These days, if you want to compete online, you have to compete with Counter-Strike. Close to half a million players regularly play on more than 200,000 servers, running through the well-worn corridors of Dust, Militia and Aztec. And it all started with two friends working from their college dorm.

But Counter-Strike ’s success has been down to its ability to adapt and change - the reason it’s so long-lived is that it’s never static. Each new version brings new weapons, maps and ideas; some survive to be loved by players, others fall by the wayside. Here’s how it’s developed.

Started by Minh Le, a modeller from the Quake 2 editing community, the first version was only about 10Mb in size. It contained four maps and nine weapons, and tasked teams with defending or rescuing a group of hostages.

While the preceding releases focused mostly on small additions, beta 3 brought features that would help define the game: the knife; the Kevlar and helmet combination; and the Radio system that would make “Stick together, team” a gamer’s catchphrase.

Beta 4 would bring Counter-Strike its second game mode: Bomb Defusal. Even more noteworthy are the maps that came with it: de_nuke, de_prodigy, and of course de_dust. All three would become enormously popular, and Dust would grow to be the most popular multiplayer game map of all time.

The preceding version, 5.2, is often considered the sweet-spot in Counter-Strike development. Most major bugs had long since been fixed, the maps and weapons were all polished, and cheating had yet to become rampant. Still, beta 6 brought major additions, including the Assassination (protect/kill the VIP) and Escape (terrorists have to get to an exit point) modes.

Beta 7 was where CS took a strange turn: de_jeepathon2000. A crudely designed level in the form of a ring, Jeepathon was notable for the inclusion of driveable vehicles. While previously there had been maps with a controllable train, this was much more advanced.

Fannst þetta svona skemmtileg grein :)
langaði að deila þessu.

Changes to Half-Life-based CS slowed and eventually stopped with version 1.6, which is still popular in tournaments. But then came Half-Life 2 and the Source engine. At E3 in 2004, Gabe Newell revealed Counter-Strike: Source, and the future of CS was assured.