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?

[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.

[Crazy Tiger]

I play quite some old gems and I honestly rarely encounter such things. Usually the guides section, or the game discussion hub, have information on it.

It's also not a case of "devs can't fix it", it's more often a case of "A publisher has the rights and sells the game, when the actual developers don't exist anymore". People should do research before they purchase anything. It's logical that older games might need a tweak or two.

The games get sold because there are people who want to purchase them.

If they don't work, there is a report button on the store page.

[Niele]

funny thing, just look for the same game on GOG and 9 out of 10 it will be a better working version

[𝕙.𝕓𝕒𝕣𝕜𝕒𝕤]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Il Neromiele:

funny thing, just look for the same game on GOG and 9 out of 10 it will be a better working version

Exactly, if the game is also available on GOG I'll buy it there.

[Start_Running]

As an afficionado of classic games. I can't say I've run into this problem. Much. I mean there was Deadlock but that seems to have been the exception.

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Il Neromiele:

funny thing, just look for the same game on GOG and 9 out of 10 it will be a better working version

And more times than not they are literally the same versions. Funny how perception works.

[Crazy Tiger]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Il Neromiele:

funny thing, just look for the same game on GOG and 9 out of 10 it will be a better working version

That's because GoG purchases a license to modify the games to work on modern systems. In that case it's not the same version on Steam and GoG.

The ones that are the same, however, are either:
- Versions where GoG didn't purchase the license and the publisher simply sells the game as-is;
- GoG versions that get sold on Steam, which the publishers negotiated to make possible.

[IFIYGD]

I haven't run into the issue much, even with Windows 10 issues now. Usually compatibility mode lets me play games made for older versions of Windows, w/o issue. though a few do require some settings tweaks in machine settings or the NVIDIA Control Panel, sometimes an edit in ini files. Not all older games can recognize an RTX 20 series card... *looking at you FO4*, Sometimes use of a trusted mod that fixes compatibility issues is needed, but only rarely.

[Alix]

FO4 is an older game ? Damn.


Oh and if you want my opinion OP, people who complain should just buy a console.

[IFIYGD]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από 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.

[NS Plover]

My old gems that came to steam work perfectly : https://store.steampowered.com/app/704860/Keepsake/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/46550/Post_Mortem/

I doubt that you could find a console and media for them now - so "buy a console" might not be a good answer. I'd love to have a console that would play the three Discworld games - but I don't think I'll find it or the games on console - unfortunately they're not on steam either...

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Il Neromiele:

funny thing, just look for the same game on GOG and 9 out of 10 it will be a better working version

Yeah, Steam tries to just be "oh, here's a platform to sell stuff, later" while GOG at least for some products (especially old ones) works on patching stuff to make stuff work. (GOG used to offer a refund policy that depended on getting stuff to work, though they recently changed that to just 30 days no questions asked.)

What Crazy Tiger said seems most plausible:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Crazy Tiger:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Il Neromiele:

funny thing, just look for the same game on GOG and 9 out of 10 it will be a better working version

That's because GoG purchases a license to modify the games to work on modern systems. In that case it's not the same version on Steam and GoG.

The ones that are the same, however, are either:
- Versions where GoG didn't purchase the license and the publisher simply sells the game as-is;
- GoG versions that get sold on Steam, which the publishers negotiated to make possible.

In short it'd depend on the exact licensing terms. Kinda unfortunate that official channels have to deal with licensing issues while unofficial channels don't, like fans can just make patches for stuff.

[Alix]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από NS Plover:

I doubt that you could find a console and media for them now - so "buy a console" might not be a good answer. I'd love to have a console that would play the three Discworld games - but I don't think I'll find it or the games on console - unfortunately they're not on steam either...

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


I just roughly hinted that this state was and still is common in PC gaming and hardware - that's why, at least for my point of view of stupid man, (most of) "the game doesn't work people" just should buy a Switch or something if they don't want to paddle with tweaks / mods / unofficial patches when the game seriously requires those tools.
I mean, who thinks it'll be a good journey to launch VTM - Bloodlines, Arcanum and plenty of other titles on vanilla ?

[Amygdala]

What games in particular? Except for games that were broken from the start like VtMB and GTA4 (both amazing though), stuff like Soul Reaver, Thief Gold, Deus Ex, The Longest Journey, all run fine for me, even Arcanum runs fine on modern PCs vanilla

[NS Plover]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Xila:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από NS Plover:

I doubt that you could find a console and media for them now - so "buy a console" might not be a good answer. I'd love to have a console that would play the three Discworld games - but I don't think I'll find it or the games on console - unfortunately they're not on steam either...

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...

[Falro the Great]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από NS Plover:

My old gems that came to steam work perfectly : https://store.steampowered.com/app/704860/Keepsake/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/46550/Post_Mortem/

I doubt that you could find a console and media for them now - so "buy a console" might not be a good answer. I'd love to have a console that would play the three Discworld games - but I don't think I'll find it or the games on console - unfortunately they're not on steam either...

Well, for Keepsake and Post Mortem, I doubt that you could find a console and disc for them either, since they were PC-only
For the Discworld games, you can pick up a used/refurbished PlayStation 1 at probably any retro video game store (you'd be surprised at how common they are), and they seem to be pretty common on eBay (though rather expensive).