Snarks first appeared in Half-Life, released by Valve in 1998, as living weapons the player could pick up and throw at enemies. Their constant squeaking and chirping became one of the game's most recognisable creature sounds, tied to their red bodies and relentless biting attacks. Clips of individual Snark noises later spread to soundboards and meme edits, where the short random chirp is used on its own as a generic alien bug sound, separate from the original combat scenes and levels.