Save Win 98 or We sue Valve

[RealEgg]

I have been running windows 98 like many for 10+ years and have a massive catalog of games that listed support for windows 98 at the time of purchase. If you as a platform choose to Brick my steam install and prevent me from ever playing my games again you can expect another class action lawsuit demanding entire account based refunds. but hey maybe that will be cheaper than maintaining a legacy version of your product you've build a monopoly out of.

PSA: Anyone who thinks Windows 98 is actually dead just go head on over to the Win-raid forums before claiming my argument is invalid. Plenty of people been doing gods work maintaining the OS for modern hardware and plenty of die hard users.

EDIT: Valve Also Still advertises games that put Windows 98 in the specs to run the game, If you want to benefit from the marketing of Windows 98 in 2023 u cannot also discontinue it the same year. That's the same reason why warranties exist otherwise company's would make their products less durable to die well within a year. So I don't care what the TOS says no one can be realistically expected to read it all anyways and a court could totally side against valve on this.

[RealEgg]

Yes, this is a joke parody thread.

[Omega]

I stopped using Steam when Netscape would no longer load the index page.

No idea why Valve keeps insisting on breaking compatibility with stuff which works.

Come on Valve! Netscape still has lots of users!

Even worse you also broke compatibility with Internet Explorer! I am never switching to Firefox or Chrome! I am not switching ever again!

[emoticorpse]

Well, you can theme win10 to look like the old oses?

[Omega]

Opprinnelig skrevet av emoticorpse:

Well, you can theme win10 to look like the old oses?

I refuse to use Windows NT bloat, DOS is the superior OS.

[emoticorpse]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Omega:

Opprinnelig skrevet av emoticorpse:

Well, you can theme win10 to look like the old oses?

I refuse to use Windows NT bloat, DOS is the superior OS.

Well, you can theme dos to look like win 11 lol

[Omega]

Opprinnelig skrevet av emoticorpse:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Omega:

I refuse to use Windows NT bloat, DOS is the superior OS.

Well, you can theme dos to look like win 11 lol

I am switching to FreeDOS and will play my copy of DUNE 2 until the end of time.

[emoticorpse]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Omega:

Opprinnelig skrevet av emoticorpse:

Well, you can theme dos to look like win 11 lol

I am switching to FreeDOS and will play my copy of DUNE 2 until the end of time.

It is crazy now that I think about it. What Steam hasb inadvertently done is like made people believe that they do own games, and really only pc gamers right?

I don't remember ever seeing console gamers complaining like this, but I dont talk to them much either.

[Omega]

Opprinnelig skrevet av emoticorpse:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Omega:

I am switching to FreeDOS and will play my copy of DUNE 2 until the end of time.

It is crazy now that I think about it. What Steam hasb inadvertently done is like made people believe that they do own games, and really only pc gamers right?

I don't remember ever seeing console gamers complaining like this, but I dont talk to them much either.

Console gamers are the people who demand platform exclusivity and game subscription services all the while believing it to be in their benefit.

[Agent]

Games are poorly optimised. I should be getting 200 fps at 1440p on a GTX 960.

[emoticorpse]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Omega:

Opprinnelig skrevet av emoticorpse:

It is crazy now that I think about it. What Steam hasb inadvertently done is like made people believe that they do own games, and really only pc gamers right?

I don't remember ever seeing console gamers complaining like this, but I dont talk to them much either.

Console gamers are the people who demand platform exclusivity and game subscription services all the while believing it to be in their benefit.

You're probably right.

[xSOSxHawkens]

Opprinnelig skrevet av MarketBag177:

Yes, this is a joke parody thread.

You can say its a joke parody thread, but frankly everything in your post is true and valve probably should be sued.

The arguments against supporting a *basic* non-social, non-store, DRM-Check-Only client for game installs on older OS's is frankly bunk and BS. There are other software products (very few, but there are) which do just this, or in other ways still support 9x through Windows 8.1. For a company the size of steam to refuse to on technical grounds for something basic like this is just a guise for "we dont want to spend any time or money on it"...

Which would be fine, I get it, they dont want to support it...

But they (themselves) sold software that ran on said OS. Most still works fine on modern OS's but there are examples (even if singular) of ones which do not, or do not play well in emulation either. There are the rare titles where original hardware is really the only real way to get the experience (for the first time, or again).

On top of that, in modern times, Valve has made the choice to *market* and *sell* many antiquated peices of software and *then* lock that software behind modern Steam DRM *without* doing any of the work needed to get the software to run in a modern OS.

To the purchaser this is a lose lose. They cannot install the software on the OS it runs on because of Valve DRM. And they cant run the software on the OS Steam will work on because Valve has been too lazy to either implement themselves, or demand implementation as a condition of listing, that the software be functional on main OS installs.

Then, they every few years cut more users off.

Personally - It has already impacted me. I have titles from XP era that take more work arounds than is worth on Steam, and for which I have acquired backup copies that are DRM free to use without issue. I was one of the few excited users when Steam began listing older legacy titles and quickly bought a few. Bad choice. The few I have on steam are a nightmare to get working and configured because of no reason other than steam. Since then legacy titles are purchases from GOG, which takes the time to ensure every game they list works with modern OS's including putting work into re-code if they need to.

Steam is shady AF and screws the consumer on this front hard. The reasons to support them treating users like this are both out numbered and out weighed by the users experience and cost (vs what would be the real world impact to steam to fix), and yet some people still argue steam should treat users and legacy software this way. Steam has the time, the money, *AND* the resources to make all of the above non-issues for all consumers.

Steam just doesn't care about those consumers. They also seem not to care much about software history or compatibility outside of turning a buck on it, provided they can control it.

To those, like myself, take your money elsewhere. Steam is a hard second now for me and has been for years. If I can find it on another launcher I take my money there. And the above are some of the reasons why.

[xSOSxHawkens]

Opprinnelig skrevet av emoticorpse:

I don't remember ever seeing console gamers complaining like this, but I dont talk to them much either.

Thats because Nintendo will never be able to tell (or more precisely enforce) a license holder of Golden Eye that they can no longer use their paid-for-game-licence to play said game on the N64 it was made to run on.

But Valve does and is able to tell and enforce that a license user of Half Life 1 can no longer use their paid-for-game-license to play said game on the Pentium 3 machine that was built to run the game.

So yeh... You dont hear about it on consoles because (at least all but the most recent) consoles simply dont have that issue...

But you are starting to see it on consoles too, just more so with media at the moment. Look at Sony and the recent content purge of TV shows people "purchased". With consoles going disc-less its just a matter of time for them too.

But at least for now, and historically in the past, this is pretty solidly a PC issue.

Edit: just to be clear, consoles have their own host of special issues. While they may be able to play GE on the N64, thats all they can play it on (legally). The whole lack of forward compatibility and such. And mostly lack of backwards too. But the worry about a game not working on the platform it was made for is pretty much non-applicable to a console.

[Lord Flashheart]

Windows 98 peasant. The OP should bite the bullet and upgrade XP.

[Omega]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Lord Flashheart:

Windows 98 peasant. The OP should bite the bullet and upgrade XP.

Nothing wrong with Windows 98. All those people whining about security issues do not know what they are talking about, the biggest weakness in any system is the user.

[Watermelon {JESUS IS LORD}]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Omega:

I stopped using Steam when Netscape would no longer load the index page.

No idea why Valve keeps insisting on breaking compatibility with stuff which works.

Come on Valve! Netscape still has lots of users!

Even worse you also broke compatibility with Internet Explorer! I am never switching to Firefox or Chrome! I am not switching ever again!

netscape!

ty for memories of elementaty school