For me my issue is I don't know what build is on the disc for the broken versions (although you can possibly assume they are same build as HL2 and EP1 or close to) If you identify the broken files and pull them from an older or newer version then you don't know if those are the same as the original version so what's the point, it's still not the orange box version. Best option would be someone who installed the game from the discs on release and had a working version that is available somewhere as long as you know if it's the same build or the build after.

You'd really need a changelog for build versions and hope it was granular enough to detail what fix changed what file.

Likely what will happen is broken files identified, files pulled from wherever. Orangebox declared "fixed".

This is the last work I did on it:
Re: The Orange Box. DRM vs Retro Gaming? How can I install it?

The Orange Box DVD has:

1Source Engine.gcf        (HL2):            2707 (April      6, 2006)
2Base Source Engine 2.gcf (EP1):            3224 (September  5, 2007)
3Source 2007 Binaries.gcf (EP2/Portal/TF2): 3233 (September 14, 2007)

The other builds I found all have later engines:

1Team Fortress 2 (Version 0, Playable).zip: 3236 (September 17, 2007)
2OBTF2Client.zip:                           3294 (November  14, 2007)

These versions were confirmed by the version strings collected from their engine.dll file (used by the in-game "version" command). The "OBTF2Client.zip" is the 1.0.0.9 build I was referencing in the original post, so it's not "ripped from the DVD" as they claim at all.

I cannot find anything anywhere referencing Source Engine build 3233 so I guess there's nothing to work with, really.

Addendum: In the post you linked, you mention a 3531 build for Episode One in retail but that doesn't match what I've got? Is it possible for multiple different versions of the Orange Box DVDs to have existed?

I'd have to go back and look at my DVDs. Offhand I'd say the higher build numbers aren't near the Orange Box release date but I know from 4yrs ago they were pulled from DVD.
I wouldn't rely on 4yr old data as gospel.

Currently in a project to install and track down all drivers, qemu agent and spice for all versions of Windows for use in proxmox that when done will aid in creating legal (as per DMCA) xdelta diffs for playing games that you bought that no longer work. This also involves passthrough of audio and video for testing

Orange box would be related to that effort of course but it's a rabbit hole due to valve idiocy and the above is rabbit hole enough.

Go by the dates you currently have. Find the closest builds of the games you can that work or that you can get working.
See if you can use winmerge to see a difference. Mabye start with the binaries and mix and match content.
If you can find an unpacker that doesn't modify the timestamp that would be nice.
Use revemu steam emu.

If corrupted files found then make sure it's noted where they were pulled from so that newer or older versions closest to orange box version can be used in the future.
Ideally a script would be used to allow the user to provide their DVD, extracts the files, xdelta patches the corrupt one and provides the steam emu. All of this would be legal as per DMCA.

After extracting the DVD's GCFs, it seems that there are no binaries for EP2 and Portal to begin with (episodic\bin or portal\bin), if I'm not mistaken. So they just can't work. TF2 has binaries but it doesn't start indeed.

So I guess this physical copy is pretty much useless. A working EP2 physical copy would be the Episode Pack. A standalone disc seems to exist, at least in Europe.

Apparently a standalone Portal DVD also exists. I wonder if the build inside works. The same goes for TF2. There are listings for Portal and TF2's DVDs online but none for HL2:EP2 specifically so maybe it was only released in specific markets.

Addendum: Team Fortress 2 (Version 0) (Playable) works and is the closest build, but it only has TF2 binaries. For EP2 and Portal, I have no clue. There are probably "Version 0" of these games that exist similarly to TF2 but I have no idea if they can still be retrieved.

Fox_McCloud45 wrote on 2024-04-26, 17:06:

After extracting the DVD's GCFs, it seems that there are no binaries for EP2 and Portal to begin with (episodic\bin or portal\bi […]
Show full quote

After extracting the DVD's GCFs, it seems that there are no binaries for EP2 and Portal to begin with (episodic\bin or portal\bin), if I'm not mistaken. So they just can't work. TF2 has binaries but it doesn't start indeed.

