UK Terrorist has slapped up a Past and Present overview of Counter-Strike. Here's the slightest tidbit:
Hooray.June 18th 1999, the release date of counter-strike. CS has been around for over a year and a half - a bloody long time if you pause think about it. Still I remember beta 1 like it was yesterday. The exploits, the crashes and the distinct lack of servers. Playing on Cliffe's US server on your 56K and not caring about ping, just wanting a frag. The addiction and the fun.
The old skool players will know know where I'm coming from, that feeling has all gone now. The hype about this little known HL mod is still going, but that can be blamed upon the rest of the shit being churned out by the gaming industry. There is something wrong, either I am growing up or the PC games market is getting diluted with third rate, underbaked clone games. CS has got a lot worse since its inception yet it remains, and is STILL gaining in popularity after 1 and a half years. As you can see CS truly is a phenomenon for the PC gaming world. So much so it is being considered to being ported to the DC like Opposing Force.