Activating Old Games On Steam

[CheifCommissar]

Hey I reacently got bored and started looking for old games that to play. I remembered that some games that I've got are on steam but they aren't on MY steam.

Some of the games are Sims 3, Spore, Fallout 3, Medieval II: Total War, Star Wars: Republic Commando, Age of Empires III, and the Godfather 2. I found all their cd keys using this https://sites.google.com/site/cakirbey/gamekeyrevealer. I lost most of the manuals and cases for the games a long time ago, plus that RegEdit thing is confusing.

Anyways I tried putting in the product codes into steam but all of them were rejected except for Medieval II. I figured it might've been because I had already installed the games on my computers so I couldn't like, reinstall them for steam but Medieval II was already installed and Steam accepted it. Anyone know what might be wrong?

[Lycairin]

I'm confused. are you saying you have games you bought that you own not via the Steam store or some games you bought in Steam in your library that used to be there are gone?

Which is it? Please do elaborate

[CheifCommissar]

I bought them before I got Steam and they never asked to install Steam, if I'm rememberin right.

[76561198180503978]

Armen

[Pheace]

Just because a game is also on Steam doesn't mean it's retail equivalent automatically also activates on Steam. Most of those games didn't.

[Lord Ptolemy]

If I'm following this correctly. You bought physical copies of some games. You now want to activate them on Steam?

No, that's not how it works. Some games can be activated on Steam, but the majority can't. You either get a physical copy that tells you that you need Steam in order to play it or buy it off of Steam. Else the chances of it being redeemable on Steam is low.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7480-wusf-3601
That's the list of retail games which can be activated on Steam.

[Splash Colour]

Originally posted by commissar280:

Hey I reacently got bored and started looking for old games that to play. I remembered that some games that I've got are on steam but they aren't on MY steam.

Some of the games are Sims 3, Spore, Fallout 3, Medieval II: Total War, Star Wars: Republic Commando, Age of Empires III, and the Godfather 2. I found all their cd keys using this https://sites.google.com/site/cakirbey/gamekeyrevealer. I lost most of the manuals and cases for the games a long time ago, plus that RegEdit thing is confusing.

Anyways I tried putting in the product codes into steam but all of them were rejected except for Medieval II. I figured it might've been because I had already installed the games on my computers so I couldn't like, reinstall them for steam but Medieval II was already installed and Steam accepted it. Anyone know what might be wrong?

Hello there,

jus to answer your question, there is only a selction of titles are are able to be redeemed on Steam, but as of today most games which can be redeemed mostly because they are from Steam, show a icon on the back or front saying you must have a steam account to activate etc.

[CheifCommissar]

Originally posted by | BP | Lord Ptolemy:

If I'm following this correctly. You bought physical copies of some games. You now want to activate them on Steam?

No, that's not how it works. Some games can be activated on Steam, but the majority can't. You either get a physical copy that tells you that you need Steam in order to play it or buy it off of Steam. Else the chances of it being redeemable on Steam is low.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7480-wusf-3601
That's the list of retail games which can be activated on Steam.

But Medieval II isn't on that list and Steam still accepted it

[MancSoulja]

Originally posted by commissar280:

Originally posted by | BP | Lord Ptolemy:

If I'm following this correctly. You bought physical copies of some games. You now want to activate them on Steam?

No, that's not how it works. Some games can be activated on Steam, but the majority can't. You either get a physical copy that tells you that you need Steam in order to play it or buy it off of Steam. Else the chances of it being redeemable on Steam is low.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7480-wusf-3601
That's the list of retail games which can be activated on Steam.

But Medieval II isn't on that list and Steam still accepted it

All the Total War games are SteamWorks titles. Steam is the only place on the PC you can play them. That is why they are not on the list

[DARDAR227]

Same problem here. I bought Sin Episodes years ago, I have the disk even a copy of an email from Steam confirming my purchase but it's in the wrong format. I tried installing the game and I'm asked to give a number that has never existed but I'm not buying a game that I own just for a new number, after all it's old anyway. I can't seem to contact a live human being in Steam and I don't have a decoder ring but I'm getting frustrated.

[Creep]

if you have an email from steam that you bought it there it is tied to a steam account.
no need for a key at all than.

the account you post from now never owned anything.
look at the account name in the email and recover your account.

[Ð.fèçţ ︎ ק.a. ☺]

You can add games that aren't from steam to the library if they aren't cracked versions...so whats the matter?