So, I’ve spent the last year going to school, losing weight, studying Japanese, and …oh, right, playing an awful lot of highly regarded games.  Being able to strip-mine the last decade or more for new-to-me titles has been quite a good time.  Already having a lot of them in my collection, unplayed, has been a nice bonus, and of the ones I didn’t already have, I’ve been able to pick up most of them at bargain-bin prices.

One title that’s been a little frustrating to find, though, has been Half-Life.

It’s not frustrating in the same way  that Planescape: Torment is.  That’s a game that’s out of print and sells for, honestly, too much.  I do want to play it, but barring a miraculous reissue it’s seeming pretty unlikely.

No, Half-Life is readily available and CHEAP.  10 bucks secures you a copy at any time of the day or night.

There’s only one problem: It’s sold through Steam.

I quite understand that Steam is a highly-regarded and generally trustworthy institution.  That said, buying a product through Steam means giving up control over the thing I’ve just bought – if, for some reason, they decide that they don’t want people playing it any more, or if they decide that the Steam client software no longer works on my particular flavor of Windows, I’m out of luck.

That’s a concession I’m unwilling to make.  I put up with “Product Activation” for Windows, and that’s as far as I’m willing to go.

Now, it’s not an issue with Half-Life 2.  I have the Xbox version, which of course doesn’t have any silly online activation, and if I want to play Half-Life 2 and have it look nice and shiny, I can get the Orange Box for the 360.

But, Half-life is a bit old.  It came out for the PS2, yes, and it was completed-but-not finished for the Dreamcast, but both come with their own sets of shortcomings.

What I really wanted was the original PC release, pre-Steam, and that’s what I happened across on Monday, at a Goodwill, for the reasonable sum of $6.99.  It even had the manual, which isn’t something you expect when you’re doing your game shopping at Goodwill. 🙂

It doesn’t support widescreen resolutions – but, considering its age, it looks plenty good in 1280 x 960.  I’m almost done with – at least, I hope I’m almost done with – the “Blast Pit” level (I’ve made the big boom happen, I just need to figure out where to go next), and it’s been quite a ride thus far.   I had heard enough griping to be mentally prepared for the amount of jumping I need to do, so that part’s not bothering me all that much… quicksave, try the tricky jumping bit, quickload on my way down whatever bottomless chasm I’m trying to cross, repeat.

I also scored “Ghost Recon” at Goodwill, for $2.99.  I’m not sure if I’m really a “Ghost Recon” kind of guy, but it seemed a cheap way to find out.