TF2 Leaked 7 Years Early & We Lost It 

If you know anything about these builds, please get into contact with me at tylernewsnetwork@gmail.com - thank you.

Valve has TF2 fans in a state where they have to go back to the year 2000 and go on a community wide search of old crumbling hard drives just to get more content from this series.

Insane that Valve's FTP got leaked out more than once and we didn't even know about the craziest one

My favorite part was the person at 4:48 mentioning Duke Nukem Forever as if it was going to release within the next few years... in 1998. The game came out in 2011. RIP to that guy and his hopes.

You know, funny story. Back in 02 my sister's first husband gifted me a CD full of all this old Half-life and counterstrike related content that he downloaded off of usenet (I lived in rural NC at the time and had HORRIBLE internet back then) and TBH some of this is flipping some nurons. I dont want to say that it's on the disk (I dont even want to say I have it because its been 22 years) but when I have time this week I'll dig through some boxes and see. again, its been 22 years and I've moved three times but for once my maddening sentimentality might actually have done something useful... maybe. Like theres a 10% chance that maybe I still have it. (just updated the status of the CDs on my twitter, again I HIGHLY doubt I have the files, but you know, worth a shot anyway)

This is such a weird yet perfect way of exemplifying how history works. 20 years ago, if you were on these boards, you would've *absolutely* known about these leaks. When someone mentioned "the leak(s)", you wouldn't need to ask which one. You'd just know. That's how seismically large they were. But today, (a mere) 20 years later, and suddenly this is like unearthing the city of Troy! *Nobody* knew about this thing that was utterly common knowledge. It's revelatory! Groundbreaking! What else have we forgotten?

Brotherhood of arms sounds like battlefield 2.

If I could ask you one favor, you have an incredible talent for scouring the internet and knowing the right techniques to find lost builds. If you ever find the time, put some energy into finding the neigh mythical December 5th-7th 2003 build of Fallout 3. It's the last version of the Van Buren Project by the original Fallout creators Interplay and was 85ish% complete when the studio was shutdown. Since then, a TON of stuff has leaked. A tech demo used to show off the engine, 15 of the 16 design documents(13th one may or may not have been found it's debated), concept art, maps, interviews, almost everything...except the final builds of the game with all the assets. The Tech Demo is just that, a demo, most of the assets not relevant and all the stuff being worked on isn't in there. If fans could find the final build(December 2003, exact date depends on whether they worked weekends or not which is unknown and whether or not they started anything the Monday the studio shutdown, somewhere between the 5th and the 8th), they'd have EVERYTHING they need to finish the game themselves and play the Fallout 3 we never saw. Try, if you can.

I think my dad had the exe. File, he was big in this stuff back then and used to share these kinds of files with his workmates to play games. I'm going to see him this weekend and ask him, a few months back we did a clear out of his garage and found LOADS of old hard drives filled with old files. We never went through them though but was in a box filled with the OG CDs of half life 1, few floppy discs etc. got me curious now

For real, this is some very cool game journalism. I hope you find that lost build.

You're kidding me. There's a Beta of the original tf2 from a leak 24 years ago? That's incredible. Even if that's true though, the chances of finding a Beta from that long ago are slim. You'd need to have been on one of those websites at the exact right time and still have a PC from nearly two and a half decades ago somewhere.

I've always needed a TF2: BoA build. This needs to be re-found.

If we're talking about the contents of Valve's FTP server having been leaked in the year 2000, does this mean a year 2000 build of Half-Life 2 had leaked as well (potentially a SIGGRAPH 2000 build)? Did you find someone mentioning something about a Half-Life 2 build on the usenet group?

Imagine watching this video and distinctly remember throwing out your PC with ALL of the files discussed.

TFC was my first online game. I remember going to Best Buy asking when Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms was going to come out. I am 35 now and would love to see this found someday.

The craziest part is a working (minor bugs) TF2 BOA beta build is still out there under our radar for almost 20+ years, not to mention a possible tech demo build of Half-Life 2 (the Get Your Free TV one) for SIGGRAPH. What a time to be alive!

i always wanted to play this so much, i hope somebody finds it soon

Bitrot is real. Lots of stuff from the old internet no longer exist.

