Steam Turns 18 YO Today - Rolled Out: Sept. 12 2003

I do recall the first game I bought on Steam. Rag Doll Kung Fu.

The game wasn't that good, but it was the first game to release on Steam and I like being first.
 
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CS 1.6 related or HL2 related that I got with my ATi 9800 card. I remember playing CS on 56k and would smash my keyboard every time it disconnected when I was about to BOOM HEADSHOT someone.

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I think big box started dying in retail around 2006-2008-2010ish
It was earlier than that. I think the last "big box" retail game I have is one of the HL expansions or Condition Zero. They started using "short" boxes in the early '00s. The most notable one that comes to mind is Doom 3, which I think is the first PC game I bought at retail that came in the smaller box.
 
Still playing Hunt? Just about the only game I make time to play anymore other then trying to finish Witcher 3 lol.
I have been playing Rust lately after it went on sale for $20.
 
Anyone remember SteamDown? I remember pirating HL2, CS 1.6, CS:S and being able to play online with that client. Then Valve patched theirs so you couldn't play against regular players. I eventually bought Orange Box and been playing some of those games since thing. Signed up July 5, 2005.
 
I believe it was when my buddies got me into Day of Defeat. I had to install all my HL CDs for the last time after that..
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Anyone remember SteamDown? I remember pirating HL2, CS 1.6, CS:S and being able to play online with that client. Then Valve patched theirs so you couldn't play against regular players. I eventually bought Orange Box and been playing some of those games since thing. Signed up July 5, 2005.
Ironically it was when Steam launched their full store that I stopped pirating games. Gaben was right: Piracy is a service issue.
 
Ironically it was when Steam launched their full store that I stopped pirating games. Gaben was right: Piracy is a service issue.
Kind of the same for me. Every once in a while Ill pirate something to make sure its not trash if it has mixed reviews, and then I buy it on Steam to actually play it. Messed around with a refund once or twice in the past and it was a pain.
 
I think I made the account when I got HL Platinum edition; at least it shows as activated on the same date as account creation. I believe I had HL Platinum as a box set that I activated on Steam to bind the key. Got HL2 Gold for Christmas that year.
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14 Years, came in on Company of Heroes after I got tired of looking for cracked patches every time the game got updated.

"Wait a minute, I don't have to hunt around for manual patches for my games - the entire library will update by itself?" was the lightbulb moment.
 
14 Years, came in on Company of Heroes after I got tired of looking for cracked patches every time the game got updated.

"Wait a minute, I don't have to hunt around for manual patches for my games - the entire library will update by itself?" was the lightbulb moment.
And that's when developers also started to realize they can just release half baked games and then patch them as time and will allows 🤝
 
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I remember HL2 coming with a video card at the time. ATI 9600XT I think? I thought I installed Steam because of that bundle but I see my account was created in March 2004 but my ATI Bundle receipt is dated 11/9/2004. No idea why but somehow I still have the confirmation from the ATI Bundle redemption. Guess I'm too old to remember the real reason :)
 
It was earlier than that. I think the last "big box" retail game I have is one of the HL expansions or Condition Zero. They started using "short" boxes in the early '00s. The most notable one that comes to mind is Doom 3, which I think is the first PC game I bought at retail that came in the smaller box.

I'm trying to remember what the deal was with Condition Zero.

I was pretty much a Counter-strike addict back then but I went straight from the Counter-strike mod to Counter-Strike: Source.

I can't even remember what Condition Zero was, or if I ever played it. I think I have it in my library though. It must have come bundled with something....
 
I'm trying to remember what the deal was with Condition Zero.

I was pretty much a Counter-strike addict back then but I went straight from the Counter-strike mod to Counter-Strike: Source.

I can't even remember what Condition Zero was, or if I ever played it. I think I have it in my library though. It must have come bundled with something....

Condition-Zero was just CS "remastered" with some single player campaign stuff. It didn't go over well with the competitive player base (who stayed on 1.6 until like 2012...) .. it's probably sold in every bundle valve sells now
 
Condition-Zero was just CS "remastered" with some single player campaign stuff. It didn't go over well with the competitive player base (who stayed on 1.6 until like 2012...) .. it's probably sold in every bundle valve sells now

I never understood why people stuck with 1.6 for so long. I moved my servers to Source as soon as it launched and never looked back. I thought it was a great update.

I'm guessing there were just too many who were playing on really shitty low end machines.

I remember at about that time when I switched the servers over to source some people were complaining of "lag" (presumably because they had no idea what frame rate was). I encouraged them to upgrade their GPU's. They must have been on some shitty GeForce 2 MX cards or something.
 
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