The Half Life 2 Leak (Stolen Source Code)

[Hercules331]

Ok I keep reading all this stuff about the half life 2 leak and the stolen source code and this other crap. But i havent found anything that actually explains it. I was wondering if someone could explain to me what happened exactly with all this stuff and y the game was delayed b/c of the stolen material and such. I dont feel like searching the internet so if someone could explain to me what happened thatd be great. -Thanks

 

[SFLUFAN]

Your best bet is to read this article on Gamespot

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6112889/?q=1&tag=gs_pc_topslot_click

 

[Ennui]

in short, a hacker got into the Valve system, stole about a third or more of the source code, and released it. lots of people got it and compiled it to play the "alpha" which was the compiled build.

Valve, though they would have had to delay HL2 anyway, had to rewrite tons of networking code to prevent cheating, which set them back several months at least.

 

[Hercules331]

What exactly is the source code? And how did people get to play the game with it?

 

[Feath]

in short, a hacker got into the Valve system, stole about a third or more of the source code, and released it. lots of people got it and compiled it to play the "alpha" which was the compiled build.

Valve, though they would have had to delay HL2 anyway, had to rewrite tons of networking code to prevent cheating, which set them back several months at least.

I think it's the morale effect on the team that delayed the game further.

 

[Ennui]

thats true as well, feath.

Source code is the bones of the game - C++ programming code, several hundred thousand lines of it. They imported it to the microsoft C++ environment and then compiled it into a working program, since they also had the models and stuff like that.

 

[Mauli]

I think that the hacker was just a lame excuse for it to be delayed.. seriously.. They just werent ready so the blamed it on him

 

[KagePrototype]

I think that the hacker was just a lame excuse for it to be delayed.. seriously.. They just werent ready so the blamed it on him

They said it was a number of things that caused the delay. The source code leak forced Valve to rethink and reinterpretate the net-code, so hackers didn't get a huge headstart with cheats and such.

 

[Feath]

I think that the hacker was just a lame excuse for it to be delayed.. seriously.. They just werent ready so the blamed it on him

Despite the fact you are posting on an internet forum, I have trouble believing you can read.

Valve have never said "it was all the hacker's fault it was delayed". They have admitted that the game wasn't done. Numerous times. Pay more attention in the future.

 

[nofx]

Didnt they catch the hacker though, and found out he created other worms also.

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

I think that the hacker was just a lame excuse for it to be delayed.. seriously.. They just werent ready so the blamed it on him

They said they weren't finished with the game at that time anyways, they didn't use that excuse at all. They just weren't finished with the game at that time, that is all.

 

[ukfluke]

the source code is only a small part of the stolen build. The hacker originally released only the source code (100mb) this was the uncompiled source engine. (no textures, no levels no resources at all)

screenshots of the code appeared on the internet but people said it was fake due to entries in the code like " copyright quake 1998 ". As the source code spread people started compiling the code and sure enough it was proved to be source. Around a week later the hacker announced he not only had the source code but the entire game(3GB) which was released on the internet soon after. The rest as they say is history..

heres a snippet of the original nfo that came with the stolen build.
__________________
_[ October 7. 2003 ]____________________________________________
/ \
| |
| Half-Life 2 - "Chosen 9" release |
| |
| Company: Valve Corporation ( http://www.valvesoftware.com ) |
| File size: 100 x 15MB |
| Release: November 2003 |
\_________________________________________________________________/
_________________________________________________________________
/ \
| |
| Quote from http://www.planethalflife.com/ : |
| "There were a ton of rumors the past couple days about the |
| existence of a leaked, playable Half-Life 2 beta, but |
| thankfully those stories have been confirmed to be completely |
| false." |
| |
| Well, I hope nobody believed this rumor. Who would actually be |
| good enough to get the source, but forget the game ? |
| |
| To my-got: this is too big for you to take credit |
| |
| - Anonymous leaker |
| |
\_________________________________________________________________/
_________________________________________________________________

 

[ScRaTcH-A-HoLiC]

the source code is only a small part of the stolen build. The hacker originally released only the source code (100mb) this was the uncompiled source engine. (no textures, no levels no resources at all)

screenshots of the code appeared on the internet but people said it was fake due to entries in the code like " copyright quake 1998 ". As the source code spread people started compiling the code and sure enough it was proved to be source. Around a week later the hacker announced he not only had the source code but the entire game(3GB) which was released on the internet soon after. The rest as they say is history..

heres a snippet of the original nfo that came with the stolen build.
__________________
_[ October 7. 2003 ]____________________________________________
/ \
| |
| Half-Life 2 - "Chosen 9" release |
| |
| Company: Valve Corporation ( http://www.valvesoftware.com ) |
| File size: 100 x 15MB |
| Release: November 2003 |
\_________________________________________________________________/
_________________________________________________________________
/ \
| |
| Quote from http://www.planethalflife.com/ : |
| "There were a ton of rumors the past couple days about the |
| existence of a leaked, playable Half-Life 2 beta, but |
| thankfully those stories have been confirmed to be completely |
| false." |
| |
| Well, I hope nobody believed this rumor. Who would actually be |
| good enough to get the source, but forget the game ? |
| |
| To my-got: this is too big for you to take credit |
| |
| - Anonymous leaker |
| |
\_________________________________________________________________/
_________________________________________________________________

HAHAHAHAHAHA ***** owned!