How to play the original 2004 retail version of Half Life 2?

[AtTheGates]

Hi,
I'm trying to make a video to prove something to a friend about how well the original version of Half Life 2 ran on the GeForce FX cards in DX9 mode. However, whenever I install my original retail 2004 DVD version of Half Life 2, Steam WILL NOT let me play it without forcing stupid updates that will obviously put in onto the new Source engine version, I don't want that, I own both the original retail version of HL2 and a digital version! I just want to play the original legitly, without having to resort to extreme methods if they even exist.

Any ideas anyone?

[Khorps]

pause the update and right click on the game in your library, then go to properties, local files, browse local files. then run the hl2.exe

[AtTheGates]

Tried that. It goes to the "launch when ready" screen.

[cheshirm]

what would happen if your internet connection was turned off/unplugged when you try to play the original?

[AtTheGates]

Originally posted by cheshirm:

what would happen if your internet connection was turned off/unplugged when you try to play the original?

You have to go online to enable it, which in turn updates the Steam agent to the latest version, which in turn forces the update. Why the hell you can't disable updates like you used to be able to is beyond me. Yet another mark against Steam for me. Ugh.

[D3c4d3nc3]

Er, become a speedrunner of the old version? https://www.reddit.com/r/speedrun/comments/2ylon5/halflife_2_version/

[Khorps]

the hl2.exe is not too important, try using a newer version of the hl2.exe, the real programming is in the engine and half-life 2's binary files

[Khorps]

or you could also replace the engine of another source game and run the hl2 folder

[Toasted Headcrab]

Originally posted by ryker:

https://archive.org/details/hl2goty_steamfree

lol thats piracy

[zeeb]

Originally posted by Femboy enjoyer:

Originally posted by ryker:

https://archive.org/details/hl2goty_steamfree

lol thats piracy

Shhhhh.
Snitches gets stitches.

[Ikagura]

Originally posted by Femboy enjoyer:

Originally posted by ryker:

https://archive.org/details/hl2goty_steamfree

lol thats piracy

If they own the original it's not really

[Blue Lightning]

You cant speed run through water hazard anymore, the updates took that exploit away. The part where you have the Hunter Choper for the first time, you now have to go through the factory and waves of combine (boring) instead of saving 20 minutes and jumping on airboat, over railing and opening the lock.

[Jernas]

Originally posted by Yuka:

Hi,
I'm trying to make a video to prove something to a friend about how well the original version of Half Life 2 ran on the GeForce FX cards in DX9 mode. However, whenever I install my original retail 2004 DVD version of Half Life 2, Steam WILL NOT let me play it without forcing stupid updates that will obviously put in onto the new Source engine version, I don't want that, I own both the original retail version of HL2 and a digital version! I just want to play the original legitly, without having to resort to extreme methods if they even exist.

Any ideas anyone?

No question ATI 9000 series cards ran the game better than Nvidia FX series cards, especially in DX9. But it was still possible to run the game on a higher end FX card in DX9. This is a gpu benchmark from 2003, I believe it's the beta version of the game.
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/halflife-2-benchmarks,679-5.html

[Blue Lightning]

A crappy chip set is more than enough...as long as you got a nice SSHD, and 6 gig of RAM and a good or even decent CPU. With all that, the GPU is very...unimportant.

[Zom.byte]

Did you get it figured out dude? IF you do, let us know what works! ha