GoldSrc

GoldSrc engine

Developer(s)	Valve Corporation
Written in	C++
Platform	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 2 xbox Gamecube

GoldSrc, or Goldsource, is the retronym used internally by Valve Software to refer to the heavily modified Quake engine that powers their science fiction first-person shooter Half-Life (1998). GoldSrc supported three platforms: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and Xbox.

GoldSrc is a modified version of the QuakeWorld engine codebase, which in turn is a development of the Quake engine codebase. Some minor fixes from the Quake II engine were incorporated as it was developed. GoldSrc is able to render in two APIs − OpenGL and Direct3D.

The successor of the GoldSrc engine is the Source engine, which powers games such as Half-Life 2.

Today, GoldSrc is still being used by developers. Nexon Corporation, for example, developed Counter-Strike Online by using GoldSrc.

History of the name

While the engine had no official name, in the months before the release of Half-Life, many computing magazines described the engine as being based upon "Quake Unified Technology".

Erik Johnson explains the origin of the GoldSrc name in this quote from the Valve Developer Community:

When we were getting very close to releasing Half-Life (less than a week or so), we found there were already some projects that we needed to start working on, but we couldn't risk checking in code to the shipping version of the game. At that point we forked off the code in VSS to be both $/Goldsrc and /$Src. Over the next few years, we used these terms internally as "Goldsource" and "Source". At least initially, the Goldsrc branch of code referred to the codebase that was currently released, and Src referred to the next set of more risky technology that we were working on. When it came down to show Half-Life 2 for the first time at E3, it was part of our internal communication to refer to the "Source" engine vs. the "Goldsource" engine, and the name stuck.

Licensed games

• Half-Life (Valve Software, 1998)
• Team Fortress Classic (Valve Software, 1999)
• Half-Life: Opposing Force (Gearbox Software, 1999)
• Counter-Strike (Valve Software, 2000)
• Gunman Chronicles (Rewolf Software, 2000)
• Ricochet (Valve Software, 2000)
• Deathmatch Classic (Valve Software, 2001)
• Half-Life: Blue Shift (Gearbox Software, 2001)
• James Bond 007: Nightfire (Electronic Arts, 2002)
• Day of Defeat (Valve Software, 2003)
• Counter-Strike Neo (Valve Software 2003)
• Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (Valve Software, Ritual Entertainment, Gearbox Software, Turtle Rock Studios, 2004)
• Counter-Strike Online (Valve Software, Nexon Corporation, 2008)