Black Mesa: Uplink remakes Half-Life demo

The Black Mesa mod is a remarkable accomplishment, remaking Half-Life in the Source engine, and now a mapper building upon their work has remade another slice of Valve history. Black Mesa: Uplink remakes HL's classic Uplink demo, which curiously for a demo was a new slice based upon levels cut from the game during development. And now that's available in shiny Source-o-vision.

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The Black Mesa mod is a remarkable accomplishment, remaking Half-Life in the Source engine, and now a mapper building upon their work has remade another slice of Valve history. Black Mesa: Uplink remakes HL's classic Uplink demo, which curiously for a demo was a new slice based upon levels cut from the game during development. And now that's available in shiny Source-o-vision. Black Mesa: Uplink is out now on its ModDB page and here on Shacknews. To play, you'll need to own a modern Source game on Steam and have the Black Mesa mod installed. Mapper Michael 'Hezus' Jansen made Uplink over three months, building upon the assets and eight years of work from Black Mesa. Set roughly around Half-Life's Lambda Core chapter, Uplink sees Gordon Freeman on a mission to activate a radio antenna so people can escape, only an awful lot of soldiers, mutants, aliens, radiation leaks and jumping puzzles are in his way. "I've recreated something people played 13 years ago, that means it's intertwined with nostalgic feelings," Jansen said in the release announcement. "Have I recreated it according to their past experience? Have I changed too much? Have I changed too little? All I know is that I threw away all illusions that I could please everyone with this remake, right when I started the project. I made it as I saw fit and I hope the commentary tracks will shed some light on my choices."

Out with the old, in with the new

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    December 18, 2012 6:00 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Black Mesa: Uplink remakes Half-Life demo.

    The Black Mesa mod is a remarkable accomplishment, remaking Half-Life in the Source engine, and now a mapper building upon their work has remade another slice of Valve history. Black Mesa: Uplink remakes HL's classic Uplink demo, which curiously for a demo was a new slice based upon levels cut from the game during development. And now that's available in shiny Source-o-vision.

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      December 18, 2012 6:03 AM

      Excellent.

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      December 18, 2012 6:04 AM

      Now on to OpFor, please!

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      December 18, 2012 6:05 AM

      Holy fucking what???? Right in the nostalgia.

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      December 18, 2012 6:14 AM

      [deleted]

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      December 18, 2012 6:36 AM

      Any idea if they'll actually implement this into the main campaign somehow?

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        December 18, 2012 6:38 AM

        It would seem massively unlikely. They're doing re-creation, not new stuff.

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      December 18, 2012 7:09 AM

      this really is a solid demo

    • rms legacy 10 years legacy 20 years mercury super mega
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      December 18, 2012 9:15 AM

      What was the reasoning behind redoing the classic voicework for the scientists & barneys in the opening HL1 levels, anyone know? That was the most jarring thing, and I lost interest. I'd looked forward to experiencing again the pacing and tone of the "They're waiting for you Gordon...in the test chamber" conversation, and it wasn't there

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        December 18, 2012 9:21 AM

        They don't own the rights to redistribute those assets.

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          December 18, 2012 9:30 AM

          They don't own the rights to do any of what they did, and they could just ask Valve for permission.

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            December 18, 2012 10:04 AM

            The audio quality of the original HL samples are dire. And while Black Mesa's samples are obviously not the originals, they are far and away better than the voice acting of any other user mod I have seen (er, heard)

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            December 18, 2012 10:06 AM

            Regardless, he's right, not having the rights is exactly why the voices and artwork are redone.

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            December 18, 2012 11:03 AM

            all of the textures, sounds, models and mapping are all new. valve's lawyers even put the kibosh on them using "source" in the mods name.

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        December 18, 2012 1:57 PM

        That put you off enough stop playing? Just try it again with a slightly more open mind and I you will love it! It's so good!

        Here's some fancy screens I took: http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=29382805#item_29382805

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        December 18, 2012 2:14 PM

        There's nothing wrong with the new voices. They're pretty good for a mod. It's not like the old voices were that great either.

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      December 18, 2012 9:29 AM

      Uplink was like the Demo of the Year. Must have played it 4-5 times.

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        December 18, 2012 4:43 PM

        more like best demo of all time... or maybe that's BF1942.

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      December 18, 2012 4:04 PM

      Played it now... good lil' bite of Half Life.

      One thing FYI, it does seem to have an infinite-soldier-spawner at one point (and I don't think the original did). When soldiers start rappelling in, find a way out rather than trying to eliminate them all.

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