Homebrew Homebrew game Half Life 2 (Source Engine) - Switch Port

Nagaa · Monday at 5:11 AM

Half Life 2 (nillerusr Source engine) - Nintendo Switch port

This is a wrapper/port of the Android version of the Android Source Engine from nillerusr (v1.16.29 - 1.17.0025).
It loads the original game binary, patches it and runs it.
It's basically as if we emulate a minimalist Android environment in which we natively run the original Android binary as is.

My biggest Switch port so far, episodes 1 and 2 are supported.

The game is fairly CPU intensive, running it with overclock is recommended.

Report any issues you run into.

Credits :
TheOfficialFloW & fgsfds for the vita so-loader
nillerusr for the Android Source engine port this wraps

Available here :
https://github.com/NaGaa95/hl2_nx/

linkenski · Monday at 5:48 AM

DAFUQ? I knew Vita had a source port for Half Life 1, but HL2?

Incredible.

masagrator · Monday at 6:06 AM

That's the biggest win for me from all those android projects. I'm a big fan of Half Life, never played it on gamepad so it's time to try. Thanks

Post automatically merged: Monday at 6:08 AM

Also hyperlink is wrong. It leads to layton repo

Post automatically merged: Monday at 6:11 AM

Also wouldn't be better to give episodes separate folders? Because currently you can't store all 3 games at once.

Nagaa · Monday at 6:23 AM

linkenski said:
DAFUQ? I knew Vita had a source port for Half Life 1, but HL2?

Incredible.

This is made from scratch, not based on an already made vita port

masagrator said:
That's the biggest win for me from all those android projects. I'm a big fan of Half Life, never played it on gamepad so it's time to try. Thanks

Post automatically merged: Monday at 6:08 AM

Also hyperlink is wrong. It leads to layton repo

Post automatically merged: Monday at 6:11 AM

Also wouldn't be better to give episodes separate folders? Because currently you can't store all 3 games at once.

Fixed the link thanks

Not sure to understand about the episodes folder, it's already in separate folder (episodic/ep2) and you can store the 3 games at once only need a small config.txt edit between boot

masagrator · Monday at 6:25 AM

Nagaa said:
Not sure to understand about the episodes folder, it's already in separate folder (episodic/ep2) and you can store the 3 games at once only need a small config.txt edit between boot

It's not mentioned in readme so i assumed it works by replacing original data

Nagaa · Monday at 6:29 AM

masagrator said:
It's not mentioned in readme so i assumed it works by replacing original data

It's only mentioned inside the files layout exemple

And i guess you can make a small ultrahand package for quick edit

masagrator · Monday at 6:32 AM

ah, i understand now where my misunderstanding came from. I wasn't aware that with 20 year anniversary update they merged episodes into base game.

mathew77 · Monday at 9:21 AM

Tried to use "20th Anniversary Update" ep2 / hl2 / episodic / platform data files. The games starts OK, but in-game physical Switch buttons don't respond at all

except the '+' menu button, only touchscreen works, and visual glitches occurs like these:

It's something wrong with my data files, right?

Cofofo · Monday at 11:44 AM

mathew77 said:
Tried to use "20th Anniversary Update" ep2 / hl2 / episodic / platform data files. The games starts OK, but in-game physical Switch buttons don't respond at all except the '+' menu button, only touchscreen works, and visual glitches occurs like these:

View attachment 578234

It's something wrong with my data files, right?

Need to use Android version files I guess.

Nagaa · Monday at 6:20 PM

mathew77 said:
Tried to use "20th Anniversary Update" ep2 / hl2 / episodic / platform data files. The games starts OK, but in-game physical Switch buttons don't respond at all except the '+' menu button, only touchscreen works, and visual glitches occurs like these:

View attachment 578234

It's something wrong with my data files, right?

You need to enable the gamepad in game settings
For the graphical issues, 20th Anniversary Update is not supported you need to get the legacy version
PC Steam build / Android NVIDIA Port can be used

angelhp · Monday at 6:57 PM

mathew77 said:
Tried to use "20th Anniversary Update" ep2 / hl2 / episodic / platform data files. The games starts OK, but in-game physical Switch buttons don't respond at all except the '+' menu button, only touchscreen works, and visual glitches occurs like these:

View attachment 578234

It's something wrong with my data files, right?