4:58 Hey it's me! (Not really, just saw the name and chuckled)

Our gamer ancestors would have never tolerated the state of gaming today 😂

Someone might correct me on this, but I swear the devs have said that all that was in the promotional images and vids was ALL that they've ever made, in terms of assets/models/textures etc. , we have seen everything, we just haven't been able to play with the controls.

This is the treasure hunt of all time. I remember playing TFC all the way back in Steam's infancy. I pondered at the time why BoA never shipped. The only way I knew BoA existed were the Planet Half-Life websites. This is the best cut content story you've put out. I really hope we the Passionate Gamers ™ can get to the bottom of this.

Speaking of Half-Life lost media, I've been obsessed with a lost mod called "Club Swiss". The only lead I had was TheMegatonBomb's uploads where he once provided links which no longer work, but ever since I contacted him he actually DELETED those links and even some of my comments! Thankfully I have saved one link. If anyone is interested reply to this comment

Thank you Tyler, very passionate. ALSO, your recap of the usenet system and what you read of old posts was fascinating. Thank you for making all that.

if someone leaks valve tf or tf2boa (tfc leak builds will result in the photo but are also welcome) , i will give you a banana fully peeled with my sign on it. if you want i can give you a photo of it with (if you dont wanna wait the time if it ever goes to your house that is) i know the banana signed by me its valuable stuff but im willing to forget it and give to whoever has tf2boa. the bounty will go until the banana essentially rottens, gets stolen by my dog (or i forget about it and put it in the trash can), i would put a bounty of 5 cents and quarter that is stuck in my sofa, but i forgot where the 5 cents are and the quarter is unaccesible and im lazy now. so the bounty is on, whoever gets tf2boa or valvetf build (tfc as well but whatevs) will get a banana signed by me (maybe free shipping, dont count me on it). edit 1: tfc builds are prob not lost i got the 2 versions from oddoc a hl2beta admin and it needs hl won 1.0.0.9 to play, since it is an around 1 month old build it might look the same in the surface edit 2: unfortanely the banana is lost :(

Instead of cancelling Brotherhood of Arms and bringing us the TF2 we all know. I would have preferred them to turn it into a new IP, removing the name Team Fortress. From the looks of it, it would have been a worthy competitor to the Battlefield series.

I got surprised when i saw the pyro concept design on the thumbnail, The exact one i have of profile picture. I damn love that very industrial design, it gives pyro a more serious and imponent vibe like the piromaniac he is

Brotherhood of Arms!

It'd be nice if some of these old builds of TF2 were found someday. I'm very interested in the 2006 era of Team Fortress 2. When things looked way more "cartoony" in the art style and lighting. Nail gun Grenades Tranq gun Would love to see more stuff from this era

You know, althought this version of TF2 might have never reached the same level of fame and longevity that the current one has, I still would have loved to play it. It looked cool! I love GoldSrc games, and especially love the Cold War military vibe BOA had

It's a shame that we never got Brotherhood of Arms. I like the Team Fortress 2 we got, but it still would've been interesting to see the BoA rendition of TF2 get made. The ideas they had for BoA were very ambitious, and it sounded like the developers wanted to push Team Fortress' gameplay in the direction of an epic tactical military simulator. It was developed in a time when some game companies were trying to push for realism in games. While perhaps the BoA team were planning to radically change TF's gameplay into too much of a realistic direction, the ideas they had for TF2 were still pretty interesting. At the time when I saw the previews and screenshots for BoA, I thought it used the most advanced looking version of Half-Life 1's engine I had seen. It was even rumored on Planet Half-Life that Half-Life 2 would use BoA's engine. Of course, the Half-Life 2 we got was way more advanced than any of us had expected, but that's another story. The idea of BoA simulating Saving Private Ryan-like warfare and tactics seemed exciting at the time as well. Who knows how BoA would've turned out if the developers just stuck with it. I almost understand Valve's rationale for revising TF2, though I still think they made a mistake by abandoning BoA. Even with the TF2 we got, BoA could've been developed as a spin-off with its own gameplay. I think modders could find ways to recreate and enhance the ideas and concepts for BoA through a Source mod, if a mod team were committed enough to do so. I'd especially play it if it had a singleplayer campaign with bots like Unreal Tournament.

