The Serpent Rider wrote:

This applies to digital games, but I don't see why physical copies of games sold with a Steam activation key wouldn't also be covered.

It won't work this easy. For that to work, the original owner must have capabilities to deactivate retail (CD key) games from an account, similar to Windows retail deactivation. And there're more troubles with DLC and account/VAC/other bans.

Not necessarily. Steam could do it entirely from their end by deactivating the game on the account of the player that originally used the code and activating it on the account of the player now in possession of the physical copy. If I have a physical copy in my possession, I have a right to use that game now and the license/activation key belongs to me. It no longer belongs to the other person. The fact that I have the physical copy in my possesion with the activation key should be all the proof that I need that I am now the owner of that license.

steamed hams

Steam could do it entirely from their end by deactivating the game on the account of the player

Steam won't do that. Never.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2020-01-02, 08:02:

Steam could do it entirely from their end by deactivating the game on the account of the player

Steam won't do that. Never.

They already have to allow you to deactivate games in France:

https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/19/french-co … e-steam-resold/

This is the ruling of France's High Court and will apply to the whole of EU very soon, meaning Steam will HAVE TO let you deactivate and sell off your games regardless of whether they are physical or digital.

Fuck publishers and fuck storefronts.

They already have to allow you to deactivate games in France:

They didn't do that yet. And they won't allow to deactivate your retail games. At best, you'll be allowed to transfer games between active accounts.
By the way, they had 3 months, which are already past due, and nothing happened.

This is the ruling of France's High Court and will apply to the whole of EU very soon

Wishful thinking.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2020-01-02, 08:02:

Steam could do it entirely from their end by deactivating the game on the account of the player

Steam won't do that. Never.

If they are ordered to by a judge, they will.

DosFreak wrote on 2019-10-16, 21:18:

Steam Half-Life v1.1.2.2 b4554 June 15, 2009 and below works without Steam as long as you use the command line switch hl.exe -steam -game "folder"

Versions above require Steam and XP+ since they use SDL2. Only way around is to use a Steam emulator such as SmartSteamEmu and Blackwingcat patch for 2000 (or possibly the unofficial SDL 2.0.5 for 2000) or Kernelex for 98 and me.

Well, I tried Half-Life v1.1.2.2 b4554 on Win98 and unfortunately, no dice. I get error about hw.dll, and the same one even when I replace hw.dll with the one from WON 1.1.1.0 version, which works on Win98 without issues. So I call this lost cause. If someone wants to play Half-Life 1 under Win98, just get WON version from CD.

You'll need to use the Revolution Steam emulator as well as the switches below, it's also possible that newer versions of the emulator don't work on 9x but I doubt it:

Copying rev.ini and the steam.dll in the root of the folder where the exe resides should work.

Counter-Strike (-steam -game cstrike)
Counter-Strike Condition Zero (-steam -game czero)
Day of Defeat (-steam -game dod)
Deathmatch Classic (-steam -game dmc)
Half-Life (-steam -game valve)
Half-Life Blue Shift (-steam -game bshift)
Half-Life Opposing Force (-steam -game gearbox)
Ricochet (-steam -game ricochet)
Team Fortress Classic (-steam -game tfc)

After v4554 you can use Goldberg or SmartSteamEmu but neither of those work on 98-ME though if they did you may be able to get the games to work with kernelex. I know eduke32 that uses SDL2 can work with kernelex on 98 and ME.

I tried it with Revolution Steam Emulator in the first place and received that hw.dll error. It doesn't matter for me, I have OG WON version on CD, just wanted to tried that 4554 version for others. On XP its working without issues.

Just finished verifying the latest GTA V offline thanks to goldberg so will test Half-Life again next.

I can confirm, that Half-Life v1.1.2.2 b4554 is also working on Win2000 without issues. Only Win98 is no go for me.

Okay for b4554 on 98and ME which I've just re-verified:

1. Install KernelEX (I installed the core updates as well but this may not be necessary)
2. Copy REVEMU files: rev.ini, steam.dll and steamclient.dll to same directory as hl.exe
3. Verify hl.exe, steam.dll and steamclient.dll are using default compatibility.
4. Launch the game with the below switches:

Counter-Strike (-steam -game cstrike)
Counter-Strike Condition Zero (-steam -game czero)
Day of Defeat (-steam -game dod)
Deathmatch Classic (-steam -game dmc)
Half-Life (-steam -game valve)
Half-Life Blue Shift (-steam -game bshift)
Half-Life Opposing Force (-steam -game gearbox)
Ricochet (-steam -game ricochet)
Team Fortress Classic (-steam -game tfc)

I never saw the hw.dll error so could be a hardware compatibility issue. If other error then try a different version of the emulator, remember to copy all three files.
v9.7.5 works but you need to specify the appid using a command line switch whereas other versions of the emulator may not require it.

Build Info

] version'
Protocol version 48
Exe version 1.1.2.1/2.0.0.0 (valve)
Exe build: 15:34:33 Jun 15 2009 (45

EAX and A3D show in the audio options
Software, OpenGL and D3D available

Have you tried it without KernelEx? I don't use it, therefore all my testing is done without it.

Revemu and the game require KernelEX to run on Windows 9x.

Honestly it sucks but I kinda get why, I wonder if it's because of the new UI/Chat code? Dunno what the backend looks like but maybe there were incompatibilities?

It's because of Chrome. But as I wrote previously, there's a workaround and it's still working.

Re: FYI: Steam drops XP/Vista in 2019

Srandista wrote on 2020-05-04, 20:42:

It's because of Chrome. But as I wrote previously, there's a workaround and it's still working.

Re: FYI: Steam drops XP/Vista in 2019

Oh, thanks a lot! I'll remember that next time I wanna game on XP!