If you are a fan of the first person shooter, chances are you have played the original “Half-Life” at some point in your gaming history. (If not Half-Life, then at least Counter-Strike!) Over the past 15 years, Half-Life has been loved by PlayStation 2 owners, and nearly all computer gamers out there. That is unless, of course, you were a fan of Apple before it was cool, and were a Macintosh user, where the game was never released. We are happy to report that over 14 years after it’s original release, Mac users can finally play Half-Life on their own computers, without having to buy one of those “PC compatible” things.

Half-Life is a sci-fi first person shooter, originally developed by Valve Corporation, and first released by Sierra Studios for the Windows PC platform on November 18, 1998. The game was later ported to the Sony PlayStation 2 by Gearbox Software almost exactly 3 years to the date of the original program release, in 2001. An additional port had been created for Sega’s Dreamcast console, also by Gearbox Software, under contract with both Valve Corporation and Sierra Online. In fact, a playable version was featured at the European Computer Trade Show in 2000. The Dreamcast version offered updated graphics, with double the polygon count of the original models. However weeks from it’s scheduled release, it was cancelled by Sierra, because of “changing market conditions”, including the Dreamcast itself being discontinued. In a nearly completed state, the version was eventually leaked online.

Meanwhile, a version for the original Mac OS had also been nearly completed, and almost ready to be sent to the software stores across the country. While there has never been any official reasoning for the port not being released, it should be noted that Valve Software was originally setup by a group of former Microsoft employees. While you would think that this would make what ultimately happened be reversed, with a Windows version not possible and a plethora of Macintosh versions over the years, let’s face it. If you were a Microsoft employee, you were a Windows expert, not a Mac OS expert. While this isn’t a confirmed fact, it’s probably the most reasonable situation, at least that I can personally think of.

Now please take this into consideration. Half-Life, which is available on OS X, is not actually being listed as available on Steam at this point. Currently, it is still stating that it is only available on Windows PCs. However, multiple sources have confirmed that the game is working just fine. In addition to the OS X edition, there are also reports of the game working on Linux based PCs as well, and confirmation of this version has also been given on multiple sites online. The current cost of the game is $9.99, and is available from Steam.

Official Steam Link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/70/