It’s actually insane that nobody in 24 years has reported this

This video brings back a lot of memories. Early internet, usenet, planet sites, gamespy, and of course the immense hype I and everyone else felt for that version of TF2. I really hope this gets found because I would love to finally try it. Liked, and this comment is for the algorithm.

Wild theory but what if we might see some beta HL2 maps if the file gets found? I remember hearing that some screenshots of early TF2 was on a borealis map or something along those lines

I still have one of the magazines that had a full article on this, maybe PC Gamer or Computer Gaming Monthly(?). I was incredibly hyped and still dream about that version of the game that we never saw!

This would be the biggest gaming find ever for me, hope you get some leads!!!!

If we can contact the interviewer who interview robin walker to find out who the modder was than we can find out maybe

Ah man I hope you find this build. I too like digging around for old games unreleased stuff. There's a game also published by sierra called starsige tribes that came out in 98' and has a video on YT of the alpha gameplay which is very different from the beta and release build of tribes. You can watch the video and see parts of it, but nobody can seem to find the build. Also yeah devs usually aren't super keen to help because it was some job they worked at years back they don't usually see the importance of early builds, that's a pretty common thing. Maybe I will do some digging on the wayback machine and see if I can find anything to help find your TF build.

4:04 is that the same Paul Soares Jr as the minecraft channel?

Great video! I hope someone still have it saved somewhere lol.

I was obsessed with this game since I got a Half-Life disc that had a web page with screenshots and info about it, it also had homefront, Sierra was pushing hard the marketing.

Very interesting. Hopefully we can see this one!!

I learned a lot!

My dad has some computers laying around old computers, possibly from 1997. or older I’m sure there might be something around this house?

thanks man a love how passionate you are

great video! truly appreciate the work!

I hope it’s found! Good luck on the hunt

Since I remember seeing this canceled version of TF2, I have always wanted to have it, I would love to be able to see the models, the animations, everything, I really love that slightly more realistic concept that they had created, also as far as I know several things that are created for the game were reused in day of defeat, if a beta of this appears, I hope the community will re-create it to make it playable as intended. Thanks for the video

I have a feeling that sense I first know about BOA that they will be something out there, and they will be a disc like half life alpha, or a leak somewhere. If anyone will find this BOA leak, I salute to them.

i loved the look back

Can probably be found among russian pirated releases...

I was intensely excited for Valve's Team Fortress and eventually Brotherhood of Arms as a teenager in the late 90s. I have physical copies of many of the magazine scans shown here, and I used to look at them and read them daily in anticipation for the game releasing. I was already a major half life 1 fan, and spent most of my gaming time playing that and its mods, so a class based military version of HL1 sounded like a dream to me. This was a time of very slow dial up internet, and information didn't spread nearly as fast, so all I knew about this version of TF2 was what was printed in my magazines and a couple blurry cam videos from trade shows posted online. To be able to play one of these old builds of TF2 would be fulfilling a childhood dream of mine

Yeah i was craving that game so hard back then... Wish someone saved it and shares it here

Hopefully those TFC beta builds and the TF2:BOA beta build is out there on a CD-R or DVD-R backup somewhere.

if someone ever does find these old versions, it kinda sucks that they'll be so vulnerable to ACE exploits and such... so it'll be hard to even find a way to play it with the community in a safe way, at least without totally remaking it in the modern goldsrc engine

I bet it'll be found on a old PIII stored in the same place as a mothballed Bouncer arcade cab

Nothing is ever lost. PCgamers are hoarder and we are proud of it!. The files are out there somewhere. You might have to recruit Fox Mulder to find them, but the files are out there.

I actually would love a tf2 brotherhood of Arms game i really liked the style of the trailers and really wanna play a version of it.

And so the hunt begins....

