Article is in progress 5th March 2025. Putting this here as it is taking a long time researching and may take many months....and the new dod:s just updated 19th Feb 2025 and delayed this article.

Also a cyclone is about to hit Queensland Australia as I write this, so just in case my roof blows off I'll put this up now and return when I find anything else of interest.

I think this would be the most interesting what to learn about dod, grab your old CD and read on.

This centers around installing the older versions that came from the early 2000's but holds a lot of history that I found interesting.

INDEX

Section Description

The history of dod and sturmbot from installing known files

 An introduction of what this is.

Setting up Half-Life and playing it.

  How to set up the Half-Life CD and play.

Day of Defeat version history

  The very early days of Day of Defeat

Sturmbot history

  The very early days if Sturmbot.

Updating Half-Life 1.0.0.9 dod versions and Sturmbot.

 Getting HL1 and day of defeat (alpha) working and some info' on other bots.

Half-Life 1 - dod - sturmbot and matching the versions

The timeline of HL 1, dod and sturmbot from 2000 - 2019

and what version matches each one.

The new Day of Defeat version.

  Day of Defeat:Source 2005 -2025
Credits

Many persons and websites were used.

They are listed in this section.
Appendix 1  History-Dod 101 by FuzzDad
Appendix 2  Sturmbot Credits and other older articles.

 

The history of dod and sturmbot from installing known files

This is a guide on installing the older GoldScr (GoldSource - Half-Life 1) Day of Defeat versions and bots and a look at the history and files.

We will explore the history Day of Defeat (dod) and go back as far as we can (within reason) with actual files to some early alpha days when dod began and strumbot too.

Many people remember these days with fondness and you may still have the CD and serial key and want a guide on what files to install and what were the versions you played that you want to revisit.

What was used…
Windows 11 64bit - Half-Life Version 1.0.0.9 8/3/99 was on my CD. (Yours may differ)
Note: The very first Half-Life version was November 20, 1998 with early Alpha versions going back to September 4 1997.

Setting up Half-Life and playing it.

  1. Grab an external CD drive and your Half Life 1 CD with the CD key.
  2. Installing will take a while, default location is C:\SIERRA
  3. You will need the CD inserted always when playing in this step.
HL figure1
Figure 1: The installed files. What is the SETUP.EXE for?
  1. SETUP.EXE will not run on win 11. Delete it.
  2. Look for the “apps” and “all” and the SERRIA folder and pin “Half Life” to the start menu.
  3. Make a desktop shortcut via C:\SIERRA\Half-Life and right click hl.exe send to desktop Create shortcut.
  4. Rename that shortcut “OLD Half-Life 1” so you don’t confuse that with Steam icons.
  5. Right click on the desktop icon, “Properties” and insert this in the ‘Target Line” …

C:\SIERRA\Half-Life\hl.exe -startwindowed

  1. Running like that will work on most displays. Without this you will get errors.
  2. You can now run the game and go to the Main Menu - “Configuration” - “Video” – “Video Modes” and select the biggest display settings.
  3. We are in “Software” mode. Select “OpenGL” then OK and a browser will open a site it cannot find. Press OK, then Done and Done again.
  4. Select “New Game” Play the game if you like.

That is how to play Half-Life Version 1.0.0.9 (retail CD) on Win 11.

You could also play Counter-Strike and Half-Life: Opposing Force. Half-Life: Blue Shift on this version.

Day of Defeat version history 

 Day of Defeat version history came from a mod called “World War Three” and another called “Day of Defeat” run by Little Squirrel. As “FuzzDad” places it was spring 1999 at the time when his son “Fuzz” ( John Shull) began to assemble a team.
Who was “Fuzz”? Here is John Shull’s GitHub page… https://github.com/JShull and this is in there…

Fun fact: When I was in highschool, I helped some internet friends create DayOfDefeat! You won't find my name in the credits but you might find my dad FuzzDad.

