I played all older Half-Life games, but started with Half-Life 2 only
recently.
Are you loading Episode 1 from Steam or the DVD?
I got the CD from Half-Life 2 Episode 1 and a CD from SIN Episodes
Emergence, which loaded from "Steam" for off-line and online play. It works
WITHOUT a  CD's, but it takes a while to connect (DSL) to start SIN. No
charge for online play, but I play off-line mostly. Did you buy your DVD in
Holland? I don't remember it here for sale in the US. but it could have
been.
U. Renz

Pottema, I just seen the Holiday 2006 on sale on the Steam site.
U. Renz

If you are still unable to get HL2:E1 to load you need to run the game
then exit the game after you get to the menu and not start playing. It
also well do this lockup when you play mods, not sure if it has been
fixed yet. But it has something to do with loading and exiting safely
before you can play.

Webluke
Geek (_!_)
http://www.webluke.net