To contact directly you can send a Private Message using the chat bubble on the upper right-hand side of the screen.

For builds of HL2 <= v5135 you need to create a .bat or .cmd file for each game and place the following in their own file in the root of the HL2 folder or use a game launcher.
You'll also need to copy the steam.dll from revemu (steam emulator) to the root of the HL2 folder.
*You might need -steam after the executable depending on the emu.

hl2.exe -game hl2
hl2.exe -game episodic
hl2.exe -game ep2
hl2.exe -game lostcoast
hl2.exe -game hl1
hl2.exe -game portal
hl2.exe -game tf

You'll have to hunt down revemu yourself. I'm still exploring the legality of distribution of such things. So far I've discovered xdelta of cracked executables is fine as far as DMCA is concerned but without source code of some of these emulators I don't know if it would count as trafficking but as far as providing info:
https://github.com/vogonsorg/OfflineGames/blo … us_03282023.txt
https://github.com/vogonsorg/OfflineGames/blo … es_04162023.txt

Still got the same error. I'm using the latest version of revemu as well so idk if that has an issue to do with the steam dll. But yea I created the bat file with the parameters you gave me. I didn't name it just saved as .bat. ran it and still got the stdio error.

So likely a missing or corrupt file. Review how you extracted the files and see if you did that properly.
I'll see if I can post a listing of my directory of build 2187, I can't do much when my filesystem is resilvering heh.

You are probably using a different build than the attached possibly 2153 but close enough.

They extracted fine, cause I did this process twice and I'm mirroring in both folders . Both do this so I don't think it's that. I think something's not in the right place maybe? My folder layout is

Bin
Cstrike
Hl1
Hl2
Platform
Relists
.bat
Hl2 "exe"
Steam.dll

Do I throw the exe and the bat in the hl2 folder or outside the folders as shown?

Try placing steam.dll in \bin as well but rename the old steam.dll if it's there in cause you want to use it

Copy n paste to bin or move to bin

It doesn't hurt to leave it at the root, just a copy for now. You can test deleting it later if \bin works.
Mine shows a 2004 steam.dll in \bin with none in the root. (That might be an original ver though....) I usually leave my installs vanilla and copy in the emulator later.

Nothing. The cmd promo does pop up for the execution just simply fails after 5 seconds with a stdio error.

Hmmm, try adding the switch -steam.
I can confirm that build v2153 is the same as 2187 as far as revemu goes. Extract files, copy revemu steam.dll, use proper switches and game works.

These builds work on 98-2000
v2153, v2187, v2217

For build 2153 I use the following for quick start and troubleshooting:
hl2.exe -game hl1 -window -novid -steam
hl2.exe -game hl2 -window -novid -steam

I'm sorry I'm difficult but at the end of the .bat son hl2.exe -game hl2 -steam ?

Says steam startup failed missing interface, to run hl2 -steam thing

So possibly a too old ver of revemu or too new.

Look for RevCrew_win_9.85_18032011 or revemu_09.08.2020 those I've tested

I looked those 2 up and I come across a GitHub but nothing in there and a blank repos. Everything else just leads to the latest edition of revemu which is what I'm using for the dll

I found a 2009 dll from a very sketchy site but it was legit and was a revemu zip so. But I ended up getting a whole different error all together . One I experience a lot . The corrupt background texture backround01.vtf which I get a lot when I've tried running older versions of gmod through sourcemod folder. It would eventually just run hl2 instead of gmod 9 lmao. But yea the fact it's doing THAT idk how to go about it. New error new progress 🤣

I still have -steam at the end of the batch. When I removed it, it goes back to a stdio error

Good to hear! If you can't fix that let me know and I'll do an MD5 of my files. I'll need to verify that collectors is v2153.

Stumped. Tried a few switches and nothing
I've concluded that without -steam you get a stdio error. With -steam you get a backround01.vtf error.

Yes, -steam is what you should be using. Looks like file corruption to me.
At worse it shouldn't be very difficult to find another build somewhere.

I sent you a zipped csv of 2153 using powershell
Get-childitem *.* -recurse | Get-FileHash | Export-csv -path .\file.csv -Delimiter ";" -NoTypeInfo

what do i do with this? as for the other text files youve sent. i see their vm or vtf file names but i dont exactly see where this fits into play. im new to this. im fairly good at messing around srcds and overall sourcemodding but this whole hl2 vanilla journey has got my mind wrapped.