The day I lost all my games to DRM

[CYZLAK]

Story time. I've been here a long time. Since day 1, you could say. It was 2004. I bought Half-Life 2 near enough to release day. I bought the Gordon box art, in case you were wondering. Anyway, amongst other things, on the discs came Counter-Strike: Source, and Steam. I wasn't really interested in Steam at first, I was focused on performance and didn't want it "hogging all my memory" because I had to keep it open to play. Anyway, I sucked it up when they introduced friends lists, because I could spam memes to friends as I head shot them in-game, and all was well.

Fast forward to today. Through a friend, an old computer from 2003 falls into my lap. I spent some time thinking for a use case, and retro being a thing now, researched the hardware/software used during it's era, turns out Windows XP was the way to go. So I got myself an era appropriate beastly Geforce 6800 GT, and got to work. Oh the nostalgia!

This is when the ugly face of DRM raised up and made itself known to me. You see, Half-Life 2 came out in 2004. I was using Steam. Steam got known for crazy sales early on. Games like FEAR, STALKER, absolutely heaps of other games started releasing. We all had broadband by then, so could download a game overnight. And I was young with a disposable income. Practically all of my Windows XP era games are in my Steam library. And guess what? Steam doesn't "support" Windows XP anymore. Well I mean, you can go and find an old version of the Steam client and Steam installs just fine on XP, but then you have to log in. Apparently they turned off the Steam login servers for XP some years ago. Why? Who knows really. End of the day, the cruel fact that all of my games are locked behind a login screen, even if i burn backups to CD, is the grim reality I now face.

Steam feels more like a rental service now more than than ever. You just don't think about this when you're always on the latest and greatest Operating System. How can you believe you "own" of of the games you spend your hard earned money on? One day this could happen to you, login server disabled or fails, being the specific DRM that Steam uses, and you can say goodbye to everything. Almost 20 years worth of game purchases. Astounding.

If anyone knows a way around this, please let me know, I don't know if these forums have PMs as I rarely have stories like this, but if they do, hit me up. The only thing I can think of, is dual boot to Steam OS. I found out SteamOS supports really old hardware, like Pentium 4 era hardware, which as it turns out, is early Windows XP era. But I don't know the first thing about installing SteamOS on a PC, so more research needed there.

Have fun with your Steam games everyone, but just remember: you don't own them!

[Zac Starfire]

I have a old version of Magic the Gathering that I liked back in the day.

I run it on Windows Hyper-V running Windows 7 because of the older screen resolutions (~800x600) and just play it in a window using Remote Desktop. I tried Oracle VirtualBox, which works too, but the sound didn't work right, so I switched to the Microsoft product.

You can install Hyper-V on Windows 10 and 11 as one of the options - it's free and built into Windows platform. All you need is a install of Windows XP or what ever you need to run, even Linux.

Just google for the instructions and find the checkbox option that installs it in the settings.

I don't know for sure, but SteamOS may work on Hyper-V as well.

https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown

[Rotan]

as much as I miss windows xp and hated win 10 (and yes I lost the ability to play many games) that was many many years ago and most games run on windows 10. I now have windows 11 (I was afraid the same thing would happen) It didnt and all my games have so far worked on windows 11. Have only ran into an issue with a game called ashen empires

[Satoru]

"Lost all my games"

Even just glancing at your library almost none of your games will run on XP

[davidb11]

What? Dude, Windows XP died over a decade ago.
No one uses it any more.

Don't complain about it not being supported.

[WhiteKnight]

Първоначално публикувано от 𓅂 Zac Starfire 𓅂:

I have a old version of Magic the Gathering that I liked back in the day.

I run it on Windows Hyper-V running Windows 7 because of the older screen resolutions (~800x600) and just play it in a window using Remote Desktop. I tried Oracle VirtualBox, which works too, but the sound didn't work right, so I switched to the Microsoft product.

You can install Hyper-V on Windows 10 and 11 as one of the options - it's free and built into Windows platform. All you need is a install of Windows XP or what ever you need to run, even Linux.

Just google for the instructions and find the checkbox option that installs it in the settings.

I don't know for sure, but SteamOS may work on Hyper-V as well.

https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/buildyourown

That's an extremely outdated OS. They haven't officially released a new OS yet. Better to get POP OS or Ubuntu.

[Zac Starfire]

Първоначално публикувано от WhiteKnight:

That's an extremely outdated OS. They haven't officially released a new OS yet. Better to get POP OS or Ubuntu.

