CS 1.6 & hw.dll error

[Jito463]

So, I recently got the hankering to play classic CS 1.6 again.  It's been several years since I last played, but I decided to fire it up again for fun.  When I tried, I got:

 

"Could not load hw.dll"

"Please try again at a later time"

 

I've done some searching online, and while I've found others with this problem, none of the answers I found have resolved it (they either revolved around 3rd party anti-cheats - which I do not have - or the links the provided were dead).  I tried copying hw.dll from the Half-Life directory, no good.  I tried replacing hl.exe with a copy from the HL directory, it failed with a different error.  I tried uninstalling CS 1.6, renaming the old directory that remained and reinstalling.  It never even fully downloaded the game (despite claiming it did).  I tried copying some of the original files back over, thinking I could force it to re-download, no good.  I'm at a completely loss.  I'm not concerned enough to invest a ton of time into it, but I would like to see if there's something relatively simple that I've overlooked or been unable to find in my search.

 

Also note, that the install I was working from has been on my computer since Steam was originally introduced (early 00's).  It's been retained through several reinstalls of Windows, and hasn't been run in some time.  That should have been rectified by a clean reinstall, but obviously Steam isn't being in a cooperative mood.  I'd ask on the Steam forums, but last time I was there it was pretty dead, and I refuse to delve into the cesspool that Steam Discussions was the last time I looked.

 

Any suggestions or theories would be appreciated.  Thanks.