Re: Gaming's conundrum
By: Nightfox to phigan on Thu Jul 16 2026 06:21 pm

burn it to DVD-R discs). I thought you could run the games offline, but recently I realized it seems you need to be connected to Steam to run them - at least for newer titles. One of the games I have on Steam is Unreal Tournament '99 Gold, and I've been able to run its executable by itself, bypassing Steam - at least, after applying the 469 update, which consists ssimply of binaries that you can replace.

I think all Steam Games can be launched without connection, using the offline mode.. when you can't, it's not a Steam choice, but an editor choice.

Also it's true that a lot of old of them doesn't even need steam to be launched by going to their directories to execute them.

Regards,
.: Lord Woodoo :.
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Re: Gaming's conundrum
By: Lordwoodoo to Nightfox on Wed Jul 29 2026 01:39 pm

I think all Steam Games can be launched without connection, using the offline mode.. when you can't, it's not a Steam choice, but an editor choice.

What do you mean by editor?

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Re: Gaming's conundrum
By: Nightfox to Lordwoodoo on Wed Jul 29 2026 05:42 pm

I think all Steam Games can be launched without connection, using the
offline mode.. when you can't, it's not a Steam choice, but an editor
choice.

What do you mean by editor?

I mean by who edit the game. Look at a game on Steam, you will see: developement, edition. Editors like EA or Ubisoft requires you to be connected online to play their games for exemple.

Regards,
.: Lord Woodoo :.
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Re: Gaming's conundrum
By: Lordwoodoo to Nightfox on Wed Jul 29 2026 01:39 pm

I think all Steam Games can be launched without connection, using the offlin mode.. when you can't, it's not a Steam choice, but an editor choice.

Also it's true that a lot of old of them doesn't even need steam to be launc by going to their directories to execute them.

I thought that at first. Then I disconnected my gaming machine and tried to start up a few games that I had installed. Pretty sure none of them ran.

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Re: Gaming's conundrum
By: phigan to Lordwoodoo on Thu Jul 30 2026 08:36 am

Also it's true that a lot of old of them doesn't even need steam to be
launc by going to their directories to execute them.

I thought that at first. Then I disconnected my gaming machine and tried to start up a few games that I had installed. Pretty sure none of them ran.

For at least some of those, I wonder if there may be a way to modify something to allow them to run when offline. For some, I wonder if there's an intermediary checking for an internet connection. For others, like DOS games that are bundled in DOSBox, you could set up your own instance of DOSBox and run them manually with that like you would in the DOS days.

Nightfox

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Re: Gaming's conundrum
By: phigan to Lordwoodoo on Thu Jul 30 2026 08:36 am

I think all Steam Games can be launched without connection, using the
offlin mode.. when you can't, it's not a Steam choice, but an editor
choice.

Also it's true that a lot of old of them doesn't even need steam to be
launc by going to their directories to execute them.

I thought that at first. Then I disconnected my gaming machine and tried to start up a few games that I had installed. Pretty sure none of them ran.

That's strange, indeed. Games that can't launch have DRM protection or use an external launcher. If it's the case it's independant of Steam. Steam offers an offline mode, a page explaining how it functionning.

I'll try that this weekend..

Regards,
.: Lord Woodoo :.
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Re: Gaming's conundrum
By: Nightfox to phigan on Thu Jul 30 2026 06:12 pm

For at least some of those, I wonder if there may be a way to modify something to allow them to run when offline. For some, I wonder if there's an intermediary checking for an internet connection. For others, like DOS games that are bundled in DOSBox, you could set up your own instance of DOSBox and run them manually with that like you would in the DOS days.

These are good questions!
For those who have a DRM check at launch, it would then be necessary to do as the old days, when we use a no-CD executable. A no-Internet executable?!
And what are the possibilities of the command line of Steam?!

The DOSBox ones are running fine without any configuration from their director, I think.

Regards,
.: Lord Woodoo :.
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Re: Gaming's conundrum
By: Nightfox to phigan on Thu Jul 30 2026 06:12 pm

For at least some of those, I wonder if there may be a way to modify something to allow them to run when offline. For some, I wonder if there's an intermediary checking for an internet connection. For others, like DOS games that are bundled in DOSBox, you could set up your own instance of DOSBox and run them manually with that like you would in the DOS days.

There are generic cracks floating around the Internet. Most of the time you can replace or drop some DLL into the game's directory in order to crack it and run it without Steam.

For some games you lose some funcitonality, since they use Steam as a runtime dependency for certain tasks.


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Re: Gaming's conundrum
By: Nightfox to phigan on Thu Jul 30 2026 06:12 pm

For at least some of those, I wonder if there may be a way to modify something to allow them to run when offline. For some, I wonder if there's an intermediary checking for an internet

Since posting that, someone told me you can enable some kind of offline mode in Steam, and then you have to use the actual Steam launcher to start the game offline. I don't think I tried
that yet.

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