Good Video Tyler, I how you and Electra are doing ok!

the textures for a desert map for DOA are in the 2003 HL1Ports leak. in a folder called tfc/materials/tfc2

I know what you’re thinking Tyler!

another banger mr gamer, thank you!!

Whos gonna tell him

I used to eat up all the videos on tf2 brotherhood of arms, I couldn't wait. The fucking garrote wire!

We still have a dedicated community that plays TFC online. Pretty fun. Pickup games, ADL, CTF, Conc Maps, etc etc.

coolest than any team fortress released for sure

It would be so awesome to try out a BOA build.

How do you feel about the “lost” TF2 map that I’ve seen people talking about being shown in some behind the scenes footage from 2006? Is there any truth behind this or was it simply people confusing one map as two maps?

Interesting, I love you Tyler. This video brought a tear to my eye

Time to get myself a time machine.

Man... I'll never forget losing Brotherhood Of Arms. I was just a little kid and really computer illiterate at the time but I was SO excited. I watched all the videos released, all the stuff from e3 over, and over, and over. Practicing how I would be the spy that could blend in with the pillar... I know the current tf2 was a massive success and is beloved by millions, but when I found out it was switched out, that was my first Valve heartbreak experience. I wanted a realistic gritty shooter like the first TF. Not Cartoon Team Fortress. Especially after all the late 90s and early 00 push for more and more realistic graphics, plus Crysis had just released. Idk, I still wish they had stuck with the first one. It still looks more fun to this day.

need to play this game before im dead

it has literally been my dream to get my hands on this beta build, do some work with it, and hopefully get some bots coded for it, only time will tell from now!

great video

Is it known if TF2 BOA is the same TF2 that was being worked on by the TF peeps in 1997 for Quake II? The first I heard about TF2 was Late 1997, and early 1998 it was stated that it was being made for Quake II.

3:09 'Agent' - wow, real Proustian moment there

I always thought this version of TF2 was much more interesting than what was actually released. I never cared for the cartoony characters and bright colorful maps, but absolutely did care for the realistic military look with some quite advanced gameplay elements for the time.

If you find those builds, will you release them? Or will they be locked behind yet another vault.

He is infact Tyler McVicker the passionate gamer.

4:04 That's the PaulSoaresJnr I'm thinking of, is it? Because he would be old enough to have been posting on these places.

hope someone finds it

0:05 NO NO NO NO NO I GOT FLASHBACKS

So there's hope that that FTP leak also leaked early Hyperborea Era HL2 Beta files, and that someone out there has those!

I know people say this all the time, but just imagine how much stuff has been lost to time/corruption

We need to find the person who leaked it in the firstplace, if he's still around. Mabye he has a old HDD with it or something.

Amazing video! Just wow.

What a creative place to data mine

tf"2" may have been lost but im still losing it

Never in my entire life would I know the hope of TF2:BoA to be atleast unearthed for the public to see.

This is the type of history you can only find on this channel. Thanks for making this deep dive into niche history, I learned a lot of cool stuff from this today. Thanks. :)

i really want to play this

If valve released BoA version of TF2, it would be as popular as Day of Defeat.

man i should have been chatting with them instead of not being born

I’ve always wondered about brotherhood of arms like everyone I mena everyone will bring it up in history of TF2 but never any full on gameplay only these tv recordings that I always see Tyler use it’s crazy because what’s shown in this video means that I think we would’ve have a much different Military shooter if brother hood of arms actually came out (I hope so anyway)

I remember as a kid playing the team fortress mod for Quake.. Was a lot of fun. It is also a fair amount different compared to the half-life 1's TFC version.. But that is kind of to be expected all things considering.. Something that tends to NOT get mentioned by a lot of people who do talk about the Team Fortress mods/games is Quake 2 TF. But then again.. It was kind of a mess on its launch and there was some other issues that happened with it. But it existed. That said I am fine with what they did with TF2. I remember thinking "What if" in terms of if they had released the one they where originally going to make.. But TF2 itself was still very fun.

1:23 it’s interesting to see these early military shooters use gear that was modern for the time. Cooler than copy pasted MOLLE plate carriers

I hope its found

0:06 AMONG US

20th TF2 birthday, mark my words.