Well… credits to John for forming the team, without that effort (like a planting a seed) we may not have day of defeat, at least not like it is.
His dad “FuzzDad” (Wes Shull) wrote up his version of dod history and you can read that in Appendix 1 (this document end). Wes is still active on Instagram, YouTube and other places like his steam profile page. He’s into model making these days but still active in games.


https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/User:FuzzDad
https://www.fdmodels.net/
https://www.youtube.com/@fuzzdad2 (do read his channel description)
https://steamcommunity.com/id/FuzzDad (FuzzDad steam profile)

FuzzDad wrote in his history post…(see the full post in Appendix 1 this article)

That spring (1999) Fuzz started working as a level designer and front man for a Half-Life modification entitled "World War Three".

A college student (Trunks) fluent in C++ was designing it. Trunks was trying to create a fps combat game that would touch on war from WWII up to futuristic wars. Trunks was also doing 100% of the coding and his college roommate was working on all the other requirements except mapping.

After a few months Trunks and his roommate decided to concentrate on their college responsibilities and they gave the source code to Fuzz. Fuzz was not a coder so he hired his close friend Jon “Pr0fit” Kaczmarski, who was just then learning how to code, to continue the C++ work as best possible.

There are others (Best history article giantbomb.com) 

https://www.giantbomb.com/day-of-defeat/3030-6074/

The Day of Defeat team was picking up steam rapidly and added several new members to prepare their alpha product; Agent (models, animations), Thunder Weenie and Wheels (historians and sound), Kamikaze (textures and maps), and Axis (code). Axis and Thunder Weenie would see the project through all the way to the Valve days. Alphas 1, 2, and 3 were privately tested in early 2000.


The general public was first able to get their hands on Day of Defeat with Alpha 4, released on Apr. 8, 2000.

Those names will be familiar to dod players and map makers.

Finding all of them is not easy, but here are some links thanks to LiveWire in this post.


https://www.reddit.com/r/DayOfDefeat/comments/a4jm2s/going_through_my_old_boxes_and_i_found_this_gem/
https://old.reddit.com/r/DayOfDefeat/comments/u58sh4/old_pics_of_the_dod_dev_team/
http://dodsdk.blogspot.com/2010/02/original-day-of-defeat-mod-team.html

See these links for another history version with detailed changes…
Fandom page Alpha releases
https://dayofdefeat.fandom.com/wiki/Day_of_Defeat_Update_Log/Alpha

Fandom page Beta releases
https://dayofdefeat.fandom.com/wiki/Day_of_Defeat_Update_Log/Beta

Fandom page Steam releases
https://dayofdefeat.fandom.com/wiki/Day_of_Defeat_Update_Log/Steam

So… what was the first real playable version of “Day of Defeat” as we know it now?
There was a public release of Alpha 4 on 4 August 2000.


You could say that this is when “Day of Defeat” (as we know it) officially started.


When playing these perhaps it’s better to start with dod Alpha version 6.8 this is when things got interesting as far as the files available in this guide.

Sturmbot history

Sturmbot, the singleplayer bot made by Johan “Jowo” Linde history starts at version 0.5 - September 31 2001. (Sadly, Johan died in in Thailand when the 2004 Tsunami hit)


There were other bot programs. But in this review we will stay with Sturmbot as that is what I know the best (INsane Webmaster sturmbot.org a fan site) and it was there from the start to the latest version.


That’s over 20 years of bot support from the Sturmbot team/s.

Another group that is mentioned in the bot readme versions. Many others have contributed after Jowo died, the last version was 1.7 and that was fixed to version 1.9 by Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel who still has his fixes on line in 2025.


That's enough basic history, credits to all that made dod and the bots possible in “Appendix 2”.

Updating Half-Life 1.0.0.9 dod versions and Sturmbot.

In the timeline install of the CD, we are in 1999 right now with this version of Half-Life 1 1.0.0.9. 


Sure Counter-Strike was there but not dod. Playing Sturmbot is obviously important as there aren’t servers around now.
Let’s look at the versions and dates for dod and the bots. Likely Sturmbot 05 will be for the earliest versions but also two other bots called BlitzBot 2.05 Alpha and BOC (Brain of Combat).


These older bot versions because of low map support and hardly worth the effort but you can see them in videos here…
https://sturmbot.org/index.php/dod-turtorials/day-of-defeat-about-the-game/84-day-of-defeat-versions

It starts to heat up more with Day of Defeat version 1.3b (27 July 2001 to 5 Feb 2001)
Sturmbot goes from 10 waypoints in version 0.9 and by version 1.1 there were 21 waypoints.
So as a first version to try dod 1.3b and sturmbot version 1.1 would be it for most. 

