upvote

points

by inigyou9 hours ago |
comments
upvoteby righthand8 hours ago|
[-]
What is the command I can use to run them without Steam then? If the game links to a dll that launches Steam and won’t play without it, then that is effectively Drm.

Before I even play the game without Steam: how do I download it without Steam?

reply
upvoteby Orygin8 hours ago|
parent|
next
[-]
There are DLLs that remove any check of Steam running. Just keep a copy of one and use that on other games.

Regarding the download, it's the same issue with physical media. If I don't have the DVD, how can I acquire the game?

reply
upvoteby mvdtnz2 hours ago|
parent|
next
[-]
This is just piracy. This is no different than downloading a crack. This is not some great service offered by Valve/Steam, it's just a cracked binary.
reply
upvoteby righthand8 hours ago|
parent|
prev|
[-]
Oh there are Dlls? And as a non-technical consumer I just know this do I? I know how to dig deep into my file system and copy+paste a dll file into software I can’t/don’t understand? How do I download and install a copy without Steam?
reply
upvoteby inigyou5 hours ago|
parent|
next
[-]
Has the barrier for non technical consumer gone down? Back in the 90s when some game didn't work because of some weird issue (we had two CD drives and it would refuse to detect the CD in either drive) my parents had no problem downloading a pirated one that didn't need a CD.

You wouldn't have to figure it out yourself. They didn't need a hex editor. But they did understand "download this file, go to this part of Program Files, move the downloaded file here and agree to overwrite". You'll find similar guides online. They already exist, because it's the same as if you're trying to pirate a Steam game!

People will do anything for the dancing bunnies. Both good and bad.

reply
upvoteby righthand1 hours ago|
parent|
[-]
No my point here is that you have to download and install Steam before you can download and install any games. Now if I’m non-technical why would I want to make the extra effort to go Drm free if I have to use Steam anyways?

I know technical people can do it, but I do not believe this is a path for the non-technical user.

The proposed steps are:

- buy game on steam marketplace (no client) - download and install games (client required) - uninstall steam client and paste in fake dll file

But now I want more games… so rinse and repeat? This is a lot of work.

reply
upvoteby inigyou34 minutes ago|
parent|
[-]
No you don't, you just have to plug in this USB drive and copy the files to your hard drive.
reply
upvoteby saghm7 hours ago|
parent|
prev|
[-]
The premise of this hypothetical is Steam's servers going away. Ping me about this if and when it ever happens and I'll write you a tool where you can select the steamapi.dll you downloaded and have it copied to where your games need it. There's a fair chance you might not even need to because someone else will have made it before me.
reply
upvoteby inigyou8 hours ago|
parent|
prev|
next
[-]
You can download a fake steamapi.dll from a pirate site. It will fill in all the function stubs and it isn't even illegal.

Or so I assume. I have Steam installed, so I wouldn't know.

reply
upvoteby wongarsu8 hours ago|
parent|
prev|
next
[-]
You download it with Steam, then run Steam's backup function to back up the games you care about to physical media. Or in the vast number of cases you can just copy the game folder

Obviously if you buy it with steam you need Steam. But you only need it at the time of purchase, for the vast majority of titles

reply
upvoteby inigyou5 hours ago|
parent|
[-]
Steam's backup function creates some kind of proprietary and licensed archive files. Reality: you download it with Steam, then go to Steam's folder and copy the game folder.
reply
upvoteby themaninthedark5 hours ago|
parent|
prev|
next
[-]
If you are on Windows, you navigate to the folder that the game is installed to and double click the .exe to launch it.

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/5540051992994...

reply
upvoteby happymellon8 hours ago|
parent|
prev|
next
[-]
Depends on the game. Stardew Valley can be run outside Steam, and I do it to be able to add mods.

How do you run an application? Depends on the application, as they all have different filenames...

reply
upvoteby chainingsolid7 hours ago|
parent|
prev|
[-]
I got Kerbal Space Program to run by just copying the entire folder then deleting the Steam dlls. Not sure how many games that will work for though.
reply