Old gems that come to steam.

[Χάρης]

I have been noticing that a lot of old games have been coming to steam the last 5 years and that's cool. But there is one problem.

A lot of the times the game just won't work, or it will require you to download 3rd party stuff, which may be risky too. Then it ends up getting negative reviews and the sad part is that the reviews don't have to do with the game itself, but the fact that the technical problems prevent you from playing it.

There are some old games that work just fine, but some others can be a pain. It seems like the devs don't even care to fix them and then people are like ' Well, it's a 15 year old game, what did you expect? '. I highly disagree with that argument because if that's the case, then why sell the game in the first place? I know that there are requirements which state which OS you need for it, but I doubt there are people who switch PC's for every game they play.

What's your opinion on it?

[keyboard_bat]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Xila:

Getting the Discworlds media is not my problem - I have the box media for all three - the second one is the most windows friendly. The first one is a struggle even with dosbox and the third has some sort of weird copy protection that died with windows xp... Unfortunately the third one (Discworld Noir) is my fav...

Ah, yes, the Great DRM Breaking of 2015, when Microsoft got rid of support for Safedisc (what Discworld Noir has) and SecuROM. So, yes, it kind of did die with XP, since they only disabled the service that those DRM schemes run on (secdrv.sys) in Vista, 7, and 8. It is possible to re-enable the service either temporarily using the command line or more permanently with regedit in those older OS versions. If you have Windows 10, you're probably out of luck, since the secdrv.sys service was removed entirely from that one. If you get a copy of Windows XP, you might be able to set it up in a virtual machine and run it that way.

It's a shame that this broke so many old games, some of which are no longer (or have never been) available digitally. It's good they made the OS more secure, I guess, but not being able to play old favorites like Battle for Middle Earth II is an unfortunate tradeoff to have to make.

[adz]

my favourite fps of all time is not on steam. its a game i played in year 2000 as a kid loved it when i was a kid now im 28 and still loving it, anyways i just wish that one day "soldier of fortune" will make its way to steam because i want all my games in one place.

i have sof 1 and 2 on gog and they are the only games on gog i want considering everything on gog that i want i own on steam.

i have been waiting years for it to come to steam!

[Alix]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von NS Plover:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Xila:

For Discworld games, they are abandonwares so easy to pick up.

Getting the Discworlds media is not my problem - I have the box media for all three - the second one is the most windows friendly. The first one is a struggle even with dosbox and the third has some sort of weird copy protection that died with windows xp... Unfortunately the third one (Discworld Noir) is my fav...

Well you have the box of an abanwonware game but you can't play it so...

I don't know if I'm allowed to do this but anyway if you're interested to play the third one (or contact me if the mods are not up with that):


(Deviation)

Download this to play Discworld Noir on W10 or anything above xp, (except for Vista which needs one more little file):

https://www.abandonware-france.org/telechargement/clic/http/70566/files/

It's an exe to install the game without garbage and it's just user friendly. You'll figure it's in French but you just have to put the folder where you want, easy.

Since the tweaks are made by French people, you have to replace some things.

I made that for you (well I promise that your computer won't explode if you download that):

{LINK ENTFERNT}http://www.mediafire.com/folder/xcx5zlwd89fjw/DiscWN

So go to the folder of the game, cd1 folder, erase "french.idx", "french.smp" and the text document "french" in it. Replace those files with the ones on disc1 in the mediafire download.

As for cd2 folder, erase the text document "french" and replace it by the english one in the disc2 mediafire folder.

In game, be careful: do not try to bypass the introduction, the game will crash.

Use F1 on the main menu for options, saves & loads. The only things which works on the main menu is the "New Game" button, everything else will crash. So just use the F1 button in the main menu.


Edit: well links like that are not allowed it seems. So anyway contact me if you're interested.

[Nino_Chaosdrache]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von ShelLuser:

I think people should be more careful about the stuff they're buying. Read the descriptions, check the hardware requirements and ensure you either have the right setup or that you know what you're doing to make it work.

And well... Windows 10 has severely enhanced backwards compatibility; Windows 95, 98, XP, Vista, 7 and 8 are all natively supported and can be specifically configured so...

It's always the main question.. is the game 'broke' or do the players simply lack the skills to make it work? A solid example (and personal experience) for me was Fallout 3. It had its issues but they were all well documented, and it was also relatively easy to figure out from experimenting (in short: it needed 'Gaming for Windows Live' to work; a now obsoleted toolkit). But despite it working like normal there are still plenty of players who consider it "broken". Each to their own I guess, but the fact works for me and so many others is a clear sign things aren't broke.

