Where Are They Now?

6th July 2011

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

The 100 Summer Days of Nostalgia event has generated so many ideas for mod reports, podcasts and general articles. One of them, which has certainly been done before, but fits so well with the theme of the event is Where are they now?

I have emailed a few people and Petrick, a PP reader and reviewer, has said he has tried contacting a few people too, but I thought a proper post on the site would be a good idea.

I would love to get in contact with mappers and modders who crteated and released SP maps and mods between the release of Half-Life and 2004. I would like to do 2 main of things.

Firstly, some short interviews with these modders talking about their mapping history and what they did after they left mapping for HL. Secondly, I would very much like to arrange a roundtable podcast with either those mappers or players who have been involved with the HL community since the beginning.

So, if you are a mapper who was involved with HL “back in the day” or you know how to contact one, or are a player, who “has seen it all”, please contact me.

I would especially like to hear from people who had followed the build up of the game and bought it on the day of release.

I am open to suggestions regarding articles and projects related to HL1 etc. Don’t be shy, I won’t bite.

I look forward to hearing from you.

16 Comments

  1. Ive send some emails/facebook messages, i’ve only got answer from few (Unq and Brett “In The Kitchen” Bernier).

    No answer from Sigurd “Crash” Randal, Jack “Gman island” Amano, Luke “Beginnings” Whiteside and few others.

    A bit offtopic, but I would love to know whatever happened to OneSneakyMouse, he made several rat-style deathmatch maps..

  2. Derbler

    I’ve been a Half-Lifer since 2000 so I guess I’m too late to the party to have any cake.

  3. Unq

    Yep, been there since the beginning and still kickin it old school. I’d be happy to be involved in any of the podcast discussions you do in this theme. 🙂

  4. Organic700

    Hi there, I’m still here and it would be cool to share my thoughts about the great years of developing Half-Life: Visitors 🙂

    1. Yay, welcome to PlanetPhillip 🙂

      i sent another pack of emails today, hope to find few more old school mappers to join.

  5. Brett ( Tetsu0 )

    Hey guys I’m down!
    Thanks petrick for the heads up!!

  6. Ook

    Ook here aka Matthew Reed. Been playing since HL “day one” was released, the demo that took you through to the level where you take the elevator up to the surface.

    I remember the day when the total number of HL servers hit 1000. Wow, 1000 servers online! This was before Counter-Strike, back when DeathMatch was the way to play, men were men, drove big gas guzzling made-in-America cars, etc…

    I built the ook_* series of maps, though they were never terribly popular. Been running HL Servers for about ten years, and still run one of the oldest OP4 servers out there.

    1. Unq

      Including Op4CTF? Does that still exist?

      1. More or less, there is server or two every now and then, but no one playing 🙁

        Private Beach ruuuullss!!!

        1. Ook

          Op4CTF was awesome, best CTF I’ve ever played. Alas, a Steam upgrade more-or-less broke OP4 CTF, and while it is possible to hack stuff to get it working no one plays much anymore.

          1. For whatever reason, Valve removed ALL op4CTF files back in Won->Steam conversion. Those were added back last year or so…

  7. platoon

    i think you guys need find members from chatbar (closed site)
    i know there is very good mappers long time ago, but I cant contact anyone of them now
    i hope it helps…

  8. William

    Why not try to get some current developers who have been working on their mods since Half-Life… like Rumple from Cry of Fear (Afraid of Monsters), or Earth special forces if you want something a little newer with an updated engine.

    1. Because I am interested in talking to people about the beginnings of HL, not the current state. That’s another theme that is interesting but not really part of the 100SDoN event.

  9. fresco

    Hey nice post! I’m the creator of “Times and Troubles” (and E.T.F.) and if I’ll find the time I’d like to share my thoughts and memories about my active mapping time. 🙂

    1. I remember playing TaT few times, but E.T.F? Does not ring a bell… Welcome anyway, lol 🙂

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