Halo2.Live Hoplite - Optional Dedi Host and Installer for Classic Halo

Halo 2 never died... it evolved... again.

Colorado Evolved and I are hosting some of (if not) the biggest public monthly LANs in the world and modern community contributions have made playing Halo 2 competitively as accessible as ever, like Rocky5's Endgame, which totally revolutionized our LANs by enabling me to implement update 1.5, the last two maps, adding all of our profiles and gametypes to every Xbox, customizing the nickname of each Xbox, and removing our risk of players being unable to load maps mid-event.

This week, I have been working on Halo 2's end-all LAN client, riffing off of Harcroft's H2MP CDX build using MVC and xbox7887's Hex Edit trick! Thank you to Roasted, Harcroft, xbox7887, MVC, and whoever I missed who unwittingly helped me do this! (Definitely not trying to step on any toes here, just love Halo!)

Halo 2 Hoplite Loader (download)

By adjusting a value in the Halo 2 .XBE program, I was able to remove the player from the System Link lobby and start a game, keeping host as the Xbox without a player, which I first saw done at LVL50 in Vegas. It was xbox7887 who initially identified this trick in the code, and MVC who commissioned him to do so (I've been told.)

There were no Marathon terminals about this.

The only problem was: I couldn't figure out how to switch back and forth from being host, since every Xbox game has a unique TitleID (name of its folder in TDATA and UDATA folders on Xbox HDD) and so once a copy of Halo 2 had been altered to host no player, you just couldn't play multiplayer on that box, only host with a black screen.

Halo 2 is designed to look in the "root" of the hard drive for the TDATA folder and the updates inside; I wanted host to have the last update for Halo 2 (1.5) and maintain all of my profiles and game types, but switch back and forth between 2 clients that identified with the same TitleID. Perhaps there was another extremely simple fix for this I just don't know about since I'm not very tight with the global modding and Halo 2 community and kinda had to implement this hack on my own for our local LAN.

Anyway, fast forward three months and Harcroft customized and sent me his Halo 2 MP-only installer, which could install all of the maps and had a self-contained 1.5 version of Halo 2 multiplayer built in! He and Punny were able to distribute these to players out east, but I explained we are kind of our own thing here in Colorado.

By modifying that multiplayer-only copy of Halo 2 and making it "4DEDi" (an homage to Colorado Evolved who brought me to LVL50 where we competed as 4DEAD) anyone can fit both a dedicated server version of Halo 2 and a regular MP-only client on a stock Xbox HDD utilizing a unique feature of this installer.

By having the installer encapsulate 4DEDi, both the regular client in E/Games and the dedicated client in Hoplite function correctly and reference the game types on your main drive in UDATA, letting you easily get online via Insignia (for example) with either client! Plus, the help file (which Harcroft also sent me, legend) indicates these installers have no data limit. I think we can do all sorts of other cool things within this framework...!

For starters, I bundled 4DEDi with tons of video proof of our LANs, multiple cool alternate attract videos to promote Colorado Evolved, and custom thumbnails promoting this site, Halo2.Live! I stuffed a few of my own fun-but-serious Colorado Evolved playlists on there for good measure, too, along with the OXM/Bungie playlists from long ago, which were included on Harcroft's build. I spent many, many hours learning the code, perfecting the design, and testing. Long live good Halo and the passionate community that's kept it alive!

Classic Halo LANs joining the Evolution now have the end-all tool to deliver unparalleled production quality!

If you use Hoplite, please keep my videos, content, and style intact. I put a ton of work into all of it to really deliver an experience using Hoplite that takes classic Halo to another level. One day, I might make a "Lite" version with still images and no extras, which would save about 300MB.

Download Hoplite (ISO, fits on a DVD-R) and use it at your Halo2 and Halo CE LANs! This is undoubtedly the easiest way to make dedicated servers on both Xbox and PC and therefore make serious Classic Halo LANs accessible for everyone, which must be done to save Halo.

Halo 2 Hoplite can also install the MLG game types for you, making this package an all-in-one solution (complete with Insignia client and Control Pad Tester) for getting returning players started with competitive Halo 2 quickly and helping us save Halo! Next I plan to bundle Halo 2 Hoplite with the Skeleton Key for our players on USB and further accelerate the Halo 2 Renaissance with a nearly instant set-up from stock Xbox!

The Super Smash Bros. competitive community uses a version of Melee called Slippy, which corrects some of the problems you encounter when competing at a high level with all of the pork removed for the core necessities. I consider this version of Halo definitive - by offering a dedicated server, high-stakes, high-skill play is set free, and being so small, fits on stock Xbox consoles without further modification. Plus, 4DEDi works on Xlink Kai and even Insignia custom games! I will make this technology available to anyone at all who wants it, not just to the most highly-produced events. We are truly living in the Halo 2 Renaissance now!

If you want to play competitive Halo 2 on stock HDD, having Hoplite is now the gold standard. The entire package is a little more than 2 GBs and easily fits on a softmodded stock HDD Xbox.

We are doing unbelievable monthly Halo 2 LANs on our fleet of original hardware and CRTs, and you're invited! We are looking at bigger and more exciting venues, too - come relive the glory days of Halo with us... and make some new ones!

Colorado Evolved | Watch Halo2.Live for our LAN schedule! LAN-TACULAR!

Check out Skeleton Key - free-forever tools to open up your Xbox to the future-present! Thanks so much Harcroft for all of the great work you've done for Xbox, Halo, and Colorado Evolved. Legendary!

Need a new laser? I repair those for Game & Witch!

Never surrender, Spartans! Good times are ahead. The rest is just war!

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Update (7.22.2025): I added a copy of Halo 1 Neutral Host Edition to Hoplite, meaning you can now play Halo 1 as a player or dedicated host right from Hoplite! Hoplite is the first loader of its kind for easily accessing Halo 1 NHE and Halo 2 and keeping it user-friendly.

It's marvelous, isn't it?

Speaking of user-friendly, I expanded the Ultimate Game Type Installer to Halo2.Live Hoplite! Thanks to Harcroft, you can now install notable Halo 1 and Halo 2 Game Types right from Hoplite! Amazing for setting up new players unfamiliar with FTP, this installer features MLG, Colorado Evolved, Bungie, and Halo 1NHE Game Types that install with the press of a button. Select only the playlists you want - and check out my custom videos and descriptions for each game type! Wow!

For more information about Halo 1 Neutral Host Edition, check out https://halo1nhe.com/! What an amazing project, NHE team; thank you so much!

Hoplite is a work in progress and should not be modified or mirrored without crediting me and everyone else who contributed to it. Contact me (coloradoevolved@gmail) directly for further instruction on how to start your own professional classic Halo LANs, getting listed on Halo2.Live, feedback about Hoplite, or to invite us to run a massive Halo tournament at your upcoming event!

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