Which shouldn't even happen. If Steam sells something, they should make sure that the product works out of the box. Imagine going to an electronic store and 5 out of 10 fridges don't work immediately, you have to tinker with them yourself and the staff says:" Not my problem.". Would you go that store ever again?

[Χάρης]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Nino_Chaosdrache:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von ShelLuser:

I think people should be more careful about the stuff they're buying. Read the descriptions, check the hardware requirements and ensure you either have the right setup or that you know what you're doing to make it work.

And well... Windows 10 has severely enhanced backwards compatibility; Windows 95, 98, XP, Vista, 7 and 8 are all natively supported and can be specifically configured so...

It's always the main question.. is the game 'broke' or do the players simply lack the skills to make it work? A solid example (and personal experience) for me was Fallout 3. It had its issues but they were all well documented, and it was also relatively easy to figure out from experimenting (in short: it needed 'Gaming for Windows Live' to work; a now obsoleted toolkit). But despite it working like normal there are still plenty of players who consider it "broken". Each to their own I guess, but the fact works for me and so many others is a clear sign things aren't broke.

Which shouldn't even happen. If Steam sells something, they should make sure that the product works out of the box. Imagine going to an electronic store and 5 out of 10 fridges don't work immediately, you have to tinker with them yourself and the staff says:" Not my problem.". Would you go that store ever again?

Good point.

[Start_Running]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Nino_Chaosdrache:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von ShelLuser:

I think people should be more careful about the stuff they're buying. Read the descriptions, check the hardware requirements and ensure you either have the right setup or that you know what you're doing to make it work.

And well... Windows 10 has severely enhanced backwards compatibility; Windows 95, 98, XP, Vista, 7 and 8 are all natively supported and can be specifically configured so...

It's always the main question.. is the game 'broke' or do the players simply lack the skills to make it work? A solid example (and personal experience) for me was Fallout 3. It had its issues but they were all well documented, and it was also relatively easy to figure out from experimenting (in short: it needed 'Gaming for Windows Live' to work; a now obsoleted toolkit). But despite it working like normal there are still plenty of players who consider it "broken". Each to their own I guess, but the fact works for me and so many others is a clear sign things aren't broke.

Which shouldn't even happen. If Steam sells something, they should make sure that the product works out of the box.

FOr whom?
See there's the rthing. SOme users will have issues. Others will not. Such is the nature of PC gaming, I've only to date encountered one gam,e that didn't work out of the box.

Imagine going to an electronic store and 5 out of 10 fridges don't work immediately, you have to tinker with them yourself and the staff says:" Not my problem.". Would you go that store ever again?

Yes when you buy a fridge with an oyutlet socket, or voltage requirement that your pad can't handle you will need to tuinker. That's not the fridge's fault, that's you not paying attention to the fridge when you were buying.


PC gaming has pretty much *always* required some tweaking be done. Back in the old days it was tweaking your boot up to give you the needed conventional and hih memeroy slots needed. Or making sure you had the rightt hardware for the game's driver set.

[Χάρης]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Start_Running:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Nino_Chaosdrache:

Which shouldn't even happen. If Steam sells something, they should make sure that the product works out of the box.

FOr whom?
See there's the rthing. SOme users will have issues. Others will not. Such is the nature of PC gaming, I've only to date encountered one gam,e that didn't work out of the box.

Imagine going to an electronic store and 5 out of 10 fridges don't work immediately, you have to tinker with them yourself and the staff says:" Not my problem.". Would you go that store ever again?

Yes when you buy a fridge with an oyutlet socket, or voltage requirement that your pad can't handle you will need to tuinker. That's not the fridge's fault, that's you not paying attention to the fridge when you were buying.


PC gaming has pretty much *always* required some tweaking be done. Back in the old days it was tweaking your boot up to give you the needed conventional and hih memeroy slots needed. Or making sure you had the rightt hardware for the game's driver set.

PC gaming used to require tweaking because when you bought the disc of a 5 year old game, then you would have to look on the internet for patches/ fixes if necessary. But now everything is on steam. Games can be downloaded and updated right away. If someone has to look outside of steam for updates, then the dev is obviously lazy. And iirc devs are mods in their hubs, therefore they should be able to see threads and reviews that mention technical problems on a newer OS for example. Yet they don't do anything. Some people just don't care so they download some 3rd party software and make the game run, then claim " Game works fine for me ". Just like you are doing right now by saying that everyone should tinker by default.

