Discuss this news article and video in the Black Mesa podcast thread of the Half-Life 2 forums.
Black Mesa is a modification for the Half-Life 2. Over the past 4 years, the BM developers have remade the orginal Half-Life 1 with the improved physics engine and improved graphics of the Source engine. The BM project started In November or December of 2004 and is supposed to be released sometime in 2009.
Black Mesa is a remake of the original Half-Life, but with the Half-Life 2 Source engine and improved graphics.
In a PC Gamer magazine from October 2004 there was a review of Half-Life 2. It was one of those “First Look” reviews that was published just weeks before the full release of HL2. (Just for reference, the issue of PC Gamer that is being referred to was published in October, 2004.) Included with the review of HL2 was some history of the series, just for those that did not know how it all started. This section of the review was called “recommended playing” and discussed HL1, Blue Shift and Opposing Force.
At the end of the article, the author mentions that he had asked someone at Valve about a Half-Life 1 remake but with the Source engine. The reply from the person at Valve software went something like this – “Valve has already been contacted by different groups asking permission to remake HL1 with the source engine.”
Since this article was published in the October, 2004 issue PC Gamer. The play test and interview had to be several weeks before October. This puts interest in a remark starting around July, August or September of 2004.
When the Black Mesa developers were asked if they were the ones that contacted Valve before October 2004, the answer was “no”. The official start date for the Black Mesa Modification is somewhere around November or December 2004. Which is a couple of months after HL2 review issue of PC Gamer was published.
This brings up another question. If it was not the Black Mesa developers that contacted Valve back in mid – late 2004, then who was it? And what happened to those other projects?
With a start date of December 2004. That means that BM has been in development for 4 years and 4 months – at the time this article was written.
Besides all of the history on Black Mesa, it has already won several awards before it has even been released.
Awards and Recognition:
Mod DB – Top Unreleased Mod for 2005
Mod DB – Top Unreleased Mod for 2006
Mod DB – Honorable mention for Top Unreleased Mod for 2007
Rumors have it that BM is going to be released in 2009. But we will have to wait and see.