Isnt the original counter strike a free mod ?

The link was for CS 1.6 which most definitely is not a free mod.

For the Valve games you can usually use the following switch to play the game without steam:
hl.exe -steam -game valve

hl.exe = game executable
-game = valve = game folder below game executable

Folder Structure:
Half-Life
-Valve
hl.exe

That only works with Valve games.

Counter-Strike
hl.exe -steam -game cstrike

Counter-Strike Condition Zero
hl.exe -steam -game cstrike

Day of Defeat
hl.exe -steam -game dod

Day of Defeat Source
hl2.exe -steam -game dod

Deathmatch Classic
hl.exe -steam -game dmc

Half-Life 2
hl2.exe
Need to verify this one

Half-Life 2 Episode 1
hl2.exe -game episodic

Half-Life 2 Episode 2
hl2.exe -game ep2

Half-Life Source
hl2.exe -game hl1

Half-Life 2 Deathmatch
hl2.exe -steam -game hl2mp

Half-Life 2 Update
hl2.exe -game hl2

Half-Life Blue Shift
hl.exe -steam -game bshift

Half-Life Opposing Force
hl.exe -steam -game gearbox

Portal
hl2.exe -game portal

Portal The First Slice Demo
hl2.exe -steam -game portal

Team Fortress Classic
hl.exe -steam -game tfc

For other games you may get lucky and they may not require steam or they may only require an steam_appid.txt file, etc.

If the game does require only Steam DRM then you can try a Steam emulator: SmartSteamEmu, Lumaemu, LumaCEG, Revolution Loader, etc
*These likely won't work on 9x since they are more than likely compiled with a newer ver of Visual Studio. Kernelex might work.

If the game requires Steam DRM and third party DRM then you may have to use a crack or in some cases a crack and an emu.

If the game isn't compatible with 9x then you'll need to try Kernelex.

The above assumes you have paid for your games and you want to play them offline in an older OS.

Thanks Dosfreak, I'll definitely try that. Just let you know that I actually bought Team Fortress Classic 1.6 and the original Half-Life on steam.

DosFreak wrote:

For the Valve games you can usually use the following switch to play the game without steam: […]
Show full quote

For the Valve games you can usually use the following switch to play the game without steam:

Half-Life 2
hl2.exe
Need to verify this one

So if I were to buy a used, physical copy of Half-Life II, I could install and play the single-player campaign without having to create a Steam account and register online?

Call me crazy if you want, but I refuse to play games that come with a digital leash attached. The requirement that you create an account and register the game online is the reason I've never played HL2. That and I object to the fact that Steam killed the entire market for used copies of their games. If I can play it without Steam, I'd be willing to go buy a copy of it.

No because the physical cds (of the original Nov 2004 retail release) are literally a Steam installer with some encrypted cache files that it will decrypt (and then immediately update to the latest after that's done.) You have no way of preventing the Steam update. You are also required to make an account and register the CD key provided (which is a one-time use only - if you got this secondhand 'used' for reasons other than collecting the different HL2 boxes, then you are scammed)

There are hundreds of games on Steam that don't require the client once installed. The thing is the game has to be installed first. I install those games on my desktop, copy the folder to an EHD and then transfer it to my laptop that doesn't have Steam installed. Works pretty good. The thing is both machines are Windows 7.

You always see this tossed (There are TONS of games on Steam without DRM because all the indie games I download don't have DRM and because I specifically don't download those games...) around like the people bitching about DRM on steam don't have a legit concern.

SteamSpy lists 12,805 games on steam.
This page http://steam.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games lists roughly 650+ or so games that can be run without Steam either by running the executable or doing some extra work to make it run without Steam (no cracks mentioned).

While I have no doubt that the List of DRM free games is no where near complete we can probably agree that the DRM free games on steam is nowhere near 1,000+ games.....but yeah there are hundreds of DRM free games on steam.

DosFreak wrote:

SteamSpy lists 12,805 games on steam.
This page http://steam.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games lists roughly 650+ or so games that can be run without Steam either by running the executable or doing some extra work to make it run without Steam (no cracks mentioned).

Yep, that's the list I use. I found it on the GOG community forums. Pretty accurate (for what I have anyway) and people on the forum are always testing out games.

Mogamer wrote:

DosFreak wrote:

SteamSpy lists 12,805 games on steam.
This page http://steam.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games lists roughly 650+ or so games that can be run without Steam either by running the executable or doing some extra work to make it run without Steam (no cracks mentioned).

Yep, that's the list I use. I found it on the GOG community forums. Pretty accurate (for what I have anyway) and people on the forum are always testing out games.

That is a very useful list. I wonder if there is one for GOG games?

I've had good luck with running GOG games on Windows 98 machines by just copying the unpacked folder.

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Mogamer wrote:

DosFreak wrote:

SteamSpy lists 12,805 games on steam.
This page http://steam.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games lists roughly 650+ or so games that can be run without Steam either by running the executable or doing some extra work to make it run without Steam (no cracks mentioned).

Yep, that's the list I use. I found it on the GOG community forums. Pretty accurate (for what I have anyway) and people on the forum are always testing out games.

That is a very useful list. I wonder if there is one for GOG games?

I've had good luck with running GOG games on Windows 98 machines by just copying the unpacked folder.

Since all GOG games are DRM-free, I wouldn't think another list would be needed. Now if you want a list of games that can be played in non-supported OS's, that would be useful. What games have you found to work in Win 98?

Mogamer wrote:

Since all GOG games are DRM-free, I wouldn't think another list would be needed. Now if you want a list of games that can be played in non-supported OS's, that would be useful. What games have you found to work in Win 98?

Well the thread is about getting games to work on Windows 98, so that's what I'm interested in!

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Mogamer wrote:

Since all GOG games are DRM-free, I wouldn't think another list would be needed. Now if you want a list of games that can be played in non-supported OS's, that would be useful. What games have you found to work in Win 98?

Well the thread is about getting games to work on Windows 98, so that's what I'm interested in!

That Steam list is for drm-free games on Steam and not Windows 98 compatibility. So that is why I said what I said.