So I guess this physical copy is pretty much useless. A working EP2 physical copy would be the Episode Pack. A standalone disc seems to exist, at least in Europe.

Apparently a standalone Portal DVD also exists. I wonder if the build inside works. The same goes for TF2. There are listings for Portal and TF2's DVDs online but none for HL2:EP2 specifically so maybe it was only released in specific markets.

Addendum: Team Fortress 2 (Version 0) (Playable) works and is the closest build, but it only has TF2 binaries. For EP2 and Portal, I have no clue. There are probably "Version 0" of these games that exist similarly to TF2 but I have no idea if they can still be retrieved.

the discs are useless, only the key has value but after its activated its useless throw the whole thing away

Well, I didn't test that yet but I think HL2 and EP1 from the disc work, though.

Fox_McCloud45 wrote on 2024-04-27, 01:29:

Well, I didn't test that yet but I think HL2 and EP1 from the disc work, though.

The fact it requires steam means the game is a dud on disc.

twiz11 wrote on 2024-04-27, 01:34:

Fox_McCloud45 wrote on 2024-04-27, 01:29:

Well, I didn't test that yet but I think HL2 and EP1 from the disc work, though.

The fact it requires steam means the game is a dud on disc.

Officially, yes. However, I live in the EU where we got the very interesting Oracle VS UsedSoft case (Wayback Machine, archive.today) that basically means that you own what you bought (Wayback Machine, archive.today). So, yeah, if I have a physical copy of the software, I believe it is ethically/morally correct to install and use the software that was shipped on the disc.

In the case of The Orange Box, most of the games on the disc don't work, so the physical copy itself is flawed. Whether the copy you own is a copy of the WORKING program or a copy of what's on the disc only can be an interesting debate, but in doubt I prioritize the disc's data itself.

Ironically, out of all of Valve's physical copies on PC, this means that the great deal The Orange Box was initially is diametrically opposed to the physical value of the package itself. The physical Orange Box only comes with HL2 and EP1, basically, making it a fairly poor deal from a non-Steam perspective. The X360 and PS3 versions actually hold the real value.

Okay so nothing groundbreaking but you can actually get the TF2 game code (not the engine itself) from The Orange Box disc working pretty easily with Steam.

You can just get the Source SDK Base 2007 on Steam (build 4104) and place the tf folder extracted from the disc in Steam's sourcemods folder, although it must be renamed to something else for Steam to actually recognize it properly. Since the folder name must be changed, the localization files in the resource folder must also be renamed to match the folder name.

The gameinfo.txt file must also be edited to change the game field from Team Fortress 2 to something else and the SteamAppId must be changed from 440 to 218.

Once that's done (and that Steam is restarted), you can actually launch the game and load a map. Although the engine is recognized as "Feb 1 2010 (4104)" since it's the engine build shipped by Steam, it does use the game code from the 2007 disc and that's confirmed by well-known "Version 0 bugs", such as the telepathic Spy knife attack existing.

The shipped steam.inf is indeed "1.0.0.0" so... there's that.

For some reason, trying to run the game with the original tf folder name (by placing it in the Source SDK Base 2007 folder and manually supplying the launch options to the SDK Base itself in Steam) just causes it to crash when loading a map, which is an issue some people had reported regarding the original Version 0. That's weird.

Getting HL2:EP2 or Portal to work that way is not possible though, since I don't think Steam still ships Source 2007 binaries for EP2/Portal anywhere. There are Source 2009 binaries of EP2 in the SDK Base 2007 but these won't work.

Addendum: The Orange Box disc also ships a Linux dedicated server binary for TF2. I wonder if it works, although I believe running the Source 2007 Dedicated Server on Linux is already quite the hassle.
Addendum 2: It turns out the "(Version 0) (Playable).zip" uses the exact same game code as the disc so the two builds are virtually identical, except it uses the slightly later build of the Source Engine that works. So I believe that ZIP may be the most "accurate" build.