We all know Garry’s Mod, the landmark physics sandbox mod for Valve’s Source Engine that can be utilized for the whole thing from developing customized sports modes to messing around with Half-Life 2 characters. Since it first seemed in 2004 and used to be revealed through Valve as a standalone sport in 2006, Garry’s Mod has offered over 18 million copies, all underneath a gradual $10 price ticket.
But ahead of Garry’s Mod, there used to be JBMod (Steam web page (opens in new tab)), the primary ever mod for the Source Engine. The mod used to be created to permit the physics gun (or Phys gun), a device lower from Half-Life 2 that operated similarly to the gravity gun, permitting gamers to pick out up and manipulate pieces with the use of a blue beam of sunshine.
As occasionally occurs with mod initiatives, paintings on JBMod through its author, JB55 (JackBox55), did not remain lengthy ahead of being handed off to some other modder, however, Garry Newman used JBMod as a supply of inspiration, experimenting along with his mod to spawn man hacks and create rocket launchers that fired melons. Soon Garry’s Mod (then referred to as GMod) had extra options just like the Phys gun and the power to rope or weld items in combination and the end, its well-known sandbox map, gm_construct, functions as a physics playground.
Despite preliminary grievance that Garry’s Mod used to be too very similar to JBMod, gamers started flocking to Newman’s sandbox. The modders running on JBMod could not stay alongside of Garry’s Mod’s rising record of options, and in the end, the building stopped altogether.
Better overdue than by no means, I assume: As noticed through PCGamesN (opens in new tab), JBMod has in any case seemed on Steam (opens in new tab), 18 years later. “The preliminary Steam unencumber brings the unique mod from 2004 to an extra trendy engine. Stay tuned for additional updates! As at all times, JBMod 0.6 is coming quickly,” reads the mod’s Steam web page, which does not seem to have any professional involvement from JBMod’s authentic author.
I attempted out JBMod in short lately, and there is a sandbox map with item-spawning stations and the Phys gun, with console instructions enabled to spawn pieces or load maps from Source Engine video games you presently have put in. Beyond a snappy glimpse at how the mod works or a nostalgia hit for individuals who performed with it again in 2004, there is no longer an entire lot there, particularly in comparison with Garry’s Mod. Still, it is by no means no longer amusing to fling physics items around, even though the choices for “Find a Server” and “Create a Server” are adopted through the phrases “Not Recommended.”
In reaction to the mod, in any case, making its strategy to Steam finally those years, Newman says JBMod wasn’t only a supply of inspiration for Garry’s Mod, but, supplied a large number of motivation to proceed running on it:
I used to be in truth afraid of jbmod when I used to be making gmod.. they at all times claimed to be near to to make an enormous unencumber that may render us redundant. This is without doubt one of the causes I labored so onerous for see you later to push it ahead so it could not get stuck. https://t.co/jDvz1zFqHaOctober 9, 2022.
“I used to be in truth afraid of jbmod when I used to be making good,” Newman stated on Twitter. “They at all times claimed to be near to make an enormous unencumber that may render us redundant. This is, without doubt, one of the causes I labored so onerous for see you later to push it ahead so it could not get stuck.”
He doesn’t need to have fearful: Garry’s Mod has been one of the crucial most-played video games on Steam for almost the whole lot of its life, and I do not believe JBMod is to any extent further of a danger now that it is on Steam too.