You can also see the weapon selection bar in software, you cant see it in Ogl for some reason
OK, how do I set the color depth. I can’t do that in the Propteries of the exe. Also keep in mind, the blotchy yellow fragmented effect occurs in the menu and console of the game too. It’s very irritating, and I don’t even understand why its doing this.
Still doesn’t work. I think the alpha may be in need of a patch. Or it just doesn’t work on Lenovo Windows XP laptops. The effect is still perplexing.
IT WORKS!!! 
:jizz::’( 
It finally works! (Excuse the silly icons of joy)
Thank you. Although I’m playing it in window mode (since that’s the only way it can play), it plays beautiful. The HUD is missing, but I don’t care too much. I’m just amazed that I’m playing this right now. It’s like a dream come true, playing the very alpha of one of my favorite childhood games. It includes a lot of the stuff which I remember from those game magazines and early fan sites promoting the Half-Life before it was released. The concept intruiged me then, although I never expected Half-Life to become the mastepiece it was back in 1998. I was disappointed that certain enemies and scientist types didn’t make it into the final game. However, by playing the alpha, I get to play the vision of Half-Life I kind of expected, as well as bask into some cool gameplay experiences in the alpha which I didn’t expect.
Just so you know, you can be stealthy with the enemies. I noticed that when I allowed a grunt to walk and go about his business, he didn’t notice me until I was in front of him. The crouching behind the crates during a firing match with the grunts is brilliant, and I loved seeing the scientists trying to sneak around to avoid detection from enemies (not that the enemies really care too much about them). I killed my first Barney, who was locked inside an office, and I just love his grotesque appearance (it’s an homage to how intentionally ugly all the enemies in Quake were, by having the guards look like they were the result of crossbreeding between a New Mexican and one of Shub-Niggurath’s spawn). The attack from the headcrabs is freaking insane: just one hit, and you’re dead. They jump pretty far too. Did you find the room with the swarm of headcrabs and houndeyes waiting for you? That’s intense.
Admittedly, the machine gun is by far the strongest and most reliable weapon. The enemies have a lot of hit points, which is why the machine gun is the one weapon to fall back on. I did love the the early looking crowbar, and the animation to swing it. Notice that there is no hand holding it, so its swung by an invisible hand. The way the crowbar attack was animated, I swore it resembled how the melee tools in Penumbra: Overtures was animated. It’s a nice little prophetic glimpse of the game which would take what was great about Half-Life (and System Shock 2), and push them even further. It gets my mental gears turning, thinking that some of Penumbra’s elements might fit in a enhanced TC recreation of the alpha (but not too much). Even some of the moving objects out of the way of doors make me think of Penumbra. Back on topic, the weak crowbar does make me think a little bit of the strength of the melee weapons in Kingpin, and I do think that the crowbar of Half-Life must have been inspired by the use of the crowbar in games like Kingpin and Redneck Rampage. It’s just one of those weapons which shocked parents when it was seen whacking enemies, and yet so darkly hilarious when you see the result of the crowbar’s handiwork.
Seeing the bare arms holding weapons definitely made me think of Opposing Force and (to a lesser degree) Blue Shift, because those where you didn’t have special whole body covering suits to protect you. I mean, Shepherd had the PCV, but the bare arms were definitely a bit of an homage to the original gameplay look for HL. It seems that Valve probably had a super average scientist in mind for the hero, or they just didn’t find a way to come up with HEV suited arms yet. Could you imagine Ivan’s alpha HEV suited arms holding those weapons? It would be like playing a HEV suited Viking from a Quake mod. That’s something which I would like to see.
Finally, I after finally checking this alpha out for the first time, I’m convinced that it’s worth recreating, or even reimagining. I would love to work on a mod which tries to recreate, enhance and expand upon the levels from Half-Life 0.52. I like the slightly different story, the somewhat different two scientist types, the red headcrabs, the layout and mood of the levels, and the grotesque teacherous Barneys, and I think it would make a unique TC. Granted it would need new writing, new context, and new textures, but it would be fun. I sure want to see what the red headcrabbed zombies would of looked like in my vision, or even an alpha styled version of a Vortigaunt, the G-Man, or Gonarch and the Nihilinth.
Makes me wonder if a Beta demo had ever been released (besides Uplink).
This is my Sentence of the Day.
Hey guys, I have the alpha myself too. The only thing is that when I use the engineGL.exe to play (yes I deleted OpenGL32.dll) is that it lags so bad. Then when I use the engine.exe with the 16 bit mode on in Compatibility, the bloody thing says to me that the selected video mode is not supported. And I REALLY want to play this alpha myself. Any help?
BTW I’m on Windows 8.
Get a better computer to run the 15 years old software.
Whatever, I decided that I’m going to use a VM. No way I’m letting an alpha of HL get past me without being played, but thanks anyway.