Silly Jenn Fact: I got an early copy of Half-Life back in the day as a gaming company I was afiliated with was asked to make some deathmatch levels for World Opponent Network ready for Day One.
Nothing I made was used in our levels, but I spent a LOT of time in 1998 in the game, testing Deathmatch levels, playing the main game, and dabbling in level creation (I was hired mostly to write documentation and make the occasional graphic).
To this day, if I want to relive the late 90s, I'll fire it up and play a few levels.