Here is a video…


Update time starting at dod Alpha 6.8

We can get these from a pack that “AeX10” made called “Day of Defeat Beta and Alpha versions 3.1” however he did make a better version "3.2" and seems to have lost it.

I have mirrored that better version the pack he called “Day of Defeat Beta and Alpha versions 3.2” in this post.

Download link here for the updated and mirrored file 1.54 GB

Please... READ THE README.txt from INsane and the About.txt from AeX10 in the download.

If we want to go right back then AeX10 advises we should...

  • Install Half-Life Version 1.1.0.4 - 1 Oct 2000.Then install Alpha 6.8 Full install. It was not very good. A bit buggy, maybe skip that.
  • There is another called “Alpha 6.8 Patched Version” and install is just a folder copy to Half-Life folder ensuring you rename “dod68” to “dod”.
  • Read the readme and there is a shortcut included.


Missing wads in dod 6.8 Alpha… look in the wad folder for those

  • Half-Life/valve/mafrica.wad (dod_hill)
  • Half-Life/valve/mikezilla.wad and greenvalley.wad (dod mainz)

They can be obtained here…
https://www.17buddies.rocks/17b2/View/Wads/Gam/1/All/Pag/1/textures_Half-Life.html

Note: When using this pack...

  • Some sub folders have a readme.txt
  • The title is the instructions....

Like this found in "Beta 1.0 full install"... DO NOT INSTALL OVER ALPHA 6.8

Do what that says, delete the dod folder before you install.

Also, the pack isn't perfect and there are missing files like .wad files, it's OK nor are these beta and alpha files.


You need to revisit video settings and keybinds, the movement keys are bound to the arrow keys and so on. Moving around the menu to play a “single player” start the game (via the shortcut in “dod” and you get this…

2 opening screen
Figure 2: The dod splash screen DOD ALPHA 6.8

You should go to “configuration” first and check your binds for movement, screen shots, and I bound the “Quit Game” to "F10" as Escape is buggy and F10 works quicker.

Go to advanced and adjust your mouse sensitivity in the lower slider.

To play…

  • Select “multiplayer
  • Select “lan games”
  • Select “create game”
  • Select a map and press OK

To exit Press the ESC key and be prepared to wait.

If you have errors and a you are stuck with a screen…

  • try and press the windows key and...
  • navigate to the taskbar icon and “Close Window” and..
  • the hidden message behind the screen will appear, press OK.

So, that’s the first "real" version of dod as we know it, its not bad at all if you know what games we like in the early days.

How about other bots, what’s the history timeline?

However, this is a history article and HL1 V1.1.0.4 and Sturmbot 0.5 was the first 31 Jul 2001.

Half-Life 1 - dod - sturmbot and matching the versions

Below is a table that shows the Release History for Day of Defeat and Sturmbot

Half-Life Version Dates

Day of Defeat version

DOD version Date

Sturmbot (other)

Sturmbot Version date

Win

Linux Version

 

Alpha 4

8 Apr 2000

 

 

Y

N

1.1.0.0    6 Jun 2000

Alpha 6

27 Sep 2000

 

 

Y

N

1.1.0.4    1 Oct 2000       

Alpha 6.5

15 Oct 2000

 

 

Y

N

1.1.0.4

Alpha 6.6

16 Oct 2000

 

 

Y

N

1.1.0.4

Alpha 6.7

28 Oct 2000

 

 

