Potential CD/DVD Game install WITHOUT Steam

[Wash]

Okay, so, to put a long story short, I have had a physical game collection for a while now, my first game that got me a Steam account was Empire Total War, got it on physical and the install button for the game, actually installed Steam and allowed me to install the game using a Steam key from there. These games do allow install from the disc itself as it was the norm at the time.

Now, the wrinkle is that I had been working on a retro computing system for some time, Windows XP era specifically, and I was wanting to run some of the older games I have on here, such as Half Life 2 GOTY Edition, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (original version) and the aforementioned Empire Total War. All of these games install steam rather than the game itself, but they do contain the game files.

So to put it short, I have been wanting to find a way to be able to install the game itself, just the files in the disc itself like it was a normal steam-free install. Since Steam is no longer supported for Windows XP, it makes it a touch hard to install.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Game installs on discs are up to the developer/publishers of said games.

[Brian9824]

Install to another computer and make a backup of the game and burn it to a dvd. However if it needs steam to run there is no way to circumvent it

[JacquesPatat]

the problem is that the developers wanted to make use of steam as a DRM, so bypassing it defeats the point of it. maybe a virtual machine or something. or else you can look at getting the game or games off GOG but of course that depends on the game of course

[Wash]

Originally posted by JacquesPatat:

the problem is that the developers wanted to make use of steam as a DRM, so bypassing it defeats the point of it. maybe a virtual machine or something. or else you can look at getting the game or games off GOG but of course that depends on the game of course

GOG is around as an alternative, sure, but my main problem is that I have several physical games which require use of Steam, which is impossible to do on an older operating system. The hope was a method to install the games that allowed Windows XP.

I suppose installing the game from one drive and transferring to another could work, but I much prefer a direct install from the disc, if such a possibility exists.

[Brian9824]

Installing from disc is basically pointless because the games would need further updates anyways

[Wash]

Originally posted by Brian9824:

Installing from disc is basically pointless because the games would need further updates anyways

Well, for many of these games, it was- believe it or not, quite playable at release, with certain exceptions.

Now, yeah that means the game wouldn't be updated to the newest version it had, but I would be perfectly happy with that as long as it was working, I just want to be able to install the game on a retro machine with the physical disc, or at the very least, try.

[Tristin]

I'm sure there are similar projects, if you look online. But most of them probably are approaching it as offline Steam(old ver if newer OS) setup, and on newer OS.

As many others mentioned, doing a CD/DVD with Steam is probably not the best approach, unless the game itself is DRM-free.

You could incorporate mix of adding DRM-free and non DRM-free games to Steam offline launcher. Burn each game as offline-Steam-launcher install game after all the updates are downloaded (this part is going to be more technical, but possible. also mind license legality). For older games, you will need to link it to a virtual machine run or such.

Compatibility is always going to be an issue, and you'll have more availability sticking to a newer OS, that can run virtual machine for old games.

[Draconic NEO]

Originally posted by Brian9824:

Install to another computer and make a backup of the game and burn it to a dvd. However if it needs steam to run there is no way to circumvent it

There are ways to circumvent it in some cases if there isn't external DRM, but it is less than straightforward and I won't discuss methodology or resources here.

[QuTonYa]

What if one wants to just have the game as is on the day u burn it onto the dvd? And install it onto a computer that does not have steam installed, but instead would need the dvd to launch the game. How would one go about this? Like would the best option be to download the game from a website instead of steam/epicgames/xbox?

[Hikari Light]

Originally posted by QuTonYa:

What if one wants to just have the game as is on the day u burn it onto the dvd? And install it onto a computer that does not have steam installed, but instead would need the dvd to launch the game. How would one go about this? Like would the best option be to download the game from a website instead of steam/epicgames/xbox?

If you attempt to burn a copy to a disk, that would immediately become a pirated copy.

Remember, when you buy a game, you are buying a single license.
This means you are only allowed a single copy per license.

[Ben Lubar]

Originally posted by HikariLight:

Originally posted by QuTonYa:

What if one wants to just have the game as is on the day u burn it onto the dvd? And install it onto a computer that does not have steam installed, but instead would need the dvd to launch the game. How would one go about this? Like would the best option be to download the game from a website instead of steam/epicgames/xbox?

If you attempt to burn a copy to a disk, that would immediately become a pirated copy.

Remember, when you buy a game, you are buying a single license.
This means you are only allowed a single copy per license.

If the game's files were obtained through legitimate means and you're not trying to sell them, that's not piracy.

There's not some magic property of circles that makes it piracy when you put a game's downloaded files onto a circular piece of storage media that doesn't happen when you put it on a hard drive or SSD.

Steam allows you to download games you purchased an unlimited number of times. Each time you download something, that's "making a copy". Copying with permission is not piracy.

[Hikari Light]

Originally posted by Ben Lubar:

Originally posted by HikariLight:

If you attempt to burn a copy to a disk, that would immediately become a pirated copy.

Remember, when you buy a game, you are buying a single license.
This means you are only allowed a single copy per license.

If the game's files were obtained through legitimate means and you're not trying to sell them, that's not piracy.

There's not some magic property of circles that makes it piracy when you put a game's downloaded files onto a circular piece of storage media that doesn't happen when you put it on a hard drive or SSD.

Steam allows you to download games you purchased an unlimited number of times. Each time you download something, that's "making a copy". Copying with permission is not piracy.

When you burn a copy of a game you only have a license for a digital copy of, it is infact piracy.

And when you redownload the game, it isn't a copy, it is the exact same files you had before.
It is also files you have a license for.

When you burn a copy of a digital only game to a disk, that is an illegal copy of the game as you do not have a license for a physical copy.

This also works in reverse.
If you have a physical only copy of a game, if you make a digital copy, that digital copy is a pirated copy as you only purchased a license for a physical copy.

[Angry Old Man]

Originally posted by QuTonYa:

What if one wants to just have the game as is on the day u burn it onto the dvd? And install it onto a computer that does not have steam installed, but instead would need the dvd to launch the game. How would one go about this? Like would the best option be to download the game from a website instead of steam/epicgames/xbox?

There would be no way to do this. If the developer did not release their game on disc without steam then there is no way to burn a copy that doesn't use steam.

[Fall2YrDoom]

yes their is, if you know you know, if not ha

[Vaulty]

Install game on your "normal" pc -> Use steam's 'Backup game files' -> Move that file(s) to disk -> Use it to install on your winxp pc


It does require steam on your winxp, however it should work if you dont connect the winxp pc to internet and have old steam installation version which still supports winxp