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

It took an entire week for me to get HL2 installed and verified on a 56K modem. I was pretty salty about it at first, but that melted away when I was finally able to start playing the game. The connection speed combined with the server load just made that experience completely miserable.

I think I was lucky enough to have gotten dsl by then. Gaming on a 56k was miserable. I also had to use the junky free/cheap ISPs like netzero, bluelight etc.
 
back then i was on a 33.6k modem not even a 56k modem.

but later on i got dsl but cant remember the timeframe
 
Yeah, I was on 56K I think until I moved out my parent's house. Remember downloading Dreamcast ROMs that would take like 2 or 3 days to download and hope the connection didn't drop.

I was so blown away when I got to college and they had their own T1 line. I could literally click on a DVD movie rip and it would download in a few seconds.
 
Mine is at 16y, 17 end of November. I remember really hating the idea of have some extra useless software running just to play a game I bought.
 
Day #1 download and signup here. Was playing a lot of TFC and CS in those days (along with hosting several servers), so it was a must. Probably one of the oldest accounts here!

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56k. Which third world country?
We didn't have broadband options in our area until around 2006 after the cable company started deploying DOCSIS over their infrastructure. My first broadband connection was a year earlier when I moved out to go to university.
 
This reminds me, isn't there a member here that works (or has worked?) for steam with a 1337 steam id?
 
I hated having to go online and use this steam thing just to play a game I bought in a box at the store. I didn't have great internet (fuck netzero btw) and it really soured my mood going into HL2. Luckily the game wasn't too bad...

and I'm pretty sure this was like in 2005, so most of y'all got me beat...
 
I only have had an account since 2009, first purchase was the orange box... which is strange because I remember playing hl2 back around 2004 (but maybe I originally "acquired" it by other means)
 
I've had my Steam account since... 2010 or 2011, somewhere in there.

Of all things, what made me get it was Duke Nukem (Takes) Forever.

Personally, I'm not a big Steam fan. I'd rather go with GOG.
 
I had a 2004 account that I (generously) let my younger brother use years later when I was too busy to play. He liked it so much he changed the password and kept it… no good deed goes unpunished I suppose :rolleyes:
 
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I did five builds for Christmas that year, I have four younger siblings. 9600/9700s with Halflife included, built for Doom 3 I think? I think I got a dual core athlon in a shuttle? Oh, I built one in a piratey treasure chest for my sister who was on pirate kick. Good times.
 
I was initially opposed to the idea of downloading games or activating them to an online account. But I registered a Steam account so that I could play Half-Life 2.

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Like many I hated having to install it and dragged my feet, only finally did it to play HL2. Also like many I now have collected more games in my backlog than I can ever conceivably play.

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Yea, what was the program we used before this? GameSpy I think?

The server browsers were built into those games and most games, but before that was a thing gamespy, won.net, heat.net, and a bunch of others. A lot of the server browsers in games actually used those services behind the scenes. won.net is what half-life used and valve bought it and turned it into part of steam.
 
The server browsers were built into those games and most games, but before that was a thing gamespy, won.net, heat.net, and a bunch of others. A lot of the server browsers in games actually used those services behind the scenes. won.net is what half-life used and valve bought it and turned it into part of steam.
I think I used GameSpy. I recall searching for games in-game was a big leap forwards.
 
I think I always used the in-game browser; but I had a Gamespy plugin on my Clan webpage so people could see the status on all 3 servers I had running. 2 were for TFC and one was for CS.
 
Tribes 2 had clan web pages in game and a whole ass email system. Shit that was a good game. I still use ESDF instead of WASD because of it.
 
not having to insert a game disc to play an installed game was solid. Not having to keep up with cd keys was solid. Not having someone generate my damn cd key for an online game was solid. Thanks steam.

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Steam and Valve can kiss my butt. I still remember installing HL2, after several CDs, only to discover I needed an online connection and a launcher to actually play the game I just bought. Thought to myself - "Hope this does not become a trend". Twenty year later and here we are. :cautious:
 
Steam and Valve can kiss my butt. I still remember installing HL2, after several CDs, only to discover I needed an online connection and a launcher to actually play the game I just bought. Thought to myself - "Hope this does not become a trend". Twenty year later and here we are. :cautious:
so you'd rather have to store a bunch of delicate physical media and install from it. no thanks, digital distribution is great.
 
so you'd rather have to store a bunch of delicate physical media and install from it. no thanks, digital distribution is great.
Yes, very much so. All my game disks from the 90s still work fine. So do the back ups. And lest we forget how many do not have broadband, or any internet at all. Just let me click the game icon and play.
 
Thought it was a steaming pile of shit at first.

Couldn't eventually use my ripped HL disc anymore for cs... But it eventually grew on me.

16 year account, I have another buts it's literally been raped with vac bans
 
August 2004 here. Played the hell out of Half-Life 2 right before World of Warcraft's Open Beta, then I moved to Azeroth for the next five years or so. :D

I was trying to think why I had steam prior to November of that year, though, and the only thing I can think of is I got a couple months before HL2 to replay Half-Life when the HL: Source version came out on it.
 
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