Use android port!

Cofofo · Monday at 10:50 PM

Wow!
It's running like a dream!
This is so impressive, nice work Nagaa.

BaRRoN · 2026-06-20T19:52:27+0100

Nagaa said:
Half Life 2 (nillerusr Source engine) - Nintendo Switch port

This is a wrapper/port of the Android version of the Android Source Engine from nillerusr (v1.16.29 - 1.17.0025).
It loads the original game binary, patches it and runs it.
It's basically as if we emulate a minimalist Android environment in which we natively run the original Android binary as is.

My biggest Switch port so far, episodes 1 and 2 are supported.

The game is fairly CPU intensive, running it with overclock is recommended.

Report any issues you run into.

Credits :
TheOfficialFloW & fgsfds for the vita so-loader
nillerusr for the Android Source engine port this wraps

Available here :
https://github.com/NaGaa95/hl2_nx/

View attachment 578191

First of all, you’re an absolute legend for doing this! Second - what do I need to do with the source engine apk and where do I need to put it? Can’t really work it out from the GitHub. Cheers in advance and GOOD WORK!!

Badablek · 2026-06-20T20:12:30+0100

BaRRoN said:
First of all, you’re an absolute legend for doing this! Second - what do I need to do with the source engine apk and where do I need to put it? Can’t really work it out from the GitHub. Cheers in advance and GOOD WORK!!

download source engine .apk, open it with 7z then follow github instructions (in red) :

/switch/hl2_nx/
hl2_nx.nro
lib/ <- all 27 .so files from the APK's lib/arm64-v8a/
assets/extras_dir.vpk <- from the APK's assets/
files/ <- the fonts from the APK's assets/ (dejavusans.ttf,
dejavusans-bold.ttf, DroidSansFallback.ttf,
LiberationMono-Regular.ttf, Itim-Regular.otf)
hl2/ <- from the game data (the big one: hl2_pak, textures, sounds, maps...)
episodic/ <- episode 1 (Optional)
ep2/ <- episode 2 (Optional)
platform/ <- from the game data

27 .so files are in \lib\arm64-v8a\ → decompress to /switch/hl2_nx/lib/
4 .ttf / 1 .otf fonts are in \assets\ → decompress to /switch/hl2_nx/files/

everything else comes from the game(s) apk (HL2/Episod1/Episod2). But same as source engine : open .apk with 7z then go hunt the needed files.

AmeliaFox · 2026-06-20T21:36:43+0100

Why use the Android version, this can compile without android and run much faster? It uses the same engine as quake and quake2 and some of quake 3 all which run fine on switch without needing the Android version. I'm not complaining I'm just pointing out that this is a slow inneficient way to run this game.

Nagaa · 2026-06-20T22:08:00+0100

AmeliaFox said:
Why use the Android version, this can compile without android and run much faster? It uses the same engine as quake and quake2 and some of quake 3 all which run fine on switch without needing the Android version. I'm not complaining I'm just pointing out that this is a slow inneficient way to run this game.

The .so is native ARM code running directly on the Switch CPU, the wrapper just forwards system/GL calls, so it runs at basically native speed
Quake doesn't use the same engine has Half Life 2 at all

The source engine is available here : https://github.com/nillerusr/source-engine
Feel free to port it into a native libnx build

tech3475 · 2026-06-20T22:33:34+0100

AmeliaFox said:
Why use the Android version, this can compile without android and run much faster? It uses the same engine as quake and quake2 and some of quake 3 all which run fine on switch without needing the Android version. I'm not complaining I'm just pointing out that this is a slow inneficient way to run this game.

You're likely thinking of HL1/Goldsrc which from what I've read a significant rewrite (I've seen 75% thrown around) of the Quake engine.

HL2 itself runs on the Source engine.

All three Quakes also use different engines, referred to as Quake, id tech 2 and id tech 3.

Homebrew Homebrew game Half Life 2 (Source Engine) - Switch Port

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