Y

N

1.1.0.4  Tested works

Alpha 6.8

6 Nov 2000

Sturmbot 0.5

31 Jul 2001

Y

N

1.1.0.4

Beta 1.0

12 Jan 2001

Sturmbot 0.5

31 Jul 2001

Y

N

1.1.0.4

Beta 1.1

14 Feb 2001

Sturmbot 0.6

5 Aug 2001

Y

N

1.1.0.6

12 Mar 2001

Beta 1.2

5 Apr 2001

Sturmbot 0.6

5 Aug 2001

Y

N

1.1.0.6

Beta 1.3

4 Jun 2001

Sturmbot 0.8

15 Aug 2001

Y

N

1.1.0.8  12 Sep 2001

Beta 1.3b

27 July 2001

Sturmbot 0.9

10 Sep 2001

Y

N

1.1.0.8           

-

-

Sturmbot 0.9b

11 Sep 2001

Y

N

1.1.0.8           

-

-

Sturmbot 1.0

10 Oct 2001

Y

N

1.1.0.8           

-

-

Sturmbot 1.1

12 Oct 2001

Y

N

1.1.0.8           

Beta 2.0

6 Feb 2002

Sturmbot 1.2

10 Feb 2002

Y

Y Ver 1.4

1.1.0.9  24 Apr 2002

Beta 2.1

10 May 2002

Sturmbot 1.3.1

3 July 2002

Y

Y Ver 1.4

1.1.1.0  12 Jun 2002

Beta 3.0

11 July 2002

Sturmbot 1.4

28 Jul 2002

Y

Y Ver 1.4

1.1.1.0           

Beta 3.1

8 Aug 2002

Sturmbot 1.5.1

12 Dec 2002

Y

Y Ver 1.5

1.1.1.0           

Version 1.0

1 May 2003

Sturmbot 1.6

11 May 2003

Y

Y Ver 1.5

Steam versions

1.1.2.0

Version 1.1

14 Nov 2003

Sturmbot 1.6

11 May 2003

Y

Y  Ver1.5

1.1.2.0

Version 1.2

19 May 2004

Sturmbot 1.6

11 May 2003

Y

Y  Ver1.5

1.1.2.2

Version 1.3

7 Jul 2004

Sturmbot 1.7

23 July 2004

Y

Y VER 1.6

1.1.2.2

Best 1.3 Steam

To date

Sturmbot 1.9

October 2019

Y

N

 

I have only got to the dod Alpha 6.5 version thus far but using the download I have offered you can continue on and match the versions through the years as one of those dod versions may be when you started playing.

 

The Half Life update packages.

This is a complex and bad experience getting older files however there is a solution I found.

This is not only for dod:s, other mods have HL1 versions hat need a match up to the mod's version.

These can be found in an Internet archive mirror….


https://archive.org/details/hl1110_202404
Half-Life patches (WON) by Valve Software - Item Size 710.6M


(Look for the “36 files” link on the right to download all.)


Collection of patches for the English version of WON Half-Life (pre-Steam). This is essentially a mirror of this Redsie's Archive o' Stuff page. I also added patches for Blue Shift (1.0.0.1), Opposing Force (1.1.0.4), and Team Fortress Classic (5.0.1.6, for the Initial Encounter release).


Description:Individual Version Patches
These update files do not require a certain update patch to be already applied to patch the game further.
Update 1.0.0.6 (hl1006.exe)
Update 1.1.0.0 (hl1100.exe)
Update 1.1.0.1 (hl1101.exe)
Update 1.1.0.4 (hl1104.exe)
Update 1.1.0.6 (hl1106.exe)
Update 1.1.0.8 (hl1108.exe)
Update 1.1.0.9 (hl1109.exe)
Update 1.1.1.0 (hl1110.exe)

Version Dependent Patches
These update files require the game to be patched to the version the update file requires, e.g 10101013.exe requires the game to be on version 1.0.1.0 to update to version 1.0.1.3


