Counter-Strike: Eight Years On - Page 1

We take a look back at years past with the most popular online action series: Counter-Strike.
By Capt. Insane | Aug. 13, 2007

It all started one June day back in 1999. About a year after Game Spy’s "Game of the Year” Half-Life came out, history was made: Counter-Strike was released, a team based multiplayer game that pits counter-terrorists (CTs) against terrorists (Ts). This mod for Half-Life was the brainchild of modder "Gooseman,” a.k.a. Minh Le of Vancouver, Canada. In fact, he did a hell of a lot of the mod all by himself. He teamed up with Cliffe (not Maverick), a.k.a. J. A. Cleof IV from Virginia Tech, Virginia (at least he was at the time). In fact, CS was originally hosted on PHL before counter-strike.net started up. This may have turned into CS-Nation, but don’t quote me on that. Counter-Strike, over the years, turned into the most popular and most-played game out there, and can now even be bought without having a copy of Half-Life. And this gamer was there to see history made. I had a copy of HL back in ’98 when it came out and in ’99 owned CS as well. So now, please join me on a journey through time as we take a look at the History of Counter-Strike (through the eyes of me). Keep all body parts inside the vehicle at all times.

As the game is eight years old this year, I don’t remember every little fact about all of the updates so I’m using CS-Nation and archived versions of PHL to help jump start my memory. Anyway, on June 19, Counter-Strike Beta 1 made its debut featuring four maps, including cs_siege, which is still played today. Its only mode of play was hostage rescue. Players were provided with only a handful of guns at this point, but they included the infamous AWP, M4a1, and Para. When the game was released, weapons weren’t designated as counter-terrorist or terrorist weapons: everyone and his grandmother could use any gun he pleased. Another interesting thing was that guns didn’t disappear after every round like they do now; if you lost you’re $5000+ Para, you had the chance of picking it up next round if you were fast enough. Of course, someone else could always swipe your precious machine gun. Beta 1 also included flash bangs, the only grenades available. Due to limited graphics technology, they didn’t have the same blinding effect back then as they do now, though these suckers were still annoying.

Eight days later the first update came out, Beta 1.1. Along with fixing bugs and changing balance issues, Beta 1.1 featured new maps and a new firing mode for the GLOCK 18. The new maps were cs_assault and cs_desert, an amazingly fun map that unfortunately has passed away into the great beyond. It was my favorite map. There were two bunker spawn points on either side of the map with a bunch of big boulders in between, a couple of which featured good vantage points for snipers. Sure it was small and repetitive, but it provided hours and hours of good times.

July 20 saw the immersion of Beta 1.9, later renamed Beta 1.2 (not sure why since 2.0 came next). This added new things that would make CS was it is today. When it came out, bunny hopping was immensely popular due to HL multiplayer. Bunny hopping was a tactic created by newbies in which the player hopped around the map, quickly increasing speed, and decreasing the chance of getting hit. Well, Gooseman was able to nip this one in the bud early on by greatly reducing accuracy while jumping for every gun. Cash reserves were capped at $16,000, flash/bangs were tweaked to be more effective, and money awards were tweaked (doesn’t say how, though). Prices were also adjusted for each of the weapons. Beta 1.2/1.9 also added what the team termed a "molasses period,” which stopped people from rushing right at the start of the round (players were frozen, giving everyone time to purchase things). Body armor was also improved, adding protection to arms.

Beta 2 was the first of many highly anticipated CS betas (anticipated by me, anyway). The big part of this update was the addition of the Sig SG-552 Commando, AK-47, and Desert Eagle. Of course, this was the time when the weapons still had their real name, not some phony copyright infringement avoiding name like they’ve been given now. Add to these new weapons silencers for the USP and M4a1 and you can see that August 13, 1999 was, indeed, a very special day. It added more challenges to the game and made it more realistic, giving players many new options. Two other updates changed the game play and also had a big impact. The first is the round timer. I remember what a pain it was twiddling my thumbs as a ghost wondering when the round would end. The other major update was the addition of team scores to the score board. Now people could keep track of how many rounds their team won. This update was actually the most important update to CS. Without it, CAL, The CPL, and other leagues probably wouldn’t exist because of a lack of team scores. Also important to this update was the addition of night vision goggles. No more would you have to glow like a bonfire to see in the dark: now you could see people without them seeing you. Unless they had night vision, too, that is. In the early stages, NVG weren’t that great: they had an ugly green hue reminiscent of the NVG from Opposing Force and really only made things look green instead of black or darkened. But still, for the technology available, it was a good addition.

Four days later Beta 2.1 was released, but had more technical updates than practical. The main two were fixing telefragging in cs_assault and AK-47 pricing. The former would happen on occasion at the start of rounds due to a lack of spawn points and too many players. I think it still may have happened in other maps, but I don’t really remember. Like I said, this update wasn’t very impressive, and more or less to fix small annoyances.

About a month later on September 14, Beta 3.0 came out. This was the largest beta to date and included many cool things. In fact, it was the one I most looked forward to due to the addition of the Fabrique Nationale (FN) P90. I loved the betas that included new weapons, especially this one. Cool as it was, the original P90 did have some problems: mainly recoil that was unrealistically high and the resulting poor accuracy. In real life, someone can fire two P90s at once, one in each hand (and I’ve seen it done, too, on TV). It’s a highly accurate, highly powerful submachine gun that isn’t accurately portrayed even in today’s Counter-Strike: Source. But it was still a fun addition. Another weapon addition was that of the knife, for use when out of ammunition. The knife has been through many changes over the years of CS, eventually evolving into its present day form, which I believe is just the Source’s Version 1.6 knife. The final weapon addition was the flash/bang concussion grenade, which would shoot shrapnel and issue a blinding light that paled in comparison to the Source f/b. In other words, it sucked; but it did get the job done well enough at the time. But what was probably the most substantial addition to CS in Beta 3.0 was the radio system. With it, players could push a button and have a preprogrammed voice message go out to teammates, saying such things as "Need backup” and "Enemies down.” Four new maps were added, including cs_militia, and three maps were updated. Beta 3.1 was another small update, with nothing special except for a decreased volume for the radio communication.