It doesn't matter how old the OS is, you can virtualize it in HyperV or VirtualBox any OS - even old-school DOS, you just need the install files.

Virtualization enables the hardware resources of a single computer—processors, memory, storage and more—to be divided into multiple virtual computers, called virtual machines (VMs). - Google

[petran79]

If the computer hardware is too outdated to upgrade to newer Windows, though with 2003 hardware I'd upgrade only so far as Windows 7, you can add a patched Steam dll in every game's library so it will skip Steam client and run on its own.
Or you could download DRM free GOG version of the games or resort to other methods not fit for discussion here.
It is just that you will not have the Steam online interaction and achievements anymore.

But this is not an issue just with 20 year old PCs
Windows 11 issues warning messages in case you have a processor not supported by the system and it is very likely Microsoft may not support that system at all in future updates. Better resort to Linux or other Windows variants like Revios.

[Start_Running]

OP. EVery game you've named runs fine on Windows 7, heck they run pbetter on windows 7 than they do xop in most cases. So why you be fixating on XP?

[RasaNova]

Първоначално публикувано от 𓅂 Zac Starfire 𓅂:

I have a old version of Magic the Gathering that I liked back in the day.

Wow if that's the one I'm thinking of from the 90s where you had to run around a map doing quests and collecting cards... I loved that game! (Flawed as it was)

I remember trying to get it to run in Win98 and giving up. Now have to find the CD and try again doing what you did...

[davidb11]

Първоначално публикувано от RasaNova:

Първоначално публикувано от 𓅂 Zac Starfire 𓅂:

I have a old version of Magic the Gathering that I liked back in the day.

Wow if that's the one I'm thinking of from the 90s where you had to run around a map doing quests and collecting cards... I loved that game! (Flawed as it was)

I remember trying to get it to run in Win98 and giving up. Now have to find the CD and try again doing what you did...

Shadalar? Yeah.
IT's great.
THere's an updated version of it that works better even on modern systems, with newer cards.
But that's hard to find now.

[Start_Running]

Първоначално публикувано от davidb11:

Първоначално публикувано от RasaNova:

Wow if that's the one I'm thinking of from the 90s where you had to run around a map doing quests and collecting cards... I loved that game! (Flawed as it was)

I remember trying to get it to run in Win98 and giving up. Now have to find the CD and try again doing what you did...

Shadalar? Yeah.
IT's great.
THere's an updated version of it that works better even on modern systems, with newer cards.
But that's hard to find now.

I remember that game. best MTG game ever.
And I can confirm it works on 98, XP, and W7.
Takes a little work but yeah what else is new for retro lovers.

[Komarimaru]

Smells like troll bait and point farming, none of the games they own would run on Windows XP.

[Komarimaru]

Първоначално публикувано от Eiswolfin:

Първоначално публикувано от Komarimaru:

Smells like troll bait and point farming, none of the games they own would run on Windows XP.

These games in his library all ran on Windows XP:
- Half Life 2
- Counter Strike Source
- Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
- Deus Ex Human Revolution
- Test Drive Unlimited
- Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
- Saints Row the Third
- Tomb Raider
- Saints Row 2
- Dark Souls Prepare to die edition
- Tomb Raider Anniversary
- Cities Skyines
- Grand Theft Auto 4
- Final Fantasy VIII
- Dead Island
- Terraria
- The Longest Journey
- System Shock 2
-----

Ok there are a lot more on his games list that I didn't go through. this is enough to show that your comment is wrong.

heck, just looking at some of the games I listed, didn't look at all of them, they even show Windows XP as minimum requirement on Steam, like Half Life 2, Dark Messiah, Terrarria.

Yes, but due to when they unlocked said achievements for some of them, Windows XP wasn't even a thing. Most moved onto Windows 7 rather rapidly in 2009, especially after the service pack.

And quite a few games you listed, they never even played once. Just saying.

If ya gonna come be a white knight, try and not skim the top.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Първоначално публикувано от petran79:

But this is not an issue just with 20 year old PCs
Windows 11 issues warning messages in case you have a processor not supported by the system and it is very likely Microsoft may not support that system at all in future updates. Better resort to Linux or other Windows variants like Revios.

They dont just give a warning if a cpu is not "supporting the system".
They try to make people throw away hardware that very well can run the system.

I dont know the english description for that. But it is something someone is responsible for.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Maybe it was meant "none of them only run on xp"