Ancient Web: HLDS 101 Taught Half-Life Server Operators to Make Sprays

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

Before a multiplayer game let you choose a profile picture from a tidy menu, expressing yourself on a server could require an image editor, an obscure utility, and some file-system surgery.

Visit HLDS 101's custom spray guide

HLDS 101 was built to explain how to set up Half-Life Dedicated Servers. Its About page says the project began because beginners had unanswered questions in the Steam Powered forums. It speaks of Half-Life 2 as an upcoming release, situating the original site's voice before that game's November 2004 launch.

The menu reads like a frozen list of questions a server operator actually had: startup, updating, networking, configuration variables, remote administration, custom maps, and Metamod. This wasn't a general gaming news page. It was a working reference for people providing the machines that hosted other people's matches.

One picture, two WAD files

The spray tutorial gives a specific example of early multiplayer customization. It starts with image dimensions divisible by sixteen, describes the maximum pixel area, and asks the reader to save a bitmap. Next comes Wally, a texture editor used to turn the image into a Half-Life decal.

Then it gets thoroughly mid-2000s. The guide tells readers to save a pldecal.wad, make a copy named tempdecal.wad, and place them in folders under Steam and SteamApps. It lists directory names for Counter-Strike, Condition Zero, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress Classic, and Half-Life.

There is even an instruction to mark the files read-only so the game's options menu will not overwrite the customized spray. The end goal is simple: walk into a multiplayer server and leave a small visual signature.

The page is preserved documentation, not a promise that its download links or Windows paths still work with contemporary Steam installations. It is valuable because it records how the software actually fit together at the time.

HLDS 101 also captures a vanished division of labor. Server operators, mod developers, tool authors, and players all had to cooperate to make a shared game world feel personal. A spray might have been juvenile, but the instructions behind it were serious infrastructure.

Read the original spray walkthrough and its account of the server-guide project.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.