HL!UL!SL - Half-Life: Uplink for Steam

HL!UL!SL (formerly SteamLink) is an effort to run Half-Life: Uplink, Half-Life's single-player demo campaign from 1998, in Steam as easily as possible, while leaving it as true to the original demo as possible. No in-game content has been modified, and the "loading" and menu backgrounds are taken directly from the original Uplink, as opposed to the generic Half-Life screens in Steam.

Requirements

• Steam
• Full version of Half-Life for Steam, installed and launched at least once.
  • Half-Life: Source (which comes with Half-Life 2) will NOT work; you must have the classic GoldSrc version instead.
  • Original Uplink demo installation is not required; HL!UL!SL includes all Uplink-specific files
• Note that Windows antivirus software will sometimes falsely flag the HL!UL!SL installer as a virus, due to it being a bare, unsigned .exe.
  • This is unfortunately unavoidable (unless you think reporting the false positive to the antivirus vendor and/or Microsoft will get you anywhere).
  • Signing the .exe directly with a code-signing certiticate is not an option, due to being cost prohibitive for a small project such as this.
  • The downloads do include OpenPGP signatures which are signed by the developer (Ryan Finnie) who has a key with a high web of trust position, so ultimately it is up to you to decide whether to trust the installer.

Windows Installation

• hlulsl-2.1-setup.exe (Version 2.1, 2019-10-10, 2.8MiB, OpenPGP signature)

Simply download and run the installer. The installer will determine your Steam installation directory, and place files in the necessary directory. After the installer finishes, restart Steam, and "Half-Life: Uplink" should appear as a "Third party mod". In addition, a "HL!UL!SL" Start Menu group will be created for direct access to Half-Life: Uplink.

Linux / OS X Installation

• hlulsl-2.1.zip (Version 2.1, 2019-10-10, 4.1MiB, OpenPGP signature)

1. Download Half-Life through Steam for Linux / OS X, and run it at least once.
2. Download and extract the zip archive.
3. Run install.sh, which will determine the Half-Life for Steam install path, and copy the necessary files to the correct place.

   $ sh hlulsl/install.sh

4. After the installer finishes, restart Steam, and "Half-Life: Uplink" should appear as a "Third party mod". The installer will also create a shell launch script, and symlink it to ~/bin/hlulsl.

   $ ~/bin/hlulsl

   If ~/bin is in your $PATH, you may execute it directly.

   $ hlulsl

5. Once installed, the extracted zip contents are not needed, and may be removed.

Screenshots

Gameplay Video

Notes / Limitations

Of course, the entire point of HL!UL!SL is to play Half-Life: Uplink from within Steam, which means using the current Half-Life GoldSrc engine. The major benefit is better current hardware/Windows support. The downside is, for whatever reason, Valve decided to remove strafe leaning from GoldSrc a long time ago. You win some, you lose some.

HL!UL!SL does not come with any altered models or textures, but should be compatible with any third party Half-Life texture packs.

Release History

• SteamLink 1.0 (2007-10-31): Initial release.
• SteamLink 1.1 (2007-11-03): Removed multiplayer options from the main menu.
• SteamLink 1.2 (2008-09-21): Added installer.
• SteamLink 1.3 (2009-07-23): Installer fixed to run completely as a user. No system-wide changes, no Vista UAC prompt.
• SteamLink 1.4 (2013-03-30): Windows/Linux/OS X unification. Fixed Windows install path in modern Steam installations.
• SteamLink 1.5 (2013-05-01): Linux/OS X fixes.
• SteamLink 1.6 (2017-08-26): Linux path fixes.
• HL!UL!SL 2.0 (2017-08-30): Renamed project from SteamLink to HL!UL!SL.
  • This project predated the Steam Link appliance by years, but it has been renamed to avoid confusion.
• HL!UL!SL 2.1 (2019-10-10): Fixed crash caused by recent base Half-Life update.

HL!UL!SL's sources (NSIS files, etc) are managed in Git, and available on GitHub.

Thanks

• Valve Software, of course, for Half-Life, Half-Life: Uplink and Steam.
• Jason Stephens' Uplink Lite, for inspiring me to create a proper "mod" for Half-Life: Uplink.
• Werner Spahl's Uplink Addon, for fixing the scientist-speaking-with-two-tongues bug.
• "Rusty Le Cyborg", for showing how to remove the multiplayer options from the main menu.
• All contributors who have submitted Github pull requests and issues.

Ryan Finnie