Update 1.0.0.5 -> Update 1.0.0.8 (10051008.exe)
Update 1.0.0.5 -> Update 1.0.0.9 (10051009.exe)
Update 1.0.0.5 -> Update 1.0.1.0 (10051010.exe)
Update 1.0.0.5 -> Update 1.0.1.3 (10051013.exe)
Update 1.0.0.5 -> Update 1.0.1.5 (e10051015.EXE)
Update 1.0.0.5 -> Update 1.0.1.6 (10051016.EXE)
Update 1.0.0.6 -> Update 1.0.0.8 (10061008.exe)
Update 1.0.0.8 -> Update 1.0.0.9 (10081009.exe)
Update 1.0.0.9 -> Update 1.0.1.0 (10091010.exe)
Update 1.0.0.9 -> Update 1.0.1.3 (10091013.exe)
Update 1.0.0.9 -> Update 1.0.1.6 (10091016.EXE)
Update 1.0.1.0 -> Update 1.0.1.3 (10101013.exe)
Update 1.0.1.1 -> Update 1.0.1.3 (10111013.exe)
Update 1.0.1.3 -> Update 1.0.1.6 (10131016.EXE)
Update 1.0.1.5 -> Update 1.0.1.6 (10151016.EXE)
Update 1.0.1.6 -> Update 1.1.0.0 (10161100.exe)
Update 1.1.0.0 -> Update 1.1.0.1 (11001101.exe)
Update 1.1.0.1 -> Update 1.1.0.4 (11011104.exe)
Update 1.1.0.4 -> Update 1.1.0.6 (11041106.exe)
Update 1.1.0.6 -> Update 1.1.0.7 (11061107.exe)
Update 1.1.0.7 -> Update 1.1.0.8 (11071108.exe)
Update 1.1.0.8 -> Update 1.1.0.9 (11081109.exe)
Update 1.1.0.9 -> Update 1.1.1.0 (11091110.exe)

Miscellaneous Update Files
Relating to patch 1.0.1.6

Update 1.0.1.6 Final (leak_upgrade.exe) [For users running 1.0.1.6 prerelease only]
Update 1.0.1.6 Fix (1016fix.exe) [Skybox issues in two TFC maps]

 

The new Day of Defeat version. 

Day of Defeat:Source – was released 26th September 2005 and unlike CS:S had no bots.
An effort was made by strontiumdog using SourceMod 12th Aug 2011 with the now unapproved plugin “DoDS-Bots” https://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=164435


Another effort took over by cheese who already had experience with rcbot and HL1 titles.
RCBot2 by “cheese” started on SOURCEFORGE rcbot2 TF2 alpha 7th Jan 2009. No support for DoD:S. https://sourceforge.net/projects/rcbot2/files/rcbot2/


However, in version 0.7 (25th Jan 2013) Day of Defeat:Source was supported with waypoints for maps added dod_anzio, dod_colmar, dod_avalanche and dod_jagd.


By version 1 (3rd Oct 2015) RCBot2 was a MetaMod:Source plugin.


Development continues to this day by APGRoboCop, pongo1231 and others here… https://github.com/APGRoboCop/rcbot2

On the 19th February 2025 Day of Defeat:Source was updated to 64bit.

This was at the time of writing this article and not in the scope of playing the older versions. 

There has been a lot of disruption and you can follow that (horrid) story here on dodbits.com

 

Credits

For this guide.

AeX10 great work in assembling those files!

LiveWire great work in finding the dod team images.

 

Day of Defeat

Valve Corporation - without them making Half-Life available for modding no dod version would be here.

John “Fuzz" Shull - If you could point at one critical moment where someone did something to form a team to make dod, this is the person who assembled the first team.

Wes "FuzzDad" Shull- Well known contributor to day of defeat and well father of Fuzz.

Jon “Pr0fit” Kaczmarski - early dod coder

Axis - early dod coder (Continued to Valve)

Agent - models, animations

Kamikaze - textures and maps

Thunder Weenie - history and sound (Continued to Valve)

Wheels - history and sound

"Mugsy" Matt Boone - Steam - https://steamcommunity.com/id/mugsy and  https://x.com/Mugsy and Linkedin

 

Mappers for dod ver 1.3 Steam...

For the mappers name please visit this page section. They are listed under the many map names.

 

Sturmbot

Johan “Jowo” Linde - Author of Sturmbot.

Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel - dod fan, waypointer and some code. He "hex fixed" the Sturmbot version 1.9 we play today.

LiveWire -  dod fan, guides, maps, downloads.

INsane [dodbits] - Author of this guide, waypointer, GUI/HUD, Mapper, graphics, guides, downloads. Webmaster dodbits.com and Sturmbot.org

Martee - Map maker and waypointer of ALL bot programs. Best waypointer for dod hands down.

AeX10 (Steam account name) - assembler, the 3.1 version download that INsane mirrored here for the Half-Life and DoD versions.

