Get Your Free TVs!
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This article is non-canon. |  |
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The subject matter of this article does not take place in the "real" Half-Life and Portal universe and is considered non-canon. |
Get Your Free TVs! was the very first Half-Life 2 test level to be created in 2000 when the Valve development team only had a rough script of the game, some concept art, and was experimenting the new technology. It consisted of a test sequence designed to highlight all the new technology created for the game and test the NPCs and physics, not to be included in the final product.[1] Working on a very early version of the Source engine (reusing Half-Life's HUD), this sequence was the real beginning of the game's development. The footage was captured through video out to a Sony camcorder onto MiniDV tape[2] and presented at SIGGRAPH 2000 as part of a closed-room demo.
For two decades, the only available public documentation of this demonstration was through the development article The Final Hours of Half-Life 2 published on GameSpot on November 12, 2004. The recording itself, recovered from an old PC and digitally cleaned up, was finally published on November 15, 2024 by Valve alongside the rest of the complete SIGGRAPH 2000 presentation reel in celebration of Half-Life 2's 20th anniversary.[2] Marc Laidlaw also published a portion of the footage without any additional post processing on the same day to his personal YouTube channel.[3]
Description
The concept was to simulate a street war between rioting gas mask Citizens and the Metrocops sent to suppress them. This sequence aimed to test the engine’s ability to create a vast, believable world with lifelike characters. It began with the player entering a courtyard and walking into a hallway, where a citizen carrying a TV would run past, shouting "TVs! Free TVs!" Upon reaching a second courtyard past the doorway, the player would witness other citizens picking up Molotov cocktails and throwing them into a TV store, looting the area while yelling "Get one! Get a TV, get yourself a TV!" They would then run past the player into the hallway.
Other citizens would throw Molotovs at nearby buildings and vehicles, causing a car to explode spectacularly. The explosion sends individual parts of the vehicle such as the trunk, hood, wheels, and chassis flying through the air, showcasing an early iteration of fire effects and the Source engine's physics capabilities. A dedicated hand-to-hand fighting system is then demonstrated in which a Metrocop fights and knocks out two citizens in fistfights, a feature never implemented or seen in the final game.[1] The voice lines for the citizens were performed by Marc Laidlaw, said to have been recorded very quickly when pulled into an office while he was heading down the hall to another office.[3]
The "Free TVs" map used for the demonstration exists in the WC map pack under the name city_test, with revisions ranging from 03 to 09, modified between December 2000 and July 2001. It was later repurposed as testroom_signage (September 2001) to showcase Combine posters, billboards, and technology. None of the scripted sequences from the 2000 SIGGRAPH demo survive in any of these map files. However, the "car exploding" prefab can still be found in the 2001 WC map sniper_008.
Gallery
The first courtyard in
city_test03.
Ditto, from the other side.
The hallway seen in the Get Your Free TVs! official screenshot, as seen from the same spot. Of note is that a brush APC is used instead of a white sedan, and some junk lies in the foreground.
The hallway seen in the Get Your Free TVs! official screenshot, seen from opposite.
The second courtyard past the doorway, with an early brush APC.
Alyx as a placeholder near chargers in the second courtyard.
Fan-made model restoration using the original textures.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The Final Hours of Half-Life 2", Page 7: Zombie Basketball on GameSpot (November 12, 2004)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1
Half-Life 2 Anniversary Archive: SIGGRAPH 2000 Demo on YouTube
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 TV! Free TV! on YouTube
External links
- "The Final Hours of Half-Life 2", Page 7: Zombie Basketball on GameSpot
- Half-Life 2 Anniversary Archive: SIGGRAPH 2000 Demo on YouTube
- TV! Free TV! on YouTube
