This week, Frag Reel Friday celebrates the 15th anniversaries of two of the most memorable first person shooters of all time: Counter-Strike and Unreal Tournament.

It's a pretty good time to be a gamer. Not only do you get the all the capabilities of next-gen consoles, but gamers also have access to PCs that are far easier to assemble and far cheaper to purchase than their counterparts two decades ago, new and exciting technology such as the Leapmotion and the Oculus Rift plus the savings available through multiple digital distribution channels, such as Steam, the Humble Bundle store, Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network and more. But one of the best parts is being able to enjoy many of the games from eras past for the cost of a cup of coffee.

This week, two readily-available games are celebrating their 15th birthdays. One is recognised as one of the greatest deathmatch games ever made, with perhaps the most well-loved Capture the Flag map in gaming history, while the other helped spawn a generation of military-based shooters and a competitive community that is still going strong to this day.

Unreal Tournament

Mention the original Unreal Tournament and chances are people will distinctly remember one of a few things: the quality of the bots, instagib battles floating throughout one of the many space maps (Morpheus was a favourite of many) or perhaps the most memorable Capture the Flag map to have ever been created: Facing Worlds.

There's a good contrast between the above videos. The first is a good example of people's initial experience of Facing Worlds, fighting bots as you progress throughout Unreal Tournament's ladder-style campaign, while the second showcases the potential of the map in the hands of savvy veterans.

Many still consider the original UT (also known as UT99, for the year it was released) to be the most complete, most satisfying version, with a fully fledged Domination mode (which was soullessly converted to Double Domination in future instalments), the clever objective-based Assault game mode and a netcode framework that, unlike Quake 3, was more friendly to players on dial-up connections.

While Quake received many of the plaudits and achieved greater heights competitively, UT was still well represented at major LANs around the world, including the World Cyber Games. Dominic Lewandowski actually managed one of Australia's very few successes at the World Cyber Games, picking up a bronze medal in 2003 for Unreal Tournament 2003.

But perhaps the best way to honour the 15th anniversary of this great franchise - as well as the two Unreal games that came before it - occurred earlier this year when developers Epic Games announced that a sequel, simply titled Unreal Tournament, would be released for free to gamers around the world - provided they helped in UT's development.

Where the new UT goes is anybody's guess; watching the development process play out with the involvement of thousands of gamers will be fascinating.

But development has really only just begun and there's no gameplay. So to close off, here's some of the most memorable UT matches and videos from the last 15 years, a documentary into the making of the original UT and - of course - the original theme.

Counter-Strike

The fact that Counter-Strike is still going, in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, is remarkable in so many ways. The franchise looked dead and buried in 2009-10; even when Global Offensive was released the groundswell support of years past, the champions of old and the community that held the game so close to its heart, failed to return.

But what a difference a few years can make. With some clever, community-focused updates, and well as the introduction of a solid matchmaking system - admittedly riddled with cheats - Global Offensive is now keeping alive the legacy of one of the titans of first-person shooters.

Perhaps the most defining mark that Counter-Strike has left on gaming is the way the community around it helped define the standards, ideals and methods for eSports tournaments. While other games - most notably Quake - were around before, nothing reached the size of Counter-Strike in the early 2000s, and so the classic Half-Life mod ended up becoming the benchmark that other games would use for their own tournaments.

Gabe Newell, the managing director and co-founder of Valve, told ABC's Good Game a few years back that Counter-Strike offered plenty of lessons for FPS developers. And there's no doubt that many shooters which followed Counter-Strike were inspired by its mix of realism, the money system and its team-based, but still highly-individual, gameplay.

In the 15 years since its release, there's still nothing quite like the adrenaline spike you get from Counter-Strike. Other games now do offer a more constant rush of adrenaline - like in Call of Duty - but the feeling of getting a headshot, whether it be from lining your crosshairs up perfectly, a lightning-fast flick of the mouse or just pure luck, is still unsurpassed.

There's been plenty of frag movies over the years. In many ways, Counter-Strike helped lay down the foundations for what makes a good frag reel. I've selected some of my favourites, but of course, there are many to be found.

Here's to another 15 years.

Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition is available for US$10 from Good Old Games, while the original Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive can be bought as a package through Steam for US$30.

Alex Walker is the regular gaming columnist for ABC Tech + Games. You can follow him on Twitter at @thedippaeffect.