The Web Design Museum (opens in new tab), a Twitter account that catalogs classic interfaces from the history of web browsing, shared a screenshot of the Steam homepage circa May 2005 (opens in new tab) Valve's Looking back to the early days of the juggernaut, this image made us think of Day of Defeat Source, surf maps, and Half-Life 1's custom campaign. We've come a long way since those ol' bleak days.

With the Wayback Machine, you can see versions from any era of this site that lasted nearly 20 years (opens in new tab), but I think the Web Design Museum really hit the nail on the head with this 2005 version, but this snapshot from 2006 (opens in a new tab), we also have yet to see today's shiny gray and blue terminator begin to tear itself from its olive drab flesh.

My eyes were immediately drawn to the bronze/silver/gold editions of Half-Life 2, but at the risk of exposing myself as a pathetic bronzed gamer, I wasn't sure what these gradations meant at first. Frankly, the $85 Gold Edition of HL2 looked pretty sick.

According to MobyGames, "Half-Life 2," "Deathmatch," "CS: Source," "Half-Life 1 Source," "Day of Defeat Source," and Valve's "back catalog" of games (possibly the original GoldSrc "Half-Life" and its expansions) available for download; nothing beats the Digital Deluxe Edition with DLC Pass.

Seeing the "Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar" artbook in the sidebar filled my heart with longing and nostalgia. I remember poring over that thing for hours in middle school and getting glimpses of alternative designs for iconic enemies and areas.

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Prima's "Eguides" were also a real treat to watch; Counter-Strike's single-player campaign and Prima's early attempts to pivot to digital content were abandoned It's like looking at the first tier of a technology tree; one can only imagine a different present where Counter-Strike scoops up Call of Duty's clichéd cinematic campaign or Prima manages to dominate the SEO video game guide field ahead of the pack.

The whole thing is wrapped in that wonderfully horrid dull green color scheme that Steam has been obsessed with for years, and crammed into pages so busy that it's hard to know where to start. Well, this may not be "perfect UX design," but damn, it's something! Maybe it's because I was a cute kid at the time who didn't have to pay rent or taxes, but this image really takes me back. Not least the belligerent transphobic creators (opens in new tab), the bizarre wish list topper public controversy (opens in new tab), or, ahem. Furry Hitler (opens in new tab).