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Half-Life ported to Mac OS 9

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Re: Half-Life ported to Mac OS 9

#71

Post by xamuel »

nonethewiser wrote: post #56
soulofmischief wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people seem to be downvoting this because it's not something they like whether true or not, however I think it's a thought-provoking perspective which warrants some consideration.

I think there is real insight but it kinda relies on a rhetorical trick. AI could arguably create a simpsons episode. It absolutely could not make a Beatles song. The Beatles can only make a Beatles song, and they do not exist.

The Beatles absolutely still exist! They published a new single in 2023 ("Now and Then") and they surgically injected slices from archive footage into new footage for the music video to make it look like young Lennon and Harrison perform alongside elder McCartney and Ringo.

Re: Half-Life ported to Mac OS 9

#72

Post by CursedSilicon »

manytimesaway wrote: post #57
wk_end wrote: post #24

The most interesting thing about this link, for me, is seeing that there's an open-source recreation of GoldSrc [0]? That's apparently been around since 2011 [1]? I'm stunned I haven't heard about this before. Very cool. [0] https://github.com/fwgs/xash3d-fwgs [1] https://www.moddb.com/engines/xash3d-engine

Xash3D is not really open-source. The original codebase comes from leaked/decompiled code, and nowadays still requires the proprietary HLSDK to build.

Can you provide citations for this? The original Xash3D engine is listed as open source on ModDB

Re: Half-Life ported to Mac OS 9

#73

Post by tekchip »

amatecha wrote: post #26

Nice, I'm surprised it took this long! My first experience of playing Quake 1 in my home was an unauthorized source port which ran in System 7, I believe was called "HackQuake", ported from stolen source code from CrackDotCom apparently[0][1] .. For me as a kid getting insanely impatient to play Quake, this was a godsend! Even if the performance was brutal and firing a rocket caused the framerate to halve. Played it…

You're spot on. Software is infinitely flexible provided time and/or resources.

Re: Half-Life ported to Mac OS 9

#74

Post by CamperBob2 »

CursedSilicon wrote: post #69
xp84 wrote: post #42

More and more, I wonder if projects like this (I assume they're made possible 'all of a sudden' because of AI coding tools) are going to eventually breathe new life into dozens of "obsolete" platforms long ago deemed too costly to keep supporting. Maybe we'll be able to daily drive OS9 with modern browsers and bugfixes. Or for those of us less masochistic, say, Windows 2000 or NextStep!

At least in retro spaces there's a lot of rejection of using AI to do things. Half-Life (and the later Source engine games such as Half-Life 2 and Portal) were ported without LLM assistance however (Source: I am in the Discord where the developer has been working and diligently posting updates on the project)

(Removed inaccurate remark, or rather, removed my reply to an inaccurate remark)

Re: Half-Life ported to Mac OS 9

#75

Post by taneq »

EPWN3D wrote: post #41
amatecha wrote: post #26

Nice, I'm surprised it took this long! My first experience of playing Quake 1 in my home was an unauthorized source port which ran in System 7, I believe was called "HackQuake", ported from stolen source code from CrackDotCom apparently[0][1] .. For me as a kid getting insanely impatient to play Quake, this was a godsend! Even if the performance was brutal and firing a rocket caused the framerate to halve. Played it…

I remember when TIE Fighter finally came out for the Mac, I just begged my parents to order it from Mac Warehouse or whichever catalogue it was in. I didn't read the system requirements, which said it needed a PowerPC. I was still rocking a Quadra 610 that I'd upgraded to a 50MHz 68040 and 24 MB of RAM. When I got the game and looked at the box, I was heartbroken. But I decided, why not put in the disk anyway. I did…

Having spent a large chunk of my teens playing X-Wing on a 486-DX33 you are clearly my enemy. :P

I didn’t have to data mine a compatible .exe from the game files but I did have to use a special boot disk with a modified himem.sys on it so the game would launch. Good times, haha.

Re: Half-Life ported to Mac OS 9

#76

Post by hoten »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #74
CursedSilicon wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in retro spaces there's a lot of rejection of using AI to do things. Half-Life (and the later Source engine games such as Half-Life 2 and Portal) were ported without LLM assistance however (Source: I am in the Discord where the developer has been working and diligently posting updates on the project)

(Removed inaccurate remark, or rather, removed my reply to an inaccurate remark)

"unsustainable" is an odd word to use for a hobby. They aren't trying to hit productivity goals. Maybe they just still like programming.

Re: Half-Life ported to Mac OS 9

#77

Post by CamperBob2 »

hoten wrote: post #76
CamperBob2 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Removed inaccurate remark, or rather, removed my reply to an inaccurate remark)

"unsustainable" is an odd word to use for a hobby. They aren't trying to hit productivity goals. Maybe they just still like programming.

I do, too, but I'm feeling increasingly awkward doing it by hand.

NGL, it's not an altogether-comfortable feeling. At least not yet.

Re: Half-Life ported to Mac OS 9

#78

Post by CursedSilicon »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #74
CursedSilicon wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in retro spaces there's a lot of rejection of using AI to do things. Half-Life (and the later Source engine games such as Half-Life 2 and Portal) were ported without LLM assistance however (Source: I am in the Discord where the developer has been working and diligently posting updates on the project)

(Removed inaccurate remark, or rather, removed my reply to an inaccurate remark)

What a bizarre take

Many people refuse to use LLM's for various reasons that I don't need to rehash here

Re: Half-Life ported to Mac OS 9

#79

Post by gilgoomesh »

In one of the most infamous stories of the era, Half-Life was officially ported to Mac OS back in the year 2000 by Logicware/MacPlay but got shut down by Valve at the last minute.

I've watched interviews with Rebecca Heineman (one of the devs involved) on the topic. It did not make her happy.

Here's an article from the era:

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/mac-half-life-canceled/110...

Interview with Rebecca Heineman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPTLPXNtb2I

(skip to timecode 1:36:41 for the Half-Life details)

Re: Half-Life ported to Mac OS 9

#80

Post by CamperBob2 »

CursedSilicon wrote: post #78
CamperBob2 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Removed inaccurate remark, or rather, removed my reply to an inaccurate remark)

What a bizarre take Many people refuse to use LLM's for various reasons that I don't need to rehash here

"Bizarre" is rejecting powerful tools on ... what, religious grounds?

It would be one thing if we were talking woodworking or pottery or another skilled craft, where your personal growth of talent with experience is evident in the product, resulting in something you can look back on fondly and point to with pride.

But moving some legacy code (which you didn't write) from one platform to another? What do you get out of doing that by hand?

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