The Final Hours of Half-Life

 
Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - The Microsoft
            Millionaires
Part 3 - The Valve
            Difference
Part 4 - Reassembling
            the Pieces
Part 5 - Squashing the
            Final Bug
The id Visit
In late 1996, Newell and Harrington arrived at id ready to listen and learn from the industry pros. However, as Abrash remembers, the id gang wasn't too thrilled at the prospect. "I don't recall that when [they] came down to id, there was a lot of great chemistry," he says bluntly. "Let's put it this way: It wasn't like when Nine-Inch Nails came to visit - that was a cool thing. These were guys that worked on stuff like Microsoft Bob and Home Automation. You're not going to walk into the coolest game company on the face of the earth and have the guys say, 'Wow, nice to hang out with you!'"

Indeed, without Abrash's involvement, it's unclear whether Valve could have licensed the Quake engine. But because Abrash was willing to vouch for them, the powers at id agreed to meet and work with Newell and Harrington. It was an important break because the partners viewed acquisition of the Quake engine as critical to getting their company off the ground. "When we sat down and looked at it, the areas that we wanted to be innovative in for first-person action games did not require us to be innovative in the areas where John [Carmack] had already done a lot of work," says Newell. "It would have been too much to go from 0 to 25 people and have a stable team to build an engine at the same time."

"I don't recall that when [they] came down to id there was a lot of great chemistry."
- Michael Abrash on Valve's first visit to id.
After picking up some tips and discussing the inner workings of the business, the two developers headed back to Seattle with Quake source code in hand. Except for Abrash, no one at id was sure they'd ever be back. "Everyone at id wasn't very optimistic about what Mike and Gabe were going to do," states Abrash.

Back in Seattle, Newell signed the papers to set up the company (on his wedding day, no less), and it was time to settle on a name for the new venture. Newell was intent on not following the industry standard. "We wanted a name that didn't suggest we were about testosterone-gorged muscles and the 'extreme' of anything," he explains. They finally settled on the name Valve (the other name they nearly picked was Hollow Box).

The duo was off to a good start - their hollow box was beginning to fill with ideas, technology, and advice from industry leaders such as id Software. Still, they'd need help to pull this off - and plenty of it.

Next: Bring in the Troops