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Steam Apologies if already asked
Is there anywhere a list or searchable database of physical release games (CD / DVD release), that require Steam activation, please? This is for any used games I come across in goodwill stores, charity shops, carboot sales, etc.? Hope that’s okay to ask. Thanks.
Live your wildest dreams;
Take a leap, or climb, run or fly.
You may fall;
But anything is better than falling .. standing still.
Empathy is one I just got fooled by. Samorost 3 also.
Interesting, I wonder why those games have it?
If I were to guess some adventure titles that require online DRM, I wouldn’t pick those.
Anyway, I can’t find pictures of Samorost 3 box right now, but at least with the other game they actually printed that requirement on the box (assuming it’s the same box).
What does that activation actually do?
Is only part of the game on the disc, and then the rest gets downloaded from the server, or is the installation complete, and activation only creates some DLLs or something?
If it’s the former, then it’s a real scam actually, if it’s the latter, it’s still bad, but presumably you can use the usual methods to get rid of Steam dependencies in few seconds.
Well, in the case of Empathy, a sneakily placed barcode sticker was hiding the Steam notice. No big loss though, as it was only £2. Just annoying.
Samorost 3 is the Cosmic Box collector’s edition that I grabbed because it’s rare nowadays, as well as fact I love the Amanita games.
As far as averting Steam “in a few seconds”, to be honest I’m coming back to Adventure games after not being part of the Adventure game community, and playing very few, for around 10 years.
I’m the chap who made the 2,000 -ish page website AdventurePoint, back in the days when all the other Adventure game websites were at their peak. If you didn’t know it, it was a homage to Adventure games, with around 1,900 Adventures, each featured and summarised on their own page and with links to reviews for every game, both well-known and very obscure ones as well. Every game featured was a physical release. Developer interviews as well and lists of freeware Adventures.
Unfortunately, when Flash ceased, so did the website. I’m considering rebuilding it though, now I’m retired. It had over a million visitors and people seemed to like it. it lasted from 2007 to 2021.
This is why I’m way behind the times, but have still got an eye for disk releases I miss from my collection. It’s also why I know little about Steam and how it works. I’m only now reading up about GOG and will definitely be using that.
So, tbh, I have no clue how, even if it’s possible, to play a game who’s Steam keycode has been used. Google says you can’t. Is that true? I’ve no idea.
I knew the code had been used for Samorost. But it was cheap and I couldn’t resist. LOL. BAAGS, I guess ! 
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Live your wildest dreams;
Take a leap, or climb, run or fly.
You may fall;
But anything is better than falling .. standing still.
As far as averting Steam “in a few seconds”, to be honest I’m coming back to Adventure games after not being part of the Adventure game community, and playing very few, for around 10 years.
Assuming that you have all game files on your hard drive, some of the easiest ways to get rid of Steam dependencies are deleting all Steam DLLs, and creating a text file named steam_appid.txt which contains the ID number of the game.
In some cases those two things, or just one of them, is all you have to do.
Games which are based on DOS or AGS can always be run on DOSbox and ScummVM bypassing anything else that Steam installed.
Everything above is 100% legal.
Without going into any details, if those don’t work, there are Steam DLL replacements available which can be considered as the next step, and if that doesn’t help, there are programs that can be used to patch everything Steam-related out of the exe file.
These may be legal, grey area or violating some copyright laws, depending on where you live. So I’m not going to give any detailed instructions there or mention any programs, but they are out there, and very easy to use.
Personally I haven’t yet seen a Steam game that can’t be made run without Steam.
In fact, most Steam games are DRM-free as is, even though some people claim that everything on Steam is DRM’d.
I’m only now reading up about GOG and will definitely be using that.
GOG is definitely recommended, no hassle with anything really.
All DRM-free.
Sometimes you can also consider Zoom or FireFlower, in some cases Itch.io.
So, tbh, I have no clue how, even if it’s possible, to play a game who’s Steam keycode has been used. Google says you can’t. Is that true? I’ve no idea.
I have no idea either, but I think it really depends on if the discs have all the files or not. If the exe file is missing, there are ways around it, but if some other files are missing, then it’s probably unusable.
I knew the code had been used for Samorost. But it was cheap and I couldn’t resist. LOL. BAAGS, I guess !
LOL, isn’t that the phrase from that other forum? 
But at least you have a nice box, so you can burn the GOG version on a DVD-R, and keep it stored there.
BAAGS ? LOL Yes. Many years ago. 2005, I think.
Thanks very much for all your pointers. I’ll investigate, like any good Adventurer should. 
Live your wildest dreams;
Take a leap, or climb, run or fly.
You may fall;
But anything is better than falling .. standing still.
That’s called cheating. Of course a unique code and and should be used only once.
Landfill it is then. 
:p
Live your wildest dreams;
Take a leap, or climb, run or fly.
You may fall;
But anything is better than falling .. standing still.
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