So,  I have never played a half-life game. 
 
I can now buy some of the half-life games on Steam for my mac, which has 128mb of vram. 
 
Or I could get orange box for my 360. 
 
I also don't know which games to get. There is HL, HL1, and HL2. Is HL really episode one, and episode one is actually two? Or are the extra episodes just expansions? 
 
So essentially, my computer is crap, so should I get orange box on the 360, and get portal and TF2? 
 
Okay, I think I just answered my question. wow. 
 
But I am still a bit confused about those expansions. Also, why hasn't valve released Half-life 1 for mac? Is HL1 and HL2 related? Should I play HL1 first?  
 
Thanks for bearing with me, folks.

Episodes 1 and 2 are direct continuations of HL2. Don't play them until you finish HL2. Playing HL1 isn't completely necessary to play HL2, but it really helps in understanding what's going on, plus it's still an amazing game. If you own a PS2, you can find a copy of the original HL for it for extremely cheap.

get original half life for computer 
play it, love it even with poop visuals 
buy orange box for 360, it comes with hl2 and the episodes which follow hl2
wish u had a gaming pc 
 
all in that order

My advice is to get Orange box if you have a 360. It sounds like you don't have a computer that can really do the games justice. I would personally reccomend you look up the story of HL1 on the Wiki page, it's an old game and doesn't play well now. Besides, it's the story you want to know about. Then go play HL2 and then HL2:Episode 1 & 2. They're fantastic games, the gunplay can be argued to be dated but the atmosphere, music and story I think are second to none. Enjoy the games.
 
The episodes are just continuations of the Half-Life 2 saga, Episode 1 picks up right after HL2 and Episode 2 picks up right after Episode 1.

If you want to play something more modern I would start with Half Life 2, followed by episodes 1 and 2. However if you dont care about graphics or the like  then start from half life 1.

^ not true, specially orange box update 
and better to just get it on 360 where it will run smoothly

Buy Orange Box. Everyone should have it in their collection by now. 

Original HL doesn't really hold up when you don't have any nostalgia for it, or that's what I'd believe.

^ no the level design is awesome, even if a little platformy  
more fun than all of halo campaign, except maybe when co op but that has little to do with quality

" Original HL doesn't really hold up when you don't have any nostalgia for it, or that's what I'd believe. "

" Original HL doesn't really hold up when you don't have any nostalgia for it, or that's what I'd believe. "

Is HL1 the game that starts in Black Mesa and everything blows up and he tries to escape?  
 
If so, I think I saw a youtube series that showed half of the game with funny comentary.  
 
Here it is, its called Freeman's mind:  http://www.youtube.com/show/freemansmind?pl=D2BD48F62330DE1D

Half-Life is a game. 
Half-Life 2 is its sequel. 
Episode 1 and Episode 2 are sequels to Half-Life 2. 
If your computer is really so bad, you should get the Orange Box for your Xbox.  You computer will probably be able to handle Half-Life, though.

" Original HL doesn't really hold up when you don't have any nostalgia for it, or that's what I'd believe. "