But to avoid any confusion here - I am saying that it's the dev's fault, not Steam's.

[ShelLuser]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Nino_Chaosdrache:

Which shouldn't even happen. If Steam sells something, they should make sure that the product works out of the box.

Well, that's what they do. However, it works out of the box on Windows XP and wasn't optimized for later operating systems. That's not something Steam has any say in but Bethesda who are the ones that are actually selling the game.

Well... the store page leaves little to guess there.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Nino_Chaosdrache:

Imagine going to an electronic store and 5 out of 10 fridges don't work immediately, you have to tinker with them yourself and the staff says:" Not my problem.". Would you go that store ever again?

Wrong comparison.

Imagine going to the store and buying a pan that was specifically made for induction even though you cook electrical. It won't be ideal but can be made to work on electrical. The product description also mentions this: "this is meant for inducation usage".

So... the store is to blame for selling this to you because it won't work on your electrical stove "just like that"?

or.... should the purchaser have been more careful and been a little more observant as to what they were buying?

[El poco nuez del muerte]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Nino_Chaosdrache:

Which shouldn't even happen. If Steam sells something, they should make sure that the product works out of the box. Imagine going to an electronic store and 5 out of 10 fridges don't work immediately, you have to tinker with them yourself and the staff says:" Not my problem.". Would you go that store ever again?

The thing with these games is that usually they run just fine with no need for tinkering... on the correct hardware.

If you buy a fridge the store is not going to give a toss if you have outlets or not.

[Start_Running]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Χάρης:

PC gaming used to require tweaking because when you bought the disc of a 5 year old game, then you would have to look on the internet for patches/ fixes if necessary.

EVen when games were brand new you still had to do that

But now everything is on steam. Games can be downloaded and updated right away. If someone has to look outside of steam for updates, then the dev is obviously lazy.

Not really. The persons PC may just be an edgecase that requires a very specific patch or work around. Edgecases generally aren't worth fixing.

And iirc devs are mods in their hubs, therefore they should be able to see threads and reviews that mention technical problems on a newer OS for example.

And sometimes there's nothing to be done. If the new OS lacks a feature that is needed there's just nothing to be done. This is whjy games list the OSes they support in system requirements. If your OS isn't there.. then the devs m,ake no certification that it will work..

Yet they don't do anything. Some people just don't care so they download some 3rd party software and make the game run, then claim " Game works fine for me ". Just like you are doing right now by saying that everyone should tinker by default.

Again. Edgecases are edge cases. Tinkering has been a part of PC gaming since PC gaming was a thing.


That's the reality of developing and using a platyform that has such an insane level of component variance.

I am saying that it's the dev's fault, not Steam's.

It might not be anyone's fauylt. Devs don't always make the decisions. Devs work for publishers, and publishers may simply not see it as worth spending time and money to fix an edgecase problem.

[Χάρης]

I'm not talking about " edgecase " problems, talking about common problems. Such as multiple users mentioning that a game doesn't work at all on windows 10. Blood Omen 2 for example.

[Unn4m3d (♥AUT♥)]

For old(er) games I would honestly recommend to switch to GOG, they usually provide patches and/or additions you need to actually play the old games they have.

[Balls]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von IFIYGD:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Xila:

FO4 is an older game ? Damn.

Considering the pace at which technology moves, yes. almost 5 years is considered to be"old" these days. Technology outpaced it, and the game was never properly updated to play nice with newer tech in PCs. Hell, it can't recognize many 10 series NVIDIA cards. It rand fine on my old 740 GT (at lower settings), but won't run at all on my 2070 RTX Super, without me editing the ini. On a rig that is 11 months old.

"Old" is a subjective term. And FO4 is an outlier, a "newer" game that has issues that "older" games commonly have.

i agree

[Start_Running]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Χάρης:

I'm not talking about " edgecase " problems, talking about common problems. Such as multiple users mentioning that a game doesn't work at all on windows 10. Blood Omen 2 for example.

Did you read the system requirements fior that game?

OS: Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7

You'll notice that Windcows 10 isn't on that list.
What do you suppose that means?

[Χάρης]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Start_Running:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Χάρης:

I'm not talking about " edgecase " problems, talking about common problems. Such as multiple users mentioning that a game doesn't work at all on windows 10. Blood Omen 2 for example.

Did you read the system requirements fior that game?

OS: Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7

You'll notice that Windcows 10 isn't on that list.
What do you suppose that means?

It means that the devs are lazy. Half-Life only says Windows XP in its requirements, but works perfectly fine.