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!

[Komarimaru]

引用自 Eiswolfin：

引用自 Komarimaru：

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.

lol, you just said a bunch of stuff without actually saying anything at all. WHen they unlocked achievements, whether they played the games are not, and whether developers moved onto Windows 7 for games they made after the ones l listed, none of that is relevant to the comment you made

You said this

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

If you are going to make such a claim, make sure you actually look at the games in the library first. You literally stated that none of the game would run on Windows XP, and I have proven you wrong by showing you a sample list of games from his library that would run on Windows XP, I even gave you some games that even literally stated Windows XP in the system requirements on the Steam store page for the game.

Very well, I'll correct my statement. None of the game they own, they played during XP's prominence, or haven't played at all, so a useless troll like you are.

[CYZLAK]

So I come back to people going through all my games and calling me troll? It's something real that happened to me last weekend. They never had friends lists or achievements back then guys, features were added separately while steam had been up for a while. It's all true. I'm not even sure they tracked game time back then.

[CYZLAK]

引用自 Eagle_of_Fire：

Correct me if I'm wrong... But Steam does have a backup feature. Can't you just backup a game you install on your normal gaming PC then bring that image to the old Windows XP computer?

Also, not like I want to be that guy but... If you want to get into retro then you know you're going to hit artificial walls like these. You need both the hardware and the media used way back when if you want this to work correctly...

Yeah this is where I started. You can back up but need to login to steam, then put it in offline mode, then restore game. Can't even log in anymore.

The part that doesn't make sense is they don't even need to "support" XP. Just quietly put the XP login servers back up so we can access our game libraries.


Also for those of you who don't get it: It's not about the games not working on win10/11, though some don't. As you get older it's fun to go back and play the games how you did originally. On XP using a CRT screen. Just a bit of Retro fun. But Valve says no, you can't use your own games you paid for, to do that. Have to play on their terms or jump through hoops. That's the DRM. Those saying unsecure OS, just update to 7 etc etc, are missing the point.

I'll try steamOS, but honestly I'm just looking for boxed copies of the classics, thankfully prices of Retro pc games didn't go through the roof like console games have. Thanks Valve for making me rebuy my games. Upon reflection, I should have never bought digital, it was just they made it too convenient.

[Muppet among Puppets]

引用自 Nomad：

I'm not even sure they tracked game time back then.

I have the impression that started around 2009 or so.
Seems to be the case.

[Start_Running]

引用自 Nomad：

Also for those of you who don't get it: It's not about the games not working on win10/11, though some don't. As you get older it's fun to go back and play the games how you did originally. On XP using a CRT screen.

Then just run XP in a VM.
Or Set the run option to windows XP.

引用自 Nomad：

Just a bit of Retro fun. But Valve says no, you can't use your own games you paid for, to do that.

Yeah. You can't expect Valve to support ancient bugged software or hardware indefinately. It's basically not a matter of you losing any games. You're just miffed you can't use your games ina very specific and very niche way.

引用自 Nomad：

Have to play on their terms or jump through hoops. That's the DRM. Those saying unsecure OS, just update to 7 etc etc, are missing the point.

Not really. Valve and every other service opretty mucgh does not claim they will support any given platform indefinatelly I mean you wanna get that retro vibe. FIne but you're gonna have to work for it untill XPBox or WinBox is a thing.

[Walach]

I believe that if something like a game only runs on operative systems that's no longer working with the client that they are on, then they should be patched to not need to use the client anymore. Seems like the decent thing to do. Like how people at Valve said that if Steam vanish, then they'd make it so people would still be able to play their games.

[RasaNova]

引用自 Nomad：

Also for those of you who don't get it: It's not about the games not working on win10/11, though some don't. As you get older it's fun to go back and play the games how you did originally. On XP using a CRT screen. Just a bit of Retro fun. But Valve says no, you can't use your own games you paid for, to do that. Have to play on their terms or jump through hoops. That's the DRM. Those saying unsecure OS, just update to 7 etc etc, are missing the point.

I'm probably one of the ones that doesn't get it. Because it seems like the situation isn't quite as bad as you describe - you didn't lose all your games, they are still there, accessible and waiting to be played. But if you want to play them in XP, you may need to figure out a workaround (which it looks like there have been some suggestions.) This does not seem at all unusual, in software or tech in general. Valve probably didn't think it was worth it to maintain infrastructure for such a small number of users. Am I reading it wrong?

[Start_Running]

引用自 Walach：

I believe that if something like a game only runs on operative systems that's no longer working with the client that they are on, then they should be patched to not need to use the client anymore. Seems like the decent thing to do. Like how people at Valve said that if Steam vanish, then they'd make it so people would still be able to play their games.

Yeah but that's not how that can work. Since there are plenty of Windows 98 games as well.
And its not like those games don't run on the newer windows versions either.

