IIRC, this only goes back a few years though since that's when they released this feature. For those earlier versions you'll have to hope there is an unaltered version on the Internets.

I've started to go back through all of my CD images, extracting, installing the original version and the NOCD and the latested patched version with the NOCD.
There are a few cases where I'll need to retrieve an older ver of a Steam release but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

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You could probably make a long list out of the 'hentai' games on Steam that have to adjust for not being a properly reguladed american adult novelty storefront, but that wouldn't be "interesting"...

Sorry, but I found the story about the censor and de-censor of this games and found it fascinating.

I've edited previous post to list some information about Grand Theft Auto franchise, but I'm afraid that is hard to find information about those changes. Also, I've included a link to a list of elusive targets from Hitman (but I do not own the game... can anyone verify if they can be played?).

GTA IV and EFLC never had GFWL removed, just updated along with having some tracks removed / replaced due to the Russian radio station having literally every track removed minus one. The best one would be the one when GFWL was updated along with the tracks not being removed. The downgraded version with different music works fine online with players that have the cut version.

SA and VC has tracks removed, but VC cannot be downgraded through Steam as there are 2 versions of it, one with cut tracks and one without. SA can be downgraded through Steam fine.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon (lol... I know, I know) has a beta branch with GFWL removed/disabled whatever. I usually subscribe to it, I think its required to have it working I don't remember what it was supposed to have fixed.

I'm kind of done with Steam - issues like this aside. The older I get, the more protective of my privacy and property rights I have become. If I absolutely can't get it directly from the company making it, or from GOG, only then will I consider buying a game on Steam now. I also don't like the idea of one company having the ability to wipe out thousands of dollars of investment if they decide I can't even login to their service or access my library anymore.

Well, in this case the advantages of steam are:
- They have old versions going back to about 2014. Other online services only let you download the latest version.
- You get clean versions of the software. I mean, it's very difficult that the software you download has a virus on it (but at least one game included crypto-mining routines).

All we know the disadvantages, like having your game tied to Steam platform (until you crack it) so you share your gaming habits with them.

Plants vs Zombies
When it was released, the dancing zombie could summon a crew of dancers than did the "Thriller" choreography. In 2010, the game was patched and the dance was changed. Unfortunately, steam depots go back to about 2014, so the unpatched Michael Jackson version can not be recovered this way.

Ace of Spades
There are people that says that betas were way better than the released game. The game is (was? It can't be bought now and nobody plays it) real crap, so anything may be a improvement. Anyway, the game was launched on 2012 so Steam don't have such old builds.

Guess Turok qualifies, teleguy verified this: Getting GOG Turok working with WinXP SP2

The forced patching out of content in the case of the GTA games is nausea-inducing to me. I'm sure there are ways to use older 'offline' versions, thankfully but still...

For GTA IV just export the older ver out of the depot and use the crack. Works fine. Haven't checked the other games yet.
/EDIT Download older versions of Steam games How to download older versions of a game on Steam

Sorry, Depot?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/460950/Katana_ZERO/

Katana Zero, the pixel art looks unbelievably good

https://store.steampowered.com/app/837470/Unt … led_Goose_Game/

Bee Simulator
https://store.steampowered.com/app/914750/Bee_Simulator/

Mafia 1 on Steam is a bit odd now. I owned it on Steam before it was removed. It was less than 2gb big and on launch had a "play game" and "change settings" option.

It was removed from Steam for, as usual, music copyright problems (let's just gloss over the fact that all the music was older than the 50 year copyright claimy period thing). I could still play my steam release just fine.

It reappears on Steam after getting re-released without music, or with replacement music, or something. It's now 5.5GB!? I get an option to "Play Game (2002)" "Change Options (2002)" "Play Game" "Change Options". There isn't any differnce between the two, including music... Steam, you haven't downloaded the entire game twice have you?

Some big publishers' interns clumsily package their old games. Steam's Red Faction also contains the original 2001 two disc contents (with screwed timestamps of course) in addition to the installed patched-up version bumping it up a good 1.2gb for example. Maybe there's a legit use for the provided CD directories like installing on a old PC, but there's nothing helping the CD protection checks with that.

Future Proof is a cheap RPG maker game, that may or may not like you.

This game is interesting because it has lots of hand drawn fonts included (path ...\steamapps\common\Future Proof\www\fonts) that may be used directly on windows (ttf/otf/woff files). Just remember that the fonts were licenced to the game developer so be careful not to use it commercially.

there's a lot of interesting Steam games now that there's little to no regulation on what a game dev or a "game dev" can release

but relating to the main gist of this forum, there are interesting older games like Redline, Shogo, Blood II, etc. that Steam just has out to purchase, but you have to bust your ass troubleshooting them which is the funniest part, they give not a single crap about fixing the games up for the buyers to run on newer hardware.

Not to mention all the times that Duke Nukem 3D was released on Steam. I have like three Steam versions of Duke Nukem 3D. It's not even funny anymore

You can blame the lazy publishers (Infogrames, Titus) for not fixing their SKUs on those (which either way, usually source community fixes and/or cracks silently, then taken for granted like they've made an updated fixed version exclusively on a digital store)