of HL1 features massively improved graphics.

[Anonymous No.9442585]

>>9442219
thats fucking legit. I also just love Portal and the 64 so...

[Anonymous No.9442586]

>>9442563
Great. and thats what this is

[Anonymous No.9443182]

>>9442575
lol

[Anonymous No.9443198]

>>9442002

I still have my original Half-Life disc, but I was excited for the Dreamcast port. I think the leaked HL1 beta for the DC was cool to play through on real hardware. The game has a lot of loading, and frame rate issues. The N64 wouldn't have any loading issues. Doing a direct port would probably be impossible. It would probably have to be some sort of re imagining of Half-Life 1. Like, game still has the opening tram-car ride, the walk through Black Mesa, the part where you equip your suit, the experiment stuff, followed by the portal, etc. It would follow the same story path, but with level design and enemies all reworked for the N64 console. They would have to probably resort to a lot of 'black fog' to hide pop in. Since the game mostly takes place indoors. I think it would be like a Quake II on PS1 type of thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGQCXLJTrX8

[Anonymous No.9443225]

>>9443198
That framerate tool is borked. You can clearly see the PS2 dropping frames.

[Anonymous No.9443238]

>>9443225
Yeah the ps2 version generally runs well. But drops do happen. Only a few times severe. Much of the time it's just into upper 40s at worst. I quite like the ps2 version, the lock on aiming really changes the way it plays

[Anonymous No.9443240]

>>9443182
retards forget that half-life 1 originally looked worse, and got a complete overhaul based on the dreamcast port

[Anonymous No.9443356]

>>9443240
>and got a complete overhaul based on the dreamcast port

The Dreamcast version was suppose to come with BlueShift as a Dreamcast exclusive. But, Gearbox made it a stand-alone expansion for the PC instead. It also came bundled with Opposing Forces, and the HD model pack. The HD models were based on the ones that Gearbox made for the Dreamcast game. One of the improvements that the Dreamcast port was adverting were it's higher polygon models for 'security guards', 'scientists', enemies, gun models, etc. Back then, there was no option to enable the HD models in game for HL1, if you owned Blue-Shift. Valve's help page lead to an external link to download them separately. But then, when Half-Life added Linux and Mac support, and OpenGL (again), they also added the toggle switch for HD content. Way back in the day, if you registered a Half-Life 1 CD key with Valve, give you both expansion packs, as well as other GoldSRC engines games not called Counter-Strike to your library, as a complementary thing. image taken from my account history.

[Anonymous No.9443404]

>>9443356
>The HD models were based on the ones that Gearbox made for the Dreamcast game.

Image related is from Official Dreamcast Magazine circa 2000. It's an article covering the DC port of Half-Life 1. You can see here, the devs were boasting about the new HD models for the DC game. Also, the same magazine article talks about Blue Shift being made for the Dreamcast specifically. But before the cancellation, it Randy decided to port Blue-Shift and the HD models back over to the GoldSRC engine. Sell it at a discount with Opposing Forces. Which is why it is a very small expansion in comparison to Opposing Forces.

[Anonymous No.9443412]

>>9443404

[Anonymous No.9443415]

https://archive.org/details/OfficialSegaDreamcastMagazineUS/Official_Sega_Dreamcast_8_Nov_2000/page/n47/mode/2up

[Anonymous No.9443445]

>>9442373
cool, whjat a faggot though

[Anonymous No.9444817]

>>9442258

The concept and level design are the crucial elements of Portal, and those can be manually copied from the compiled game. Who cares about the exact engine used or where it came from, as long as the two games feel similar and the puzzles have the same sets of solutions?

[Anonymous No.9444971]

>>9443240
>Looked worse
More like better. The HD stuff is trash.

[Anonymous No.9445265]

>>9442002
N64 had Quake2 and Quake1 and HL1 engine is a frankensteinish mix of these two engines so it's more than possible
it would probably need to downgrade the textures and sounds to fit in memory but that is about it
in theory most fps could be ported to anything that runs doom (with many corners cut of course)
if you mean port the exact game as is without compromise then you need at least a dreamcast or ps2

[Anonymous No.9445310]

>>9442002
>impossible
N64 had a 200mhz processor while most pcfats played this game on shitty pentium 133 mhz or even 486 machines

[Anonymous No.9445319]

>>9445265
Quake 2 needed a new engine to run on the n64 and PS1
https://youtu.be/DFYjSkUdfb4?t=724

[Anonymous No.9445342]

>>9443412
>10 to 15 hours
>1/3 the length of HL
>let alone how long BS took

[Anonymous No.9445389]

>>9443404
i don't understand, why not use the same ol textures along with the new hd models?
Randy was always a jealous asshole who hated valve and 3dr.

[Anonymous No.9445392]

>>9442256
congratulations, you exposed yourself as a stalking nigger.

[Anonymous No.9445425]

>>9442002
Probably only the Black Mesa interior map, without the intro. Also no NPC dialogs

[Anonymous No.9445564]

>>9442017
Rare can't even get good original N64 games going. Don't count on them porting a game out of their skill level or scope of programming

[Anonymous No.9445576]

>>9445319
>Quake 2 needed a new engine to run on the n64
You mean the old engine. It's built on top of Quake 64.

[Anonymous No.9445626]

Imagine a GoldenEye-style reimagining of Half-Life with about 20 missions. Would you play?

[Anonymous No.9445630]

>>9445564
walmart grade bait

[Anonymous No.9445650]

>>9442002
Give it to Factor 5

[Anonymous No.9445665]

>>9442258
LOTS of ports of games were recreations in other engines which didn't use the original source code (sometimes because that wasn't even a realistic or useful approach). Shows how much you know about the subject.

[Anonymous No.9445694]

>>9443445
shoutout to simpleflips

[Anonymous No.9445712]

>>9442002
the game itself would probably be possible, just look at what they did with GoldenEye007.
However the biggest issue would be audio and voice acting. No way there could be cutscenes or audio cues from scientists/soldiers.

[Anonymous No.9445716]

yes.

[Anonymous No.9445802]

>>9442002
>"impossible"
Lol that game came years after Goldeneye. N64 was still ahead of PC's by then.

[Anonymous No.9446029]

It wouldn't be possible simply due to the AI. The game would slow to a crawl on the weak N64.

[Anonymous No.9446041]

>>9442219
fuckin nice

[Anonymous No.9446071]

>>9442002
The graphics aren't any better than most N64 games. You'd have to trim the game down a bit but that's for the better since it's an excuse to get rid of the railcart chapter

[Anonymous No.9446113]

>>9445802
>240p 7fps gameplay with .jpg backgrounds smeared in Vaseline
Yeah, no.

[Anonymous No.9446401]

>>9442002
the ps2 version is on cd so you would need to cut a lot or have an expensive cart for the cutscenes

[Anonymous No.9446456]

>>9442258
dumb autistic pcfag attitude. its why console doom sucked for so long

[Anonymous No.9446458]

>>9442586
that's fine but its a meaningless distinction