[IFIYGD]

引用自 Nomad：

So I come back to people going through all my games and calling me troll? It's something real that happened to me last weekend. They never had friends lists or achievements back then guys, features were added separately while steam had been up for a while. It's all true. I'm not even sure they tracked game time back then.

Steam added achievements with the release of The Orange Box, in October of 2007. HL:2 and TF2 were 2 of the games that were the first to get Steam achievements. Timestamps reportedly were added sometime in mid-late 2008. I have seen one screenshot shared on reddit for an achievement in L4D2 with an unlock date of October 10, 2007- a game that did not release until 2009- so that one's hard to verify since photoshopping is a thing.

Nope. I don't want to or need to look at your list of games or the time stamps on your achievements. But I will say that Steam Achievements and timestamps were added to the Client well before Steam dropped support for Windows XP- well before.

[Der Kaiser]

引用自 Nomad：

Also for those of you who don't get it: It's not about the games not working on win10/11, though some don't. As you get older it's fun to go back and play the games how you did originally. On XP using a CRT screen.

"I'll try steamOS"

Those contradict each other completely. You want the retro feel of playing on Windows XP and dont want to play on a modern OS but your solution is to install the Linux based Steam OS that is only a few years old.

How does that make any sense?

[Komarimaru]

引用自 Nomad：

So I come back to people going through all my games and calling me troll? It's something real that happened to me last weekend. They never had friends lists or achievements back then guys, features were added separately while steam had been up for a while. It's all true. I'm not even sure they tracked game time back then.

Yes, you're trolling. I've been on Steam just as long as you. They had them back then since 2008'ish. Tons added in 2009/2010.

引用自 Nomad：

引用自 Eagle_of_Fire：

Correct me if I'm wrong... But Steam does have a backup feature. Can't you just backup a game you install on your normal gaming PC then bring that image to the old Windows XP computer?

Also, not like I want to be that guy but... If you want to get into retro then you know you're going to hit artificial walls like these. You need both the hardware and the media used way back when if you want this to work correctly...

Yeah this is where I started. You can back up but need to login to steam, then put it in offline mode, then restore game. Can't even log in anymore.

The part that doesn't make sense is they don't even need to "support" XP. Just quietly put the XP login servers back up so we can access our game libraries.


Also for those of you who don't get it: It's not about the games not working on win10/11, though some don't. As you get older it's fun to go back and play the games how you did originally. On XP using a CRT screen. Just a bit of Retro fun. But Valve says no, you can't use your own games you paid for, to do that. Have to play on their terms or jump through hoops. That's the DRM. Those saying unsecure OS, just update to 7 etc etc, are missing the point.

I'll try steamOS, but honestly I'm just looking for boxed copies of the classics, thankfully prices of Retro pc games didn't go through the roof like console games have. Thanks Valve for making me rebuy my games. Upon reflection, I should have never bought digital, it was just they made it too convenient.

If you want to experience a retro rig, then build a retro rig. I've yet to encounter a game that's on Steam that won't run on Windows 10/11 etc, only games that used SafeDisc/Securom. And even with the latter, easily fixed.

I've a Sony Trinitron that weighs more than myself for a CRT, I've 3 Retro Rigs. So yes, I know wanting to experience the nostalgia, but that's reserved for non Steam Games.

They will never support an XP Login, since XP can't even connect anymore.

[Dr. Death]

Jesus christ i cant believe people here dont understand the obvious problem here...

The issue isn't asking for steam to support XP forever. The issue is that you cant use steam permanently for your hardware/software even if it used to work fine at one point.

I wonder if with Linux the same issue would even exist since you can just reuse old libraries to make games run.

[Satoru]

引用自 Dr. Death：

Jesus christ i cant believe people here dont understand the obvious problem here...

The issue isn't asking for steam to support XP forever. The issue is that you cant use steam permanently for your hardware/software even if it used to work fine at one point.

That's sort of amusing when you consider that any day now Apple will basically destroy every Apple game on Steam once Rosetta2 is deprecated because the 'transition is over'

Lets also ignore the fact that Intel is far more likely to break your game than your OS is, given the fact that nearly ever new generation of Intel CPUs seems to break various games for no reason.

I wonder if with Linux the same issue would even exist since you can just reuse old libraries to make games run.

Maybe you forgot that whole thing where Ubuntu was going to kill pretty much 50% of all steam games by getting rid of 32 bit binaries?

[Crashed]

引用自 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 the legacy SteamOS, you'll want SteamOS 3.x which is the Steam Deck OS.

Also note that Hyper-V on Client SKUs doesn't support GPU acceleration to the best of my knowledge; I use it to run server OSes that usually run headless.

[Crashed]

By the way most websites now (including the Store section of Steam) require TLS 1.2 which Windows XP doesn't have, and most XP-compatible browsers may not have up to date root certificates necessary to connect to secure websites.