 

 

Appendix 1

History-Dod 101 by FuzzDad
Oldest Official DoD Mapper


Link (But now lost to History)…
http://www.dayofdefeat.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38116&perpage=15&highlight=fuzz&pagenumber=2

Day of Defeat was born years ago when my son John “Fuzz” Shull merged two incomplete and immature Half-Life modifications into one.

Saving Private Ryan was the beginning. It was the fall of 1998 and at the time I was mapping a few Quake levels for fun and son Fuzz was doing a project for High School that involved making a diorama of Omaha Beach. He and I both played the original HL1 over Christmas and thought that a HL version with a WW2-theme would be great (I was a closet-historian concerning WW2. I loved reading about P-51's and FW190's and the first-person accounts you find in Stephen Ambrose's books).

That spring (1999) Fuzz started working as a level designer and front man for a Half-Life modification entitled "World War Three". A college student (Trunks) fluent in C++ was designing it. Trunks was trying to create an fps combat game that would touch on war from WWII up to futuristic wars. Trunks was also doing 100% of the coding and his college roommate was working on all the other requirements except mapping. After a few months Trunks and his roommate decided to concentrate on their college responsibilities and they gave the source code to Fuzz. Fuzz was not a coder so he hired his close friend Jon “Pr0fit” Kaczmarski, who was just then learning how to code, to continue the C++ work as best possible.

Half-Life modifications by then were in full swing. Counter Strike had just released Beta 1, Firearms and Front Line Force were beginning development and there was another modification in start-up entitled, “Day of Defeat” run by Little Squirrel. The WW3 team didn’t have an experienced coder, but they had a good code base and they had level designers and were getting by on textures. The Day of Defeat team had a good coder, but the code was new and they didn’t have level designers or texture guys. Both teams realized they needed each other to survive so they merged code and concentrated on Day of Defeat’s World War Two-only scenarios to narrow the scope.

The team had enough talent to move slowly forward, but they lacked model support for the weapons, sound, player animations and a experienced coder so things moved very slow. The team hired Agent who in several months was able to create most of the original weapon sets used in the game. They also hired Thunder Weenie and his right-hand man Wheels as historians and sound engineers. The team was still accepting map donations from the community when they found and hired Kamikaze to do textures and mapping. Axis eventually stepped in and at some point re-wrote most of the code base.

The team put together a very weak alpha for the public, went from release Alpha A to D and then released the first beta 1. I’m not sure of the date of that release but that’s the condensed history of DoD up to beta 1. I probably left some stuff out but that's cause I'm old and senile now.

At some point the guys who run the show now were brought on board and the mod moved from a part-time fun project to something much more polished and serious and became a real profession for PIU, Mugs, Molo, Axis, Das, TW, Waldo and a few others (at least at the start).

My son dropped out of the DoD universe about the same time beta 1 was released to attend college and drive cars and date pretty girls...he still hangs out occasionally and plays a few DoD rounds (or CS...CS was his first fps gaming love) and I know he's proud of what he started.

* Beta 1.0 (January 12, 2001)
* Beta 1.1 (February 14, 2001)
* Beta 1.2 (April 5, 2001 ?)
* Beta 1.3 (July 1, 2001)
* Beta 2.0 (October 13, 2001 ?)
* Beta 2.1 (May 10, 2002)
* Beta 3.0 (July 11, 2002)
* Beta 3.1 (August 8, 2002)
* Version 1.0 (May 1, 2003)
* Version 1.1 (November 14, 2003, the first release on Steam)
* Version 1.2 (May 19, 2004)
* Version 1.3 (July 7, 2004)
* DoD:Source - (September 26, 2005)

 

Appendix 2

Some links found for Sturmbot's early days.

Johan Linde - AKA... Jowo. https://sturmbot.org/index.php/73-about-this-site
Smitty (Smitty the Evil Hippy) waypointing -   Nairagorn on Steam 
Signit
Sydslag

Archived sites hosting Sturmbot files…

Sturmbot.net (2003-2004)

https://web.archive.org/web/20040331145535/http:/www.sturmbot.net:80/

Sturmbot.org (Mamma Jamma 2007-2009)

https://web.archive.org/web/20071114104528/http://www.sturmbot.org/