Some of Steam’s oldest user accounts are turning 20-years old this week, and Valve is celebrating the anniversary by handing out special digital badges featuring the original Steam colour scheme to the gaming veterans.

Steam first opened its figurative doors all the way back in September 2003, and has since grown into the largest digital PC gaming storefront in the world, which is actively used by tens of millions of players each day.

“In case anyone’s curious about the odd colours, that’s the colour scheme for the original Steam UI when it first launched,” commented Redditor Penndrachen, referring to the badge’s army green colour scheme, which prompted a mixed reaction from players who remembered the platform’s earliest days. “I joined in the first six months,” lamented Affectionate-Memory4. “I feel ancient rn.”

  • @thantik
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    111 year ago

    I was a daily CounterStrike 1.6 player back then. I didn’t have a choice. Literally couldn’t play unless I converted over to a Steam account.

    • Doubletwist
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      31 year ago

      I was playing CS as well back then. I don’t recall being forced to use steam

      • TSG_Asmodeus (he, him)
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        61 year ago

        They closed the WON network in November I believe it was, which is when I had to make my steam account.

        • boothin
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          31 year ago

          My steam account was also created in November, so I’m going to say that is correct as CS was the reason I made mine too

      • SokathHisEyesOpen
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        1 year ago

        CS is what got me to finally open a steam account too. I can’t remember if it was the only way to play, or if it was a considerably better way to play. Either way, everyone playing CS was on Steam so I finally opened an account.

    • @[email protected]
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      11 year ago

      I played cs 1.6 at a few LAN parties, but didn’t own it. I didn’t actually join steam until after CS:S had been out a while. I actually bought a hard copy of it.