I won't forget how uberly disappointed I was when HL2 was delayed due to the Source engine hack.
When it did come out, Game of the Year award after the next was being thrown at it.
But I was in school at that time, so my $$$ came from weekly pocket money.
I saved... and saved... and had to make the ultimate choice - "Half-Life 2" or "Doom 3". I went for HL2.

On a system with a meager Radeon 9200 SE!
It was a giant box with G-Man on it. Gosh I miss the days when games were actually in 'damn real boxes', now a plastic container even for original games.
Since I was still at school, Streamyx was a no go for me. So believe it or not, the whole Steam + game updates was done on a 56kbps...

It took the entire day to install/update. Oh, and it came on like 5 or 6 CDs.
...and the level that scared me to death was "We don't go to Ravenholm"

This level crept the bejesus out of me.
Ah, how times have changed. Now back playing a nostalgic game that I remember when I started primary school! I remember so many things about HL1 and how it was to me one of the hardest game of all. And I used cheat to defeat the Nihilanth.
Now I'm back, with an uber awesome *praises self* system on the game that I could barely remember, in glorious remake quality.
Good times, good times. "Black Mesa" has kicked up so many "Oh damn, I remember that" moments that I literally point to the screen by myself in excitement.
Now I can't wait for "Rise of the Triad" (unrelated to HL) - - another classic game that is being made by an actual game developer in glorious Unreal Engine 3.0.