The Cat & the Coup is free on steam right now.... they were charging for it the other day so I don't know if it's a mistake or a hidden deal or what, just thought I'd throw a heads up.

Ok, thanks.
I guess the "program" will just end on its own or will I have to shut it down?

? It was released free. If anything the charge you saw was a mistake.

The batch file?

It'll end on its own (and delete itself for some reason... you'd have to ask Skunk why that is).

If you don't want the batch file deleting itself, don't use:

del drmremoval.bat

Although, once it's run once, there's no need for it to ever run again for that game which is probably why that line is included.

The Daikatana packages include more information than I wrote here. It basically keeps looping forever until it's successful, and only then will it close. The batch file was intended to be extracted from an archive, or downloaded or copied when needed, so that you can just make a copy in the desired location and run it. It's no longer required when you have your setup file, so it just kills itself. That behavior is easy enough to change.

Like SirPrimalform said, it'll work for every game, as long as it temporarily makes a file called setup.exe. It's also not necessary for most GamersGate installations, as most of them keep the setup file until you quit the downloader. I can confirm that both Daikatana and Thief: The Dark Project do not. The method for Thief is the same, so the batch file will work for that as well.


Odd. I thought I noticed it had a price too. I could've sworn I even saw a sale on it! Well, looks like it's free, or has been free all along. Doesn't really seem like my kind of thing either way.

The "Time Gentlemen, Please! and Ben There, Dan That! Double Pack" is still $1.25 for the next four hours, though. I got it last holiday season, after passing on it the year before that. They're both fun, it's dirt cheap (you'd be paying half of what I paid!), and you'll probably appreciate that they're both 100% DRM free. You only need Steam to get the files in the first place. :)

Thank you all for your answers.

I'm pretty sure it's always been free. What I don't get is how *that* gets on Steam yet so many decent games are being turned down =/

Steam's quality control is as inconsistant as their exchange rate calculator.

:)

Steam uses a client. That's enough of a downside that I'd personally rather buy from Direct2Drive and GamersGate when I can. Aside from DOSBox games, it's pretty much chance as to whether or not a game from Steam is DRM free. There is even a good number of indie games that demand to be run through Steam. Recettear refuses to play without Steam, but Terraria's protection can be defeated with the RomTerraria launcher.

Thankfully, all of this is a total non-issue on my favorite digital download store. ;)


Steam can keep their inconsistent quality control. Sure, they don't have Daikatana and all the odd RPG Maker and Game Maker games that GamersGate sells, but they do have some pretty awful stuff, and even broken, dead games like SlamIt Pinball Big Score.

Not to mention games that become gag gifts when they go on sale, like Secret of the Magic Crystal (not a "bad" game, it's just for very young children and therefore a great gag gift), Shadow Harvest, "high concept\artsy" indie games like The Graveyard, and so forth, yet there are games that have more than a user base or 0-12 people that simply don't seem to be good enough for Steam's peculiar standards.

http://www.indiegamespack.com/send_keys.php

You can now activate Aztaka and Bob Came in Pieces on Steam and Desura.

all 6 on Desura actually

Right . :)

another indie bundle :
http://www.buygamesnotsocks.com/

Wow nice. I have been on the fence on digitanks for a while.

Sigh... 5 Euro ... Not saying it's not worth it but ... *sigh*